June 1976 Uprising: The Events that Shocked Africa and The World

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13 June 1976Two thousand pupils from seven Soweto

schools are now on strike in protest against

the enforced use of Afrikaans as a medium

of instruction.

This week pupils of one Soweto School set

fire to a police car and stoned another

vehicle when police came to the school to

make an arrest.

“This is not just a present-day restlessness

and rebellion of youth. It is specifically

Black and relevant to the entire South

African situation.”

The children had the support of some adult

groups, but the strikes were spontaneous.

Speaking about the present unrest, Mrs

Phukathi said: “One can understand the

children’s resentment. For one thing it

is harder to learn a subject, which may

already be difficult, in a new language.

“And children feel that Afrikaans has

been made compulsory because it is the

language of the Government.”

8 February 1976The resignation of all members of Meadowlands Tswana School

Board threatens to result in the withdrawal of more than 12 000 Tswana

schoolchildren in Meadowlands as protests against the Department of

Bantu Education.

Today the 14 Tswana school committee representatives, drawn from all

the Tswana schools in the area meet to make resolutions on the crucial

matter.

On Friday night the school board members resigned en bloc after

the surprise dismissal of the chairman of the Tswana School Board, Mr

Joseph Peele, and another senior member, Mr Abner Letlape, by Mr

W.C. Ackermann, Regional Director of Bantu Education.

The two men’s dismissal has been interpreted as a direct result of the

Tswana School Board’s resistance to the department’s directive to have

Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

The rest of the board members, including four Government-nominated

members – Mr S. Modise, Rev. J. Mothlaga, Mr S. Thoane and Mr Peter

Hans – resigned in sympathy and in protest.

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13 June 1976One of the several incidents in S oweto involving students was last year

when a group in Phiri attacked men in the area allegedly because

they molested girl students.

One of the men was killed during the attack by the students .

Another death occurred last month in Orlando West w hen two youths

robbed an Orlando West School teacher. Students gave chase and

stoned one man to death.

In January boys from Musi High School, angry because they were

missing history lessons because their teacher was always drinking

raided a shebeen and forcibly removed a teacher to class.

Towards the end of May more than 1500 Soweto students were on

strike against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. The

four schools involved were Orlando West Junior, Secondary, Bele,

Thulasizwe and Emthonjeni Higher Primary schools. The students were

protesting against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

Within a week 300 more students from Pimvill e Higher Primary School

joined the strike for the same reasons.

Students stoned police at Mantu Higher Primary School in Pimville

when they tried to arrest one of them after a school teacher was

stabbed in a row over the medium of Afrikaans instruction last month.

Yet another school joined the protest at the beginning of this month

when pupils of the Senaoane Junior Secondary School left their

classes after being told that in future history and mathematics would

be taught in Afrikaans.

At one of the protesting Soweto Schools – Bele Higher Primary – pupils

ranging in age 12 to 16 years s toned the school buildings and other

children who had returned to classes.

At Naledi High School students overturned and burned a police

vehicle this week when two policemen called at the school to detain

a student.

13 June 1976The blame for the recent spate of disturbances at

Soweto schools – which include two murders, class

boycotts and violence and the burning of a police

car – is placed on Black parents by students who

claim their elders are ignoring their plight in the

field of education. Students in Soweto declared they

“had had enough”.

A leading educationalist and schoolmaster, Mr T.W.

Kambule, headmaster of Orlando High, has warned

that the situation is more serious than most people,

including the Department of Bantu Education, seem

to realise.

“We, the people who are looking after the students,

are very worried because we don’t know when

things will blow up.

“The students must not be regarded as children.

They know what is good for them – and they are

becoming more and more restless.”

“I have been approached on a number of

occasions by students who’ve told me plainly:

“You parents have let us down. You never had to

obtain your education through a system like Bantu

Education.

“Now another obstacle – forcing us to study in the

medium of Afrikaans – is placed before us. And

you’re doing nothing about it. We realise that we

are on our own.”

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13 June 1976

The Soweto Parents Community Association was

formed this week and teachers, school committee

members and school board members have

been barred from being elected to office in the

association.

Dr Aaron Matihare, the association’s chairman,

said that Soweto parents would be invited to a

meeting to be held shortly where everything

about the association would be fully explained.

But he added: “We are sorry that school

committee members, school board members

and teachers and other people connected with

Bantu Education won’t be allowed to hold officein the association.

“This is unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.”

“The decision was taken in view of the fact that

these people work within the system and have so

far failed to better the lot of the Black students.

“Some of them just go al ong with everything they

are told. They can’t put their foot d own.”

Dr Matihare said that the formation of the

association came about because of the growing

awareness by parents that they were not taking

an active role in the education of children.

He said concerned parents felt they should not be

blamed by their children – as they are doing now

– of neglect.

One of the first people on the scene at Naledi

High School when students burned down a poli ce

car with the police retaliating with teargas and

police dogs, was Dr Matihare.

He said: “It was a pa thetic sight. Some policemen

held their guns in their hands.

“I had one girl in my car who was bitten by a

police dog.

