Action by police in various black townships throughout the country recently has highlighted the extent to which the question of housing is a point of conflict between black people and the apartheid regime.
The past months have seen a series of clashes between police and township residents following protest meetings called to oppose recently imposed rent increases. Meetings of residents and ratepayers associations have been prevented on a number of occasions and there have been several detentions in connection with rent protests.
At the end of March the Evaton Ratepayers Association (Evaton is an African township near Vereeniging) planned to hold a meeting to discuss the replanning of the township and the rent increases.
The Association was barred by the Department of Education and Training from holding meetings at any school premises. The venue was changed to a church but the meetings had to be cancelled again when permission to hold the meeting was withdrawn. A demonstration erupted in the streets when the dispersing crowds saw a contingent of heavily armed police with dogs watching from a nearby street corner. One of Evaton's largest stores was set alight, two bottle stores, a beerhall and at least ten vehicles were damaged in stoning and arson incidents. The disturbances spread to nearby Sebokeng where a bottle-store was gutted and a new shopping centre stoned. Shots were fired by the police and five people were arrested.
At a meeting held in Tembisa (an African township outside Kempton Park) on 30 March residents decided on a complete boycott of rents in protest at the rent hikes. A Residents' Action Committee was elected to take action on the increases.
On 31 March hostel dwellers in the township caused R80,000 damage after a meeting protesting rent increases. Two tractors were set alight, a hostel and beerhall damaged and the home of the local community councillor attacked. Two people were arrested. On 1 April a crowd of women and students demonstrated outside the local administrative offices. The gathering was broken up by riot police-men wielding sjamboks (leather whips).
On 5 April police used teargas to prevent residents from holding a protest meeting about the rent increases. Witnesses claimed a man was shot but police denied this. Three people were admitted to Tembisa hospital with bullet wounds. Bottle stores were burnt and looted and vehicles stoned and set alight. About 20 people were arrested, many of them members of the AZAPO executive not living in the area. Demonstrations spread to Germiston where damage was caused by miners to a hostel, shops and Administration Board offices.
Disturbances in Reiger Park, Boksburg, in May arose out of different immediate causes to the events in Evaton and Tembisa but were also related to housing issues.
Demonstrations led to two deaths, 21 injuries, at least 38 arrests and more than R1m in damage to property. Police used teargas and fired shots to disperse demonstrators. Government allegations that the disturbances were caused by racial feuds were rejected by community leaders. Jac Rabie, chairman of the local Management Community, said "the demonstrations were caused by the acute housing shortage and the continuous failure of the authorities to keep promises to bring relief".
These three incidents are but a sample of the opposition to rent increases and housing conditions that have taken place over the past year. Organised opposition has taken place in all four provinces and clashes between angry residents and police have occurred in many places, resulting in several deaths and many injuries.
The government's policy is that each community council should be financially self-sufficient. Since black townships contain few or no business and industrial centres, which are usually a major source of municipal revenue, the local authorities have to rely on housing rentals, the sale of beer and liquor, and levies paid by employers for their funds. After the mass uprisings in 1976-7 when many township beer halls were destroyed an important source of income was cut off. Since then most community councils have been in deficit. Hence the unprecedented rent increases to make up for the deficit.
