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demonstrable upswing in a longstanding habit of persecution of black local councillors 2 the boycott of the 1984 election held in the last week of august was accompanied by large scale protests resulting in a large number of arrests some of the candidates for the tricameral parliament were also targeted in petrol bomb attacks 2 course of the uprising edit black monday 3 september 1984 edit map of the vaal triangle the uprising is named for the place it began the black townships of the vaal triangle an industrial area about 45 miles south of johannesburg in transvaal s pwv region in this region the vaal civic association vca and other local activists held a series of meetings in august 1984 about proposed rent increases on 2 september they resolved that residents should protest the increases by refusing to pay them and by staying away both from school and from work the following day 2 thus on 3 september protestors marched through several vaal townships in considerable numbers delivering their demands to the orange vaal development board in at least three of those townships sharpeville sebokeng and evaton the marches turned at an indeterminate point into riots 2 there were also reports of violence in boipatong in vaal 5 tembisa on the east rand and mamelodi north of pretoria 6 in these areas a number of buildings were set on fire police were attacked with petrol bombs and bricks roads were barricaded and a stretch of the golden highway in vereeniging was closed by police after protestors stoned cars 2 six buses were set alight 5 and the deputy mayor of sharpeville jacob dlamini was hacked to death in the street and then returned to his car which was set on fire 6 the precise impetus for the violence is unclear franziska rueedi argues that at least some of the violence was partly premeditated although the vaal civic association intended the marches to be peaceful there were other more militant groupings who were not committed to non violence 7 she suggests that other acts of violence including the killing of dlamini and other black councillors were spontaneous and resulted from hostile interactions between crowds police and councillors 7 the south african police responded initially with tear gas and rubber bullets and then began using live ammunition heavily armed reinforcements were brought in and continued to battle protestors overnight 8 the government reported 14 fatalities including some as a result of police countermeasures 5 6 the following morning as rioting continued in sharpeville sebokeng and evaton figures were revised upwards to 29 fatalities and an estimated 300 injuries 8 including at least a handful of injured policemen 5 it was therefore the bloodiest day of protests in south africa since the 1976 soweto uprising 8 in 1976 however the police had unambiguously been responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths in vaal it was clear that deaths had been caused by protestors as well as by police though it was not clear in what proportions 8 rueedi calculates that protestors killed four councillors and that the rest of the victims were shot by police 7 the protests of 3 september turned into a popular uprising across several regions of the country with many further deaths 40 by the end of the first week 2 the unrest spread to soweto the country s largest township the next week 9 key organisations edit key figures in the early phases of the vaal uprising in the vaal triangle area were the vaal civic association vca and the congress of south african students cosas both were affiliates of the udf a nationwide popular front of civic organisations which had been launched in august 1983 and which subsequently had played a leading role in boycotts of the 1984 general election some of the udf s affiliates in black townships notably in atteridgeville kagiso and soweto had organised local campaigns against the koornhof bills and in 1983 the front had boasted that its involvement had contributed to low election turnouts at that year s council elections though according to jeremy seekings its involvement was neither intensive nor well organised 10 most of the organisations at the forefront of the uprising considered themselves to be affiliates of the udf whether formally or informally 4 11 these included local civic associations as well as some national structures such as the release mandela committee 2 however branches of the azanian people s organisation azapo were also involved in parts of the cape province and transvaal 11 as were various unaffiliated and relatively autonomous groups particularly militant youth groups many of which were formed during the course of the uprising 2 7 vaal civic association edit the organisation which spearheaded the 3 september march was the vca a residents organisation partly modelled on the successful soweto civic association 12 launched on 9 october 1983 vca was an affiliate of the udf and two senior officials in the udf s transvaal branch curtis nkondo and elliot shabangu were guest speakers at its launch in october 1983 12 its inaugural chairman was lord mccamel a local priest with a parish in evaton and his deputy was esau ralitsela 12 congress of south african students edit accounts of the uprising typically accord a central role to black young adults known in the anti apartheid movement as young lions or comrades who became the shock troops of the revolt 2 7 their largest and most prominent organisational base was cosas another udf affiliate that was founded in 1979 with a local branch in vaal from march 1980 7 cosas apparently played an important role in politicising the youth of vaal including by encouraging them to support the vca and many of the most militant participants in the uprising were formally or informally affiliated to cosas 13 14 operation palmiet october 1984 edit in the mid 1980s casspirs became a symbol of state repression when it became evident that the police was incapable of containing the uprising the south african defence force sadf was deployed to assist police operations first in joza township outside grahamstown on 6 october and then in soweto the following morning 2 radio freedom welcomed the deployments as a sign of the apartheid regime s desperation declaring there is no way out for the botha regime botha s guns and batons are failing 2 on 23 october military repression accelerated in earnest with the launch of operation palmiet afrikaans for bullrush in sebokeng and three nearby townships sharpeville boipatong and bophelong as part of a campaign to rid the area of criminal and revolutionary elements 15 a heavily armed joint force of 7 000 police and sadf members cordoned off the townships and conducted a house to house search of about 19 500 houses accommodating an estimated 225 000 people after being searched in their home and at roadblocks residents were given labels or ink to wear to prove that they had been vetted and were allowed to move around the labels bore the printed slogan i am your friend trust me 15 while stamps on people s hands read friendly forces 2 the washington post said that it was the biggest crackdown on political dissent ever mounted in south africa as well as the first time that the military had been employed so openly to quell racial dissent 15 363 people were arrested by the end of the day primarily for what the police called minor crimes but trevor manuel of the udf warned that the house searches were pointless the authorities are looking