The South African liberation struggle and national liberation heritage sites

Draft: Not for distribution

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The South African Liberation Struggle and National Heritage Sites

Paper presented at the Historical Association of South Africa’s Biennial Conference

‘History, Wars in History, and other Southern African Histories’, 26-27 June 2014 Blue Waters Hotel, Durban

Gregory Houston, Kombi Sausi and Siphesihle Dumisa

Introduction

The South African National Heritage Council (NHC) identified the development and

management of the legacy of the liberation struggle as an important aspect of heritage

preservation in the country, and initiated the Liberation Heritage Route (LHR) project as one

of the initiatives in this regard. This was in consequence of the adoption of Resolution

33C/29 by the Commission for Culture (Commission IV) of the United Nations Education,

Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) at the latter’s 33rd General Conference in

October 2005. Liberation struggle heritage was thereby recognised as being of universal

value and significance. The raison d’etre for this resolution was premised on:

recognising African liberation heritage as a common heritage of shared global values

(human rights, freedom, democracy, etc.);

promoting dialogue amongst nations and cultures;

developing and promoting a culture of peace;

contributing to the memory of the world; and

generating data and databases that raise awareness on the African liberation

heritage.

The LHR is intended to consist of a series of sites that express the key aspects of the South

African liberation experience. These sites are linked together by a common historical

narrative of the liberation struggle and experience, and consist of historical evidence of

events and activities associated with the history of the struggle.

The research for the National Liberation Heritage Route on which this paper is based was

carried out by a team of researchers drawn from the HSRC’s Democracy, Governance and

Service Delivery (DGSD) Programme and external history and heritage experts. The focus of

the research was on five provinces: the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal,

Limpopo and North-West Provinces. The research methodology included the review of

relevant secondary literature and archival material, as well as interviews with a selection of

academics, heritage practitioners and veterans of the liberation struggle. This was

complemented by a series of workshops in all five provinces, as well as the presentation of

results of the research at seminars to generate discussion.


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The research on the historical narrative and associated heritage sites was carried out by a

team of researchers drawn from the HSRC and external history and heritage experts. This

paper explores key moments of this narrative, as well as the associated heritage sites arising

from them. Heritage sites take the form of memorials at relevant battlefields, prisons,

educational institutions, buildings and other sites where significant meetings and other

events were held, freedom trails, the houses and gravesites of key individuals in the

liberation struggle, and other sites memorialising significant acts of repression and/or

popular resistance. For the purpose of the research, the history of the liberation struggle

was divided into three phases: (1) the wars of resistance and other struggles that arose

during the period of initial contact between the indigenous population and the white

settlers up to the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910; (2) the liberation struggle

in the period from 1910 to 1959; and (3) the liberation struggle from 1960 to 1994.

The liberation struggle and heritage sites, 1652-1910

The Khoikhoi wars of resistance

The first series of relevant events in the South African liberation struggle took place in the

current Western Cape, and relate to the Khoikhoi wars of resistance in the 17th and 18th

centuries. A number of heritage sites and key figures that deserve memorialisation have

been identified. The first is to develop a site along the Liesbeck River, which was the area

where the first acts of resistance by the Khoikhoi took place. The arrival of the Dutch in the

Cape in 1652 and the expansion of the refreshment station for ships travelling between

Europe and the Far East inevitably led to conflict between the indigenous Khoikhoi and the

Dutch settlers. The commander of the new arrivals, Jan van Riebeeck, granted land to nine

company employees along the Liesbeck River, thereby encroaching on land which the

Khoikhoi used for grazing. The Khoikhoi responded by breaking down the hedges the Dutch

built to exclude the Khoikhoi and their livestock from this area. The first Khoi-Dutch war

broke out in 1659 when the Dutch accused the Khoikhoi of harbouring runaway slaves the

settlers had brought in to work on their farms. The war, which ended in 1660 and drew in

the Goreinghaikona under their leader Autshumato, the Goringhaiqua under Gogosa and

Doman, and the Gorachouqua, took the form of a guerrilla war in which the Khoikhoi stole

the settlers’ plough-oxen and attacked farms. The war ended when the Khoikhoi requested

a truce.1 It is proposed that the existing memorial site at Two Rivers Park, Observatory, be

upgraded to a national heritage site.

