Act.45
Official attempts to appease Africans were no more successful. Oupa
Thando Mthimkulu expressed the feelings of many people in the town-
ships in his poem about the Soweto uprising:
Nineteen seventy-six
You stand accused of deaths
Imprisonment
Exiles
and detentions.
You lost the battle
You
were not revolutionary
Enough
We do not boast about you
Year of fire, year of ash.4 6
Township residents often clashed with police and soldiers, who were
present in strength. There was also a spate of sabotage in South Africa,
most of it attributed to the ANC. BetweenJune 1986 and September 1988,
more than a hundred explosions caused 31 deaths and 565 injuries in
streets, restaurants, cinemas, shopping centers, and sports complexes in
the major cities.47
Black workers contributed to the resistance. The government plan to
control the trade unions by legalizing and registering them backfired. In
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