18 October 1985
Black upholsterer and poet, Benjamin Moloise was executed by apartheid government on 18 October 1985. Moloise was accused of murdering a black police officer. The African National Congress claimed responsibility for the murder and repudiated the claim that Moloise was involved. The US and the Soviet Union warned the apartheid government against the execution, but the government still decided to go ahead with it. The execution aroused so much anger in the townships that violence escalated. It spiraled out of control and subsequently reached areas like the Johannesburg CBD which had previously remained sheltered from it.
References

Executed Today.com 1985: Benjamin Moloise, revolutionary poet [online] Available at: www.executedtoday.com  [Accessed on 5 October 2012]|

Dutta C. (2010) In-between Protest and Art from Art News and Views [online] Available at: www.artnewsnviews.com [Accessed on 5 October 2012]