The two key personalities that deserve memorialisation as a result of this event are Doman,

the leader of the Goringhaiqua Khoikhoi who led the first of the two Khoikhoi wars of

1 S. Mati, ‘‘Western Cape Historical Narrative: Khoi Wars of Resistance to 1910’, draft paper prepared for the

Unsung heroes and Heroines Project, 2013.


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resistance against the Dutch, and Autshumato, leader of the Goringhaikona Khoikhoi, who

led the resistance to Dutch occupation by this group.

Another heritage site has been identified as a consequence of the second Khokhoi-Dutch

war. When the Dutch settlers discovered fertile land to the northeast of the Hottentots-

Hollands Mountains that belonged to the Chainoqua, Hessequa, Cochoqua and Gouriqua

Khoikhoi communities, they embarked on a series of cattle raids. A force sent by the Dutch

East India Company attacked the Cochoqua on 18 July 1673. The Cochoqua, led by

Gonnema, fled into the mountains, leaving behind their livestock. A second Dutch attack in

1674 marked the beginning of the third Khoikhoi-Dutch War, which lasted until 1677. The

Khoikhoi eventually submitted to the Dutch, thus paving the way for the expansion of the

Dutch settlement and the decline of the Khoikhoi as an independent people.2

Another Khoikhoi leader who deserves memorialisation for his role in resisting the Dutch is

David Stuurman, the last Chief of the Khoikhoi. The Dutch settler expansion to the rich

grazing land between the Gamtoos and Fish Rivers triggered a serious resistance to land

dispossession from the Khoi and the amaXhosa at a time when Stuurman was leader of the

Khoikhoi. He worked for a Dutch farmer by the name of Johannes Vermaak, but he soon

deserted the farm because of brutal treatment by Vermaak.3 He was joined in 1799 by

hundreds of Khoikhoi farm workers in the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony who rebelled

and deserted their farms and went to live among the amaXhosa. Stuurman and his

community refused to go back to the farms, choosing instead to live at the Bethelsdorp

Mission Station near Algoa Bay. The community was invaded by the Dutch on several

occasions, during which their land and livestock was confiscated, and their men, women and

children abducted. Stuurman was eventually arrested, and, without a trial, sentenced to

imprisonment on Robben Island. In December 1809 Stuurman and a group of prisoners

escaped from Robben Island, and he successfully escaped to the Eastern Cape. In 1819

Stuurman was once again imprisoned on Robben Island, but managed to escape together

with about 30 other prisoners. In April 1823 Stuurman and a number of other prisoners

were transported to New South Wales in Australia, where he died in 1830.

The beach at Bloubergstrand is a site of remembrance of the escaped prisoners from

Robben Island who were Khoikhoi resisters from the Gamtoos led by Stuurman. Stuurman

successfully escaped in that bid. But it is also the site of the death of the Chief and prophet

Makana (Nxele) who perished in that escape bid in 1820. There is much detail about the

revolt and escape from Robben Island and the three boats which overturned in the waves. A

monument should be erected there telling this history of the Khoena and amaXhosa

resistance fighters, especially in the light of a strong alliance between these two

communities.

2 The Record, 205, van Riebeeck’s Journal 4 April 1660. 3 Lives of Courage: David Stuurman published on the South African History Online available at the URL:

http://www.sahistory.org.za (retrieved on 2013-06-06).

http://www.sahistory.org.za/


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The slave revolts in the Cape

The first group of slaves was brought to the settlement in the Cape on the 28 March 1658.

More than a century later, in January 1766, one group of slaves mutinied while being

transported on the slave ship Meermin from Madagascar to the Cape. This was the first of a

number of acts of resistance against slavery that gave rise to heritage sites and key

personalities that deserve memorialisation. Among the key personalities were Massavana

and Koesaaij, who led the slaves that overpowered the crew and ordered the ship to turn

back to their homeland. Both died on Robben Island.4 It is proposed that a memorial should

be erected at Agulhas Beach as the site where the slaves were recaptured and memorials

for the leaders of the mutiny.

