Rent boycotts continued in many parts of the country throughout the second half of 1987 despite the renewal of the State of Emergency, the detention of key activists and evictions of rent defaulters, often carried out by Special Constables and troops.
Emergency regulations prohibit unauthorised reports about rent boycotts. Nevertheless a survey of press reports revealed that by the end of 1987 boycotts of varying intensity were still taking place in at least 52 townships across the country. According to government statistics by August rent arrears had accumulated to R267 million since 1986, the bulk owed by tenants in Transvaal townships.
The government's concern about the extent of the boycotts was indicated in the regulations imposed in December 1986 which made it illegal to make, or report a 'subversive statement', including calls for rent boycotts. At the same time 'civil disobedience' was defined to include refusal to pay rents. In addition to these national restrictions, councils applied different tactics in various parts of the country to counter the boycotts. In some townships there were selective evictions of known activists, in others there were repeated and more widespread evictions.
In early 1988 there were signs that a more co-ordinated government strategy was emerging, aimed at ending the boycotts before local government elections scheduled for October. The Standing Committee on Constitutional Affairs (directly accountable to the State President) was looking at ways of ending the boycott.
At the same time a renewed initiative was launched to sell council houses to tenants. In some areas members of the South African Defence Force were deployed to promote sales. In many townships, but particularly in Soweto, troops and Special Constables accompanied council rent collectors, some of whom wore masks to avoid identification.
Amendments to the emergency regulations in February restricted the Soweto Civic Association (SCA), the Cradock Resident's Association and the Vaal Civic Association - organisations centrally involved in the boycotts in their areas. Restrictions on COSATU had as one of their objectives the curtailing of the involvement of area-based shop-steward committees in the rent boycotts.
The government has also introduced in parliament the Local Government Affairs Amendment Bill which if passed will compel employers to deduct rent arrears from the salaries of their workers. It would also tighten the powers of councils to evict tenants. Similar initiatives have been proposed in the past, but have been dropped in the face of resistance from employers who were afraid that they would trigger shop-floor action. However, there are indications that this time the government is more confident of pushing through the bill because they will be armed with new powers proposed in the Labour Relations Amendment Bill, also before the current parliamentary session. It seeks to severely restrict the right to strike and to confine union concerns to 'shop floor' issues. This would restrict COSATU's ability to protest at the Local Government Bill or actions flowing from it as could the new emergency regulations restricting COSATU.
Communities strongly resisted evictions in the second half of 1987. In Soweto, groups repossessed houses from which tenants had been evicted. In Tembisa residents staged a one-day stay-away in October, in protest against evictions. In several other townships there were demonstrations. In February, Special Constables fired on a crowd of demonstrators who had marched on a rent office in White City, Jabavu (Soweto) to protest at evictions.
Resistance to evictions has been most intense in Soweto where a strong network of street committees survived the imposition of the second State of Emergency in June 1986. Their influence was so marked that the Soweto town clerk was forced to negotiate directly with their representatives in August 1987. Meeting in February the SCA, to which some street committees are affiliated, reformulated their demands to reinvigorate boycotts and give them new direction. It resolved to demand from the Council that tenants who had occupied a house and paid rent for 15 years should be given their houses. The resolution reflects a widely-held view in townships, that long-term rent-paying tenants have paid for their homes many times over. The SCA also resolved that tenants with less than 15 years occupancy should be allowed to purchase their properties. The SCA also adopted a new strategy: residents would continue to withhold rents as a form of political protest. They would however resume paying site and service charges, but at reasonable rates determined and fixed by an SCA survey of similar charges in White and Coloured areas.