“At first the police wouldn’t let me through into the

school yard.

“But I insisted. A senior policeman was saying

something to m in Afrikaans and I told him I did

not understand the language.

“Another one came and addressed me in English,

saying I must treat one student who had been

injured during the skirmish.

“I refused and told them I was not a police doctor.

“I demanded that they rush the student to hospital

in their van – which they did.

“Such things should never be allowed to happen.”

13 June 1976

Mrs Winnie Nomzamo Mandela, wife of Robben Isl and prisoner Nelson

Mandela and a member of the interim committee of the newly-formed

Soweto Parents Community Association, says Afrikaans as a medium

of instruction was so unpopular that even Chief Kaizer Matanzima “the

government’s star”had rejected it in the Transkei.

And, said Mrs Mandela, if anybody wanted to suggest that the protest

against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction by Soweto students was

agitation then the blame must first be borne by the Transkei.

Mrs Mandela was speaking on Friday night in Soweto where the aims of the

ne association were being announced.

At the same time she denounced school boards, school committees and

“all people working within the system of Bantu Education” saying that they

cannot be allowed to hold office in the new association because “the

people had rejected them”

She emphasised that before school committee and school board members

are confirmed into office by the Department of Bantu Education to make

sure they are “suitable”.

And as a result, these members found it very difficult to represent the views

and feelings of parents and students properly.

Referring to the new association, Mrs Mandela said: “We are forming our

own Black association for the benefit of our children

“Our children reject Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and we as parents

have no choice but to support t he children, even if it means marching to

Pretoria to make our voices hear!”

Asked what would be the association’s attitude of the government took a

strong stand on the Afrikaans row Mrs Mandela said: “We will call upon the

Black people in the country to decide their fate.”

Dr Aaron Matihare the chairman of the interim committee said: “If the

Government takes a strong stand, they can rather close the s chools. We will

use church halls for our children’s education.”

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20 June 1976Riot-torn Black townships are facing a weekend of hunger.

Stocks of bread, milk, mealie meal and groceries are running out

and serious food shortages are looming.

Deliveries have been reduced to a trickle since Wednesday’s bloody

outbreak.

Some bakeries, dairies and wholesalers have refised to make

deliveries, despite offers of police protection.

In parts of Soweto w here there are a million mouths to feed, bread,

milk, meat, mealie meal and groceries are vir tually unobtainable.

“The big hunt for food has sta rted. Droves of people have been going

to town to do their shopping. Fire and damage have drastically

rediced the number of supply points. Looting has cleared many

shelves.”

20 June 1976It began two years ago with a department circular. Until then

secondary schooling for Blacks was done in English.Now half the

subjects would have to be taught i n Afrikaans.

The circular, issued by the Bantu Eduation Department’s regional

director for the Southern Transvaal, was clear: arithmetic,

mathematics and social studies had to be taught in Afrikaans:

science, woodwork, arts and crafts in English.

That neither tongue was the home language of South Af rica’s four

million Black pupils didn’t matter; not that there was bitter opposition

to the switch to Afrikaans.

Bloody Wednesday’s toll was shattering:

• Twenty-three people were killed – 21 Africans and two Whites.

• Of the 219 injured, 69 had bullet wounds, 148 were wounded by

rioters and two were hit by teargas containers.

• All 10 offices of the West Rand Bantu Affairs Administration Board

were burnt down. Also up in flames were two hostels, one office of

the Urban Bantu Council, six liquar stores a nd two schools.

• Twenty other buildings were damaged – two clinics, a hostel ,

bank, library, post office and community centre, two shopping

centres, nine liquor outlets and two private houses.

• Twenty police and eight Bantu Administration Board vehicles and

a private vehicle were damaged, and four Putco buses and a

roadscraper set on fire.

• Eleven police were admitted to hospital with injuries, and two

police dogs were hacked to death with pangas and burnt.

This devastation set the pace for worse outbreaks of violence. By

Thursday, the death toll had risen to 58 – 56 Blacks and two w hites.

The injured list swelled to 788.

By Friday the explosion of urban violence had spread, from Soweto

to Alexandra, Tembisa, Vosloorus, Kathehong, Natalspruit, Kagiso and

the University of Kwazulu in Natal.

By Saturday, the death toll had exceeded Sharpeville’s 69, rising to atleast 90 with 1000 on t he injured list, before the lull began sett ing in.

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20 June 1976When the last echoes of gunfire die down over Soweto and the last

school child has been buried, one man will find himself at the centre

of the storm as to whether or not the bloodshed could have been

averted.

He is Mr W. C. Ackermann, Regional Driector of Bantu Education, and

the man responsible for the Soweto area.

Mr Ackermann has the final say over the medium of instruction in

Black schools. Community leaders say he has persistently refused

to listen to the demands of the school boards and adopted a high-

handed and arbitrary method of dealing with Black people.

The question which will now be asked is, could Mr Ackermann haveadopted a more flexible attitude and thus alleviated a situation

which was becoming increasingly tense.

