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school boycotts

Explanation
School boycotts originated in the Western Cape in April 1980 and spread to several other regions in South Africa. Grievances initially concerned the standard and quality of education but these grew into wider political protest. Street protests and police actions resulted in widespread violence. In the Cape, police shootings led to over 40 deaths. In the Orange Free State, police made use of force and firepower to break up crowd demonstrations, often resulting in injury and, in some cases, death. In Natal, boycotting pupils in KwaMashu defied Chief Buthelezi's calls to return to school, resulting in clashes between pupils and Inkatha supporters. These boycotts allegedly led to an increased exodus of youth from the country to join the ANC. Towards the end of 1985 , the UDF adopted a campaign to make the townships ungovernable. Educational institutions and trade unions became key sites of revolutionary activity. School boycotts and strikes were transformed into scenes of violent conflict and bloodletting. A state of emergency was declared in July and extended in October. It continued until the first democratic election in 1994.

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to have unfairly amassed wealth in poor townships were also vulnerable to attack. Teachers and school principals who were conservative or opposed to school boycotts were targeted in some instances. Black local authority offices, schools, homes and businesses were also frequently attacked. 499 ...
the UDF adopted a campaign to make the townships ungovernable. Educational institutions and trade unions became key sites of revolutionary activity. School boycotts and strikes were transformed into scenes of violent conflict and bloodletting. At the Kabwe Conference17 in June 1985, the ANC took a ...
... the country. There were, however, sporadic street battles between youths, students and the police, particularly in the context of intermittent schools boycotts. Pupils at Qaqamba Senior Secondary School boycotted classes early in 1985, demanding that their student representative council be ...
... of assault and killing were also received. Consumer boycotts, rent boycotts, labour stay aways, campaigns for the resignation of councillors and school protests have all been cited as contexts in which SDU abuses occurred. The Commission heard that SDUs played a role in enforcing the decisions ...
... I landed on the floor. I was lying on the floor for many hours unconscious. 79 During a terrorism trial of five young people in connection with school boycotts in Kimberley in 1982 and 1983, a number of witnesses and detainees gave evidence of alleged torture and mistreatment by the security ...
... Report, twenty-one people were killed during street protest activities. Amongst the first was Mr Ezekiel Xolile Mosi, an eighteen-year-old school pupil from Langa, who was shot and killed by police. Mosi’s funeral was one of the first to be restricted following the renewal of the ...
one that was attacked by these men. 775 Ms Helena Kroon De Kock [JB01563/03NW] testified before the Commission about the bombing of her non-racial school in Klerksdorp. She believed that the school had been bombed by “faceless individuals opposed to her idea that all children deserved a ...
... incorporated into Bophuthatswana in December 1988. In April 1989, protest against the incorporation escalated into conflict, with intermittent school boycotts in both communities. 443 In Braklaagte, the Bophuthatswana Police allegedly set up roadblocks to stop pupils and ask them whether ...
... Africans, with a high number of deaths and injuries. 11 Specific issues such as the red meat strike, the Fattis and Monis strike and the bus and school boycotts provided the impetus for organisational development and the focus for organisational activities from the early 1980s. Many such ...
... and local campaigns. Consumer boycotts targeted white shops in protest against severe ongoing racism in several towns in the region from 1990. School student protest also became more widespread in the region, and repression of such protests remained harsh. Newspaper reports also indicate ...
... 103 By 18 August 1976, ten people had been killed and over twenty injured by police in clashes in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage. Youths targeted schools, police vehicles and municipal bottle stores for stoning and arson attacks. In Port Elizabeth, during August and September, eighty-nine buses ...
... counter-insurgency capabilities. Meanwhile, general recruitment was stepped up and, in June 1983, a record 400 trainees passed out of the Transkei School of Infantry. A second officer cadet course was in progress and, in July, a parachute course was established. Soon, in addition to its 1st ...
... known as the Silvertown Bank Siege, three MK operatives take bank employees hostage on 25 January. The operatives and two hostages are killed. School boycotts originate in April in the Western Cape and spread nationally. Initial grievances concern mainly the standard and quality of ...
... Except for a few cases discussed below, until 1977 the main target of arson attacks was government property such as Bantu Administration offices, school buildings, rent offices, beer halls and other government-related buildings. This was particularly so during the anti-pass campaign in 1960, ...
... 1976, “five youths and a woman had to receive hospital treatment … after being flogged by three lekgotla (court) members for breaking school windows”. In some cases, makgotla took the form of vigilante groupings. 249 The legislation made provision for community guards who ...
soldiers of the struggle’ - as what were called the ‘young lions’. Youth challenged the state by organising and mobilising their schools and communities against illegitimate state structures. Mr Potlako Mokgwadi Saboshego (first name and title please), a student activist from ...
... students in Bloemfontein engaged in protest and boycott actions. The police appeared initially to act with restraint in their response to these school boycotts. However, reports soon emerged of the use of unnecessary force to break up crowd demonstrations, including the use of baton charges ...
... violence. Even those perceived to have simply been beneficiaries of the apartheid system, such as business people or teachers antagonistic to school boycotts, were vulnerable to attack. The numbers of persons killed for these reasons amounted to approximately a third of the total number of ...
... the fray. On 6 September, the government closed 464 coloured schools and tertiary institutions in an acknowledgement of the enormous impact of the school boycotts. By this stage, however, protest had moved well beyond the education constituency. 120 The widespread political outrage that ...
... people were injured in Gugulethu in mass stonings of vehicles and accompanying police action. 112 Street clashes continued intermittently. When school student Sithembele Matiso [CT00738] was killed by a rubber bullet to his head on 29 July, his funeral was restricted by the police and became ...
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