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Author
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Chapter
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SAE3701
Hyslop, Jonathan
1999
The classroom struggle policy and resistance in South Africa
Chapter 8- Student Revolt: 1972 to 1976
150-165
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Open Rubric
CHAPTER EIGHT
Student Revolt: 1972 to 1976
This chapter sets out to explain the o rig in of the school student
uprising of 1976.
The changes in education po licy described in the previous chapter
created conditio ns that s harpened chool tudents' ense of common
identity and grievance. The period leading to the 1976 revolt saw
significant changes in urban black youth sub-culture. These changes
he lped produce a new po litical culture among young people. This
prov ided the basi for a potentially transformative challenge to Bantu
Education.
The state, by rapid ly expanding the urban econdary school populatio n fro m 1972, inadvertentl y cau ed the g rowth of a highly po litically
combustible social force. Thi was intensified by a badly managed reorganisation of chool ' year- tructu re from the beginning of 1976.
These changes created inte n ified discontent between urban pupil
and teacher .
This structurally overstretched chool sy tern began to encounter a
ri ing ideological challenge fro m the youth.
One important political influence was Black Consciou ne s (BC),
w hich e merged out of black uni ve r ity campuses in the late 60 . BC
spread into the chool through young teacher , providing school
students with new political ideas. Student were receptive to the e
influence for everal rea on . There wa di content over school overcrowding. The chang ing po litical ituation made the s tate look more
threatened than it had in the 60s. There wa g rowing economic uncertainty a the boom of the 60 tailed off. The rising influence of BC
reduced the political influence of conservative black elite in the
educatio nal phere.
The event that triggered the upri ing of 1976 were another effect of
the re tructuring in education. Con ervati ve within the BED reacted
again t the pragmatic polic ie of the 70 . T heir attempt to enfo rce the
teaching of Afrikaan wa a reaction again t what this wing of the
bureaucracy aw a a dilution of apartheid po licy. The BED re fused to
Student Revolt:l972 to 1976
151
take any notice of the oppo it ion that the language policy arou ed from
its own creature , the chool board .
In 1976, the determination o f a reactionary in pectorate to enforce
thi policy collided with the radical aspirations of a new generation of
schoo l students.
The Impact of Educational Restructuring
The mo t important re ult of the education policy turnabout of 1972
wa the rapid expan io n of the number of tudents in secondary
chools. Previou po l icie had led to al mo t total neglect of this ector.
By 1965, there were a mere 67 000 African econdary school pupils.
Largely bantustan-ba ed growth had allowed this figure to rise to
122 000 by 1970. With the new policy. econdary chool enrolment
oared to 389 000 by 1976. By queezing larger numbers of o lder pupils
into an under-resourced chool y tern, the tate generated an environment in which rebellion might grow.
Moreover, the higher level of state expenditure al so allowed the
continued expansio n of primary education. In 1955 o nly 10 per cent of
the African population had bee n school tudents. By 1975, 21 per cent
o f a ll African people were chool tudents.
The injection of larger number of tudents into an educatio nal
y tern of limited re ource led to declining educatio nal standards.
Two teachers explain their demorali ation and di affection:
... from the beginning of the '70 ... when our cia room in the
secondary school we re becoming overcrowded ... I noticed that there
had been a remarkable change. Now. in the methods of teaching applied
by the teacher in the c hool ... no longer do you fi nd teachers marking the individual tude nt 's books or cript . Stude nts are told to exchange books and mark their own books ... if you are not satisfied with
that type of thing, and you till feel that you want to pile yourself w ith
books to mark ... you become very unpopular in the school .
. . . it was now obviou classes were too big ... The teacher himself wa
now sick of the et up.
The strains of overcrowding and lack of re ources also encouraged
the use by teacher of har h method of corporal punishment. The
re ulting student re entment led to what one tudent described a a
' deadlock' between pupil and staff.
Part of the re-organi ation of Bantu Education after 1972 wa a
fateful decision to change the year- tructure of black schooling. The
structure bad traditionall y compri ed an eight-year primary cour e and
a five-year secondary chool cour e. The 1972 decision was that there
was now to be a ix-year primary cour e and a six-year secondary
course. Implementation wa planned for the beginning of 1976. This
152
The Classroom Struggle
affected both tho e who had pa ed Standard 5 in 1975 and tho e who
had pa sed Standard 6 in 19r; both group would go into secondary
chool. The 1976 fir t-yea r econdary cia would be at lea t twice the
ize of the clas in the previou year. Applied on a mall cale, and on
an experimental basi , the new tructure had been tried out in Soweto
chool . Headmaster had found it an educational ucces .
