Few Indians likely to vote

Press, 29 August 1984, Page 11

Few Indians likely to vote

NZPA-Reuter Durban South African Indians decide today whether to vote for a controversial new Parliament after a fortnight of nationwide protests against the elections. The 410,000 registered Indian voters have been offered a limited say in Government, with their own house of delegates in a three-chamber segregated Parliament. Fewer than one in three of South Africa’s registered Coloured voters turned out for their elections last week. The country’s 73 per cent black majority is still excluded from Government. The police used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a protest by Coloured students in Cape Town yesterday and thousands of Indian pupils boycotted school, violence was reported in black townships near Pretoria. The election campaign for both Coloured and Indian houses has turned into a battle between politicians taking part and groups urging a boycott of the polls on the grounds that the new Constitution entrenches apartheid policies. In the last fortnight there have been three bomb attacks on Government offices in which 10 people were injured.

The police clamped down last week on boycott groups, arresting 173 protesters before and during the Col-’ oured elections. Those still, detained include leaders of the Indian Congress movement, founded by Mahatma Gandhi early this century. Gandhi's granddaughter, Ella Ramgobin, whose husband, Mewa, is among those held, has urged protesters to use boycotts as her grandfather did.

“Boycotts can be used as a weapon to destroy a system and to make a point. The point we are making is that we are not going to be co-opted into an unjust system,” she said. Leaders of parties contesting the election have been quoted by local newspapers as saying they expect a 20 per cent poll. Only 10.5 per cent turned out for elections in 1981 to the advisory South African Indian Council. Results from the election today are expected to be closer than last week, when the Labour Party won 76 of the 80 seats in the Coloured chamber.

The National People’s Party and the Solidarity Party will be fighting for control of the 40-seat Indian Chamber, with more than 70 independent candidates and three small parties possibly swaying the balance.