DEMONSTRATIONS IN S.A. PLANNED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29505, 5 May 1961, Page 13

DEMONSTRATIONS IN S.A. PLANNED

Natives Defiant After Police Arrests

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, May 4. Defiant Africans decided today to press on with their planned nationwide demonstrations against Dr. Verwoerd’s Government in spite of dawn raids yesterday by thousands of armed police.

The chief of the South African police. LieutenantGeneral H. J. du Plooy, assured the public they had nothing to fear. Associated Press said.

But reports from Capetown. Durban, Pretoria, and towns near Johannesburg with large non-white populations, said the local people were worried and anxious and the towns tense. General du Plooy, in a statement, said the police raids on private homes and offices of both whites and non-whites and on African townships were ‘‘in connexion with the investigation of various forms of crime and susnected crime.”

Most whites and prominent non-whites raided are known to belong to antiGovernment parties or organisations or have been charged with anti-Govem-ment activities in the past The South African Press Association reported no political arrests were made, but several persons were held for alleged criminal offences.

It was reported from Pretoria that 300 police had thrown a dragnet in the mountains north of the city in an extensive manhunt for Africans who escaped during yesterday’s raids on nearby African townships. Pretoria itself was tense, as convoys of heavily-pack-

ed police vehicles, including Saracen tanks, rumbled through the city streets. On the main roads on the outskirts of Johannesburg, police established checkpoints after dusk last night. Meanwhile, in Johannesburg. Mr Nelson Madela, honorary secretary of the African Nations Council, which is organising the demonstrations, said they would be held as planned, in spite of yesterday's police action. In a statement issued on behalf of South Africa's non white population, Mr Mandela protested that the raids were “unwarranted interference.” His statement said word

had now gone to non-whites to redouble their efforts for the success of the demonstrations—planned to begin on May 29—to cripple the new South African Republic, which will emerge on May SI. The demonstrations are planned to include nationwide stay-at-home strikes intended to bring industrial, social, and public services to a temporary standstill, as well as non-violent protest gatherings. Mr Mandela stressed no violence was planned, and said the demonstrators had been urged "to ignore provocative actions of the police.”