Beyond the Beyond the Barricades. the 1985

BEYOND THE BEYOND THE BARRICADES. THE 1985 SCHOOLS BOYCOTT AND THE VICISSITUDES OF THE ATHLONE STUDENTS ACTION COMMITTEE (ASAC). Mukesh Vassen A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BA. Honours in History February 1995 Department of History University of Cape Town The History Depament ofthe U .venty ofC ape Townhza been given the iht to reproduce tis disesrt t on i whole or in part. DEDICATION Dedicated to Ch6 Vassen. WE MUST PRESERVETHE BESTOF WHATWE HAVEFOR OURCHILDREN - THEY ARE THE FLOWERS OF OUR STRUGGLE. (Cabral) In the hope that all children will one day reap the rewards of a bitter, long and hard struggle, but never forget how it came to be so. For it is the multiplicity of struggles like that of 1985, that will someday transform education from an education for domestication into a pedagogy of liberation! would like to thank a number of people for their help and upport during the past year. My parents, R. & V. Vassen and grandparents, H. & T. Singh :or their financial assistance and unqualified support, -ncouragement, tolerance and motivation that they have zrovided consistently throughout the past year. - M. Adhikari, my supervisor, as well as the other members of the history department for their patience and their invaluable insight and expertise. - Bertie Fritz at the Mayibuye Centre, for going out of your way to assist in the gathering of information. - P. Vassen and C. Paulse for assisting with the laborious and time-consuming task of transcribing the interviews. - E. Weber for sharing your expertise on the boycott and allowing me to use your interviews. - Y. Ebrahim for the furnishing me with the video recording of the Trojan Horse killings and the court transcripts of the case. - P. Lalu and A. Abercrombie for the use of their dictaphone machines. - A special note of thanks is extended to all the interviewees who gave up their valuable time. Without the interviews many facets of the student movement and the boycott itself would have remained 'hidden from history.' ARFV TAT TON AECC - Athlone Education Crisis Committee ANC - African National Congress ASAC - Athlone Students Action Committee AZAPO - Azanian People's Organisation AZASM - Azanian Student Movement BC - Black Consciousness BCM - Black Consciousness Movement BISCO - Bonteheuwel Inter-Schools Co-ordinating Committee CAL - Cape Action League COSAS - Congress of South African Students COSATU - Congress of South African Trade Unions CTCC - Concerned Teachers' Co-ordinating Committee CTPA - Cape Teachers' Professional Association DBAC - Disorderly Bills Action Committee DEC - Department of Education and Culture DET - Department of Education and Training DETU - Democratic Teachers Union HoD - House of Delegates HoR - House of Representatives IRF - Inter Regional Forum ISCC - Inter-Schools Co-ordinating Committee JSRC - Joint Students Representative Council NECC - National Education Crisis Committee NEUM - Non-European Unity Movement iii - National Forum NUM - New Unity Movement PAC - Parents Action Committee PTA - Parent-Teacher Association PTSA - Parent-Teacher-Student Association SACOS - South African Council of Sport SADF - South African Defence Force SAP - South African Police SASM - South African Students Movement SASO - South African Students Organisation SOYA - Students of Young Azania SPCC - Soweto Parents Crisis Committee SRC - Student Representative Council TASA - Teachers' Association of South Africa TLSA - Teachers' League of South Africa TRA - Thornhill Residents Association TYO - Thornhill Youth Organisation UDF - United Democratic Front WECSAC - Western Cape Student Action Committee WECSCO - Western Cape Students Congress WECTU - Western Cape Teachers Union WESCO - Western Cape Students Council MASTlR OF mW "WTK page DEDICATION ............... ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........ ....... .......................... i ................................ i ABBREVIATIONS ............................................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................... v INTRODUCTION .............. CHAPTER 1: EDUCATION, RESISTANCE AND REFORM IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ORGANIC CRISIS, 1976-1985 .............. 14 CHAPTER 2: THE PRE-BOYCOTT WESTERN CAPE ................ 31 1) Contending Progressive Ideologies in the Western Cape 2) The 1980 School Boycotts in the Western Cape 3) Student Organisation, 1980-1985. 4) A Description of the Athlone Area and its Political Organisations. 5) Schools in the Athlone Area A PERIODISATION OF THE 1985 BOYCOTT IN THE ATHLONE AREA CHAPTER 3: THE START AND FORTIFICATION OF THE BOYCOTT (JULY - SEPTEMBER) .................. 57 1) Main Triggers of the Boycott and its Initial Coordination. 