Boycotts of schools and of some black universities continued in many areas during September, October and November 1984. The early closing of schools for the holidays in the Transvaal in September failed to end the school boycott. Events in schools and at the universities were not only related to protests about the educational system but to broader political issues.
During the two-day general stay-away on 5 and 6 November, 621 schools in black townships were empty and almost 400,000 students boycottied classes. This was the second highest number of students boycotting classes since the elections to the new parliament in August when at least 650,000 students (universities included) stayed away. The boycott remained at a high level and spread to numerous areas in both the Transvaal and the Eastern Cape. The Department of Education and Training (DET) in addition closed many schools in order to contain the situation.
The main demands of students and pupils were those raised when the boycott started, namely, for democratically elected student representative councils (SRCs) to replace the prefect system, abolition of age limit restrictions, an end to excessive corporal punishment and the ending of sexual harassment of female students by teachers. As the boycott progressed new demands arose, such as demands for the release of detained students and for mock examinations. In addition, as the boycott became related to the more general protests in the townships of the Vaal triangle in September, student demands became linked to broader community demands, such as the reduction in house rentals and the resignation of town councillors.
In their attempt to break the boycott the government adopted a dual strategy of repression and of appearing to concede to student demands.
Schools in certain areas were closed while in other areas, most notably the East Rand, schools were threatened with closure if pupils did not return. In Atteridgeville, where the boycott began in October 1983, six schools which were closed in May 1984 were reopened at the end of September. Only a few pupils returned, the majority refusing to return until all their demands were met.
In early October the DET announced a number of concessions to defuse the situation. It was stated that democratically elected student representative councils would be introduced at all African schools in 1985. At the same time Matthew GONIWE, a community leader at Cradock in the Eastern Cape whose dismissal from his teaching post sparked off the school boycott in the area, was released from six months' detention. On 11 October age restrictions in schools were eased and on 16 October concessions on the writing of exams were announced.
The SRCs announced by the DET were immediately denounced as undemocratic by student leaders because the constitution for the SRCs was drawn up without consultation with pupils. That constitution forbids affiliation to student organisations. The Department claimed that it did not recognise the organisations and that they were in any case political and not educational organisations.
Pupils in affected areas demanded also February 1985 rather than in May. The latter date would cause them to lose a full year of study. Thousands of pupils boycotted the standard 8 and 10 examinations in October and November while those who wrote did so under armed police guard.
Throughout the period of the school boycotts student leaders were targets of state repression. Most of the student leaders detained were members of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), with many others from the Azanian Students Movement (AZASM) and other youth organisations. The greatest number of detentions took place between 5 and 11 October at the time the DET was making 'concessions' to students.
This was also the time when student bodies refused to decide on their own whether the student boycott should continue. Student leaders said the decision had to be taken by the community at joint meetings of pupils and parents as the stay-aways were no longer related to solely pupil issues, but also to community affairs in the townships. Responding to this government acted to prevent the education issue becoming linked to broader issues and its actions were aimed at isolating the education struggle.
Further arrests of student leaders took place after the stay-away on 5 and 6 November, in an attempt again to isolate the education struggle. The initial calls for the stay-away had been made by COSAS but were directed at the community at large.
