Date: 2 August, 1976

The University of the Western Cape had been a important site of student protest throughout the 1970s. However, in the aftermath of the Soweto student riots, which were school-based, the UWC boycott marked the moment that university students declare common cause with school pupils and presaged a newed era of university protest. 

There were some incidents in Cape Town within a week of the first Soweto massacre: on 24 June the principal's office at Hiargisi Primary School in Nyanga was burnt out and on the following day the riot squad was on standby at Langa when a crowd threatened officials of the Bantu Administration. On 27 June there were further arson attacks at the Langa post-office and at Zimosa school. July was vacation time in South Africa, and schools reassembled just before August.

On 6 August the Hewat Teacher Training College in Athlone was set alight in solidarity with the UWC boycotters, on the 8th, fire destroyed classrooms and the principal's office at Struts Bay (east of Cape Town), and on 10 August a prefabricated building that was part of the Peninsula College for Advanced Technical Education was gutted, and there were three explosions at Die Goeiehoop (Goodhope) Primary School in Cape Town. On the night of 12 August, any administrative buildings, beerhalls, bottlestores or shops that had not yet been gutted were destroyed. Some R2, 000,000 worth of damage was done in 36 hours of fighting. Students in Cape Town also marched on 12 August. The University of Cape Town provided one group that marched towards the centre of town, giving the Black Power salute to passing Blacks until stopped by the police. Seventy-three students were arrested. Six hundred coloured students also marched from the Bellville Training College and clashed with baton wielding police and at the UWC a poster parade was broken up by police and banner bearers arrested. The message on the posters were specific: 'Sorry Soweto'; 'Kruger is a pig'; 'The revolution is coming'. The storeroom at the Modderdam High School in Bonteheuwel was set alight. On Monday 14 August there were reports of arson in the African townships and on 16 August pupils at the Alexander Sinton High School and the Belgravia High School boycotted classes. On Monday 16 August, 500 students at UWC marched to the Bellville Magistrate's Court where 15 students were appearing on a number of charges arising from recent events. The crowd swelled to 1,000 before being forcibly moved by riot police.

Student protest in the Cape carried for the rest of the decade and several student leaders went on to become prominent activists in the United Democratic Front in the 1980s when student protest again became an important part of the mass democratic movement.

SAHO feature: The Youth Struggle, the 1976 Student revolts.

Sources:

1. Baruch, H. (1979). Year of Fire, Year of Ash: The Soweto Revolt: Roots of A Revolution, London: Zed Press
2. South African Democracy Education Trust. The Road To Democracy in South Africa Volume 2 [1970 - 1980], Pretoria, Unisa Press.