In the second quarter of 1986 rent boycotts emerged as the main form of popular opposition to apartheid. In some areas they had been going on for over 18 months, in others they have developed more recently. At the end of August an estimated 300,000 families were refusing to pay rent in 48 townships. Since September 1984, when rent boycotts in the Vaal Triangle developed into more general resistance, councils have accumulated a debt of more than R250 million. (WM 1.8.86; GN 15.8.86; CP 7.9.86)
Most boycotts were initially a response to increased rentals and service charges, but as resistance intensified, demands included the lifting of emergency restrictions, withdrawal of troops from the townships, release of detainees, resignation of town councils and the scrapping or reduction of rents.
SOWETO
At least 24 people were killed and one hundred injured in Soweto on 26 August when police opened fire on residents protesting over evictions resulting from the long-running rent boycott in the area.
Rent boycotts had been in operation in various parts of Soweto since the beginning of the year. A boycott covering the whole area was called by popular organisations in June as part of the build-up of resistance to apartheid on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising.
By the end of June the income of the Soweto council from rents and service charges had been reduced from R9 million to R2.6 million. Later it was forced to use R8 million of its reserves. Officials claimed that the council faced bankruptcy.
On 9 July the council posted orders threatening eviction if residents who had not paid their rents for two months or more did not pay by 15 July. It also said it would reallocate the houses of boycotters to the more than 20,000 people on the waiting list. Civic organisations called on residents to ignore the orders and continue the boycott.
Council police raided the homes of boycotters early on 15 July. Fighting broke out between residents and the council police, followed by a march on the council chambers. As a result of the protests and a court case brought by the Soweto Civic Association charging that the eviction notices were illegal, the Soweto Council extended the deadline for evictions by seven days.
The council claimed that tenants were willing to pay but were being intimidated by threats from militants. But attempts to get residents to pay by post and at a special office in the centre of Johannesburg were not successful. At the end of July new eviction notices were issued giving boycotters seven days to pay.
After the shootings on 26 August a councillor was killed and the homes of three others were firebombed, resulting in an exodus from Soweto of all councillors. (S 17.3.86; 18.5.86; S 10.7.86; Star 21.7.86 GN 28/29.8.86; FM 5.9.86)
OTHER AREAS
By August 1986 boycotts were taking place in many areas in all four provinces. In Mamelodi, Huhudi, Sibongile, Tumahole and Khayalitsha boycotts had been sustained for more than six months. A boycott in the Vaal triangle had been in force for two years. (Star 10.1.86; 8.2.86; Cit 1.2.86; S 27.6.86; WM 5.9.86)
Councils have used a variety of methods to break the boycotts, including the suspension of electricity and water supplies and refuse removals, the detention of activists withholding their rents, threats of mass evictions by the SADF and the suspension of council employees believed to have encouraged tenants to withhold rent. (Star 8/10.1.86; New Nation 27.2.86; Star 16.7.86; S 20.8.86)
In mid-July Development boards in the Orange Free State and Vaal Triangle made a concerted effort to break the boycott by evicting tenants under the Housing Act. This legislation provides for the removal of tenants at seven days' notice without recourse to the courts. In the Vaal Triangle alone 1,800 residents were summonsed and by mid-August 200 families had been evicted. (FM 25.7.86; S 11/19.8.86)
Earlier attempts to evict tenants in March were suspended when workers protested by staying away from work for two days. (SASPU National April/May 1986)
In August newspapers exposed plans to break the boycotts in the Vaal Triangle. They were drawn up by the local Joint Management Centres - state agencies combining representatives from the army, police, town councils and local chambers of commerce and falling directly under the State Security Council. The plans proposed the formation of 'local collection action groups' made up of policemen, councillors and development board officials which would enforce the collection of rents. It further proposed to identify hostile residents, build computerised profiles of communities in order to identify areas where support for boycotts was weak, evict selected tenants and ensure that employers provided the names of employees so that rents could be deducted by stop order. The plans also proposed a 'hearts and minds' campaign to recruit youths for 'weekend camps' which would be aimed at encouraging them to convince their parents to pay their rents. (WM 1.8.86)
