THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1976 AND BEYOND (PART 1)

Selby Vusimusi Moyo
Activist

By Selby Vusimusi Moyo
Actuvist

Contrary to what is usually being bandied about, the idea that there was a vacuum in the politics of resistance in South Africa in the period leading to the June 1976 students’ uprisings is untrue given activities in, and attitude towards, South Africa prior to the uprisings.

By the time the 16 June 1976 uprisings happened, much build-up had taken place; something that must not be ignored when we deal with the students’ uprisings.

By 1973 there was much pressure due to the political behaviour of the state as well as the activities of resistance by Africans to the extent that the government of the day acknowledged the heat because then Prime Minister John Balthassar Vorster made some promises, particularly to have changes in the treatment of African workers and make “Coloured” people part of a multi-racial political platform.

The voice of the newly-formed Black Consciousness Movement ( BCM) following the establishment of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) became a thorn in the flesh of the apartheid regime, for the BCM was instigating every formation in the country and growing by day.

Before long its influence was felt in the 1973 strikes embarked upon by workers in Durban because immediately after the strikes broke out several BCM leaders, including Steve Biko were banned by the apartheid regime.

But that did not dampen the spirits of the BCM members, especially SASO which organised pro-Felimo rallies throughout the country.

SASO was raided and a number of its leaders including Muntu Myeza, Terror Lekota, Strini Moodley and Saths Cooper were arrested and tried in one of the longest trials in the country.

Journalists were also harassed and arrested, and many parents of detained activists began organising themselves into detainees support groups.

It was during this period that the South African government felt external pressure due to the fall of settler colonial governments in Angola and Mozambique, as well as the intensifying liberation war in Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) and South West Africa (now Namibia).

Prime Minister BJ Vorster and his government feared the worst; that a southern Africa region without other settler colonies made South Africa vulnerable.

The government became very busy trying to appease the situation; appealing to all and sundry beyond its borders to give it time, for change was coming, but the pressure would not abate.

Meanwhile, white parents wanted to have the government stop drafting their sons into the army as many of them (sons) were dying in the anti-guerilla clashes raging in Angola.

It was the prospect of facing guerilla forces in the form of the South West Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO), Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) and Azanian Peoples Liberation Army (APLA) on multiple fronts that made the regime jittery.

Moreover, a revolutionary fervour was building up on the home front.

But it must be understood that while students were putting up pressure on the apartheid regime, the regime continued to unfold its policies of oppression and one of such policies was the establishment of “independent” Bantustans which in the thinking of the regime meant African people would then be pushed to these “labour reserves” and would understand that they were in South Africa proper as mere providers of labour and not its citizens.

This despite the changes promised by then Prime Minister Vorster.

Many Africans were sent to these these Bantustans, which in essence were tribal enclaves, while at the sane time forced removals from one township to another continued unabated.

Now at that time population growth necessitated extension of townships, hence the establishment of locations such as Soshanguve next to Mabopane, north of Pretoria.

The regime also intensified the enforcement of the “school pass” policy, whereby students would be arrested when found not carrying the said “school pass.”

But the enforcement of this very policy didn’t go far as other developments were more urgent than raiding students who didn’t possess the passes.

Now as a result of the aforementioned political situation, the June 1976 uprising was not an isolated, spontaneous event but was connected to a host of many other issues.

While Bantu Education was central to the students’ grievances, these other issues which were related to the oppressive conditions of the Africans in South Africa gave more reason for the uprising; Africans simply wanted freedom and not only better education as could be discerned in political speeches and songs of the time.

The 1974 introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at secondary schools would ignite deep-seated anger towards the abhorred Bantu Education system.

As early as February 1976 there were walkouts (boycotts) at a number of schools in Soweto and several teachers were arrested for refusing to teach in Afrikaans.

Again in April and May of 1976 more school boycotts followed as students viewed Afrikaans as ” the language of the oppressor” and it was around this time that the South African Students Movement (SASM) started organising a build-up to the uprising exactly a month before the actual June 16 upheaval, and Sanusi Credo Mutwa was reported as having had a vision about ” the ball of fire” regarding the uprising a week before they happened.