Mr Ackermann himself says that any person w ho believes that

Afrikaans has anything to do with the outbreak of rioting is a fool.

“I will only say this: that no school board discussed this matter with

me. I have reported to my secretary and he is quite aware of what is

going on.

“It should be clear that Afrikaans has nothing to do with these riots.

Only one of the secondary school offers instruction through the

medium of Afrikaans. The Black universities are a ll 100 per cent

English.”

20 June 1976The 55-year old doctor, who was chief officer for the West

Rand Administration Board – the body which administers

virtually all aspects of life in the Black city – rolled the

opinions of Black pupils in their matriculation years. He

found they did not like tribal division in Soweto’s residential

area make-up, wanted to be taught in English, wanted to

live in South Africa under a multiracial government and

would rather work in an urban area than a Government

homeland. Most complained of poor education faciliti es.

Chief Gatsha Buthulezi declared this week: “Whites

cannot say they have not been warned. South Africa

has reached the moment of truth and my worst fears are

being confirmed. Three years ago the Minister of Bantu

Education, Mr M.C. Botha, reprimanded me because I

spoke of violence. But I was warning that non-participation

of Blacks in decision-making could lead to violence.”

The Very Rev Desmond Tutu, Anglican Dean of

Johannesburg: “The immediate cause of events this

week was the language issue, which was an irritant. But

in fact it represented the authorities’ utter rejection of any

reasonable appeals for modification and changes in their

policy. It is clear they regard acceding to requests as a

confession of weakness and don’want negotiations or to

have dialogue.

Sharpeville 16 years ago saw Blacks first self-assertion over

White dominance – and there were lessons to be learnt

from it.

Consultation is the lesson of the Soweto riots.

It is being written in seven townships and two provinces of

South Africa.

In Black – and White – blood.

20 J 197620 J 1976

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20 June 1976

Black high school principals in Soweto yesterday emphatically denied

the claim by Bantu Administration Minister Mr M.C. Botha that they had

opted for the sue of Afrikaans in their schools.

Mr L M. Mathabathe, principal of the Morris Isaacson School and

chairman of the Post-Primary School Principals Council in Soweto

challenged Mr Botha to give details of the alleged meeting at which

the principals agreed to the use of Afrikaans.

“On the contrary,”he declared, “several memoranda expression

concern at the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction have been

submitted to his department.”

Speaking for the principals of six of Soweto’s eight secondary schools,

he said that in recent months the Black teacher’s association, Atasa,

had met the Secretary of Bantu Administration to express dissatisfaction

over the language issue.

The only reason Afrikaans was not used in six of the seven schools

involved in the riots was resentment over the issue and the dire

shortage of teachers competent in the language.

A statement issued by the six principals said they were not aware

of any factors other than the use of Afrikaans in schools which had

contributed to the riots.

They denied ever having met the Minister to agree to the use of

Afrikaans.

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20 June 1976The Soweto riots, with their heavy death toll, are a tragedy that White

South Africa should think about very deeply this week, because

they represent, for the whole of South Africa, a watershed in race

relations.

The question here is not merely a matter of language as some

people tend to believe. It goes much deeper than the refusal of

Soweto’s students to be taught in Afrikaans.

It was an expression of rejection of something associated with

Afrikaner people who have become, in the Bl ack mind, responsible

for all the hardships Blacks have to endure under the policy of

apartheid.

But it is not merely a matter of rejecting a language. It is much

more serious than that and i t would serve South Africa much more

positively to acknowledge that the laws which dictate the lives of

Black people from day to day are what the riots were all about thisblack week in our country’s history.

The need for White people – especially the Afrikaner people – who

it must be readily admitted, showed the rest of Africa in their fight

against British oppression – to begin now, in 1976, to think as South

Africans and not merely as Afrikaners.

Blaming agitators for situations like Soweto, UWC and Sharpeville

will do nothing to restore the Afrikaner people to their rightful place

in South African history as people who feed our country from

Colonialism.

It will only drive the wedge deeper between them and the rest of the

people who compromise the South African nation.

20 J ne 197620 J ne 1976



20 June 1976

For some the rioting has come to an end – victims of Soweto’s violence wait in

the casualty section of Baragwanath Hospital before being wheeled into the

operating theatre. One was wounded by police bullets, another stoned and

stabbed by roving gang.

But with the hospital following an “Operation Disaster”procedure, and dedicated

staff working up to 36 hours a t a stretch, each victim received immediat e attention.

Dr P. J. Beukes, the superintendant, said the casualty s ection was working “flat out”

24 hours a day to cope with the casualties.

20 June 1976

The crisis talks between the Government and Soweto’s Black leaders

ended after three hours at the Department of Bantu Administration

and Development offices in Pretoria yesterday.

The leader of the Black delegati on, Mr T. J. Makhaya, chairman of

the UBC, said he was “very satisfied”with the outcome.

However, a joint statement would be issued later and he could not

comment further.

Representing the authorities at the talks were the Minister of Bantu

Administration and Development, Mr M. C. Botha; the Deputy

Minister of Bantu Affairs, Mr W. a. Cruywagen; and Mr Manie Mulder,

chairman of the West Rand Bantu Administration Board.