However, the implementation of the policy on a mas cale would
be a different story. The expan ion of chool building in Soweto from
1972 had taken orne pre ure off the chooling sy tern. More building allowed the top econdary chool to speciali e in teaching only
the upper level of tudent (Form 4 and 5).
Whe n the ill-planned mea ure of ·doubling up ' was carried out at
the beginning of 1976. the re ult wa chaotic overcrowding and
over trained facilitie . A teacher recall :
It brought about ab olute confu ion ... although [the government]
planned it, but the) had not prepared for it ... they didn "t have ready
grant for teacher to be able to cope with tho e number ... they did
not have accommodation ...
Teacher found the change a trajn becau e the younger cia es of
ch ildren promoted from primary chool were not equipped to cope
with econdary chool work. One teacher comments: ' It had a bad
effect becau e the kjd were not ready to go to econdary chool. ·
There were unbearable train on an impoverished and debi litated
educational ervice. The bad condition produced furt her d i affection
among teacher and kjndled a greater level of re entment among
c hool student . Paradoxically. it wa the youth ' common experience
of a poor qualit y rna
chooling ystem that created a common sen e
of ide ntity and grie ance.
one teacher memorably put it: 'Bantu
Ed ucation made us black.· Yet it i unlikely that this tudent re entment would have been ufficient to generate the basi for the 1976
upri ing. More important, the e developments inte racted w ith the
growth of a new political culture among urban youth.
The New Poli tical Culture of Urban Youth
The expan ion of econdary education brought a new generation into
the chool . It wa not ju t a new chronological generation, but what C.
Bundy, drawing on K. Mannheim. calls a sociologjca l generation. Thi
i a group with it own generational con ciou ne . As H. Lunn ha
hown. the period aw the growth of a di tinctively urban youth culture.
Youth became relatively educated and totally urbani ed. They were
ympathetic to tatement of b lack politica l identit y. They began to
differentiate out from the previou ly dominant, ·gang ter' ub-culture
Student Revolt:l972 to 1976
153
of the ' mapant ul a' . From the early 70 , hi torical process was rapidly
reshaping the consciou ne of this generation.
The changing internal and external ituation of the regime had the
effects of creating the condition for a new outlook. The 1973 trike
wave presented the tate with the fir t oppositional rna mobilisation
for more than a decade. Labour ' di content made an impact on
tudent . A teacher comment that rudent :
... li tened to their parent talki ng and li tened to how their parent are
treated by their employers. and became aware that their parent are
underpaid and therefore are unable to afford the bare necessities that the
children require. I thi nk that's one of the most important thing that
infl uence the children politically.
The period al o aw the fall of Portuguese coloniali m in Angola
and Mozambique. South African military intervention in Angola had
failed. There wa guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe and Namibia. The e
events placed the South African tate, which had seemed o invulnerable in the 60 . under pre ure. It wa i a lated and could be challenged .
The political thinking of urban chool student about their own
ability to affect the cour c of events began to change. One student
wrote in a tudy conducted by L. Maree at a Soweto High School in
April1975: ' Riot are no\l going to occur. We are going to event thing
for our elve [ ic).'
The rapid expan ion of the job market that had taken place in the
60 lowed very con iderably in the 70 . Rapid educational expan ion
i likely to generate unre t if, a wa theca e in the 70 , employment
opportunitie do not increa e at a imilar rate. Yet while the overall
number of job wa growing lowly, many more black than in the pa t
were being taken on in clerical, technical, killed and upervisory job .
This created a volatile compound of ambition, fru tration and economic fear among tudent . Part icularly inten e wa the angui h of
tho e tudent who had entered econdary chool, but were not able to
pursue their education far enough to ecure the job they de ired.
The e student found them elve , a a teacher puts it, ' too educated to
weep floor . but too uneducated to join management '.
The common experience of youth provided the ba i for a new
outlook. The e included. centrally. the experience of a egregated and
inferior chool sy tern, which wa increa ingly re ented. Economic
development created new a piration and new fear .
