TRC Final Report

Volume 6

Section 3

Chapter 2

Subsection 12

POPULAR RESISTANCE: 1960–1990

106. The second cluster of applications relating to events prior to 1990 is from civilians who engaged in various forms of protest, both peaceful and violent. During the 1980s, the ANC called on South Africans to ‘make the townships ungovernable’. Yet, while the UDF and its affiliates attempted to structure peaceful campaigns and programmes, their supporters often acted on their own initiative and translated the militant rhetoric and slogans of the UDF and ANC into violent actions.

107. While MK operations formed a significant component of resistance in the pre-1990 period, its estimated 1500 operations pale beside the scale of prote s t action by civilian opponents of the apartheid government inside South Africa. Police statistics¹⁴³ cite tens of thousands of cases of what they described as ‘ unrest’, including over 900 cases of burning and ‘necklacings’ between September 1984 and 31 December 1989. While these figures must be viewed with caution, there is little doubt that the wave of protest that swept South Africa prior to 1990 was extensive, leaving hardly any town untouched.

108. Ninety-nine persons, all male, applied for amnesty for ‘internal protest’ and U D F - related activities covering 104 incidents or events in the pre-1990 period. Of these, twenty-one are not linked to the UDF, either because they predate its launch or because they are applications from persons not clearly aligned to the organisation.

109. These 104 incidents include 214 separate acts as follows:

110. The regional breakdown is as follows:

111. The annual breakdown is as follows:

1 1 2 . Amnesty was refused for eleven incidents, partially granted for three and granted for ninety.