Soweto representatives included Mr Makhaya, Mr R. J. P. Mopanya,

Mr Sipo Motah, Mr L. M. Mosola, Mr P. M. Lengene, Mr L. L. Mlongi (all

UBC).

The churches, schools and students were also represented.

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20 June 1976

The riots in South Africa dominated the front pages of severy

serious Fleet Street newspaper yest erday. Under the headline

“Vorster in rioting crisis – Kissinger summit may be put off” the

Daily Telegraph reported that the rioting has left 90 dead and

at least 1000 injured.

Most newspapers carried photographs of a youth shot dead

in Alexandra. Financial pages reported the influence the crisis

is having on Shouth African shares.

Mr Vorster’s gloves-off order to the police to quell the riots at all

costs was reported in all papers.

Most TV and radio reports on the BBC have carried the South

African situation as the main item. There have been chilling TV

pictures of the scale of teh violence.

The media throughout Europe has given prominence to the

situation, particularly German newspapers. Since teh outbreak

of the rioting almost every major political party and trade

union in Britian has condemned the poli ce for their handling

of the riots.

In Europe, the World Council of Churches has declared its

intention to maintain and increase if possible the no-strings-

attached cash aid it gives to guerilla movements in Southern

Africa.

20 June 1976“Please God, help us. The instigators from Soweto a re here.”These were

the first words that I heard when I arrived at Alexandra Township early on

Friday morning.

The pleas came from dozens of schoolchildren aged between 10 and

15 who said they were fleeing from drunken thugs who threatened t o

killed them unless they burned down a school.

But the reign of terror had only just started. In the five hours I was there I

saw:

• Five Black people die in clashes with the police

• And entire shopping complex looted, smashed and finally burned

• Four buses set on fire and a fleet of Bantu Administration cars stoned

overturned and fired

• Government buildings stoned and looted

• Masses of Bl acks marching through streets shouting “Black Power”

and “This is the end of the whites”

• Hundreds of Indian and White employees evacuated under police

guard from businesses near the township.

As police tried to force them back, violence flared. Blacks used dustbin

lids as shield and stormed closer. They were warned numerous times to

disperse.

As they advanced, so we withdrew. Suddenly the mob attacked, and

the police fired, aiming above their heads. Still they came on. The police

fired again. Three Blacks fell. About 10 were wounded.

After this, violence erupted from all parts of the township, and sporadic

rifle fire could be heard. The rioters seemed to be using hit-and-run

tactics, taunting the police, then withdrawing.

Smoke poured from burning buildings and buses. Police were powerless

to stop the rioters, in most cases getting to the scene only after the

damage had been done.

Each time they made their way to a trouble spot they ran a gauntlet of

flying rocks, bottles and sticks.

20 June 197620 June 1976:

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20 June 1976

Black leaders who met teh Minister of Bantu administration

and Development, Mr M. C. Botha at crisis talks in Pretoria

yesterday asked him to review the question of Afrikaans in

Black schools.

This was one of the major points to emerge in a joint

statement issued after the three-hour meeting.

It was decided to hold a further meeting next week

between the Black delegation and Mr J. Rosseau, Secretary

for bantu Education, at which the Blacks would s ubmit

recommendations on the issue.

Mr Botha would then make a final decisi on. According to

the statement it is Mr Botha’s view that it is not departmental

policy to enforce the 50/50 principle.

The joint statement said both sides agreed that the “tragic

occurrences in Soweto were caused by misunderstadning

and confusion.”

The Black delegates gave Mr Botha t he assurance that they

would like Afrikaans as a s ubject, but claimed that there were

not enough teachers fluent in Afrikaans.

After the talks Mr Botha declined to add to the statement.

Mr T. J. Makhaya, chairman of the UBC a nd leader of the

Black delegation, said he was “very satisfied”with the

outcome of the talks.

20 June 1976

They were riots looking for a place to happen. The Afriaans-in-schools issue

was but the trigger ingredient in a bloody chemistry that, sooner or lat er, was

going to set our urban Black townships aflame.

The violence is mindless, the loss of life tragic and the wanton destruction

terrifying. But it is at their peril that White South African remain deaf to the

message being so crudely , so menacingly transmitted through the smoke

and the cordite. It reads: “Peaople are living here. Notice us!”

eIn our tinder-box society only madmen will seek solutions through violence.

And this week has shown how chaos can be compounded by vandals.

The highest priority now is t o end the disorder. Each new day of turmoil brings

greater destruction of precious facilities, loss of life and injury. But it would b e

folly if the emphasis were only on suppression and not on reform. It s hould

be realised, in fact, that the p olicemen now restoring the peace have been

dragged into an issue that really belongs with others.

The solution does not lie in Umtata or any homeland capital. It lies in Pretoria,

in Cape Town and in the offices of Government officials.

And in the minds of all White South Africans who da re no longer ignore their

Black, urban – and permanent – neighbours.

