Riots erupt in Soweto

On 27 August 1986 a crowd of more than 500 marched to council offices in Soweto, demonstrating against evictions which had been carried out after an eleven week rent boycott. According to reports at the time, the South African Police threw teargas at the crowd. Police claimed that youths had set up barricades to prevent evictions and that they had also been setting fire to several homes of local Black councillors. They blamed them for the death of one of the councillors who was hacked to death. Black militants denied the allegation but emphasised that the councillors were traitors who acted upon the instructions of their White superiors without looking after the interests of the Black community. The majority of Blacks rejected Black Community Councils as puppets of the apartheid government. Twelve people were reported dead and about seventy injured, including five policemen, during a night of rioting following the march.