Botha Govt declares emergency in S. Africa

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 1

Botha Govt declares emergency in S. Africa

NZPA-Reuter

Johannesburg

South Africa declared an unprecedented nation-wide state of emergency today and launched a mass round-up of anti-apartheid activists whom the Government blames for rebellion in the country’s black townships.

A spokesman for the President, Mr Pieter Botha, said the emergency had come into force at midnight (local time) (10 a.m., N.Z. time), yesterday. The announcement was made four days before the tenth anniversary of the Soweto riots after the Cabinet had been called into an emergency session. The state of emergency had been in force for more than 12 hours before it was publicly announced. State-run Radio South Africa interrupted its programmes with a news flash of the emergency. Speculation that a state of emergency was imminent had increased since two proposed security laws' were held up by Parliamentary opposition. The Law and Order Minister, Mr Louis le Grange, badly wanted the new laws to combat unrest around June 16. Relentless violence at home and mounting pressure from abroad for an end to apartheid has plunged the National Party Government into one of the worst crises in

its 38 years in power. A Reuter correspondent reported from Soweto, near Johannesburg, that a mood of surly peace hung over the nation’s biggest black township of two million people. Residents said they expected an explosion of violence on Monday to mark the Soweto anniversary, which broke out on June 16, 1976, when school pupils protested against being taught in Afrikaans. Mr Botha lifted a sevenmonth state of emergency in riot-hit areas of the country in March, saying violence had subsided. The police refused to say exactly how many people had been detained, but police sources said the total was already in the hundreds. Lists compiled by reporters indicated that more than 300 people were arrested in the first few hours of the crackdown. Police sources said the round-up, begun in the early hours of the morning, was designed to combat a possible explosion of violence on the anniversary. The police set up roadblocks around Johannes-

burg’s Jan Smuts airport and asked drivers if they had any weapons. Some cars were searched. Headquarters of antiapartheid groups in several cities were surrounded by police armed with shot-guns and sub-machine-guns. Parliamentary sources said an unspecified number of Army reservists were being called up to help the police. South Africa’s biggest anti-apartheid group, the United Democratic Front, was one of the main targets of the crack-down. Its leaders were reported to have been detained in cities around the country. The U.D.F., which claims two million members, called on South Africans to defy a Government ban on all commemoration of the riots. The most important activist known to have been detained so far was Saths Cooper, president of the black consciousness Azanian People’s Organisation. A relative said the police and soldiers had taken him away after midnight. Sanctions warning, page