Hunger strike begins

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 8

Hunger strike begins

NZPA-AP Johannesburg

The black nationalist Azanian People’s Organisation said 15 of its members in the Modder Bee prison would begin a hunger strike to demand freedom, equal rights for blacks and better housing. The announcement came after the United States company. General Motors, said it would give legal aid to any non-white employee charged with swimming at whites-only beaches.

The manager of G.M.’s lant in the southern city

of Port Elizabeth, Mr Bob White, said “legal and financial assistance” would be provided to any of its 1800 black and mixedrace employees prosecuted for using segregated beaches. The “Sunday Star,” a Johannesburg newspaper, said it was the first time a foreign-based company in South Africa had taken such an action against apartheid.

A Port Elizabeth city subcommittee has recommended that municipal inspectors be empowered to

press charges against any ; non-white found on a . whites-only beach. Port Elizabeth City Council will discuss the committee recommendation this week and, according to local newspapers, is divided 50-50 on the issue. The council action followed a New Year protest swim by mixed-race South Africans at King’s Beach, the most popular of Port Elizabeth’s four whites-only beaches.

Two other beaches are for mixed-races and one is reserved for blacks.

Cape Town and Durban, the country’s other big coastal cities, have desegregated their beaches in recent years.