Black boycott bites

Press, 18 March 1989, Page 24

Black boycott bites

From a correspondent in South Africa for the “Economist”

POWER comes out of the barrel of a wallet, it is being said in South Africa. As their spending power grows black consumers are learning to use this power. Their latest target is the Transvaal mining town of Carltonville, one of a string of towns that fell to Mr Andries Treurnicht’s Conservative party in last October’s local elections.

Union of Mineworkers. The boycott is hurting. A survey of 139 businesses in the town conducted by the local chamber of commerce found that more than half (53 per cent) reckoned their sales had dropped by 40100 per cent since the boycott was imposed on February 27. Nearly half the businesses surveyed planned to lay off staff, and a quarter expected to close if the boycott continued much longer. Under South Africa’s state of emergency, it is an offence to organise boycotts of this kind. When blacks used similar tactics during the troubles of 1985-86, the Government took ruthless action to stop them. This time, with one eye on the General Election it must hold by March

When the newly elected town council tried to ban blacks from three of Carltonville’s public parks, the blacks hit back with a boycott of white shops. The clash is, among other things, a trial of strength between the town’s white and black miners. About 70,000 black mine workers live around Carltonville, many of whom are members of the militantly anti-apartheid National

1990, the ruling National Party is standing back and enjoying the Conservatives’ discomfiture. An opinion poll conducted in Boksburg, a town controlled by the Conservatives, after the start of a similar boycott three months ago showed a sharp decline in support for the Conservatives. That boycott continues despite a threat from the town council to retaliate by rationing the supply of electricity and water to the nearby Coloured (mixed-race) township of Reiger Park. A lot of whites like the idea of bringing back the “petty apartheid” that has disappeared from many towns and cities. But not, it seems, at a fancy price. Copyright — The Economist.