We South Africans need to unlearn many of the painful lessons from the days of Apartheid which taught citizens that violence and the threat thereof were the only ways that we could bring about meaningful change.
Nelson Mandela warned of the failure of peaceful means of negotiating an end to apartheid.
It was left to the youth to bring focus onto apartheid – the vocal white protestors being led largely within South African universities by the wives and girlfriends of young men conscripted into the army to fight against the so-called ‘Rooi Gevaar’ of Communism.
In the absence of the Internet and with no access to television or foreign media, South Africans all suffered under the iron fist and pointing, waggling fingers of successive State Presidents under National Party rule.
The Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960 saw around 7000 people, protesting against pass laws, descend upon the Sharpeville Police Station in Gauteng. After police opened fire 69 people were left lying dead on the ground.
Pass laws were intended to control and direct the movement and employment of black people in South Africa. Under the country’s National Party government, black residents in urban districts were subject to influx control measures. Individuals over sixteen were required to carry passbooks, which contained an identity card, employment and influx authorisation from a labour bureau, the name of employer and address, and details of personal history. Leading up to the Sharpeville massacre, the National Party administration under the leadership of Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd used these laws to enforce greater racial segregation and, in 1959-1960, extended them to include women.
On 30 March 1960, the government declared a state of emergency, detaining more than 18,000 people, including prominent anti-apartheid activists.
A storm of international protest followed the Sharpeville shootings, including sympathetic demonstrations in many countries and condemnation by the United Nations. On 1 April 1960, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 134. Sharpeville marked a turning point in South Africa’s history.
Resolution 134 voiced the Council’s anger at the policies and actions of the Government, offered their sympathies to the families of the victims, called upon the Government to initiate measures aimed at bringing about racial harmony based on equality and to abandon apartheid.
The oppressive state continued until 1976 when it foisted Afrikaans onto the black population resulting in the Soweto Uprising which was a series of protests led by high school students in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.
Widespread condemnation for the apartheid state came from the clergy, academics and citizens the world over. But PW Botha observed from afar, threw the finger at the populace and called in the troops to install law and order. State of Emergency proclamations were the order of the day as young conscripted national servicemen were sent in to do the ‘dirty work’ in the townships.
All the while the apartheid government was setting up any succeeding government for a spectacular failure as the citizens, without a viable opposition and without the vote, were taught that the only way to bring about change was with violence.
Wave after wave of protestors and strikers continued to challenge and wear away at the apartheid regime whilst politicians came to the realisation that South Africa was doomed without majority rule.
In the video are dramatised scenes from the movie Stander.
The most famous ‘finger wagger’ of all, PW Botha learned that his antics and disdain for the people was to no avail as Nelson Mandela swept to power in 1994.
A scant 10 years later South Africa underwent an incrrease in protests – this time against Service Delivery – or more accurately the LACK of Service Delivery. These protests lacked cohesion and were completely overshadowed by the start of the October 2015 #FeesMustFall movement. Started by students protesting against the high cost of tertiary education the protests jumped from campus to campus like a bush fire leapfrogging fire breaks.
This student led protest movement began in mid October 2015 in response to an increase in fees at South African universities. Protests started at the University of Witwatersrand and spread to the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria and Rhodes University before rapidly spreading to other universities across the country.
The protests escalated on Wednesday 21 October 2015 when students from both the University of Cape Town as well as the Cape Peninsula University of Technology formed a crowd of around 5 000 protesters and marched on the South African Parliament which coincided with the meeting of the National Assembly where both Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande and President Jacob Zuma were in attendance. Nzimande tried to address the crowd but was repeatedly booed whilst President Zuma left the Parliamentary buildings from a side entrance.
Protesters broke through the gates of the parliamentary precinct and began to stage a sit-in protest, but riot police soon moved in to disperse them using stun grenades, tasers, coloured gas, riot shields and truncheons. After the riot police had cleared the precinct of protesters and shut the gates, police warned protesters that they were contravening the National Key Points Act and that if they did not disperse within 15 minutes, they would be arrested. The protesters did not leave, and police went ahead and arrested a number of them.
Protest action also started at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, when students blocked the main roads onto the Summerstrand campuses. At least one altercation with the police took place when tear gas and rubber bullets were used to push students back onto campus.
Once again the students and youth were standing at the forefront of revolutionary change. Once again the students were the cannon fodder of the revolution.
The Wits and KZN Universities remain at the forefront of the violence with arsonists attacking the KZN Law Library and the Wits Great Hall being stoned by protestors.
Once again students and youth are standing at the forefront of revolutionary change. Once again students are the cannon fodder of the revolution.
Today the Wits and KZN Universities remain at the forefront of the violence with arsonists attacking the KZN Law Library and the Wits Great Hall being stoned by protestors.
In an eerie throwback to the past our President cannot help but demonstrate that he learned his lesson from the great oppressor, PW Botha, as he flips us the bird.
Visit these videos by publishers for more expanded information on the above:
- Students protesting at NMMU. #Fees must fall by Science_freaks
- #FeesMustFall protest turns violent, 21 October 2015 by Shaun Swingler
- #FeesMustFall Wits University (20 Sept. 2016) 2 by Constant King
- Wits University protesting Students gone wrong-Fighting with securities by Dawn Charantino
- Fees must fall 2016 strike gone wrong by Charlie EKS
- Wits rocks”>WITS Fees Must Fall Protest 2 by South Africa Daily
- Nelson Mandela Speaks APARTHEID 46 YEARS IN 90 SECONDS by BBC NEWS
- South Africa State of Emergency 1980’s by Rui
- Toyi Toyi (Stander) by Patrick
- Apartheid Crisis in South Africa 1960 HD Historic Footage by HistoryFlix
- Jacob Zuma points middle finger on live TV by VoiceOfMatt
Alan Straton
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