On 19 October the South African government took drastic action against organisations and individuals in a repressive crackdown reminiscent of action in the early 1960s. Overnight nearly 20 organisations, mainly belonging to the Black Consciousness movement were declared illegal, two newspapers and a church magazine were closed, several whites were served with banning orders and over 40 prominent blacks interned under the Internal Security Act. Details are given elsewhere in FOCUS under the appropriate section.
This move was the culmination of a period of mounting unrest during which the police had already exercised many of their powers under security legislation. By mid-October there were already several hundred people in detention, and many more had been arrested and charged with attending illegal gatherings or causing public violence. At the same time emergency regulations had been proclaimed in the Ciskei Bantustan, and were also in force in BophuthaTswana. The situation in many urban and rural black areas was becoming increasingly unstable and the crackdown on organisations and individuals may have been intended to restore the initiative and sense of control to the authorities, as protests, demonstrations and sabotage attempts gathered force.
Protests have been largely led by young people continuing the actions taken during the 1976 uprising and have been concentrated against Bantu Education, the death of Steve Biko in detention and black collaboration in the apartheid system through the Bantustan institutions and the police force.
