During 1983 unrest in schools had reached such proportions that people were comparing it with 1976. In spite of such warnings no serious attempt to solve the problems was made and when schools reopened for the 1984 school year the situation soon repeated itself. Widespread boycotts broke out, which by April involved over 13,000 pupils in 24 schools. In the universities too there was turmoil aimed particularly at increasingly overt repression by the bantustan authorities.
The 1984 protests have been marked by clarification of the issues involved. Individual boycotts which began over the excessive use of corporal punishment, implementation of age restrictions, or victimisation of black teachers have focused increasingly on the demand for elected student representative councils to speak on behalf of all pupils. Alongside this, and exemplified by the school boycott in the Eastern Cape town of Cradock, was a notable unity between educational protest and other community action.
The background to the current phase of protest was the announcement of the 1983 matriculation exam results. Only 50 per cent of African candidates achieved a pass, a fall of 26 per cent in the five years since 1977. In addition, less than 9,000 of the 75,000 candidates qualified for university entrance. Critics of the results, whilst castigating the inferior education available to blacks, charged the government with deliberately restricting the number of students qualified for further education. The Candidates Crisis Committee (CCC) was formed to investigate the possibility of legal action against the Department of Education and Training over the results.
The excessively high failure rate accentuated discontent with the age restrictions introduced in 1982. These regulations exclude all pupils over 20 years from attending school and limit the classes open to pupils aged between 16 and 20 years. This adversely affects those older more politicised youths who missed school in the period after the Soweto uprising as well as those whose education has been interrupted through lack of funds. These two groups were joined by matriculation candidates wishing to repeat the exam year.
These issues and others were taken up by pupils at schools in townships in and around Pretoria from January onwards. The first action was taken in defence of 90 pupils at Saulsville secondary school who were refused readmission following disturbances at the school in 1983. The boycott spread to other schools and before long police were called in. They suppressed the revolt by force: on 13 February Emma Sathekge, a 15-year-old Form I pupil at the D H Peta school was killed by a police vehicle as teargas was used to dispel the students. Fifteen thousand mourners marched to her funeral behind the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) slogan 'Dynamic Free and Compulsory Education' for all.
A number of pupils were arrested in Pretoria in the early stages of the boycott and have been subsequently brought to trial. A group of sixteen appeared in court on 13 April when nine were acquitted and seven had their case adjourned to 15 May. The boycotts continued intermittently until May when the Department of National Education issued an ultimatum to the pupils. Many students said they wished to return to school but were intimidated by the heavy police presence. Six schools in Pretoria were then closed on 15 May for the rest of the school year, leaving a large number of pupils without education. More arrests were made at this time.
Cradock in the Eastern Cape was the scene of another sustained boycott throughout the first half of 1984. The protest was sparked off by the dismissal of acting headmaster Mathew Goniwe. Goniwe, a former Robben Island prisoner, was dismissed after refusing a transfer. He interpreted it as victimisation for his role as chairman of the Cradock Residents Association (CRA) in opposing rent increases in 1983. Victimisation of politicised teachers has been a frequent cause of complaint within the Coloured and Indian as well as African education systems. Two teachers in Bophuthatswana were dismissed for their association with the Kudamane Youth Unity (Kuyoni). In January 1984 the chairman of the Cato Manor Residents Association was dismissed likewise and 62 newly qualified teachers were reportedly victimised by being placed in remote posts. AZASO and the Natal Indian Congress called for a Commission of Inquiry into the handling of Indian Education since it had been taken over by the South African Indian Council (SAIC).
The people of Cradock, mobilised through CRA and the Cradock Youth Association (CYA) rejected Goniwe's dismissal. They stated that on educational grounds the town could not afford to lose one of its few graduate teachers. The boycott remained firm throughout the term and when schools were due to reopen on 27 March after a break the regime began to intervene directly in the dispute.
An initial temporary ban invoked on 23 March against meetings organised by CRA and CYA was superceded by 31 March by a three-month ban on all public meetings of a political nature. It was impossible for residents to meet to discuss even the lifting of the boycott. Tension was further heightened on 30 March when four activists, including Mathew Goniwe, were placed under preventive detention. The other men were named as Mbulelo Goniwe, a nephew of Mathew Goniwe and an organiser with CRA and CYA; Fort Calata, CYA chairman, CRA treasurer and a grandson of a former secretary general of the ANC; and Madoda Jacob, headboy of the Lingelihle Secondary School. Two of the men were taken to Johannesburg and two to Cape Town.
Having outlawed all political activity the police moved in to enforce the ruling — using teargas on more than one occasion to disperse crowds. A youth of 17 was knifed to death in one incident and local residents criticised the police for not attempting to arrest his killer. By the middle of May, 75 people had been arrested, many of them youngsters of between 13 and 17 charged with public violence. Two 14-year-olds were charged with intimidation. Violence flared after the conviction of Nomonde Sheila Calata, wife of detainee Fort Calata, for wearing a 'Free Mandela' T-shirt. She was arrested in November and on 11 April received a sentence of R250 or three months in prison, plus a further three months suspended. In addition to the formal sentence she was instantly dismissed from her position as a cook at the local hospital, a job she had held for seven years.
In addition to these boycotts, schools were affected elsewhere, particularly in Soweto and Graaf-Reinet where detentions and arrests were made. Organisation in the schools is inseparable from the organisation of youth generally, which has developed strongly in recent years. This was reflected in a meeting of nearly 50 youth organisations from all over the country in Wilgespruit in January. The significance of the organisations is also reflected in constant harassment and detention of their members and disruption of their meetings.
Several universities were also affected, in particular by the conflict between students and bantustan authorities.
The University of KwaZulu reopened for the first time since the bloodshed in October 1983 when five students were killed by Inkatha members during demonstrations against Gatsha Buthelezi's visit to the campus. Students receiving bursaries from the bantustan authority in KwaZulu were issued with new directives. Their grants would be withdrawn unless they signed an undertaking not to criticise Buthelezi, the Inkatha movement or the bantustan 'government'. Shortly afterwards it was reported that 35 students of the University of Natal Medical School had not received their bantustan bursaries since November 1983 and believed they were being 'held to ransom'.
The authorities in the Ciskei bantustan attempted to increase their control over the University of Fort Hare which is still administered by central government. Prospective students who were not Ciskei 'citizens' were obliged to obtain clearance from the bantustan security police. It was not clear to what extent the directive was followed. On May Day (1 May) Fort Hare students staged a boycott in solidarity with workers, resulting in the detention of one student, Mapaeke MOKOENA (27), who was later charged with intimidation. Mokoena, a third-year student due to write exams in May, was held in custody until his trial on 24 May.
Unrest at the University of the Transkei erupted into violence in May following security police action on the campus. Four students, including three members of the SRC, were detained on 9 May prompting a boycott of lectures by 1,000 of the 2,500 students. When a call to resume lectures on 15 May was ignored police baton-charged about 500 students who had barricaded themselves into the library. Several students were injured, others were arrested and five lecturers were held prior to being forced out of the bantustan. Subsequently emergency regulations were invoked imposing a dusk to dawn curfew on students. Events in the Transkei bantustan are rarely publicised. Some days before the university unrest the Umtata correspondent of the East London Daily Dispatch had his permit to stay there withdrawn — the fifth journalist to be expelled since 1976.
