Sharpeville Six

MR BERGER: Do I understand you correctly that you would have attacked the other townships like Sebokeng or Sharpeville, but Boipatong was chosen because it was the closest to Kwamadala.

"The intention of this operation was also to commemorate Sharpeville Day. As far as I am aware, there were no injuries or deceased as a result of this operation."

All of that started on the 2nd of September 1984 when Sharpeville exploded.

"It was known to all members of the team that the ANC would be holding, I think, a Sharpeville Day Remembrance rally at Trafalgar Square as from 9 a.m. that Sunday morning so there was no possibility of anybody being on the premises."

... of course not peace at any price and having to take up arms, that decision took place after decades of a non-violent struggle which ended with the Sharpeville Massacre where the leadership of this movement saw that the possibilities of peaceful change were not possible, that the regime would not ...

comrades. It happened that one day these comrades took a bakkie from a white woman and they killed her. One of the comrades took a van and went to Sharpeville, and he was accosted by the police. They told him that they were looking for the van, and he pointed a place where they all stayed, ...

... that he was not a silly boy, he was just like any other kid. I think it was in September, it was 1976 he had gone with his friends, they were from Sharpeville in Vereeniging. They went to Johannesburg. When they got to Johannesburg he went to see his other friends. He even - of black power. ...

MR MOTI: I was with two cadres, one from the Vaal Triangle, Seboke and the other one was - ja around Bokeni in Sharpeville, so they came there, they took me there. They took me from Soweto, we went there.

... what was going on because she was not aware of the subject matter and made quite a few what I would see as obvious mistakes in the sense that when Sharpeville was mentioned, she wrote "Saru", so it made no sense. Quite often she wrote instead of "police", a word that Mr Williamson used a lot, ...

MR RICHARD: But Bopalong is near Sebokeng, Sharpeville, they're all in the same area?

I remember in 1985 with the Sharpeville Six issue I was a woman belonging to a church organisation. We were kneeling with our knees, praying for those kids, because we've already heard that they were going to be hanged and God listened to our prayers because at a later stage we heard that they ...

... who are on death row and, fortunately, we also had a woman who was on death row, Theresa, sharing her experiences. She was one of the, so called, Sharpeville Six who were sentenced to death and I think the TRC was very fortunate to have those two people, a man and a woman, highlighting their ...

Here the finer details of the operation was discussed. It was decided that the device should be placed on a Saturday night, the 14/15th of March around midnight, as there was to be a Sharpeville rally on the following Sunday and no one would be at the office.

Commerce of Cape Town, 1959, 1960. And I've got here the dates which I've just reaffirmed from my diaries that on 21st March in '60, there were the Sharpeville and Langa riots, Langa affairs. On the 24th March, I was to have chaired a luncheon with Dr Norville, who was then the, whatever he was ...

... for the journey. What is more, he remembers the date as being the 21st March 1984 (being the day on which the traditional commemoration of the "Sharpeville Massacre" takes place) when he was party to damaging the motor vehicle of Miss Janet Cherry. It is common cause that her car was in fact ...

say to somebody let's do this, somebody will say I don't care about that. As far as I am concerned, the memorial services, like during the issue of Sharpeville, I appreciate it, but it is in our area I feel people cannot support that. That's why I have decided to approach you as ...

MR BERGER: And would it be correct to say they came from the townships of Sebokeng, Sharpeville and surrounding townships around Kwamadala?

... for those people who have been killed whether black and white from, if I may quote the nearest incidents which are still fresh from 1961-60 - Sharpeville Massacre, you come to the ....[inaudible] massacre, you come to the case of the Mklanga's as you have indicated, that's your feeling - ...

MR JANSEN: And for purposes of the record, if you could confirm that in the later half of 1984, from September onwards, there was a serious political unrest, firstly in Sharpeville and then in the Vaal Triangle and this circled right throughout the country from there, is that correct?

... the nation of South Africa, the big report of the Truth Commission, telling all about what's happened in South Africa in 30 years since the time of Sharpeville 'till the election that brought the new South Africa to ...