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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 14. July 6 1981

'Bantustan' and Fast a Huge Success

'Bantustan' and Fast a Huge Success

Black people make up 80% of the South African population, yet they are allocated only 13% of the land. This land comprises the baren, infertile areas known as Bantustans, where the Blacks not used as cheap labour (women, children, old people) are "resettled" by the government and left to live in poverty.

Living standards are so low that one in four children is dying of malnutrition. Last week, members of the VUW Anti-Apartheid Club set up a mock Banlustan and staged a three day fast in Pigeon Park.

The fast was seen as both a means of expressing solidarity with the blacks in their liberation struggle, and a protest against the injustices suffered by blacks in the real Banlustans.

The hardship experienced by the eight students fasting was also thought to symbolise and highlight the continuing hardship faced by Blacks under apartheid.

The fast began on Tuesday afternoon and finished on Friday shortly before the mobilisation. It provided an effective and public focal point for a number of activities over the three days, including leafleting, singing, an information booth and street theatre.

It was seen by all involved as highly successful, both as a protest in its own right and as a means of raising public consciousness about apartheid and the Black struggle for freedom.