These experience created a generational con ciou ne . Thi wa
transformed into a political culture largely by the influence of a new
ideology.
L54
The Classroom Struggle
The political calm of the 60 ended with the emergence in 1969 of
the univer ity-ba ed South African Student ' Organi ation (SASO). It
pearheaded a new political current- Black Con ciou ne s. BC stressed
the need for blacks to reject Liberal white tutelage. It called for the
assertion of a black cultural identity, p ychological libe ration from
notions of inferiority, and the unity of all black includ ing 'Coloured '
and ' Ind ians' .
BC wa weak in the organi ational phe re. From 1972, its c hool
tudent arm, the South African Stude nt ' Movement (SASM) was
active in the c hool , but it never developed rea lly stro ng struc tures.
However, the ideological content of BC had a pervasive influence on
urban youth. BC view were prevalent at the time among yo unger
teacher , e pecially tho e who had pas ed th rough the e parate black
universitie e tabli hed during the 60 . The e teac her passed o n their
political ideas to their pupil . A teacher who g raduated from the
Unive r ity of Zulu land in the earl y 70 and taught on the Rand in the
period from 1972 recall how he tried to rai e the political con c iou ness of hi pupils:
A tudent that got through varsity during the SASO era wa o
con cienti ed that you ju t get into clas and really be prepared to
conscienti e. When the very arne student reached Standards 9 or 10.
they were already con cienti ed ...
Another teacher who wa in the profes ion in the earl y 70 recalls:
' the taff were divided into young and o ld - they called us [the young
teacher ] SASO. · Older teachers agreed in interview that the newer
generation o f teacher had a powerful impact on their students:
Children came to understand through the e young men, that the battle for
political rights had taned long ago. Young teacher tarted to talk freely
about the black leaders ... it was the you ng teacher , and I mu t ay,
particularly from Fort Hare that brought about the revival of the political
hi tory of our people .
. . . at that time the Black Con ciou ne movement wa already trong
and the teachers were from the univer itie . and in a way they did
influence the children by making them aware of ... the fact they were
being given an inferior type of education, so certainly they played an
important role in making the children con ciou .
BC activ i t al o influ enced chool stude nts through publications.
Member of the BC organi ation wrote the text of the magazines
di e minated by SASM.
Increa ing ly, the influence of con ervative black po litical group
uch a ASSECA and TUATA wa reduced. On the other hand. townhip elite became more critical in their tance toward the BED. In
Student Revo/t:/972 to 1976
1-5
early 1971 , ASSECA met with representative of SASO and five other
bodie to discu the etting up of a BC organisation. The leader of
the BC current were at thi time still groping towards a definition of
their role. Their empha i tended to be on the need for blacks to
tran form their attitude toward them elve , and on community action, rather than on overtly political activity. It wa this lack of political empha is and tre on ·practical" project that enabled ASSECA
to co-operate with them. At a follow-up conference in Augu t 1971, a
committee wa e tabli hed. chaired by M.T. Moerane, to draw up a
con titution for the projected organi ation. However, at a third conference in December, it became clear the trata of youth and intelligent ia
grouped around SASO wanted a political movement. The ASSECA
delegation resi ted thi . Neverthele , the majority of the ot her delegate backed SASO. When the Black Consciousness Movement
(BCM) wa founded in July 1972. it wa on SASO' terms.
A imilar e trangement developed between BC activi t and the
ATASA teacher · organi ation . Con ervative teacher group increa ingly lo t the ini tiative to the young radicals. In the Transvaa l, TUATA
proved unable to re pond to the challenge of BC. During 1972, SASO
ubjected the teaching profe ion to a tern critique for it lack of
political militancy. TUATA re ponded defen ively. declaring in a
magazine editorial:
We are not going to prejudice our ca e and course in order to plea e
SAso·s general by being militant ... We hall alway critici e the
Department of Bantu Education, and the Government of the day, as we
always do. in a manner uitable to u , and in our own re pon ible
way ... SASO ' auitude i bound to lead to head-on colli ion . .. Why
can·t SASO live and let live?
TUATA wa infuriated by the radical ' critici m of the way in
which it worked with the BED. It aw the e attack a undermining it
tatus and that of the educational ystem. Among teachers, the in fluence of a younger and more rad ical generation began to undermine the
pre tige of the ATASA organ isation . One of it former member
comment :
Many teachers lo t confidence in the provincial organi at ion like T ATA
a a re ult of the idea of the young teacher who carne into the field.
