TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Subsection 15

1980–1981 school boycotts

92 After the founding of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the Azanian Student’s Organisation (AZASO) in 1979, school protests became more organisationally directed. Across the country, up to 100 000 children in coloured and African schools and university students on five black campuses boycotted classes between April 1980 and January 1981. The boycott originated in Cape Town, where it was fuelled by deteriorating conditions in the schools and the mushrooming of local organisations. The greatest impact was felt in the coloured townships of Cape Town and in Kimberley.

93 Mr Bernard Fortuin (15) [CT02202] and Mr William Lubbe (19) were shot dead from an unmarked police vehicle in Elsies River in an apparent ambush on 28 May 1980. These killings resulted in a total stay away.

94 Violence peaked on 17–18 June 1980 in the coloured townships of Elsies River, Lavender Hill and Bishop Lavis when a two-day stay away was held to commemorate the uprising of 1976. Coloured leaders had been detained in advance and meetings and gatherings banned during this time. A fare increase had also precipitated a bus boycott. There were incidents of arson, looting, and street protests, with some speculation about the involvement of gang elements.

95 Police responded with tear gas, baton-charges and live ammunition, and declined to issue a casualty list. The number of deaths recorded at five Peninsula hospitals was at least forty-two, including Ms Avril de Bruyn [CT00847], Mr Andrew Saul Christians [CT00660], Ms Johanna Moses [CT02201], Ms Edith Lewis [CT00658], Mr Gavin Godfrey Slavers [CT00662], Ms Glenda Scheepers [CT00845] and Mr William Rose [CT00671]. Over 200 people were injured, including children, young or pregnant mothers and a large number of other women. Police officially confirmed thirty-four deaths, including one in the Boland, and 146 injuries which, they alleged, were mainly stabbing and stoning injuries. At least two fatalities occurred as a result of the actions of those engaged in street protest, including one Constable Hugo, who was stabbed to death in Blackheath during a police baton charge, and a civilian who died when his vehicle crashed after being stoned.

96 On 11 August 1980, two white men, Mr Frederick Casper ‘Fritz’ Jansen [CT00675] and Mr George Beeton, were killed on Klipfontein Road next to Crossroads squatter camp during a week of turmoil and widespread street protest. The men were stopped within half an hour of each other. Their vehicles were stoned, overturned and set alight. Both drivers died after being dragged out of their vehicles and assaulted. Mr Jansen, who sustained numerous fractures of the skull and lower jaw as well as a stab wound on the head, was also badly burnt. He died in hospital the following day.

WITH REGARD TO THE 1980 SCHOOL BOYCOTTS, THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT THE RESPONSE OF THE SECURITY FORCES TO LEGITIMATE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL GRIEVANCES AND PROTESTS WAS EXCESSIVELY HARSH. MANY OF THE FORTY-TWO PEOPLE REPORTED KILLED WERE UNDER THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN, AND MANY WERE WOMEN.

THE COMMISSION FIND THAT THE KILLINGS OF MR ‘FRITZ’ JANSEN AND MR GEORGE BEETON, AS WELL AS THOSE OF THE OTHER PEOPLE MENTIONED ABOVE, WERE GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

Armed actions by the liberation movements

97 Seven or eight intermittent incidents of sabotage by the ANC took place in the region, targeting buildings containing the offices of state institutions and resulting in one death and several slight injuries. These included a sabotage attack on an administration building in Galeshewe township, Kimberley, on 10 November 1977 and two attacks on state offices in Cape Town and Langa on 9 December 1981 and 20 March 1982 respectively. The only conviction during this period was that of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) operative Oliver Bekizitha Nqubelani, arrested the day after a briefcase bomb explosion at the Cape Town Supreme Court on 15 May 1979.

98 On 4 June 1982 Mr Michael Younghusband (26) was killed when a bomb exploded in a lift in the Cape Town Centre building. The target was presumably the President’s Council, which had offices in the building. The ANC acknowledged responsibility for this bomb in its submission to the Commission, but no amnesty applications were received for this fatal attack.

THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT THE SABOTAGE ACTIONS BY THE ANC IN THE PERIOD WERE NOT EXCLUSIVELY AIMED AT INSTALLATIONS. IN A NUMBER OF INSTANCES, SUCH AS THE ATTACKS ON KOEBERG, THE SUPREME COURT AND THE OFFICES OF THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL, THERE WAS A HIGH RISK OF HUMAN INJURY. THE ATTACK ON THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OFFICE DID IN FACT RESULT IN THE KILLING OF MR MICHAEL YOUNGHUSBAND. THE COMMISSION FINDS THAT THE PLACING OF THIS BOMB WAS PARTICULARLY RECKLESS, IN THAT THE BUILDING HOUSED MANY OFFICES THAT WERE OF A PURELY CIVILIAN NATURE, AND THAT THE BOMBING CONSTITUTES A GROSS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.