27 June 1976

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20 June 1976



27 June 1976

The Government is expected to soften its attitude to the use of

Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in African schools.

This was the view of many who attended the top-level talksat

the West Rand Bantu Affairs Administration Board when the

Secretary for Bantu Education, Mr Gideon Rousseau, met

Black civic and education leaders.

Black leaders said after the meeting that they believed the

hard line would be softened.

Meanwhile, there is a crisis in Soweto in regard to health and

hygiene. Hospital staff are scared to return to the eight clinics

which served over 3000 patients daily before the riots.

The sick can only turn to Baragwanath Hospital which is stilltreating riot victims and trying to cope with the overflow from

the clinics.

Meanwhile gangsters are still trying to cash in on the

situation. Several shopkeepers and homeowners have been

threatened that “if you do not pay money to a man who will

call for it, we will burn your shop down.”

Conmen, too, are trying to operate in the wake of the riots.

Posing as plain-clothes policemen, they have been

demanding anything from R50 to R200 from relatives for the

“release”of the bodies from the mortuary.

Employers, approached by their staff for loans, phoned the

police to check whether one had to pay to get a body from

the mortuary.

20 June 1976

Violence. Small bodies writhing in pools of blood in the dust. Screams of anger

and pain. These are my memories of the day I will never forget.

I arrived at Orlando West a bout 11am. The children were marching with

banners. Police troop carriers arrived. Men poured out of the vehicles and fired

teargas.

At this stage there was no hint of the trouble to come. The children were

laughing and joking. The children advanced on the police, but when they saw

guns held at the ready t urned and walked back towards Orlando West school.

At this stage the children passed under a bridge and were met by another

group of demonstrators.

The police circled round the marching children who had swelled to a mob of

about 12 000. They fired teargas again.

The children began stoning the police. Some surrounded the policemen and

stoned them from all directions.

Shots were fired. I remember looking at the children in their school uniforms

and wondering how long they would stand up to the police.

Suddenly a small boy dropped to the ground next to me.

What frightened me more than anything was the attitude of the children. Many

seemed oblivious of the danger. They continued running towards the police –

dodging and ducking.

I began taking pictures of the boy who was dying next to me. Blood poured

from his mouth and some children knelt next to him and tried to stop to flow of

blood.

Then some of the children shouted that they were going to kill me. A young boy

grabbed me by the hand and pulled me away.

I ran, jumped over fences and walls to esca pe but they surrounded me and

two boys drew knives.

I begged them to leave me alone. I said I was a reporter and was there only

to record what happened. A young girl hit me on the head with a rock. I was

dazed, but still on my feet. Then they saw reason and led me away.

I returned to the Sunday Times of fice some time later. My camera had been

taken by the children and I was shocked. But I was alive.

27 June 1976:

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27 June 1976



27 June 1976

Kaizer Chiefs’s tar Ariel “Pro”Kgongoange, was given

a huge funeral at his hometown in Mooidorpie,

Lichtenburg, yesterday afternoon.

Pro, a victim of the Soweto riots, was mourned by

more than 10 000 people – most of whom came from

Johannesburg.

Among them were supporters of both Kaizer Chiefs and

Orlando Pirates.

“In 1971 he captained the first ever Black XI to play

against Whites. He will live long in our memories.”

27 June 1976

• Isolation of South Africa through economic and other boycotts.

• Concerted political and diplomatic action by the OAU against

South Africa.

• Increased support to “liberation movement”.

Establishment of a committee to work out concrete steps to deal with

the problem of South Africa

Mr Onu said the Ministers felt that as long as apartheid persisted

“the massacres will continue not only in Soweto and Sharpeville but

elsewhere in that oppressed land.”

The consensus was that mere condemnation was not enough. An

immediate programme of action was needed.

The most effective action was to support the two banned liberation

movements, the ANC and the PAC.

A South African journalist, Mr Chris Vermaak, was refused

accreditation and asked to leave the conference premises.

27 June 197627 June 1976



27 June 1976

Over 400-million viewers in all parts of the world saw an

uncensored version of SABC-TV’s coverage of the Soweto

riots, according to Mr Jan van Zyl, director of news services of

the SABC.

“We sent two 10-minute satellite beams into the Eurovision

network, and exclusive beam to the BBC in London, and ITN,

Britian’s independent TV service, took direct satellite film for

their nightly newscast,”Mr Van Zyl said.

“The three big American TV networks also carried t he ITN film

and this means that 400-milli on people saw our coverage.”

Asked if any relevant facts had been edited out of the film by

the SABC before beaming, Mr Van Zyl said emphatically: “No.

We sent a completely factual film report.”

Representatives of overseas TV networks from Britian, the

United States, Germany and other countries have praised the

SABC’s coverage of their first major world story.

Mr John Platter, of United Press International, said: “They did

an extremely professional job. Any TV service would have

been proud of what they produced.”

27 June 1976The 56 000-member African Teachers’Association

of South Africa (ATASA) has asked that English be

the only medium of instruction in African schools

and that Afrikaans be dropped as a medium of

instruction from July 20 at the start of the second

term.