This proce in turn led to conflict between teachers and principal
about how to handle the new political awarene in the chool . A one
teacher puts it:
Principals feared the pirit of Black Con ciou ne ... wherea it wa
omething exciting to the tudentS ... you found there " a polarity
156
The Classroom Struggle
between the teacher and the principal, because the principal fea red if
th i would come o ut there would be trouble .. .
A shift in urba n political attitude wa taki ng place, especially in
urban black politics. Thi le ened the impact of the conservative
currents which had fl ouri hed in the different c ircumstances o f the
60s.
Conve r ely, tho e element of the urban elite w ho wanted to be
more politically assertive were trengthe ned. The school board y tern
provides a ca e in point. In the early 70s, chool board and committees in urban areas became foci of protest again t aspects of tate
educatio nal policy.
With the ri e of new oppo itio nal po litics, there wa a n increa ing
confidence on the part of urban black elite in their ability to a crt
themselve . In some urban area . e pecially on the Rand, there wa
g rowing protest from chool boa rds and committees about variou
state policies from a round 1971. Thi i not to uggcst that the board
a nd committee were imply tran formed into orne form of popular
leadership. However. in certajn area they began to articulate theme
contrary to tho e of tate po licy.
The first uc h is uc around which conflict arose was the tate's
attempt in the ea rl y 70 to eparate urban chools along ethnic o r
' tribal' line . The go ernment wanted to establi h imilarly di tinct
c hool board for d ifferent ethnic g roups. In late 197 1, at a meeting
with BED official , me mber of Soweto c hool boards ex pres ed the ir
oppo it io n to the tate' plan to re-organi e the boards. They said thi
move would create ad mini trative problems and gene rate conflict
between different group . The following year, in March, a meeting o f
Soweto chool committee member and parents objected to the cheme
to e tabli h 'tribal" c hool . Pa re nt threatened to withdraw their
children from the c hool if the plan was impo ed. In Alexandra
town hi p in 1973. chool committee and parent met and prote ·ted
about the ethnic eparation of the c hool . The Alexandra School
Board then wit hdrew it in !ruction to principal to pur ue thi policy.
There we re at o orne incidents in whic h c hool board came to the
de fence o f politically victimi ed teacher . There were two uch incident in 197-· In o ne, the BED ordered that Abraham Tiro, the
Turfloop (Un i er ity of the Nort h) tudent leader (later to be a a inated in Bot wa na). and Edward Kubayi, who had al o been expelled
from Turfloop. be re moved from the teaching post they had ta ken in
Soweto. However. the re pon ible c hool board both refu ed to carry
out the BED. dec· ion. Thu by 1974 urban c hool boards, at a ny rate
on the Rand. had developed a degree of autonomy from the BED.
Student Revolt: 1972 to 1976
157
The c hanged ocial and political environment began to create a
student movement of a type never een before. During 1974 student
activi ty d i played its traditional pattern. Tran kei chools continued to
predom inate a the main centre of action. The re were a! o i e lated
incident in the Orange Free State and Natal and in the o lder rural
boarding chool . But the following year howed a triking change in
the geographical and patial location of unrest. Stude nt action pread
to the urban area of the Eastern Cape a nd to urban areas outside the
Cape. A num ber of incident a! o took place in Pretoria a nd Mafikeng.
The secondary and higher primary schools of the town hips were
awakening politicaJiy, fo r the first time developing the ir own autonomo u tradition and repertoire of action. This repre ented bo th a break
and a continuity with the history o f the mission school . A break
becau e it wa marked by a new tre ngth, po litical vi ion and coherence of organi at ion. A continuity becau e the tradition of c haJle nging
authority relatio n in education through the tactics o f boycott and riot
were carried over into the new pe riod.
The new- tyle truggJes in urban day- c hools were far more o rganised and more explicit in their aim tha n the action that had been
mounted in the boarding chool . One chool w he re the e new curre nt
emerged wa The mbalabantu High Schoo l at Zwelit ha. In Octobe r
1974, three tude nt there were expelled for contributing to SASM 's
magazine. In May 1975, pupils pre e nted a list of g rievances to the
head , who re ponded by expell ing one of their numbe r. The students
the n called a strike and held a meeting to di c us the i ue. The police
arrived and 140 tudent were arrested. A imilar new combativeness
was de mo n trated by tudent at Morri Isaacson Schoo l in Soweto in
Septe mber 1975. When the Security Po lice returned to chool a tudent they had been inte rrogating, they fo und the ir way blocked by
prote ting tudent .
