The death toll since the first outbreak of violence on June 16 is staggering: on that day 176 persons
died in Soweto, the sprawling black township southwest of Johannesburg. At the end of August more 
than 300 persons, all but two of them black, had died in violent demonstrations against apartheid.
Now the total is 400 dead and at least 2,000 injured in clashes with police, although the police claim 
not all the dead and injured were hit by police gunfire.

Observers report township residents doubt the figures released by the authorities. They believe many
more have died, and they are asking police to publish casualty lists.
Damage to property, most of it in black areas, has been enormous. At the end of August, more than 
100 schools had been severely damaged or destroyed, mostly by fire. Shops, offices and vehicles had 
been destroyed. The estimates of the damage exceeds $35 million, but this figure is regarded with skepticism 
because insurance companies, inundated with claims, have not begun to fully assess the damage.

There seems to be no end in sight to the violence and destruction.
Attempts to restore order to the troubled country have been unsuccessful because the government has 
made only minor concessions to the demands of the black protesters.
At an August meeting attended by leaders of the black homelands - eleven tribal reserves the 
government has established as part of the grand design of apartheid - the demands of black South Africans 
were clearly articulated. According to a spokesman for the black leaders, Prof. Hudson Ntsanwisi, 
chief minister of the Gazankulu homeland, the leaders met in response to the cry of "frustration of our
people throughout the country which has. manifested itself since June in death and destruction in the townships 
and rural areas."

Homeland leaders, who have usually cooperated with the government in running the ethnically based black reserves, have 
been regarded by blacks as puppets of the regime. Now even they dare not defend apartheid.
"The black leaders meeting here regard themselves as part and parcel of the liberation movement," Ntsanwisi said. 

A joint statement issued after the meeting appealed to' the government to end discriminatory legislation which was called an 
assault to dignity of the black man in South Africa. The leaders appealed for an end to the so-called influx control legislation, 
which allows blacks into white urban areas only to sell their labor. They called for free and compulsory education for blacks, 
"just as is the case for whites." And they demanded full human rights, not just concessions.
"If the government continues to ignore reasoned and legitimate representations of black leaders, as it has done so far, it will 
wittingly or unwittingly be promoting the cause of the violence," they said.

According to the apartheid master plan, the homelands eventually will be granted some sort of independence. Homeland 
citizens will forfeit their right to South African citizenship.

"The leaders of the homelands represented here, excluding the BophuthaTswana and the Transkei (which becomes
 independent Oct. 26) have no intention of opting for so-called independence as we do not want to abdicate our birthright as 
South Africans as well as forfeiting our share of the economy and wealth which we have jointly built," the black leaders said.

The conferees condemned the violent methods police used in response to "peaceful and legitimate protests by black students."

"The government's continual denial of fundamental human rights to blacks until forced by confrontation (to grant concessions) 
gives the impression to the country and the world that the only language listened to was violence," they said. "In doing this the 
government has dealt a severe blow to the philosophy of non-violence as a viable formula for change." 

The statement said that although some changes had been made, such as the opening of some hotels, libraries and parks to 
blacks, and the easing of sports apartheid, these were not seen by most blacks as representing fundamental changes but as
 mere "window dressing."

"Failure to implement the genuine aspirations of the blacks, as presented by the black leaders, has done great harm to the 
recognized government statutory bodies (such as the homeland governments themselves) and has given credibility to the
beliefs that these institutions were foisted on blacks and are of no value," the statement said.

"Only if and when the government faces up to the fact that a change of heart is more important than gifts lavished out of a 
sense of duty, will there be any question of rapproachment between black and white in South Africa."

As if in reply to the statement issued by the black leaders, South African Prime Minister John Vorster told the opening 
session of the congress of his Nationalist Party two weeks ago that there would be no basic change in the country's strictly 
racially segregated society. He would not allow any challenge to white supremacy, he said. "The urban black ... will exercise
 his 
political rights in his own state (homeland)," he said.

Earlier this month Vorster rejected any moves to grant blacks political rights in white South Africa. He refused to consider 
granting blacks representation in the white parliament, although he did say he was prepared to consider redressing black 
grievances in the areas of discriminatory wages, work opportunities and social services.
But the actions of the Vorster regime are surely more indicative of its intentions than the Prime Minister's words. It 
has been estimated that since the first outbreak of violence more than three months ago, at least 1,800 persons have 
been arrested on charges of public violence, attending unlawful gatherings, arson and looting. It is unknown how many 
have been arrested by the security police who have refused to disclose the numbers or names of those they have detained. 

Estimates put the number of persons arrested under security legislation - which empowers the police to hold anyone 
incommunicado indefinitely - at several hundred. In the last 10 days of August alone more than 140 persons were
arrested under the internal Security Act (passed by parliament earlier this year) and other anti-subversion laws.
The police are reported to believe that if any one group has been behind the recent unrest, it is the black consciousness 
movement. The main targets of the arrests have therefore been members of the South African (Black) Students 
Organization (SASO) and the Black Peoples Convention (BPC), the two main protagonists of black power. The 
security police have also arrested dozens of colored (mixed-blood) students in Cape Town, Indian students in Natal, 
and blacks at various other centers in the country.

The pattern of the arrests is significant in that it shows how diffuse the black leadership is. No single group has been 
isolated as instigators of the unrest. In spite of the incarceration of hundreds of persons, the riots have continued and in fact 
have grown in their intensity and destructiveness.

The most obvious lesson to be learned from this, and one which the South African government must still learn, is that 
one cannot lock up an entire generation. The leaders can be arrested but the grievances that cause the unrest , remain; 
consequently the disturbances will continue. 

Some conclusions can be drawn from the events that have taken place since June:

It is against this background that the Kissinger African shuttle should be viewed as he returns after attempting to find a 
peaceful solution to the Rhodesian and Namibian issues. But ultimately it is South Africa's apartheid itself which must be
changed if a race war in South Africa is to be avoided. Surely this would seem to indicate that Kissinger's goal of 
averting an all out racial war in Africa is unattainable. Vorster has declared himself unwilling to discuss South Africa's 
internal problems; they are negotiable, he says.

But if Kissinger is to achieve his goal of defusing the situation in South Africa, then it is apartheid itself that he eventually 
must attack