SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE: United we stand, divided we just cough up for fuel
In 1957 a bus boycott initiated by residents of Alexandra over a hike in fares extended for months, forcing bus operator Putco to capitulate. The protest was joined in solidarity by commuters from Sophiatown, areas in Pretoria, Edenvale and Germiston, as well as Moroka and Jabavu, even though they were not affected by an increase. It was estimated that 60,000 people participated. This is according to an undated article published in Africa South by Ruth First, a journalist, who was jailed under the 90-day detention laws in 1963 and assassinated by a parcel bomb in Maputo in 1982. First wrote: "For five and six hours every day endless streams of walkers filled the pavements. Over the rise that obscures Alexandra Township from the main road came the eruption of workers in the dawn hours when mists and brazier fires mingle indistinguishably together. End to end the road was filled with shadowy, hurrying figures . In the pelting rain, through the sudden fierce storms of the Johannesburg ...
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