Another incident took place at Nathaniel Nyaluza Hig h School,
Graham town, during 1975. Here tudent clearly a rtic ul ated and
ferociou ly foug ht for their demand . In May they taged boycott and
demo n tration . They put forward serious complaint . The teache rs,
they aid, were poorly qualified bad drinking problem , exually
hara ed fem ale pupiJ and punished student for expo ing their mi deed . There were a! o complaint about the conduct of the in pector,
di ciplinary procedure , hortages of books and the poor quality of the
bui lding . For the first time the erious and central problem which
stude nt experie nced within Bantu Education were being artic ulated
by them, and in action. Even more striking was the dete rmined form of
actio n the stude nt took. They occupied the chool building fo r two
week . They held rna meeting to discu progres . The teachers,
15
The Classroom truggle
who were object of much of the tudent ' wrath, fled the chool,
fearing they would be attacked. Eventually 19 of them were acked for
refu ing to return to their po t . A new and tempestuous generation
had arrived.
The Issue of Afrikaans
Thi new militancy wa to be tran formed into mass revolt by a
particular i sue - that of enforced u e of Afrikaans in the chool
y tern. The BED had trongly carried our thi policy fro m 1974. It
would seem at fir t glance that the language policy of the mid-70s
merely arose out of orne reckle s ideological drive to propagate
Afrikaans. However, it wa a by-product of the internal truggle in the
NP. It was generated by a hift in the orientation of the NP leader hip
in the early 70 .
The language policy repre ented part of a reaction by the P ' right
wing, and its upporter ' ithin the state adm ini tration, again t that
hift. The more extreme wing of the NP feared that the coming
together of the NP leader hip with Anglophone business intere ts
repre ented a eUout of Afrikaner intere t . The promotion of the u e
of Afrikaan wa a ymbol of national elf-a ertion. It was an attempt
to test government commitment to Afrikaner identity. The policy cut
aero the need of tudent to prepare to ell their labour-power on the
labour market of urban centre dominated by English- peaking concern .
For most of the period from 1958 to 1976, the BED was quite ready
to ubordinate the P ideological drive toward the promotion of
Afrikaan to the need of the labour market. The BED accepted the
reality that fev black teacher were fluent in Afrikaans. From the tart,
it formally sub cribed to the pol icy that in econdary chool , half of
the exam ubject hould be taught in Engli h and half in Afrikaan the a-called ·fifty-fifty rule'. However, thi policy was not practicable, given the mall number of African teacher who poke Afrikaans.
The BED introduced a y tern under wh ich chools were given permi ion to depart from the rule concerning equal use of language.
During the ~o . a majority of secondary chool were granted uch
permi ion. The BED wa willing to con ider other factor than lack
of teacher with the right lingui tic abi litie ( uch as hortage of textbook ) a a basi for exemption. In 1959 there was an attempt to
tighten up on exemption . The lack of teaching taff with the right
language aptitude wa declared the only ba i for exemption. Thi rule
eem to have been flexibly enforced. The language of local employer became the main determinant of which official language wa u ed
in the cia sroom. J. Dugard, a a enior department official, found in
Studem Revolt:1972 to 1976
159
the 60s that African teacher in the Orange Free State and parts of the
Northern Transvaal had a good grasp of Afrikaans. Tho e in the Cape,
Natal and on the Rand did not.
In 1973, the BED moved to con o lidate thi tailo ring of language
policy to the needs of the labour market. Departme ntal Circular No. 2
of that year laid down that exam ubjects could now be taught either
purely in Englis h or purely in Afrikaan . This policy wa acceptable to
both pare nt and tudent a it e nabled tudents to study in the language that would be of mo t u e to them in obtaining work. It reflected
the new ele me nt of pragmati m and accommodation wit h indu try in
BED po licy.
