Year of Fire, Year of Ash The Soweto Revolt: Roots of a Revolution? Baruch Hirson Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London NI 9DN, This book is dedicated to all political prisoners held in South Africa, and in particular to those held at Pretoria Local Prison Year of Fire, Year of Ash was first published by Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London NI 9DN in June 1979. Copyright © Baruch Hirson, 1979 ISBN Hb 0 905762 28 2 Pb 0 905762 29 0 Printed in U. S. A. Typeset by Dark Moon Designed by Mayblin/Shaw Cover photo by Peter Magubane, courtesy of International Defence and Aid Fund All rights reserved U.S. Distributor Lawrence Hill & Co., 520 Riverside Avenue, Westport, Conn. 06880, U.S.A. First reprint, February 1981 Contents List of Abbreviations xii Foreword I Introduction 3 Race Riots or Class War? 5 The 1960s: from Quiescence to Resistance 7 Students in Revolt 7 TheUprisingofJune1976 8 PART I From School Strikes to Black Consciousness II 1. The Black Schools, 1799-1954 12 Schools: Segregated and Unequal 12 First Steps in the Cape 13 Education in the Interior 18 Early African Criticisms 20 Discrimination After 1910 22 The Students' Response 27 Strikes in the Schools 30 The University College of Fort Hare 32 Politics Comes to the Campus 34 2. Bantu Education: 1954-1976 40 Christian National Education: the Afrikaner Ideal 41 Bantu Authorities and Bantu Education 44 ANC Responds: the 'Resist Apartheid Campaign' 47 Higher Education Under Attack Si The Extension of University Education Act 53 Schools Dismantled and the Struggle Continues 55 3. The University Student Movements, 1960-1969 60 Bantu Education Implemented 60 TheBlackCampusProtest 63 The NUSAS Issue 65 'Black Man, You Are On Your Own' 69 4. Black Consciousness Politics, 1970-1974 76 SASO and the Black Consciousness Movement 76 Black Peoples Convention (BPC)tunchod,July1972 82 Black Consciousness In Action 84 The May Revolt, 1972 86 The 'Viva Freimo' Rally 88 5. Secondary Schools and the African School Movement 93 Education for Black Labour? 93 New Labour Needs and School Expansion 94 Secondary School 'Explosion' 97 The Language Bombshell 99 School Students Organise 100 The South African Students Movement 102 6. The Black Consciousness Movement: Ideology and Action 107 One Million Members? An Impossible Goal 107 The Myth of BPC Radicalism 109 Non-collaboration? The BPC Dilemma 113 Buthelezi's Politics Pose a Problem 114 PART H Workers and Students on the Road to Revolt 121 7. Black Workers Set the Pace 122 The Economic Paradox 123 Workers' Organisations: Old and New 125 Black Consciousness and the Workers 127 The Strike in Namibia, 1971 130 Natal Workers on Strike, 1973 133 The Intervention of Barney Diadla 140 The Organisation of Trade Unions 142 8. The Strike Wave Spreads 146 Black Miners Shake the Country 147 Strikes Become Endemic 150 East London: Bantustan Leaders as Strike-Breakers 151 Strikes Without End 153 The Strikes and the Political Struggle 155 9. State Repression and Political Revival: 1974-76 1S9 The Schlebusch Commission Reports 159 Detentions and Arrests 160 Impact of the Trials: 1975-76 161 The Bus Boycotts in 1975-76 164 'The Revolt Is Already Under Way' 166 South Africa Invades Angola 167 Buthelezi's Road to Liberation 168 10. The Soweto Revolt, June 1976 174 Chaos in the African Schools 174 The Campaign to Stop Afrikaans Medium Lessons 175 The Demonstration of June 16, 1976 180 The Youth Take Revenge 182 Police Terror 183 TheResponseofaPeople 184 Revolt in the Northern Transvaal 187 Leaders of the Revolt 191 The Parents Play their Part 195 The Underground Organisatlons 199 11.TheRevoltTakesShape 206 The Funeral Ceremonies 207 Back to School? 208 TheMarchonJohannesburg 210 Nation-wide Response 212 12. The Cape Province Explodes 214 The Shaping of Cape Society 216 The 'Eiselen' Line 217 The Schools in Cape Town 219 'Coloureds are Black, too' 221 Coloureds and Apartheid Politics 223 The Theron Commission 224 Cape Schools Join the Revolt 226 Separate, Yet Together 229 Blacks Invade the White City 232 Was there a Cape Town Leadership? 234 Other Centres of the Revolt 237 13. New Tactics in the Revolt 243 Reaction Takes the Offensive 243 Azikhwelwa Madodal (Stay at Home!) 244 To Return or Not to Return to School 246 Legality and Illegality in Soweto 248 The September Stay-at-Homes 253 The Workers Stay at Home 255 Problems of the Political Strike 258 14. The Revolt Winds Down 263 TheMarchonJohannesburg 263 Alcohol and the Christmas Season 264 Divided Counsel on Examinations 268 Tie SSRC Abolishes the UBC 270 The First Commemoration of June 16 273 SASM Politics in 1977 275 The Police Move In 277 PART II Black Consciousness and the Struggle n S. Africa 281 15. Anatomy of the Revolt 282 Origins 282 Consciousness and the Revolt 288 Black Consciousness as an Ideology 294 Black Consciousness and the Rejection of Cli Analysis 298 The Black Consciousness Movement and Black Buuirtss 301 The Petty Bourgeoisie; Urban and Rural 303 16. Black Consciousness in South African History 