Soweto was created in the 1930s when the White government started seperating Blacks from Whites. with Orlando the first township established. Blacks were moved away from Johannesburg, to an area separated from White suburbs by a so-called cordon sanitaire (or sanitary corridor) this was usually a river, a railway track, an industrial area or a highway etc., they did this by using the infamous 'Urban Areas Act' in 1923. Soweto 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. It experienced civil unrest during the apartheid regime. 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 striking students 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. South Africa's oldest township hosted the FIFA Soccer World Cup final, the attention of more than a billion soccer spectators from all over the world was focused on Soweto. This feature was part of our 'soccer & heritage' series and it outlines the history of the area, as well as listing important people and places within the community.