Police Fire on Marchers in South Africa : 176 Detained During Protest on Closure of ‘Colored’ Schools

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Police fired rubber bullets into a crowd and briefly detained 176 people today to break up marches demanding that “colored” students be allowed to return to Cape Town schools closed because of riots and anti-government boycotts.

Other youths burned car-tire barricades in the nearby Athlone township and blocked roads with hijacked buses. One schoolboy was in critical condition after being shot in the back, reportedly as he ran away from police.

The violence and arrests marked the first full day in office for Brigadier Blackie Swart, a policeman with a reputation for tough action who took over responsibility for riot control in Cape Town on Monday.

Shotguns, Tear Gas

Near Johannesburg, police used shotguns, rubber bullets and tear gas in a clash with pupils who are boycotting classes in the sprawling black township of Soweto to back demands for recognition of elected student councils.

Police locked gates and posted guards at most of Cape Town’s 450 junior high and high schools for coloreds, South Africa’s term for people of mixed race. The schools were closed Sept. 6 after riots that claimed at least 47 lives.

Protesting parents and teachers led students in marches to most of the schools but left when police called in reinforcements and threatened to arrest them.

Illegal Gathering

In Athlone, however, police arrested 176 parents, teachers and pupils who forced their way onto the premises of the Alexander Sinton High School, the scene of fierce clashes with police during a 1976 black uprising. All 176 were released after paying fines for holding “an illegal gathering.”

Police fired rubber bullets and about 12 rounds of tear gas to break up the crowd in front of the school after the arrests.

In Soweto, police fired shotguns, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse pupils who gathered outside Naledi High School to demand recognition of an elected student council, but no injuries were reported.

However, a black youth was badly injured outside a school in Soweto when he tried to hijack a car, police said. The driver and passengers attacked him with sticks.