Blacks snub Soweto poll

Press, 22 February 1978, Page 8

Blacks snub Soweto poll

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg. Fewer than 500 of 8000 registered electors voted in the only two seats contested; in Soweto’s first community; council elections at the week-end. Many black leaders had urged their supporters in the huge township outside Johannesburg to boycott the elections, saying the south African Government’s plans for communitv councils in black urban areas would not lead to real change. The Government, on the other hand, has said the councils would eventually' mean more sell-rule for township blacks. The-already controversial i Soweto election hit' more | trouble before the vote when electoral officers disqualified 16 candidates from standing. This left only two, wards with a contest, nine with only one candidate, and 19 with no candidates at all. I And before the dis■qualifications, fewer than I half the 300,000 possible (voters had registered to cast their ballots.

But Dr Connie Mulder, Minister of Plural Relations and Development, said he would regard those elected in the two contested wards as representatives of Soweto ■despite the low turn-out. "As far as I am concerned these people are the democratically elected representatives of Soweto and the ones I will talk to,” Dr Mulder (told reporters. The Minister is legally (supposed to name members I for the wards without candidates. But he is expected to press forward legislation so that there can be by-elec-tions in the 19 vacant seats, since the Government could be embarrassed by having to present appointees as true representatives of the township. No reason has been given for the disqualification of candidates, but it is believed that there were irregularities among those signing their petitions of support. Grounds for rejecting signatories range from previous jail sentences to arrears in rent.

Thousands of black secondary school students in Johannesburg registered for classes over the week-end in what appeared to be the end of a six-month boycott in protest of inequality in the educational system. The Johannesburg director of education and training (Mr Jaap Strydom) said that 4000 students had registered lon Saturday. Of 40 State high schools in Soweto, 26 were opened and more schools could be

expected to reopen, Mr Strydom said. Last August, Soweto student leaders called for a boycott of "Bantu’ or black education, which they •.iaimed was inferior to white education. The 27.000 high school students tn Soweto walked out of then classes and kept schools closed until the end of th« schoo’ year in December Schools reopened on February 1 and. after a stow stari. registratons increased. Mr Strydom could not say how many of the 27.000 students had returned tc classes. Black nationalist guerrillas have killed four South African soldiers and a civilian Air Force worker in two separate incidents in northern Namibia (South-Wesf Africa) the South African Army Command has re ported.

A communique said tw< guerrilla's of the South-Wesl Africa People’s Organisation were also killed. The deaths bring to al least 133 the number of South African soldiers killed in the territory since the hit-and-run war there began in 1966. including eight this year

In that period, at least 679 insurgents have been killed, according to an unofficial count, 19 this year. The guerrillas operate from bases in southern Angola and are fighting to end South African rule of the territory.

In Lusaka, capita! of Zamb i a meanwhile, the S.W.A.P.O. vice-president (Mr Misheki Muyongo) warned there would be “intensified guerrilla activity” inside Namibia in the event of South Africa supporting an internal settlement in that country.

He said in an interview that S.W.A.P.O. had received reports that the South African Government was backing an internal set* tlement in Namibia adding: “A bunch of tribal chiefs are being organised and influenced to support an inter* nal settlement.”