Last black families evicted

Press, 17 February 1984, Page 6

Last black families evicted

NZPA-Reuter Pretoria A convoy of Government trucks and buses moved in before dawn yesterday to take the last 80 black families of the South African village of Mogopa to new homes. The convoy of more than 50 vehicles streamed out during the morning, the trucks laden with furniture and other possessions belonging to families that had lived in the village for at least three generations. The police said that the

evictions were peaceful but some residents told reporters that they had seen their clansmen being forced into buses. The first busload of residents left the village at 8.30 a.m. accompanied by a police vehicle, to make the dusty journey to Pachsdraai, 100 km to the north, where many of the villagers are being resettled. Mogopa is an area designated for whites. The eviction was overseen by the police, who closely guarded all en-

trances to the village. Many families left the village in November when Mogopa hit world headlines and prompted official protests from the United States and the Netherlands. Twenty-seven families more were removed on Wednesday after a lastditch appeal was rejected in the Supreme Court at Pretoria. The Bakwena tribespeople of Mogopa, who have lived on the land which they acquired freehold in 1913, form a tiny part of an

estimated 3.5 million South Africans, mostly black, who have been moved during the last 24 years under the apartheid laws. Many have been taken to remote tribal “homelands” they have never seen. Pachsdraai, which the Government says will offer villagers a better standard of living, will be incorporated into the nominally independent Bophuthatswana homeland, which comprises several non-contiguous pieces of land.