Action by pupils and students during the recent period have been concerned both with educational grievances and with more general protests against apartheid, and in particular against the new constitution (for information on earlier education protests, see FOCUS 53 p.7)
The current wave of school and university boycotts started in the second half of 1983 especially after discontent in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, in October. By the end of the year over 10,000 pupils in all four provinces and in the bantustans had been involved in boycotts and demonstrations. Many grievances concerned particular local issues which took on a wider perspective as the boycotts gathered force. Demands were made for proper democratic student representation through student representative councils, properly qualified teachers, free books and stationery, the re-opening of schools that had been closed, the unconditional re-admission of expelled pupils, and an end to police interference.
During August the protests and boycotts in schools, colleges and universities became still more widespread as pupils and students joined in the anti-election campaign.
SCHOOLS The major issues of protest in schools from the beginning of 1984 and prior to the elections, were refusal by school authorities to introduce students' representative councils to replace the prefect system, abolition of age limit restrictions and proper application of corporal punishment regulations. Areas affected were Cradock, Queenstown, Graaff-Reinet, Tembisa (Kempton Park), Daveyton (Benoni), Thabong (Welkom), Warmbaths, Duduza (Nigel), Parys, Pietersburg, Soshanguve, Mamelodi, Paarl and Alexandra.
During and following the week of the elections the boycott of schools spread to most areas. At the time of the elections as many as 650,000 students were boycotting classes (DD 23.8.84). The police response was similar wherever action was taken against pupils, Teargas, whips, dogs and rubber bullets were used and on a number of occasions live ammunition.
Student action was spurred on by the general uprising against apartheid institutions which followed the elections in many African townships. A number of schools were attacked with petrol bombs, some were closed indefinitely while others had classes suspended for a certain period. By early September over 120,000 pupils were boycottting classes in the Vaal Triangle area alone. In an attempt to contain the situation all African schools in the Witwatersrand area were closed on 7 September, a week before the official end of term (S 25.7.84; RDM 7.8.84; Star 13.8.84; RDM 16/17/21/28/30.8.84; RDM 1/5.9.84; GN 8.9.84).
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES On election day for Coloured voters, 22 August, all 11 Coloured teacher training colleges were empty. Thousands of Indian and African students also boycotted classes and all the major universities — Fort Hare, Western Cape, Durban-Westville, Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Rhodes, Natal, Turfloop and the Medical University of South Africa — were either fully or partially boycotted. At the University of the Western Cape 400 staff members also stopped work in protest.
Eighteen Rhodes University students were detained under the Internal Security Act and 29 students of the University of the Witwatersrand were detained and later released. On 27 August police raided the University of the Western Cape, firing teargas and rubber bullets, and arrested 11 students.
On 28 August when Indian voters were due to vote, boycotts continued.
Protests and boycotts continued in a number of higher education institutions after the elections. The issues taken up became general but related to the sentiments aroused by the establishment of the new parliament.
More than 3,600 students at the University of the North (Turfloop) on 4 September defied an ultimatum to leave the campus after a boycott of lectures. The students resolved to remain on the campus until they were forcibly removed or the campus was officially closed. The students demanded the total eradication of the system of black education and called on other students to stage boycotts until the demand was met (S 5.9.84).
TRANSKEI UNIVERSITY Protests at the University of Transkei (Unitra) started in May after the detention of several students accused of distributing pamphlets and the suspension of SRC members. When one thousand of the 2,500 students began a boycott of lectures, the police moved onto the campus in force. When students and six lecturers barricaded themselves into the university's library the police staged a baton charge which resulted in several students being injured. The six lecturers were later expelled from the Transkei (RDM 14.5.84; Argus 30.5.84; see FOCUS 54 p.7).
From 29 May the university council suspended all lectures until 10 July (Argus 30.5.84; Cit 2.6.84; S. Trib 3.6.84).
Boycotts continued after the university was reopened in July with students demanding the reinstatement of the six expelled lecturers and the resignation of the principal. The boycott was called off on 8 August but another began on 21 August in protest against the elections for the new parliament. On 23 August two more academics were expelled from the Transkei area with their families. To fill the posts of the expelled lecturers, part-time lecturers from the University of South Africa were brought in. At the end of August hundreds of boycotting students were rounded up and detained by police. Many were badly injured by baton-wielding police. Most of the 14-strong SRC managed to evade the police and flee the Transkei (DD 9.8.84; S 21.8.84; DD 24.8.84; RDM 25/30/31.8.84; Star 3.9.84).