for something they cannot find under beds or wardrobes the anger of the people over rentals and lack of participation in government does not hide in those places 15 military deployments subsequently became commonplace and in some respects were counterproductive for the regime operation palmiet for example though it temporarily quelled unrest in the occupied townships was accompanied by outbreaks of violence in townships on the east and west rand and others in the cape province around port elizabeth and grahamstown 2 almost immediately after troops completed their phased withdrawal from the vaal on 24 october a crowd of some 2 000 residents gathered in sebokeng to confront the remaining police contingents starting a fresh round of street fighting while more than 70 000 children in the area launched an impromptu school boycott the military were forced to return to the area on 31 october 2 according to thula simpson in the following months this pattern was witnessed repeatedly as the security forces deployed into a particular township violent protest flared elsewhere as they withdrew unrest resumed where they had been the floundering response of the security forces resembling a fire engine racing repeatedly to the wrong fire only fanned the flames of insurrection furthermore these events transmitted worldwide by an international press corps that had virtually unfettered access to the country at the time communicated the message that government s writ in black areas only ran because of the huge military superiority the security forces enjoyed over virtually defenceless township inhabitants in 1985 daily television images of confrontations between gun wielding policemen and rock throwing youths fuelled the debate in international circles over whether or not to impose sanctions on south africa 2 transvaal stayaway 5 6 november 1984 edit on 27 october at a meeting of 37 political civic and labour organisations in johannesburg cosas reiterated a prior call for workers to support the youth s demands and oppose the heavy handed state response to the uprising the meeting resolved to form an ad hoc joint committee the transvaal regional stay away committee which would coordinate a two day stay away 2 in a major development trade unions notably the largest union the federation of south african trade unions but also the council of mining unions and the metal and allied workers union overcame their prevailing tendency towards to political absenteeism 16 and participated 17 the stay away held on 5 to 6 november was a resounding success on competing estimates between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of workers in johannesburg did not attend work on the first day and the government said that 250 000 students had not attended school 18 on the second day the figures were even higher including an estimated 90 per cent of workers in vaal 85 per cent on the east rand and 66 per cent in soweto 17 that evening sasol the state owned energy corporation announced that it had fired 90 per cent of its workforce 6 000 workers for participating 17 the work stoppage was accompanied in some areas by further violence and arson met by police tear gas and rubber bullets ten people were reported killed on the first day 18 and a further seven on the second 17 at the end of the stay away it was estimated that since 3 september there had been a total of 97 deaths more than 500 injuries and about 2 000 arrests 17 continued unrest edit over christmas the udf called for supporters to observe a black christmas a form of consumer boycott among other things to mourn the casualties this led to a fortnight of comparative calm excepting a large scale confrontation on christmas day in sharpeville where a large crowd had clashed with police after returning from a black christmas event at the graves of those killed 19 violence broke out again in pwv after boxing day 19 morale was boosted by the successes of the vaal uprising the government had been forced to make certain concessions removing local councillors to safety and suspending the rent increases and militant vigour was piqued both by the severe state response and by the presence of troops in the townships taken by some as a declaration of war 7 the increased presence of state security forces in the townships led to a proliferation of opportunistic violence against the forces members who if present in small enough numbers or if they had run out of ammunition became a frequent target for stone throwing 2 one account describes young militants developing elaborate strategies to obstruct the security services work digging trenches to prevent armoured vehicles from moving around blocking roads with burning tyres and rocks painting over house numbers and other identifiers to stop police from identifying activists houses and staking out liberated areas where police and other state representatives could not go 7 violence remained most consistent and most severe in the vaal and surrounds 4 but by the end of 1985 it had affected most of the country s townships in early 1985 the unrest spread across the witwatersrand across the orange free state and across the eastern part of the cape province the hub of the country s automotive industry 4 by august 1985 it had entered the western part of the cape the eastern transvaal and parts of natal 4 11 state response edit delmas treason trial june 1985 edit main article delmas treason trial in june 1985 the state indicted 22 senior vca and udf activists on treason charges for their alleged role in instigating the uprising the delmas treason trial ultimately resulted in 11 convictions four on the original charge of treason and seven others for terrorism 20 the large number of arrests effected during the uprising also resulted in other trials such as that of the sharpeville six and more commonly in lengthy detentions without trial in december 1987 the weekly mail counted that since the outbreak of the uprising in september 1984 44 black people had been sentenced to hang for related killings five of them had already hung 21 first state of emergency july 1985 edit on 20 july 1985 president botha declared a partial state of emergency effective from midnight which he said would hold indefinitely in 36 townships around johannesburg and in the eastern cape 2 it was the first state of emergency since that imposed after the 1960 sharpeville massacre although a different variety of emergency regulation had also been imposed after the 1976 soweto uprising 22 the death toll of the uprising was at that point estimated at 450 fatalities and botha said the emergency would combat acts of violence and thuggery mainly directed at the property and person of law abiding black people 22 in a statement he said i wish to give the assurance that law abiding people have nothing to fear at the same time i wish to issue a warning that strict action will be taken against those persons and institutions that cause or propagate disruption 22 the order gave the police and military virtually unlimited powers of search and seizure and arrest as well as powers to seal off impose curfews on and censor news from the affected areas 22 during the first week 1 000 activists were detained in the affected areas and 16 people were killed 2 despite the emergency unrest continued in the transvaal and eastern cape and worsened elsewhere particularly in natal and the western cape on 26 october 1985 the government extended the emergency to the western cape where it said that the situation had ...