On the last day of October 1980 a series of detentions began in the Eastern Cape which the Eastern Cape divisional head of the Security Police said could be described as a 'major crackdown'.
This came after weeks of growing tension in the region and a number of signs that the government was preparing for drastic action.
Within a fortnight 15 leading trade unionists from four unions were detained in the East London area and at least 16 people were held in Port Elizabeth in connection with the school boycott, including officers of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the Port Elizabeth Students Committee (PESCO).
There has been intensified police activity in the townships and in Port Elizabeth police shot four people dead on 5 November.
The Eastern Cape has been an area of sustained and widespread action both by pupils and by workers.
On 9 October the Minister of Manpower Utilization intervened in the labour field by convening a meeting 'behind closed doors' with local employers.
On 14 October top government officials and representatives of the security police, the police counter-insurgency unit and the defence force held secret emergency talks at a defence force base near Port Elizabeth to discuss the growing crisis resulting from the school boycott.
The Minister of Manpower Utilization's meeting with East London employers was held against a background of a series of strikes, several of them over union recognition, and a dramatic growth in union membership in the area.
The Minister spelt out the government's attitude to the labour unrest in the area, regarded by many as a 'crucial test' for the government's new labour policies. He urged employers not to deal with unregistered unions and to 'hold out' until March when a law would be introduced to assist them.
Earlier action by police and security police in the region against officials of unions and workers taking action over union recognition has been reported in previous issues of FOCUS. Bonisile NORUSHE, secretary of the East London Branch of the African Food and Canning Workers Union (ACFWU), still in detention, was detained on 18 June after a strike at the Western Province Preserving Company. Thozamile GOWETA was first detained on 20 April after a strike of workers on a Ciskei government project. In addition a number of union officials or organisers have appeared in court on charges arising out of industrial action.
Despite such actions and the refusal of most employers to recognise the unions, workers have been joining in very large numbers. The South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU) says that its membership increased from 5,000 in March 1980 to 15,000 in August.
This union refuses to register under the government's new system of bargaining machinery, as does the AFCWU and another union affected by the latest detentions — the Western Province General Workers Union (WPGWU). They fear the controls involved in the official bargaining system.
Apart from the question of registration, the rapid growth in the number of union members and their readiness to take action was reported as causing a sense of crisis in East London.
By the time of the emergency security talks on 14 October 1980 there had already been extensive police action during the previous months against boycotting pupils as well as detentions. Non-primary schools had been indefinitely closed for a month and many lower primary schools were effectively, though not officially, closed.
Although there have been many arrests and some clashes with police, violence has been minimised by a policy on the part of the pupils of avoiding direct confrontation with the police. This was stressed when pupils decided at a mass meeting in Port Elizabeth to return to school on 2 September but not to resume lessons until their short-term demands were met. A spokesman appealed to pupils after the meeting not to gather in school grounds and to go into their class rooms to avoid confrontation with the police.
The short-term demands of the pupils were for: detained pupils to be released; transferred teachers to be returned; school facilities to be improved; a committee of parents to be recognised as negotiators for the pupils; and a government commitment to a committee of educationists recognised by Africans to investigate the education system and prescribe a single education system for all. 15 September was set as a deadline for the Minister to meet the short-term demands.
A week later at least ten pupils were detained and on the same day the Minister of Education and Training announced that all the non-primary schools in the area were indefinitely closed.
The Minister has repeatedly refused to talk with the elected parents' committees and has insisted on discussing matters only with bodies he approves of, the community councils and schools committees. He has had meetings with community councils from Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth and with a delegation of chiefs from the Ciskei. Since these bodies are not recognised by the pupils or parents, no progress was made in breaking the deadlock.
In the face of the refusal to speak to them, members of the Port Elizabeth Parents' Committee asked the South African Council of Churches (SACC) to negotiate on their behalf on the basis of the demands formulated by the pupils. However the meetings at which the Secretary-General of the SACC was to report back to pupils and parents on his meeting with the Minister were banned. Two days later the detentions began.
