TRC Final Report

Volume 3

Chapter 5

Subsection 17

Overview of violations

107 The period 1983–89 generated the highest peak of violations in this region, in both the urban and rural areas. Most reported violations pertained to acts of severe ill treatment, followed by torture.

Public order policing in the Peninsula

108 In the Peninsula, there were five main concentrations of shootings and injuries at the hands of the security forces in the period 1983 to 1989. These were:

• resistance to forced removals from Crossroads, February 1985;
• the Pollsmoor march and the political revolt from August to December 1985;
• the suppression of the Defiance Campaign in September 1989.
• the witdoeke conflicts of May and June 1986; (see Contra Mobilisation)
• activities of the ‘special constables’ from 1986 to 1989; (see Volume 2)