4 July 1976 : : : : 4 July 1976

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4 July 1976

Mr Jimmy Kruger, Minister of Justice, has opened

the door for Blacks to advise the commission of

inquiry into the Reef riots.

The regulations, promulgated on Friday, allow

the Commissioner, Mr Justice Cillie, to invite other

people to sit with him as advisers.

For instance, when the commission sits in Soweto,

he can invite the chairman of the Urban Bantu

Council to advise him. He could ask other Black

representatives to sit with him in Alexandra and

other trouble spots.

If Mr Justice Cillie needs further backgroundinformation, homeland leaders could ne called.

Although there will be no permanent Bl ack

assessors helping the commission, I understand

that Blacks will be given ample opportunity to

make their views known.

Observers see the move as an attempt by

the Government to dispel any idea that the

investigation will be White-oriented and therefore

one-sided.

However, leading Blacks say it would be

unfortunate if only UBC chairmen and homeland

leaders were called since they are seen as part

of the apartheid system and do not have the

confidence of the people.

4 July 1976

A sorrowful Soweto yesterday mourned the dead

killed in the riots a fortnight ago.

The urban heart of Black South Africa – in flames and

red with anger just a few weeks back – was calm and

peaceful as weeping fathers and mothers, brothers

and sisters buried loved ones.

From about 11 in the morning, in brilliant sunshine,

processions of mourners could be seen moving

along their own Via Dolorosas through the giant Black

city on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

Sunday Times reporters who flew overhead could

clearly hear the singing of about 2 000 mournersgrouped around an open grave in a in a cemetery

in the south-eastern corner of the township’s endless

sprawl.

With passions forgotten and the death and

destruction now but a dark memory hovering over

the townships. White police appeared to be keeping

a low profile and to have stayed away from the

funerals. Black plai nclothes policemen, however,

mingled with the crowds.

Roadblocks at entrances to Soweto appeared to be

heavily guarded but all within the township remained

calm. There was no tension around the gutted shops

and buildings where rioters had looted and stoned

cars.

Whites were turned away. Police produced an order

forbidding even White doctors and clergymen from

entering Soweto yesterday and today.

Funeral processions of buses, trucks and cars ,

drove slowly through the streets to converge on

roads leading to carious cemeteries. Momentary

congestion followed.

At Baragwanath Hospital all was quiet. Black hospital

police guarded barriers and a hippo manned by

Black police in camouflage uniforms was seen

passing through the hospital grounds.

The Minister of Justice, Mr Jimmy Kruger, this weekrefused a request by the Black Parents’Associati on

to hold a mass funeral, but a crowd of about 250

gathered at St Paul’s Anglican Church White City

where a “symbolic”funeral service was held.

The crowd, including many Black dignitaries, paid

tribute to Hector Peterson, a 13-year-old schoolboy

believed to have been the first riot victim.

A multiracial gathering of about 45 attended a

requiem mass for the riot victims at St Mary’s Anglican

Cathedral, Johannesburg, at noon yesterday. The

service was conducted by Father L. Bakale.

4 July 1976

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4 July 1976:

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Soweto mourned yesterday for victims of the rioting which swept the

townships 18 days ago – but the expected thousands did not attend

the funerals.

Instead, the crowds at most of the funerlas numbered in the

hundreds.

Apart from the “symbolic” funeral of 13-year-old Hector Peterson,

who was believed to be the first riot victim, there were five others

for riot victims, held at different churches, but all ending at Avalon

cemetery.

Permission for a mass funeral of riot victims was refused.

About 300 to 400 attended Hector’s funeral service held at St Paul’s

Church on White City Jabavu.

Among dignitaries at the service was Winnie Madela and Dr Manus

Buthelezi, who made a speech. The service was presided over by

him and the Rev David Nkwe.

The general atmosphere in the townships, although the funerals had

not been as well-attended as expected was one of deep sorrow.

The streets were crowded as is usual on a Saturday, but an air of

mourning hung over them all.

8 August 1976

11 July 1976:

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By late yesterday everything was calm in Soweto and other Black

urban areas.

The only reported trouble was in Dobsonville early yesterday

when one African was shot in t he leg and 34 were arrested.

Roadblocks were still up on the outskirts of Soweto yesterday

morning. But in Alexandra a reporter was able to drive

unhindered through the township.

Meanwhile, police yesterday reported sporadic disturbances

during the night at Doringspruit Mission School near Pietersburg;

on Friday at a school in Mamelodi, near Pretoria, and a college

at Athlone in the Cape.

y

Blacks will soon be given significant powers in

the running of Soweto. Soweto’s “mayor”, Mr T. J.

Makhaya, forecast yesterday. He believed that

the Urban Bantu Council would soon be granted

executive powers.

“In the past the council has been able to act

only in an advisory capacity – and our advice

was often not taken. But now the time is fast

approaching for us to have our say,”he said .