The farm Vogelgezang, just north of Malmesbury is the site of a proposed heritage site for

the October 1808 uprising of a group of slaves led by Louis of Mauritius and four others. The

plan was to march from the rural districts all the way to Cape Town, gathering slaves on the

way, where they aimed to take over the Amsterdam Battery and turn the guns on the

Castle. They began mobilizing slaves on the farm, but the 350-strong group was forced to

surrender without a fight at Salt River where they were met by detachments of infantry and

cavalry.5

Another site linked to slave resistance is the Houdenbek farm at the foot of the Koue

Bokkeveld Mountains. In February 1825, a second slave uprising was initiated by a slave by

the name of Galant and a Khoikhoi labourer by the name of Isaac Thys. The two led a group

of twelve slaves and Khoisan labourers in an attack on the farm. They killed the farmer and

two other people before escaping into the surrounding mountains. A slave woman raised

the alarm, and a commando was despatched from Cape Town and captured Galant and his

supporters on a cave near the banks of the Sand River.6

San and Khoikhoi Resistance in the Eastern Cape

A number of memorial sites and key personalities who deserve memorialisation have been

identified as a consequence of San and Khoikhoi resistance in the current Eastern Cape

Province. Following the subjugation of the Khoi around what is present day Cape Town, the

Dutch community increasingly settled in the interior of the region in search of land and

labour. The Khoikhoi and San communities living further in the interior carried out a number

of attacks on farms in the vicinity of their lands from the early 18th century. The Dutch

responded by sending out commandos, leading to a process that initially resulted in people

4 Mati, ‘‘Western Cape Historical Narrative’, 2013. 5 “1808: The Day Cape Town was turned Upside Down”, Iziko Museums of Cape Town. 16 October 2008.

http://www.iziko.org.za; P.T. Mellet, “Two world events that influenced the Cape slave uprising. Cape Slavery Heritage: Slavery and Creolisation in Cape Town. cape-slavery-heritage.iblog.co.za; P.T. Mellet, Cape Slavery Heritage: Slavery and Creolisation in Cape Town. blogs.24.com. Cited in Mati, ‘‘Western Cape Historical Narrative’, 2013. 6 Mati, ‘‘Western Cape Historical Narrative’, 2013.

http://www.iziko.org.za/


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being shots in the tens and twenties, and eventually in the hundreds, in reprisal raids.7 One

of the leaders of the San people who played a prominent role in events in the 1770s was

Koerikoei. He allegedly questioned the encroachment of the settlers on land used by the San

and threatened to resist instead of being forced to move. This warning was ignored, and the

trekkers moved further into the interior, with many moving into what is present day

Cradock in the Eastern Cape.8 By 1774 relations between the Khoisan and the settlers had

become so antagonistic that the Dutch East India Company appointed a commando in that

year to capture and kill as many Khoisan as possible. About 503 San were killed and 239

captured in the first of several large-scale operations carried out by the commando that

eventually led to the virtual annihilation of the San people in the south-western Cape. In the

last decade of Dutch rule between 1786 and 1795, 2,504 San were killed and 669 taken

prisoner.9

One site that has been identified as part of the national liberation heritage route is the San

and Khoikhoi Genocide Memorial at Graaff-Reinet, which has been constructed as a

reminder of the genocide of the Khoikhoi and San peoples in the Eastern Cape in the period

1702-1809. Another proposed site for the national liberation heritage route is the Grave of

Sarah Baartman in the Gamtoes Valley in the Eastern Cape. Baartman is the Khoisan women

who was taken to Europe and exhibited as a freak in the early 19th century, and she

symbolises the fate of indigenous women under colonialism. Another individual that

deserves memorialisation is Koerikei (‘Bullet-dodger’), the last chief of the Oeswana San of

the Sneeuberg who were wiped out by Adriaan Van Jaarsveld in 1774.

Xhosa Wars of Dispossession10

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Cape contact between the white settlers and the indigenous

amaXhosa prompted another wave of wars of resistance from the late 18th century. The

very first phase of resistance, known as the Wars of Dispossession or the Hundred Years

War (1779-1880), was led by African traditional leaders and is demarcated in terms of Nine

Frontier Wars. This terminology excludes Khoisan resistance, as well as the later wars fought

by the Thembu, the Mpondomise and the Sotho which are usually referred to as ‘rebellions.’

Traditional leaders such as Koerikei (‘bullet-dodger’) of the Oeswana San and Makoai of the

Matatiele Sotho count as unsung heroes, along with better-known Xhosa traditional leaders,

such as Maqoma, Sandile, Hintsa and Mhlontlo.