However, thi relatively widely acceptable language po licy wa
oon to be dramatically reversed. In the earl y 70 there was a po litical
re-o rie ntation by the P leadership. While re maining close to the
traditional political ideology of apartheid, the NP atte mpted a greater
degree of detente with the needs o f capital. Thi led to inten ive
infighting between the ·verligte' faction upporting the new orientation,
and the 'verkrampte· group who re pre ented tradi tional inte re t . In
1972, Ge rrit Viljoen, a leading ' verligte ' , displaced the 'verkrampte ·
Andrie Treurnicbt from the leader hip of the Broede rbond. Sub eque ntl y, in 1974, Viljoen beat off a c halle nge by Tre urnicht to regain
the leader hip. It eemed that the ve rligtes were clearly ascendant
within the P. Howeve r, Treurnicht rapidly e me rged a the leader o f a
stro ng con e rvative group in the party. Prime Mini te r Vorster, in orde r
to contain the di en ion in the rank , began to tilt in his public
prono uncement toward the 'verkramptes' directl y a ttacking the
' verligtes' in a 1974 peech.
In thi context. right-wing P member within the educational
apparatu came to ee the ro le of Afrikaans as an i ue of symbolic
political importance. The lack of a e rtiveness in BED policy on the
use of Afrikaan wa ee n a part of a pattern of weak commitme nt to
traditional NP value . Thi feeling e merged most clearly at the 1975
conference o f the ' Fed era ie van Afrika an e Kultuurvere niging ' (Fede ration of Afrikaan Cultural Socie tie ). The conference pa ed a
motion calling o n the government to promote Afrikaan in all po sible
ways to ac hieve it 'rightful po ition ' in chools for black and A ia ns.
Propo ing the motion. Profe or J.H. Se ne kal aid the re was concern
about the po ition of Afrikaans a a language of u e a mong black
people, e pecially in the b lack urban chool . For the continued exi tence of Afrikaan it wa important that it s hould become 'a language
o f use of the black man '. Fo rmer Mini ter W.A. Maree uppo rted the
motio n.
The 'verkrampte · withi n the BED had already launched an offen-
160
The Classroom Struggle
ive on the is ue. A meeting of Tran vaal in pectors in January 1974
re olved that arithmetic and ocial tudies ought to be taught in
Afrikaans. Departmental Circular No. 6 of 1974 re-asserted the need
to apply the fifty-fifty rule. The Afrikaan version of the circular
added the qualification ' where po ible', but the English ver ion did
not. The circular stre ed the need for application to be made to the
ecretary of the BED for any deviation from the fifty-fifty rule. It thu
represented a clear policy rever al. From late 1974, there wa a tricter
application of the fifty-fifty rule, and a greater rate of refu al of
applications for exemption. This wa e pecially the case in the Southern Transvaal. Regional Circular No. 2 of 1974 imposed the earlie r
deci ion of the in pector to force the teaching of maths and ocial
studies in Afrikaan . The circular failed to draw attention to the
po ibility of obtaining exemption.
The policy of enforcing in truction in Afrikaans was almo t univerally unpopular in urban area . It forced teacher to teach in a language
in which few of them were proficient. Few pupils understood it. Here
are a sample of teacher ' view :
Almost all the African teacher were never taught through the Afrikaans
medium . . . and therefore could not teach . .. children .
. . . onJy orne of u understood Afrikaan and it was difficult for u to
express ourselve , then what about to teach? ... A lot of kid didn't
even know what to do or how to write anything in Afrikaans.
ATASA was sufficiently antagoni ed by the policy to send a delegation to Pretoria to complajn about it.
The insistence on the new policy by elements of the white inspectorate generated immen e friction between the BED on the one hand,
and teachers and tudent on the other. One headmaster speak of:
... the intran igence of the inspectors who were predominantly Afrikaners
and who were not intere ted in the black child at all, but they were
interested in the black child being Afrikanerized.
He had found the in pectorate totally unsympathetic to the fact that
many teachers who had claimed to have been able to speak in Afrikaan ,
in order to get a po t. were unable to do o. Another principal, finding
that hi tudent were making no headway in mathematics when u ing
Afrikaan , in tructed hi teachers to change to English. He lobbied the
BED through the chool board for approval of this change. The
re pon e of the in pectors wa to have him ummoned to the BED to
account for ru deviation from departmental policy.
The new polit:y thu not only failed to trengtben the ideological
influence of Afrikaner nationalism on blacks, but also created a new
Student Revolt:1972 to 1976
161
grievance in the educational phere. This was trongly felt by teacher
and student al ike.
