The Freedom struggle in Johannesburg

Re-Emergence of Congress Activity 1980s

By 1980, the Black Consciousness organisations were in a gradual decline and struggling to avert state repression. Congress-inspired traditions were also re-emerging. The Johannesburg-based Sunday Post launched a nationwide 'Release Mandela' campaign, with some 1,5-million people signing the petition. The campaign was supported by a wide variety of tendencies, including the Soweto Committee of Ten,Azapo, the Labour Party, the SACC and the Natal Indian Congress.

This period saw the multiplication of struggles against the state, especially by workers, students, civic organisations, churches, the liberation movements and their armed wings as well as myriad organisations and forces.

ANC and MK activity was becomingmore and more bold, and evident. In March 1980, an MK cache and ANC leaflets were discovered by police in a township near Springs on the East Rand. Later in the same month, a Pretoria court sentenced nine men to terms in prison after they were found guilty of recruiting and training guerrillas. On 4 April, ANC cadres launched a rocket and grenade attack on the Booysens Police Station, scattering pamphlets demanding the release of Walter Sisulu.

Schools became the site of fierce resistance in 1980, and protests that began at Coloured schools in Cape Town in April spread to schools and colleges throughout the country, to Pretoria, Eldorado Park and Lenasia, among many other Black schools. Hundreds of school children in Johannesburg were arrested. When churches expressed their support for the school children, 53 clergymen were arrested in Johannesburg and charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act. By September, the government closed more than 70 Black schools, mostly in the Cape Province. The boycott only ended in January 1981 after COSAS decided to suspend the boycott.

Union activity was also sharply stepped up. In July 1980, 10000 municipal workers went on strike in Johannesburg. More than 1000 were dismissed and police supervised their removal, arresting the chairman and secretary of the unrecognised Black Municipal Workers Union. Both were charged under the Sabotage Act.

Bombing campaigns stepped up. The 20th anniversary of the Republic, 31 May 1980, was marked by nationwide protests, while the offices of the PFP were bombed, with a group called the SA Liberation Support Cadre claiming responsibility for the blast.

The offices of the West Rand Administration Board in Meadowlands, Soweto, were bombed in May 1982. By June, the security Police revealed that it had recorded 60 attacks by the ANC in 1981, compared to 19 in 1980 and 12 in 1979. In August 1982, three ANC members were given the death sentence for attacks on Orlando and Moroka police stations and Wonderboom police station in Pretoria.

The ANC was blamed for two bomb blasts in June 1983 at the offices of the Department of Internal Affairs and at police headquarters in Roodepoort. In August 1983, a bomb exploded in a synagogue in Johannesburg a few hours before State President Viljoen was due to attend a ceremony. An explosion at the offices of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Johannesburg in the same year became the 42nd such attack in the year.

In May 1984, the Minister of Law and Order announced that 14 armed attacks had taken place from January 1984 to May 1984. The anniversary of 16 June was once again marked by clashes between police and demonstrators, and the ANC and PAC issued statements encouraging victims of apartheid to render the country ungovernable.

From September 1984 to 24 January 1986, 955 people were killed in political violence incidents, and 3 658 injured. 25 members of the security forces were killed and 834 injured, and there were 3 400 incidents of violence in the Western Cape.

On 9 January, 1987 a bomb exploded in a department store in Johannesburg.

But security forces were also engaging in bombing activity. COSATU’s offices in Johannesburg were bombed on 7 May 1987.  In September 1988, police bombed Khotso House, the headquarters of the UDF and SACC.

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