Abstract: | The Community Council Act of 1977 provided for the establishment of community councils in the African urban townships. They were to replace the largely defunct urban bantu councils and advisory boards in the townships. This paper examines the community council system and shows that their distance from the interests of the popular classes in the townships together with the undemocratic and coercive activities of the councils is the main reason for the popular rejection and failure of the system. At the end follows a brief examination of Koornhof's 'new deal' bills of 1980-1. Notes. |