Work Boycott by S. African Blacks Starts ANC Campaign

Blacks across South Africa boycotted work Tuesday to commemorate one of their biggest rebellions, and Nelson Mandela called it the start of a campaign that would bring down the white-led government.

Despite widespread appeals for peace, at least 34 people died in political violence surrounding the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising, including nine people gunned down in a Soweto rampage late Tuesday.

President Frederik W. de Klerk said the mass action campaign called by Mandela’s African National Congress will exacerbate violence, but the ANC said the campaign is necessary to push the government toward a multiracial democracy.

“We are determined that majority rule should be introduced not tomorrow, but today,” the ANC president told about 25,000 people at a rally in Soweto, outside Johannesburg.

The protest call has led to some of the bitterest rhetoric between the ANC and government since black-white negotiations deadlocked in May. The worsening political climate makes a negotiated breakthrough appear unlikely any time soon.

June 16 traditionally has been a day blacks stay away from work to remember the Soweto uprising, when police fired on high school students. Hundreds of blacks were killed in riots sparked by the uprising, turning world attention to South Africa’s apartheid policies.

From Johannesburg to Cape Town, normally bustling city centers were quiet and many businesses closed for lack of workers. Absentee rates in cities ranged from 50% to 90%, according to various estimates.

Commuter trains from Soweto to Johannesburg, normally full, were 99% empty, officials said.

The last comparable black protest was in November, when a strike called by the ANC and its allies to oppose a new tax crippled cities for two days.

De Klerk’s government has abolished apartheid laws and has agreed in principle to extend voting rights to the 30-million black majority.

But De Klerk remains firmly in control, and the ANC says the government, while negotiating, is actually trying to delay the transition to a multiracial democracy.

While Tuesday’s strike was successful, it was unclear how much support the ANC could muster for future protests.

In addition, while rallies in major cities were well-attended, the crowds were not overwhelming. The ANC predicted that it would draw 1 million to rallies nationwide, but police estimated 80,000 people attended all the events.

The biggest turnout by far was in Soweto, where Mandela unveiled a red granite monument to a 13-year-old boy who was the first student shot to death by police in the 1976 protests.