The Big Day

As the day drew near when South Africa would declare itself a republic, the nation's mood was hardly festive or joyous. Jittery whites lined up to buy weapons, and the police raced through the streets, setting up roadblocks and arresting natives by the thousand.

The blacks had decided that Republic Day (May 31) would be a dramatic occasion to stage a show of strength against the harsh apartheid rules of Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's racist government. Placards popped up on lampposts and shop walls. "Awupatwa" (Don't touch the job) declared the signs in Zulu. "General strike May 29, 30, 31." For the first time, black leaders had strong backing from both the Indian and colored (mulatto) communities. African Ringleader Nelson Mandela, 42, darted secretly from town to town, coordinating plans for the nationwide walkout.

What everyone feared was the kind of flare-up that would touch off another bloody slaughter like the March 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when police guns killed 67 Africans in two minutes. The government last week banned all public meetings for six weeks and rushed through a new law permitting anyone's arrest and imprisonment for twelve days without bail or trial. Police squads were already rounding up all the suspicious-looking natives they could find, soon had more than 5,000 in their net. At Fordsburg, near Johannesburg, 700 arrested Africans were corralled in outdoor cages. To back up the cops, groups of white vigilantes in Cape Town began making forays into colored neighborhoods, hurled stones and gasoline bombs in an effort to intimidate colored families. White clerks and industrial workers were joining pistol-shooting classes in the Johannesburg area.

In the two months since South Africa stalked out of the British Commonwealth, gold-mine shares have dropped 30%; gold and foreign exchange reserves have fallen by half since Sharpeville, forcing the government to slash import licenses by two-thirds. Foreign investment is at a standstill. "Not a cent, penny, franc or pfennig is coming in from abroad," says one Johannesburg businessman. "We're in difficult straits."

Far in the background, scattered white liberals cried out for a change in the government's tough policies before it is too late. But deep in plans for Republic Day, Hendrik Verwoerd and his Afrikaner supporters were too busy to listen.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.