Writing o n the tudent upri ing of 1976 have generally ignored the
role of the chool board in opposing the impo itio n of Afrikaan a a
teaching medium from 1974. Yet popular oppo ition to the policy fir t
manife ted it elf in there i tance of certain chool boards. However,
throughout the period from 1974 to 1976, the BED howed no inclination to li ten to tbe e view . It responded to the board ' opi nion with
threat o r di ciplinary action. The authoritie wanted the board to
incorporate black into a ense of participat ion in the education sy te rn, but they were not prepared to gjve them decision-making powers.
The BED wa nted community participation in education, but only as
lo ng a the community· views coincided with it own. Thi approach
guaranteed the failure of board a a hegemonjc tructure.
Discontent about the Afrikaan policy re ulted in a meeting of 91
delegate from chool board of the PWV and We tern Tran vaal
area , held in Atteridgeville on 21 December 1974. The tone of the
meeting wa relatively mild. everthele s, it trongly oppo ed the u e
of Afrikaan a a medium of in !ruction. A memorandum wa drawn
up demanding an end to the poUcy. A deputation wa cho en to meet
the BED o n the matter. The view of the meeting were couched in
term of up port for the homeland leaders ' view that econdary
education hould be conducted in Engli h . The meeting al o upported
the idea of eeking a Supreme Court injunction if the BED proved to
be intractable. So me, however, did express more combative view . Mr
M. Peta, a me mber of Atteridgeville School Board, called for a c hool
boycott if the policy were not rever ed. The very limited demand
of the school boards was met with implacable opposition from the BED.
A further meeting of chool board was held in J an uary at which
'great di ati faction· was expre ed at the BED ' refu a1 to compromi e with the board . However, the BED wa determined to repre
any oppo ition to its poljcie . A planned joint meeting of chool
board at Sebokeng wa later banned by the circuit in pector of
Vereeniging. In Atteridgeville. the chair of the chool board wa
acked for hi oppo iLion to the Afrikaans policy. Thi provoked a
chool boycott. Circular No 6 and 7 of 1975 were i ued by the BED
to firm up it po ition. They reaffirmed the fifty-fifty Engli h-Afrikaan
rule and fo rbade chool board to decide o n the medium of in truction
in their chool . W.C. Ackermann, the Regional Director of Bantu
Education for the Southern Transvaal, told o ne school board, wruch
had instructed it teacher to u e English, that it grant for teacher '
alarie would be cut off if it did not co-operate.
162
The Classroom Struggle
The e trong-arm policie did not crack the chool board ' opposition to the Afrikaan medium of in truction policy. Several chool
board in Soweto per i ted in in tructing their teacher to u e Engli h
a the ole medium . Board in the Port Elizabeth area al o took up the
i ue. School board from town hip there pre ented a joint memorandum to the inspector in the area. calling for abandonment of the fiftyfifty policy, in February 19r.
With the beginning of the 1976 chool year, the conflict in Soweto
deepened. On 20 January. the Meadowlands Tswana School Board
met the local circuit in pector to di cu the is ue. The in pector took
an approach characteri tic of the BED. He argued that a all direct tax
paid by black went to homeland education, urban black education
wa being paid for by white . The BED therefore had a duty to
' ati fy' white tax payer . Not urpri ingly, the board member were
unimpre ed by thi anaJy i . They voted unanimou ly for English a
the medium of in truction in chool under their control. Following
thi , two member of the chool board were di mi ed by the BED.
The other even member re igned in prate t.
The tory of the period leading up to June 1976 i , in part, one of the
refu al of the BED to li ten to it own chool board .
De pite the wide pread evidence of the unpopul arity of the policy
on Afrikaan , the P government did not act in a way likely to reduce
ten ion on the i ue. Rather. undere timating the potential of popular
oppo ition, it went in the oppo ite direction, pl ay ing to its rightist
con tituency. To a con iderable extent Yorster's policy wa one of
giving the p · right wing their head in the cultural and ocial phere,
while carry ing out a lightly more pragmatic orientation in the economic field. As pan of hi attempt to placate the 'verkrampte ',
Yor ter rea igned the notably reformi t Deputy Mini ter of Bantu
Admini tration and Development, Punt Jan on, in 1976. He replaced
him a Deputy Mini ter of Bantu Education with the 'verkrampte·
leader, Andrie Treumicht. This clearly trengthened the hand of the
extreme right within the educational bureaucracy.