2) The ISCC, WECSAC and the Formation of ASAC. 3) Initial Organisation and Problems Encountered at Athlone Schools 4) Student Activities 5) Attempts to broaden the support base a) Enlisting parent support b) Teacher support 6) Summary CHAPTER 4: CONCERTED STATE REACTION TO THE BOYCOTT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES (SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER) ....... 96 1) The closure of schools 2) The Return to Schools and Carter's New Edicts 3) The escalation in the tempo of violence 4) Examinations and the State of Emergency 5) Excavating ASAC's Thought and Some of the Issues It Confronted CHAPTER 5: THE RETURN TO SCHOOLS (JANUARY - MARCH 1986) ..................... 141 CONCLUSION: TELL NO LIES, CLAIM NO EASY VICTORIES ..... 158 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................. 164 IkT11MO1CwVTIyh "To tell the story is little enough. Events do not occur fortuitously, nor are they preordained. Real live people have made the history recounted here, ... and it is their actions which have to be understood."' The 1985 schools boycott in the Western Cape, which began in late July in reaction to the imposition of the State of Emergency in other parts of the country, resulted in the boycott of the final examinations. It drew to a close early the next year, in line with the national call made by the Soweto Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC) for a return to school. The schools boycott made 1985 a historic year in the Western Cape. During the course of 1985, this student-initiated struggle had not remained confined to the educational arena, but it augured a period of "resistance and mass revolt against the state on the largest scale since the establishment of colonial authority in the region in the eighteenth century.' Whether or not students supported, rejected or tried to ignore the struggles that ensued, the ramifications of the boycott - the closure of schools, the contentious issues surrounding the examinations, the naked acts of repression and brutality by the security forces, acts of arson and stone throwing, the State of Emergency, - had made it extremely difficult for them, as well as the broader community to remain totally insulated from its experience. This dissertation seeks to explore the schools boycott experience in the Athlone area. It is not merely an attempt to document the specificity of events which unfolded in the Athlone schools but, more significantly, it is an attempt to elucidate and understand an experience which operated at a myriad of levels, and as such, eschews a simplistic analysis or categorisation. One of the cardinal concerns of the dissertation is an attempt to comprehend the actions of the Athlone Students Action Committee (ASAC), the I Hirson, B. Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto evoit: oots of a Revolutiop (Lorion. 7ed Fr.oe . 1 7M 1. sy etphasis. ....c. Rehoi~or tn the h Greter are Totw, 1 85' !Faper presenTed at ovts and R ii tes 3 c OniVOrsit Cf Caoe Town, 5 cj powerful area-based student structure which emerged to direct and co-ordinate the boycott in the Athlone area. In many respects, ASAC can be differentiated from other student structures and organisations in the Western Cape. Given its decisive role in the area, any endeavour to gain a proper perspective of the boycott in the Athlone area must delineate ASAC's thought and character, how it functioned, the issues it grappled with, the actions it undertook, its relation to other progressive organisations, and how these changed in the period under review. This approach has been necessitated by the fact that while the boycott was indeed a momentous historic experience which had a profound effect on many, its impact was not always that drastic, but its meaning was varied, and needs to be recorded and understood as such. Despite this, much academic literature focusing on the boycott tends to blur differences and specificity where they existed by painting on too broad a canvass and by making sweeping generalisations. While the Athlone area is often regarded as an important constituent in the boycott process, its importance is often only alluded to in terms of the more highprofile events such as the Pollsmoor March, the Trojan Horse massacre, the SCge of Sinton, and so forth. Associated with such diaphanous journalism, the Athlone area is largely identified only with militant students engaged in courageous street battles with the security forces. Byrelying far too much on the headlines in the commercial press, in much of the literature, the Athlone area has become synonymous with blazing barricades. An example of such news-making media headlines can be gleaned from a two- page feature in the Weekly Mail which stated, "Is the border in Angola? Or Athlone?"3 While it is true that during the boycott period, Athlone did exhibit something which bordered on a militant insurrectionism, the pertinence of the boycott encompassed much more than

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