Soweto

Urban settlement in South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg; population (2001) 897,000. It experienced civil unrest during the apartheid regime. Most of the inhabitants travel to Johannesburg to work, but there are local industries, including wood pulp and paper manufacturing.

History
Soweto began as a shanty town in the 1930s and became the largest black city in South Africa, but until 1976 its population could have status only as temporary residents, serving as a workforce for Johannesburg. There were serious riots in 1976, sparked by a ruling that Afrikaans be used in African schools here; the riots were violently suppressed, with 176 people killed and more than 1,000 injured. Reforms followed, but riots flared up again in 1985 and continued until the first multiracial elections were held in April 1994.

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, the municipal services of Soweto were administered by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Board, on which the people of Soweto have elected representatives.