Although significant progress was made during the year in pushing back political restrictions and limiting the repressive capacity of the apartheid regime, there was little change in the social conditions created by apartheid.
Effects of apartheid — segregation, poverty and charges for housing far beyond the capacity of the majority to pay — were at the centre of continuing mass action throughout the year. Squatter communities, set up in defiance of the controls on movement and in response to housing shortages caused by apartheid, fought against attempts to force them to move. Residents in or near some of the bantustan areas continued to fight against forced removal, or organised in favour of reincorporation into central government.
Community mass action was aimed at redressing the poor living conditions of residents in urban and rural townships. Protests — usually in the form of consumer boycotts — were also aimed at the continued segregation of amenities or the attempts of extreme right-wing white municipalities to tighten segregation which had been recently relaxed. Although the repeal of the Separate Amencies Act in October deprived local authorities of their principal legal powers to segregate amenities, many continued to do so.
The refusal of authorities to allow people to meet and demonstrate their grievances was itself a cause of protest.
Rent boycotts — some of which had begun in 1984 — continued, and others started in many areas as residents faced demands from councils for increased rents or service charges or for the payment of arrears, which they could not meet. Evidence of corruption of councillors fuelled popular anger.
Much of the violent action of the police during the year was directed at people involved in protests of these kinds. The scale of the resistance and of the police action is reflected even in official statistics — according to the Minister of Law and Order, there were 17,000 'unrest incidents' during 1990, more than any year during the 1980s. While some of this total arose out the spread to the Witwatersrand of the conflict involving Inkatha, it also reflected a large number of clashes between the police and residents of townships across the country, particularly in the first half of the year.
Community action and protests led to the resignation of councillors. Resignations were being reported as early as February in the Eastern Cape; by the end of October more than one-third of council seats in the Black Local Authorities were vacant, ranging from 45 per cent in the Orange Free State to 21 per cent in Natal. Almost a third of councils were not functioning properly, many of them being run by government-appointed administrators.
These developments occurred despite concerted government action to shore up the system. In March provincial administrations, through which central government exercises control over the councils, assured councillors that the police would be used to help them resist calls to resign.
Provincial administrations pressurised councils to act against people not paying rents or service charges by threatening to withdraw financial support from local authorities which failed to get consumers to pay for services. When councils cut off electricity, water supplies and other services to residents, armed police were used to suppress community resistance to these actions, and in some incidents councillors themselves used firearms against protesting residents. The declaration of some townships as 'Unrest Areas' increased the power of the police to suppress protests, and in another development in November the Transvaal Provincial Administration (TPA) authorised the Black Local Authorities to establish 'civil protection units', made up of volunteers who would be activated when needed.
Government ministers and officials met frequently with councillors and with national organisations representing them, such as the United Municipalities of South Africa (UMSA), the United Councillors Association of South Africa (UCASA) and the National Forum, to assure the councillors of government and police support.
With the rising scale of mass community action, community and civic organisations were consolidated: regional associations of civic organisations were formed in the Cape in April, in Natal in June, and in the Northern, Eastern and Southern Transvaal in subsequent months.
With the increasing scope of organisation, the protests became more firmly integrated with the national struggle for a democratic constitution. A call for the replacement of segregated councils by non-racial local government structures went with demands for a constituent assembly and an interim government, the release of political prisoners and the return of exiles, which were at the centre of a campaign of mass action launched by the ANC in November.