Treumicht" un hakable commitment to the hard line language
policy played an important role in triggering the upri ing. He relentle ly pursued the fifty-fifty policy in econdary education, de pite the
oppo it ion of parent and teacher and ri ing tuden t di content. On 11
June 1976, he announced that applications to depart from the fi fty-fifty
rule by five Soweto chool had been rejected. He took thi position
even though the e cbool were on strike. During the parliamentary
di cu ion he prate ted ignorance of a violent incident at Naledi, on
which the Cillie Commi ion commented that it wa ' hardly po ible
Student Revolt: 1972 to 1976
163
that the [Deputy] Mini ter would not have received the correct and full
detail '.
The intran igence of the BED over the Afrikaans issue provided a
ingle political focu fo r the pent-up anger and frustration of chool
tude nt . The new political urban yout h culture began to expre itself
on a wider cale, and more fo rcefully. School tudents of Soweto
began to revolt again t the BED ' policy from the beginning of 1976.
The BED had opened up a ituation where the student cou ld no longer
hope that mediation through town hip elite wo uld re o lve their problems.
The first indication of trouble in Soweto c hool over the Afrikaan
i ue took place on 24 February. Students at Mofolo Secondary School
argued with their headma ter. and he called in the police. During
March the Black Peoples' Convention (BPC), SASO and SASM we re
active in Soweto chool on the i ue. In the next month , trike took
place in school around the acking of three school principal s by the
1: wana School Board in a row related to the Afrikaan is ue. Orlando
West Junio r School e merged a a storm centre of the cri is. On 30
April. tudent there went on trike against the Afrikaan medium of
in !ruction policy. On 17 May they held anot her boycott over the
di mi al of a member of the chool board , bombard ing the principal '
office wi th tone . They d rew up and pre ented a memorandum of
their grievance to the head. By 16 May, a boycott over Afrikaan had
tarted in Phefeni Secondary School. It then spread to Belle Higher
Primary School. and on to Thula izwe. Emthonjeni , Khulo Ngolawazi
Higher Primary School . The involvement of higher primaries is ignificant becau e their highe t form was affected by the BED ' Afrikaan
decree. The actions were of a militant character. They included a
demon tratio n at Thulasizwe and at Belle, the locking out of taff and
of boycott-breaking tudent by the militants. On 24 May, pupils
rejected a call to go back to chool by the Orlando-Diepkloof School
Board . The trike pread to Pimville Higher Primary. SASM moved
to con olidate the ituation. It held a confere nce at Roodepoort at the
end of May that di cu sed the campaig n against the e nforced u e of
Afrikaans.
The explo ive anger of Soweto youth i ugge ted by two incident
which occurred at thi time. On 12 May, a woman teacher wa walking
to chool when he wa s topped by two youth who inte nded to rob
he r. She yelled for aid and mo re than 100 tudent fro m Orlando North
Secondary School ru hed to help her. They pur ued the robber ,
caught them and beat them to death. In another incident during May, a
teache r at Pimville wa tabbed by a tudent. When police tried to
arre t the student, they were toned by hi colleague . These event
164
The Classroom truggle
ugge t a ri ing willingne on the part of tude nt to define what wa
ju t for the m elve . and a wi llingne to u e force to back tho e
conception .
The in ten ity of the Afrikaan conflict continued to mo unt. ln earl y
June there was fighting at enoane Junio r School a nd el ewhe re
between boycotter and tudent trying to re turn to chool. On June
the Security Police arrived at aled i High School and attempted to
arre t the secretary of the A M branch. Student attacked and stoned
the police officer and burnt their car. The policemen had to be re c ued
fro m the principal" office by reinforce ment . The next day po lice who
returned to the chool were driven off by tone-throwing pupils. The
ituatio n wor ened a exam began. Student at several c hool refused to write. By thi time collect ive actio n was being called for.
SASM convened the meeting of June. w hich fou nded the Soweto
Student Representat i e Council (SSRC). This body then organi ed a
mas tudent prote t again t the u e of Afrikaa n for 16 June.
Whe n on that day, po lice and tude nt met, the sub equent hooting by the police a nd the en uing natio nwide revolt by tude nt turned
South African hi tory in a new di rect ion.
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