Soweto

Soweto (South Western Townships) A sprawling Black residential area (‘township’) outside Johannesburg (South Africa), which came to epitomize the apartheid regime. The township was created in response to a large influx of Black labour into Johannesburg after World War II, in order to keep the Blacks out of the White residential areas. Built on a lay-out allowing optimal levels of state control, miles of identical rows of makeshift houses were erected without running water, electricity, or proper roofs, in order to save money and discourage permanent residence. It soon became the largest conurbation in South Africa. Since it had no industries of its own, most of the adult population depended on a single railway line to commute daily into work. As a protest partly against these living conditions, and partly against the inadequate education system for Blacks, schoolchildren marched through the streets of Soweto on 16 June 1976, whereupon police opened fire on them. There followed a series of riots in townships throughout South Africa, though these were soon brought under control by police violence. As a symbol of apartheid repression the Soweto revolt was commemorated annually by the ANC, which thus focused periodic international attention on the system of apartheid. Following the ANC's coming to power, the 16 June was declared a national holiday in 1995. Soweto had close to two million inhabitants by 2000, and although poverty was still widespread, almost all households were connected to electricity.

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