Mass arrests in Pondoland

Date: 27 Jan 1961
Updated: 27 Jan 2020

Pondoland resistance, photo source: unknown

Justice Minister Francios Christiaan Erasmus informed the National Assembly that 4 769 Africans, 2 Europeans and 2 others had been taken into custody during the recent disturbances from November to December 1960 in Pondoland, with 2 067 eventually brought to trial.

While the South African Defence Force (SADF) was present in support of the police during at least part of this period, it is clear that it was the police who had primary responsibility for dealing with the revolt. The main tool used was mass detentions. Statements made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission indicate that torture was a key part of those detentions. This was supported both by the submissions handed to the Commission by Kairos and by literature on the Pondoland Revolt.

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How we know this

01SAHO, General South African History Timeline: 1960's, from South African History Online, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed: 08 January 2014]
02Hannah Arendt, Pondoland, from Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, [online], Available at www.hannaharendtcenter.org

Last updated · 27 Jan 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Mass arrests in Pondoland. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011919

South African History Online (2011) 'Mass arrests in Pondoland', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011919 (Accessed: 2 October 2026).

South African History Online, Mass arrests in Pondoland [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011919, (accessed 2 October 2026).

"Mass arrests in Pondoland." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011919. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Mass arrests in Pondoland." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011919.