S. Africans launch drive on dissidents

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 6

S. Africans launch drive on dissidents

NZPA-Reuter Cape Town South African security forces seized anti-apart-heid campaigners yesterday, detaining political activists and trade union officials. Police headquarters, after declining for hours to acknowledge the operation, would say only that several people were detained during the night. A police spokesman refused to give further details. The round-up, designed to thwart commemoration of Monday’s anniversary of Soweto riots in 1976, was widespread and covered many big population centres. The most prominent figure to be held in the operation, which began shortly after midnight (local time), was Saths Cooper, president of the black consciousness Azanian People’s Organisation. Piroshaw Camay, secre-tary-general of the Council of Unions of South Africa, was detained at his home near Johannesburg. Anti-Government activists reported detentions, launched by the security police and Army, from Johannesburg, Cape

Town, Pretoria, and Durban, the country’s four largest cities. Radio South Africa, an accurate barometer of Government thinking, said in a commentary that the internal security position was intolerable and that the Government had a duty to act decisively. “At this time there is no more imperative obligation on the State than to act decisively in restoring stability in the country,” it said. “Violence by subversive groups has been making a mockery of law and order in many black urban areas.” It said that after two years of mass unrest, “only the naive or the malicious can still maintain that (apartheid) reform measures alone will bring it to an end, or revive economic confidence in the country, or change international perceptions.” Fears of mass violence on Monday have hit the South African currency, the rand. It closed sharply lower yesterday at U537.15/25C, a mere USI.9 cents above its record low in August last year.