308 The Roots of Black Consciousness 308 TheMessageoftheCYLLeadership 313 Economics and the Poverty of CYL Policy 317 The ANC and the Programme of Action 321 From Africanism to Black Consciousness 324 Black Consciousness and Violence 326 A South African Glossary 331 When DidItHappen?AChronologyofEvents 334 Bibliography 339 Index 345 List of Tables 1(a) African Schooling: Estimated Enrolment and State 24 Expenditure, 1855-1945 1(b) African Schooling: Details of Enrolment and Expenditure 25 during the Depression, 1930-39 2(a) The Number of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Four 26 Provinces, 1946 2(b) Percentage of African Pupils Enrolled in Sub-standard and 26 in Primary School Classes, 1924-45 3. African Pupils in School 1955-1969 63 4, Students at Black Universities 03 5. Enrolment of African Pupils 98 6. Enrolment in Form I at African Schools 98 7. Strikes by Africans in 1974 1 t 8. African Wage Levels in the Principal Industrial Areas, 1974 IS. 9. Persons Killed and Injured by Police in the 'normal course 185 of duty' 1971-76 10. The African Population Statistics of Cape Town, December 1973 218 Maps 1. Southern Africa ix 2. JohannesburgandEnvirons 176 3. Soweto 179 4. The Cape Peninsula 215 List of Abbreviations AAC All African Convention AAC Anglo-American Corporation ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ACROM Anti-CRC Committee ADP African Democratic Party AEM African Education Movement AFRO Anti-CRC Front AICA African Independent Churches Association Anti-CAD Anti-Coloured Affairs Department ANC African National Congress * ASSECA Association for the Educational and Cultural Advancement of the African People ATASA African Teachers Association of South Africa BAWU Black Allied Workers Union BCP Black Community Programmes BIC Bantu Investment Corporation BOSS Bureau of State Security BPA Black Parents Association BFC Black Peoples Convention BWC Black Workers Council BWP Black Workers Project BYCA Black Youth Cultural Association BYO Border Youth Organization CFS Committee for Fairness in Sport Cl Christian Institute CIS Counter Information Service CNE Christian National Education CPRC Coloured Persons Representative Council CRC See CPRC CYL Congress Youth League FRELIMO Front for the Liberation of Mozambique IDAMASA Inter- Denominational African Miniatera Association HE Institute for Industrial Education JASCO Junior African Students Congress LAY League of African Youth LEARN Let Every African Learn MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola NAYO National Youth Organisation NEUM Non-European Unity Movement NUSAS National Union of South African Students NYO Natal Youth Organisation OFS Orange Free State PAC Pan-Africanist Congress PUTCO Public Utility Transport Corporation SABRA South African Bureau of Racial Affairs SACP South African Communist Party SACTU South African Congress of Trade Unions SAD Society for African Development SAFO South African Freedom Organisation SAIC South African Indian Congress SAIC South African Indian Council SANA South African News Agency SAPPI South African Pulp and Paper Industries SASM South African Students Movement SASO South African Students Organisation SOYA Society of Young Africa SPROCAS Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society SRC Students Representative Council SRRSA Survey of Race Relations in South Africa SSRC Soweto Students Representative Council SWANLA South West African Native Labour Association SWAPO South West African Peoples Organisation TEACH Teach Every African Child TLSA Teachers League of South Africa TRYO Transvaal Youth Organisation TUCSA Trade Union Council of South Africa UBC Urban Bantu Council UsJ Union of Black Journalists UCT University of Cape Town UTp Urban Training Project UWC University of the Western Cape WCYO Western Cape Youth Organisatlon YARM Young African Religious Movement ZETA Zulu Education and Teaching Assistance Nineteen Seventy-Six Go nineteen seventy-six We need you no more Never come again We ache inside, Good friends we have Lost. Nineteen seventy-six You stand accused of deaths Imprisonments Exiles And detentions. You lost the battle You were not revolutionary Enough We do not boast about you Year of fire, year of ash, Oupa Thando Mthimkulu Reprinted with permission from Staffrider, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1978. Foreword The story of the Soweto Revolt has in the first instance to tell what happened, and how. And because all revolts have their origin in events, both remote and recent, I am indebted to the many sources from which I was able to borrow books, pamphlets and documents, There would have been little point in even commencing this study if it had not been for the International University Exchange Fund's distribution of documents, reprinted in Geneva after being banned in South Africa. Added to the material collected together in the annual Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, and the four annual Black Reviews, from 1972 through to 197, the events of the 970 began to unfold.