comrades

Or those still haunted by the horror of a death at the hands not of the enemy, but comrades. The smoke of the necklace or the shining panga still sticking through their dreams.

The six day war expelled the police from Alex. Black policemen were seen as siding with the oppressor, and they were no longer welcome in the community. Comrades and people’s courts took over the keeping of law and order. // But in April the police came back to wreak havoc. //

… other victims in the area, Mr. Fanyana Sibanyoni, lost his son, Jabulani Sibanyoni, leader of the comrades at the time who was fatally shot after a funeral of one of the young fighters of Wesselton township.

In George, the local ANC is getting ready for their day of showing their anger and protest. // Comrades, if we were to put down all the crimes of PW Botha, this wall is too small. We left out Ashley Kriel, we left out District Six, we left out Sophiatown; we left out Cato Manor. We left out so many ...

... that beats. With strong words I must say I do not agree with the death sentence. It can be any person… I mean this not only for the ANC and for comrades. It can be an AWB man who does something like go and shoot people like Barend Strydom did or any other person. Because I speak from ...

But Zara was damaged in more complex ways. She spent seven months in that basement, because of some of her comrades. There was racial tension; she was belittled for being Coloured. One woman, a high ranking MK soldier, made sexual advances. Zara rejected her. In retaliation she was blamed for a ...

of baby Thabang, born in Swaziland in 1987. In October 1988 Ndwandwe was abducted from Manzini to Pietermaritzburg. The people who sold her out were comrades. Her abductors: four men in the South African Police. Their aim: to turn her into an askari through torture. Ndwandwe refused. They killed ...

This place where I’m standing is where all the tortures in ’86 and the year before ’86: ’85, the comrades and the Huhudi Civic Association, the Huhudi Youth Organisation in particular, were actually tortured. We were actually leaning against this tree and we were handcuffed, and we were ...

On that night we came from the new cross road, I was armed with a R4 rifle, other comrades were armed with shotguns and guns, and then we get to this stop, we see there’s no vans here. We’re sure that the van must stop at this stop, the nice place to deploy, is that place. So we move from this ...

the hills of KaNyamazane became powerful symbols in the new struggle emerging under the state of emergency. From these watchtowers above the valleys comrades could watch the movements of the soldiers and the police down below. Up there surprise raids were less likely and groups could quickly ...

and by 1983 he was head of Umkhonto we Sizwe’s Natal underground machinery and a senior official of the Communist Party. In 1988 one of his senior comrades confessed to having been a spy. TZ was detained by ANC security or Mbokodo, of which he was a senior officer. There was no trial. He became ...

Joyce Seipei, for the first time publicly spoke of her hurt, grief and bitterness. At the time of Stompie’s death, she was gagged and denounced by comrades who towed the line that Stompie was not really dead. Joyce Seipei buried her son on February 25 1989, a day after Winnie Mandela told the ...

... around the older traditionalist headmen or ‘fathers’ and younger militant activists or Maqabane. The ‘fathers’ controlled Crossroads, the Comrades held the satellite camps. By 1986 the pass laws were scrapped, but at this moment of victory for the township and squatter residents ...

The comrades retaliated and KwaNdebele burned. Chris van Niekerk was then in charge of the KwaNdebele police. He was opposed to independence and to the KwaNdebele government’s use of Mbokodo to terrorise the local people. // The KwaNdebele government was actually my boss so I had to kind of obey ...

With this alleged incriminating receipt Zenzile’s life was now in danger from his own comrades. He dropped out of sight, but his political career had ended and with it his good reputation as an activist.

that I should be taken back to prison. Our decision was to start a hunger strike; we were 16 in all. We started on the 24th and after seven days the comrades requested us to withdraw the hunger strike. I was left on my own; I said no more turning back. In our cells we wrote on the walls ...

a Standard five pupil in Vryburg, and by all accounts a dedicated UDF and youth activist in Huhudi until she was named an impimpi, informer, and her comrades dealt with her. Frieda’s grandmother, mother, sister have only begun dealing with the pain of her brutal ...

... Lamane a fellow member of COSAS tells more of the police setup of Zenzile. // On this night, they arrived at the house and there were few other comrades with us in the house. Zenzile was not there. So, they got in there, there were some two or three other black security policemen with them, ...

... the process. For you, the process would be development… // One could say that. // For the security forces the goal would be to clear the area of comrades and for the witdoeke to get rid of UDF related allies etc. // Yes ...

... businesses in the region destroyed. // The forces against independence were an unusual mix: the Pedi speaking people of Moutse allied with the UDF comrades and the KwaNdebele Royal Family. It was here, at the Royal Kraal that mass meetings were held to mobilize the people. ...