Mr Mahhaya told me the Government had

given the West Band Administration Board the

go-ahead to hand over powers to the UBC in the

following fields:

• Amenities

• Tradin g and transport

• Housing and general purposes

• Education and health

19 September 1976

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8 August 1976



p

Colonel Theunis Swanepoel, known as “Rooi Rus”

(the “Red Russian”), led a 58-man task force into

Soweto during the first 24 hours of the June riots

– personally shot and killed five rioters and fired

more than a third of the total ammunition used

by his unit.

Col Swanepoel, of the Hillbrow police, giving

evidence before the Cillie Commission in

Pretoria, said his men were told to use their

weapons only on orders from officers, and

a close check was kept on the rounds of

ammunition used.

He said he fired 78 shots while his task force

used 154 during 11 confrontations with mobs,

looters and agitators on July 16 and 17.

He said he had personally shot and killed five

rioters. His task force had killed 14 and had

wounded 11. The ratio of people killed t o the

amount of ammunition used was normal, since

the police only shot when necessary he said.

Col Swanepoel, was forced to leave Soweto les s

than 24 hours after arriving when his left eye was

badly injured by a thrown bottle.

Dressed in full riot camouflage gear, the former

chief security police interrogator and man at

the forefront of the Fox Street siege, said at no

time did police fire at school children.

There were children present on one occasion

when I fired over the heads of a crowd. But I told

my men when shooting to choose a s pecific

target and only to shoot when people attacking

us, which is what I did,”he said.

Col Swanepoel, who has been in the police

for 29 years with 12 years intensive training in

guerilla warfare, described how he saw the use

of one communist tactic for the first time in South

Africa.

After firing warning shots at a stone-throwing

mob of more than 4 000 in Orlando West, he

saw one man standing in front of the crowd with

his arms outstretched, fists clenched.

“It was a sign resembling the horns of an ox,

and I noticed the crowd had suddenly closed

in on us, approaching in flanks from the left

and right. I fired directly at the leader, who

staggered back and vanished in the crowd and

then I fired at the ‘lieutenants’on boths flanks,”

he said.

Leaders of several groups of the Soweto

rioters used the “ox-horn”si gn – “a well-known

communist tactic”– to s urround a group of

police and kill them, Col Swanepoel told the

commission. He said it was a method used in

England and America.

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Is Afrikanerdom doomed,”was the headline to

Professor Dreyer Kruger’s lecture last week. It

depends entirely on the Afrikaners because they are

masters of their own fate.

For three centuries the Afrikaners were a God-fea ring

people. Their downfall, if it comes, will be caused

mainly by their failure to love the letter and spirit

of the Book which sustained the Voortrekkers. They

have utterly failed to apply its message in the field of

human relations.

Professor Kruger has a point about the Afrikaans

language. Its imposition by force, causing the loss of

many lives in the Reef towns recently, has sounded its

death knell as far as Blacks are concerned.

Black people have learnt Afrikaans to communicate

with the majority White group.

But the shooting in Soweto over the language issue

has created revulsion for Afrikaans in every Black

heart. Afri kaans has become the language of

slavery and oppression.

I agree with Professor Kruger that what Blacks regard

as the whole machinery of oppression seems

manned onlu by Afrikaners. This may not be fair to

the Afrikaner, since he only seems prepared to teach

and teaching is a noble profession.

However, this image is obliterated by the police.

When Black people think of the pol ice, the words

“Waar is jou pass, jong?”ring in their ears.

After Sharpeville, and after the recent riots, the police

– who should be protectors – are looked on as

predators of the Black community.

It is the Afrikaner who harasses the African

commuters on the trains.

It is the Afrikaner who drives the Railway buses, and

it is the Afrikaner who serves in post offices, where

etiquette to Blacks is conspicuous by its absence.

Afrikaans culture would have had a chance

of survival if it was not being imposed on the

conquered – Black or White – and if Afrikaans were

not so preoccupied with its preservation.

Because of this preoccupation, the Afrikaner is giving

his culture the kiss of death.

The resentment caused by the forcible imposition

of Afrikaans has been exacerbated by the

almost entirely Afrikaans-speaking staff and Black

universities.

The Black student realizes that the Afrikaner despises

him as a fellow human being. So however good or

well motivated the individual lecturer may be, the

student knows that these universities were erected

in the first place to separate him from other young

South Africans because he is a “kaffir”.

The cult of exclusiveness which the Afrikaners have

made an ideology spells doom in a continent where

the majority are against such an ideology.

But doom can be avoided if only the Afrikaner will

repent and seek guidance from the Book which

meant so much to him during the Great Trek – and

apply its message to his neighbours.

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17 October 1976

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Enoch Duma, a Sunday Times Extra reporter toldthe Commisssion of Inquiry into the Soweto riotsthat he rescued two schoolboys who were beingfired at by three policemen in Orlando on June

16.

He said he saw the shooting as he was drivingalong Mooki Street, near Orlando Stadium. Hewent on: “I saw five young men, between 14 and18, walking casually.

“Suddenly three policemen – two Whites andone Black – stopped their car and ordered theboys to stop.

