BY GREG ROSENBERG
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Running battles between protesters and police erupted February 6 in the mostly working-class townships south and west of Johannesburg, South Africa. Hundreds of residents of these so-called Coloured townships were demanding lower rates for water and electricity, and protesting the cutoff of these services to a few residents.

The clashes put a spotlight on the devastating legacy of apartheid and continued divisions among blacks - Africans, Indians, and that section of the population referred to as Coloured by the former white rulers - that were fostered under apartheid rule. While apartheid oppressed all blacks, successive National Party governments handed a few crumbs of relative privilege to Indians and "Coloureds" in relation to black Africans, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the population of 42 million people.

Hundreds of residents of Eldorado Park, Westbury, and other areas stayed away from work and set up barricades with piles of burning tires and trash cans in protest against threats by the metropolitan council to evict those not paying for the water and electricity they use, and demanding a flat rate for these services. Passing motorists were stoned and jeered.

When police moved to clear these barricades, shooting broke out, some of it directed at the cops, who responded in armored vehicles firing volleys of stun grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets, and buckshot. Police officials claim no live ammunition was used. When the smoke settled, according to press reports, four people were dead and 400 injured. Several gas stations and other buildings were razed.

The stayaway protest was called by the South Western Joint Civics Association, led by chairman Basil Douglas, who is also a member of the metropolitan council.

Douglas, who voices demagogic appeals on behalf of "the Coloured nation," claims that "we're being made slaves again in our own country." He tries to stir up resentment by pointing out that most residents of neighboring Soweto, populated by Africans, pay a flat fee of 45 rand a month - about $10 -and are not metered for water and electricity. Moreover, many working people are angry that some of the wealthy white residents of Sandton, north of Johannesburg, have been boycotting service fees for months.

The Mandela government has urged township residents nationwide to begin paying the fees, which were widely boycotted as a protest against apartheid. There has been very limited progress, however, in the provision of basic services to most blacks in townships throughout the country.

The response to the protest call found a hearing among many working-class residents of Eldorado Park and other nearby townships. These areas are filled with substandard housing thrown up under apartheid, in which there are often six people to a room. Unemployment, which afflicts millions of black South Africans, is rife. Demonstrations around the same demands broke out in September 1994.

Neva Brink, a carpenter who stayed home to join the protest, remarked that the government "is busy destroying us. We have no jobs here. We are not rich."

"These blacks are on the gravy train," stated painter Peter Clarke, echoing a common refrain repeated by opponents of the African National Congress-led government.

Reaction to the events varied. The daily Sowetan newspaper, most of whose readers live in Soweto, said the protesters' grievances were justified, but lamented the violent clashes that took place.

No comment was available from the national publicity department of the ANC at press time. The ANC in Gauteng province dismissed Douglas as an "unsound anarchist" who had falsely told residents that their electricity would be cut off and instigated supporters to vandalize property.

Protests died down after the Gauteng provincial government announced that a task force had been assigned to investigate protesters demands, including government corruption. The February 7 Argus reported that assault and incitement charges had been laid against Douglas.

Cops admit murder of Biko
In other news, five cops admitted to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission that they killed Steven Biko, the popular leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, whose 1977 death spurred a new round of international protests against the apartheid regime.

While it has long been known that apartheid jailers killed Biko, the recent revelations contain new information in how this fighter was put to death. For nearly two decades the apartheid government and cops insisted that Biko had hit his head against a prison wall and died of brain injuries.

For 20 days Biko, arrested at a Grahamstown roadblock, was chained naked to his bedpost. He was then removed for "interrogation," when he was beaten and tortured by the cops. It was during this period, Truth Commission investigators are now charging, that the cops administered poison to the antiapartheid fighter. The previously healthy 30-year-old was later found semiconscious and foaming at the mouth in his cell. Doctors ordered him to a Pretoria prison hospital. Biko was thrown into the back of a van, again naked, with only a bottle of water for the 11 hour trip. On arrival at Pretoria, he was dumped on the floor. The antiapartheid leader died the next day.

The five cops who have come forward say they killed Biko unintentionally -that they were only following official orders to beat him up. They are applying for amnesty for this crime. Under the rules of the commission, they have to tell the whole truth about the murder.  
 
 
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