Thousands of S. African Blacks Stay Away From Jobs, Schools
Tens of thousands of blacks stayed away from jobs and schools today in the Johannesburg region.
Sources in Soweto, the black township of 2.5 million, said militant youths were whipping people who tried to go to work, and there were reports of stone and tire barricades in some streets.
“In some cases there is almost 100% turnout, in some cases a fair level of stay-away,” Marius De Jager of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce said of the protest, which came one day after police killed six blacks in clashes with striking railway workers.
The bus company that carries nearly 100,000 commuters daily from Soweto halted service this morning after buses ran half empty, company spokesman Robin Duff said.
The bus company also halted service Wednesday, the first day of the three-day stay-away, after stone-throwers broke 77 bus windows. Also Wednesday, police shot and killed an 18-year-old after youths in Soweto stoned a delivery vehicle, the Bureau for Information said.
The stay-away was called to protest evictions of blacks who have refused for months to pay rents for houses owned by their municipalities.
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