“The boys panicked and ran away. I stoppedmy car and tried to take pictures of what washappening. The police fired at the fleeing boys.I could see from where I was standing that thepolice were aiming at the boys who all ran into

the premises of Khanya Communal School.”Duma said other children in the neighbourhoodscattered and ran way.

“I feared for the boys’safety,”he told theCommission in Pretoria. “So when two of thememerged from the school building, I opened thedoor of my car and called them, saying: ‘Come

in! Come in! You’re going to be killed.’They bothjumped in. They were terribly frightened. Theyboth said”‘They (the police) have killed so-and-so (mentioning the boy’s name).”

As they were driving away Duma said he askedthe students why the police were after them. Oneof them said: “We’ve done nothing. We were justwalking in the street when the poli ce attackedis.”

Mr Justice Cillie asked: Did you know ofa building that had been set on fire in theneighbourhood?”Duma replied: “No.”

He said he let off the boys at DOCC, where theymingled with another group.

Suma told the inquiry about a White policeman

who, he said, fired at a crowd watching a tam of

workmen repairing a derailed passenger trainnear Ikwezi station. The policeman was postedat Ikwezi footbridge to protect workmen againstpossible attack.

The policeman, who apparently thought he wasabout to be attacked, fired at the crowd withoutwarning.

“I watched the shooting from a dis tance. I wastrapped in my car, waiting for my colleague,

Sidney Mahlangu to return from taking picture ofthe derailment.

“Bullets whizzed past me. Finally, I took the riskand drove past a hail of bullets.

“I nearly overturned at the Ikwezi bridge where Iwas forced to drive with my head resting on thedashboard to avoid being hit by stray bullets.”

Duma described another shooting incident inwhich he and photographer Sidney Mahlanguwere caught in crossfire in Dobsonville.

We stopped dead in our t racks during theshooting. The police armed with pistols and riflesfired at a crowd without issuing a warning. Wewere able to take photographs.”

Duma, who was asked for his opinion of theunrest, told the commission that the unrest was aspontaneous reaction by Blacks living under arepressive society.

“The unrest was not organized by any polit icalparty. Even the rejection of Afrikaans by studentswas not the real cause. This was just the tip of theiceberg.

“The real cause of this situation is the repressivesociety in which we find ourselves. Bla ckstudents have openly said: ‘We are tired of beingdehumanized.”

“We want quality education. Pass laws must go.We demand good wages.

“We want absolute freedom, one man one vote.”

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Alf Kumalo, Sunday Times Extra photographer, told

the commission he believed there would have been

no trouble during the Soweto student march on

June 16 if the police had not fired on the students.

He said:

“During my work as a Pressman, over more than 20

years, I have seen adults demonstrating on very

many occasions.

“When the police have ordered demonstrators to

disperse, and they have refused, I have seen police

baton charge them without firing a single bullet .

“Most of these demonstrations involved political

bodies – PAS and ANC as well as Wits students.

“Because of this I was shocked by the police

brutality on this occasion, the more so because I

found the police knew in advance, so they could

have used better means to s top the march.”

Kumalo said he and reporter Ezra Mantini met the

students marching east, then the students turned

north.

They were confronted by police who ordered them

back. When students tried to continue their advance

police fired tear gas.

One White policeman fired shots at boys who had

advanced further forward than the rest.

Students then stoned the police, who fired more

shots as they hurried to their vehicles and drove

away.

Later, at Orlando High, Kumalo saw a huge, singing

crowd of students marching east holding banners

attacking the use of Afrikaans. They went jam-

packed into the school.

Suddenly shots rang out and students scattered.

Kumalo said he dashed out of the line of fire, and

later photographed police firing into children, and

children stoning the police.

Black police armed with revolvers and sticks

charged the students, but were forced back.

“Police began using their vehicles for cover as they

fired. Children fell,”Kumalo said.

“At one stage a placeman’s revolver appeared to

have jammed and watching people laughed as he

tried to fire it. A policeman fell as he retreated from

stoning students.

“Police could not take more son they drove away

fast.

“On a street near Orlando West high School, there

were shots and a small boy fell writhing in pain,

Other students moved fast to pick him up. There was

anger and screams of pain as more bullets tore into

the crowd.

“There seemed to be no pa n, the police were

blasting away at the mob.

“What was remarkable was that the children

were so incensed that many seemed oblivious of

danger.”

Kumalo said he was attacked by students while

taking pictures of Hector Peterson, a boy who was

killed. They said he should be beaten up “because

I represented the adult folk w ho should have fought

the struggle long ago.”

Then one student came to his rescue and they ran

hand-in-hand – until the student was hit by a stone.

“I ran alone into different yards. Students shouted I

must be stopped and one drew a knife.

“I saw no chance of running anymore as the mob

was big in front and t here were more behind.

“Then, when I mentioned my name very fast a man

spread his arms holding a knife and said ‘This is Bra

Ali and you are not touching him.’

“Finally, he left in safety wit h one of the students.”

26 December 1976



26 December 1976

Documents

June 1976 Uprising: The Events that Shocked Africa and The World