Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006170038
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Medium
It was the first time that rallies commemorating the 1976 uprising, which began an unprecedented wave of apartheid resistance, did not end in ugly clashes with police.
On June 16, 1976, police fired on black students in Soweto who were protesting the education policies of the white-minority government. Unrest spread throughout Soweto, the huge black township outside Johannesburg, and confrontations with police lasted for several months. More than 500 blacks were killed.
"Since that fateful day, Soweto has become more than a sprawling ghetto in Johannesburg," Walter Sisulu, a top leader of the African National Congress, told some 20,000 mostly young ANC supporters at a rally. "It has become a great symbol of resistance and defiance in the minds of many throughout the world."
Sisulu said South African authorities thought in 1976 that "their bullets would put our struggle to death, but they have reaped the fruits of their foolishness."
The 1976 uprising spawned a new generation of anti-government activists who have fought against the apartheid system, from posts inside South Africa and abroad. In recent months, South African authorities have begun informal talks with some of those activists with the goal of ending apartheid and negotiating a new democratic constitution.
Dozens of rallies were held throughout the country Saturday, most planned by the ANC or by other anti-apartheid groups such as the Pan Africanist Congress.
The observances came eight days after President Frederik de Klerk lifted a four-year-old state of emergency in most of the country. During the years of the state of emergency and in the decade prior to its imposition, "Soweto Day" observances were generally interrupted by police.
by CNB