A feature of some of the press coverage of events in South Africa during recent months has been the use of the misleading term 'black on black violence' to describe incidents in which police or other agents of the state have attacked people involved in resisting apartheid policies. Developments misrepresented in this way included resistance to bantustan incorporation and the increased use of vigilantes to enforce the rule of the regime's community and town councils.
A programme of forced removals and incorporation of land and people has been used since 1983 in attempts to increase by more than three times the land area and the population of the small KwaNdebele bantustan. It is still in progress in preparation for a declaration by the apartheid regime, probably during 1986, that KwaNdebele is 'independent'. Lying to the north-east of the Pretoria-Witwatersrand area, those of its residents who are employed mostly commute to work in Pretoria and the East Rand. A large proportion of its population of three hundred thousand are without work and many, victims of forced removals, live in resettlement camps. Only ten to fifteen per cent of its land is arable.
Recent resistance to incorporation into the KwaNdebele bantustan has focussed on two areas of different kinds, Moutse and Ekangala.
Residents of Moutse, near Groblersdal in the Northern Transvaal, sandwiched between the present borders of the Kwandebele and Lebowa bantustans, actively resisted their incorporation into the Kwandebele bantustan in late December 1985. The destiny of the area, in terms of apartheid policy, has been subject to several revisions. Originally included in the Lebowa bantustan, Moutse was excised in 1980 and designated as 'white' farm land subject to the forced removal of its 120,000 population. However, plans for the upgrading and imposition of 'independence' on the Kwandebele bantustan saw a revision of policy. It was announced in September 1985 that Moutse was to be incorporated into the Kwandebele bantustan as of 31 December 1985. Its inclusion would increase both the area and the population of the bantustan significantly, and enhance its economically improved state. By comparison with the bantustan, Moutse is a relatively prosperous community, much of its land is farmed under freehold ownership and it contains a hospital.
Resistance to incorporation has been widespread and united and is a combination of opposition to the bantustan policy in general as well as the specific issue of Moutse's inclusion in the Kwandebele bantustan.
Opponents include bantustan officials in the area and MPs elected to the parliament of the Lebowa bantustan, as well as militant youth organisations affiliated to the UDF. Residents of Moutse fear the loss of their South African citizenship and other rights.
The campaign against incorporation has taken the form of delegations to the central government, appeals to Western governments, steps to contest the measure in court, mass rallies and a threatened boycott of schools.
Repressive action has taken several forms, including bannings of meetings and direct force. In December police fired teargas at a mass rally. In the ensuing violence and clashes with police at least six people, including two policemen, were killed, several people arrested and the area sealed off.
A vigilante squad apparently set up by the KwaNdebele bantustan authorities and including members of the bantustan's Legislative Assembly has been active in the Moutse area, assaulting, harassing and killing opponents of incorporation. On New Year's Day vigilantes raided the area and abducted 261 residents. They were taken to a community hall and severely assaulted with sjamboks - two people died as a result of these floggings which, according to witnesses, were presided over by Simon Skhosana, the Chief Minister of the bantustan. More than 22 people died in the raid on Moutse and subsequent resistance by its residents.
A similar situation pertains in the Ekangala township near Bronkhorstspruit in the Transvaal. Ekangala was established in the context of government policy intended to reduce the population of townships in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal area. It is expected to have a population of at least 300,000 by the year 2000. It is due for inclusion into KwaNdebele on 1 April 1986 in spite of government statements in the past that the area would not be incorporated. Opposition to incorporation is being spearheaded by the Ekangala Residents Action Committee. As in Moutse, a vigilante squad linked to the bantustan authorities has harassed and seriously assaulted opponents of incorporation.
In a corresponding development, the period between October and December 1985 was marked by the increased involvement of vigilante squads, linked to community councils, in the suppression of resistance in Huhudi, Fort Beaufort and Jolani (Cape), Chesterville, Umlazi and Kwa Mashu (Natal) and Thabong and Tumahole (Orange Free State). In many instances community councillors have been among the members of the squads. In addition, people illegally in the area joined, hoping to have their positions regularised by providing support to the councillors.
In Huhudi in November a local youth activist, Pat GASHAWE (17), was pursued and shot dead at point blank range by armed vigilantes. Two other people are also known to have died. At least four people were killed over the Christmas period in the Crossroads-Nyanga-KTC complex in Cape Town by a 300-strong group of vigilantes supportive of local community councillors, who were earlier forced to resign in campaigns against the councils. Two members of the United Women's Organisation were abducted along with two others and held prisoner for four days in a makeshift jail.
In Queenstown a vigilante squad linked to the local Coloured Management Committee, formed in November during heightened resistance in the area, was replaced in January 1986 by an SADF commando unit.
