Protests by Africans living in urban areas outside the bantustans against the councils set up by the regime to administer their affairs, were greatly intensified in the weeks following the Indian and Coloured elections. Both youths and adults were involved in protests which took place in September in a number of townships outside the major industrial centres of Pretoria, Johannesburg and Vereeniging. The events illustrated the extent of popular rejection of apartheid's segregated structures for education and administration.
Increasingly organised resistance to rent and tariff increases has been reported in towns across the country since June. The increases came at a time when economic recession had exacerbated problems caused by unemployment and high prices of basic commodities. Actions reached a peak following school boycotts and other protests directed against the elections to the new parliament.
Protests against rent and tax increases by residents in Turnahole, near Parys in the Orange Free State, in July which led to one death and at least 50 arrests, were followed by protest actions in many parts of the country. Many civic associations formed by residents to resist council policies have affiliated to the UDF. In some cases these bodies attempted to challenge the legitimacy of councils in court. Elsewhere councils were forced to withdraw rent increases or lower them, and councillors in one township on the East Rand, Ratanda, resigned en masse following pressure from angry residents. At Imbali, near Pietermaritzburg in Natal, the inauguration by Piet Koornhof, the Minister of Co-operation and Development, of the new town council was disrupted by about 1500 demonstrators, mainly schoolchildren (S 2.8.84; CT 24.8.84; S 30/31.8.84; see FOCUS 54. p.9 for details of earlier protests).
Rent increases announced by the Lekoa town council caused the most violent scenes in early September when police used rubber bullets against demonstrators outside a council meeting in the township of Bophelong, and a councillor fired on residents on a strike march at Sharpeville. Disturbances in Sharpeville continued for some days and the unrest spread to the East Rand (S 31.8.84, 3.9.84).
A series of petrol bomb attacks on the homes and businesses of town councillors in the early part of the year later spread to attacks on the homes of candidates of Indian and Coloured parties participating in the August elections. In September at least four councillors were killed during the unrest in the Vaal area (see FOCUS 54. p.9).
The scale and organisation of opposition to the council system had increased following the widespread boycott of council elections in November 1983. The elections were for new 'town' and 'village' councils which were to assume wider responsibilities in the administration of their constituencies while remaining powerless to carry out any major policies without approval by the government-appointed development boards. The new councils were also intended to continue as self-financing bodies, dependent on rents and tariffs for services to generate income.
These changes in the details of administration form part of a scheme intended ultimately to provide Africans outside the bantustan areas with separate, closely controlled representational structures parallel to those in the bantustans, while continuing to deny them access to Parliament. A special cabinet committee set up in 1983 to investigate the future of Africans outside the bantustans was reported to be meeting with leaders of four bantustans — Lebowa, KwaNdebele, QwaQwa and Gazankulu. At the opening of the new parliament in September, the State President, P.W. Botha, announced the continuation of consultations 'to find suitable political mechanisms which will be acceptable to, and in the interests of, these communities' (RDM 10.8.84; BBC 17.9.84).
A further aspect of the new constitutional dispensation arises in areas which are not fully racially segregated. It was reported in June that the government was developing plans for separating Coloured and African people in towns in the Orange Free State. This would involve the forced removal of African residents to other areas, principally in the bantustans, so that the remaining population could be administered in the Coloured group areas which would then be established (S.Exp. 24.6.84).
