EXTRACT | A date with destiny

On Sunday June 13, about 500 students from different schools in Soweto met at the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre (DOCC) in Orlando East, one of the earliest sections in the township, with a rich history of anti-apartheid activism and pioneers in various fields. The DOCC ranks among Soweto’s oldest landmarks and has gained a place in history as a space for artistic, sporting and civic activities.

Opened on January 10 1948 in memory of Lt-Col James Donaldson, the centre hosted the first annual festival of black arts in 1973, organised by Mdali (Music, Drama, Art and Literature Institute), a cultural group founded in Alexandra by Mongane Serote and Molefe Pheto. It also provided a stage for leading jazz singers from the Sophiatown era, notably Dolly Rathebe, Dorothy Masuku, Thandi Klaasen and Miriam Makeba. (Following the 1976 uprising, Makeba would play a significant role in Tsietsi’s life in exile.)

The DOCC was a creative space for prominent playwrights like Gibson Kente, Sam Mhangwane and Boikie Mohlamme — Soweto’s “big three” of black theatre whose works inspired a younger generation of dramatists, including Tsietsi Mashinini, Seth Mazibuko and Duma Ndlovu. And Nelson Mandela worked out and sparred in its gymnasium with famous fighters of the day, such as Jerry “Uyinja” Moloi and Eric “Black Material” Ntsele.

On this day, however, the students didn’t gather there to watch a boxing match, although their meeting involved planning a fight; it was an unprecedented gathering to discuss how they could challenge the Afrikaans decree as well as other apartheid injustices.

For Tsietsi and the SASM [South African Students Movement] leadership, the historic student summit was also an opportunity to engage with the incident at Naledi High in a higher gear and galvanise students into protest action on a larger scale. About 55 junior and high schools were represented by at least two student delegates from each. Due to their political activism, there were more representatives from Naledi and Morris Isaacson.

There was an air of camaraderie, with students laughing and talking animatedly outside the venue just before they packed the hall. Six people were identified as police informers and politely asked to leave.

The proceedings were chaired by SASM executive members Tebello Motapanyane, David Kutumela and Zwelinzima Sizani. Seth Mazibuko, then a 15-year-old class prefect from Orlando West Junior Secondary School, was invited to update delegates about the state of affairs at his alma mater on the issue of Afrikaans and the boycott. This school had come to symbolise the protests against the Afrikaans-language decree.

A leading item on the agenda was the election of an executive, as police detention and harassment had caused some vacancies. Tsietsi Mashinini was elected as president, and Seth Mazibuko as his deputy. Murphy Morobe, another Morris Isaacson High student and Tsietsi’s classmate, was elected treasurer. Zwelinzima Sizani, a former Orlando High student, was elected as organiser, and Sibongile Mkhabela (née Mthembu) as secretary — the only woman on the executive. They would form the SASM Action Committee, or simply, the Action Committee. This was suggested by Sizani in order to protect SASM against being banned.

Mashinini suggested that high-school students should stage a protest march on June 16 — the day on which mid-year exams were due to start — in solidarity with their junior secondary and higher primary counterparts who had been boycotting classes for the preceding six weeks. His proposal was met with cheers of approval by the majority of delegates.

The routes and schedules for the march were meticulously mapped out so that at a particular time all schools would converge at Orlando West Junior Secondary — on the corner of Vilakazi and Moema streets — as a show of respect for and solidarity with the school that had started it all

Motapanyane and other seasoned SASM members proposed a strike instead; in other words, a “solidarity” boycott of classes and mid-year exams. But Mashinini argued that boycotts had been tested and found to be ineffective. He cited the cases of the junior secondary and higher primary schools that had been boycotting classes since April. Although the students had made it clear that they were not prepared to accept the Afrikaans decree, authorities had remained unmoved. It was time to adopt a different strategy.

A mass demonstration in the full public glare would make it difficult for the authorities to victimise individual students. As long as the marchers remained peaceful and did not provoke the police, everything would be fine.

Mashinini’s proposal for a march on Wednesday June 16 eventually prevailed and was approved by the majority of delegates. He and other Action Committee leaders spent the intervening days visiting schools to inform students and rally support.

There were also placards to be prepared for all the schools intending to participate. The routes and schedules for the march were meticulously mapped out so that at a particular time all schools would converge at Orlando West Junior Secondary — on the corner of Vilakazi and Moema streets — as a show of respect for and solidarity with the school that had started it all. Thereafter the marchers would proceed down Vilakazi Street, into Khumalo Road over the bridge, turn left into Klipspruit Valley Road — popularly known as Killer Road, due to its frequent fatal car crashes — and end up at Orlando Stadium, the mecca of South African football.

Once inside the stadium, Mashinini would read a memorandum of demands, including the abolition of Bantu education and its odious policy of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in favour of equal education for all and the right of students to be taught in their home languages as well as English, regarded as a gateway to educational and professional opportunities in South Africa and beyond.

The memorandum would call for the release of student detainees and others who had been arrested during the school boycotts and protests since April. These included Enos Ngutshane and a number of Black Consciousness leaders, including the Saso Nine.

It would also call for the abolition of apartheid in favour of a constitution that would recognise the rights of all citizens regardless of colour.

Lastly, it would call for the release of all political prisoners in order to enable a new political dispensation based on dialogue between the government and authentic black leaders, as opposed to the puppet administrators known as “chief ministers” in the homelands and township councillors.

After Mashinini’s speech, the students would disperse, satisfied that they had made their point. The ball would then be in the authorities’ court.

All this information and all these preparations had to be kept under wraps until the big day — a secret to be concealed from parents, newspapers, and, of course, the authorities.

Some participants said later that, after meeting at the stadium, the students intended to continue to the department of Bantu education’s regional offices in Diepkloof, where they would hand over a list of demands.