7 People are killed during a SATS strike

Seven people were killed and about sixty-seven injured when about 800 striking South African Transport Services (SATS) workers, on their way to a union meeting, were accosted by several hundreds of non-striking workers at Germiston Station, East Rand. The non-strikers were armed with pangas, knives and knobkieries and were toyi-toying and singing while waiting on the train. At that time there were no police at the station. The crowd started smashing coach windows and stoning the first train on its arrival at 21:00. Fighting broke out as strikers, who were also armed, tried to leave the train. The police fired three shotgun blasts into the air on arrival and fired teargas when the mob failed to disperse, but allegedly took no other action. They were accused of complicity, but denied the allegation categorically. After a letter of complaint by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) SATS undertook in writing that such an incident would not occur again, but denied categorically that management had anything to do with the attack. Non-strikers from Germiston claimed that intimidation by strikers led them to take matters into their own hands. They asked for help from non-strikers in other areas and support arrived from Johannesburg and Krugersdorp. One source gives the date as 10 January, the numbers killed as 6 and injured as 18. The bloody clash took place during a violent nine week strike against the state-run South African Transport Services.