In the Eastern Cape, liberation heritage sites arising from the Wars of Dispossession include,

among others, Trompetter’s Drift Post and Committee’s Drift Post, the Egazini memorial in

Grahamstown, King Hintsa’s Grave, Fort Hare (remains of fort and graves), four sites 7 A. Mountain, The First People of the Cape, Claremont, David Philip, 2003, 28.

8 Ibid., 29.

9 Ibid., 29. 10 This sub-section is taken from J. Peires and D. Webb, ‘National Liberation Route – Sites Associated with Unsung Heroes and Heroines in the Eastern Cape’, draft paper prepared for the Unsung Heroes and Heroines Project, 2013.


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associated with the War of Ngcayechibi, including Sandile’s Grave at Isidenge, and sites

associated with the Sotho Gun War and the Mpondomise and Thembuland rebellions

(including Hope’s Grave at Sulenkama).

Trompetter’s Drift Post and Committee’s Drift Post represent the period of military

confrontation that was initiated by the expulsion of the Xhosa from the Zuurveld in the

1811-12 war and symbolise attempts to enforce the Fish River as a rigid boundary

separating people.

On 22 April 1819, a Xhosa army of several thousand led by the warrior-prophet Makhanda

(or Nxele) attacked the British base at Grahamstown, and were driven back with great loss

of life. It is said that so much blood was spilt on that day that it created the furrow between

the white and black residential areas of Grahamstown, now known as Egazini (the place of

blood).

Hintsa, the Xhosa king, entered the British camp near Butterworth to negotiate peace on 29

April 1835, having received assurances of his personal safety. Instead, he was held hostage

against the delivery of 50,000 cattle. Searching for these cattle along the Nqabarha River,

Hintsa tried to get away but was shot several times, apparently in cold blood. His body has

disappeared, and it is commonly believed that his head was taken to Britain.

The first battle in the War of the Axe was the Battle of Burnshill (1846), which was a

significant victory for the Xhosa. In the tension prior to the outbreak of the 1846-47 war, the

British decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against Sandile’s great place near the

Burnshill mission. They despatched a large column to try to snatch Sandile, but were

attacked at Burnshill and heavily defeated. As the remnants of the column fortified

themselves in a camp at Lovedale mission, the Xhosa took the war into the Colony. Farms

and homesteads in the Colony were looted and torched, with refugees streaming into

Grahamstown.

Royal Engineers looking to build a new fortification in the area crossed the Tyhume River

boundary and began surveying for a fort on the flat land of what is now the University Fort

Hare. They were forced to withdraw, but this provocative action was one of the contributing

factors to the outbreak of hostilities. During the war the fort was completed and named Fort

Hare. It played a prominent part in the War of Mlanjeni and was attacked by the Xhosa in

1851.

Wars of resistance in KwaZulu-Natal

Present-day KwaZulu-Natal is the next arena in the wars of resistance. The main heritage

sites emerging from this phase of the liberation struggle include the Ncome Museum, the

the Isandlwana monument, the Ulundi Battlefield, the Ceza caves and the Bambhata

memorial.


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The Battle of Blood River (Ncome) took place in February 1838. On 6 February, two days

after the signing of a negotiated land settlement deal between the leader of the

Voortrekkers, Piet Retief, and Zulu King Dingane at UmGungundlovu, Dingane invited Retief

and his party into his royal residence for a beer-drinking farewell. While the Voortrekkers

were being entertained by Dingane’s dancing soldiers, Dingane suddenly accused the

visiting party of witchcraft. Dingane’s soldiers then proceeded to impale all the men. King

Dingane then sent out his impis (regiments) to attack several Voortrekker encampments at

night, killing an estimated 500 men, women, children, and servants, most notably at

Blaukraans. The Battle of Blood River (iMpi yaseNcome) is the name given for the battle

fought between 470 Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and an estimated 10,000–15,000

Zulus on the bank of the Ncome River on 16 December 1838. Casualties amounted to 3,000

of King Dingane’s soldiers. Three Voortrekker commando members were lightly wounded.

In 1873, a situation emerged which led to the destruction of the Hlubi chiefdom under

Langalibelele. It began when the Resident Magistrate in Escourt ordered the Hlubi chief to

hand in all the unregistered firearms his followers had acquired in exchange for their labour

on the diamond fields. Langalibelele and a number of his people fled to Basutoland. After a

skirmish with a large force of white volunteers and African militia,11 in which three

volunteers and two of Shepstone’s indunas were killed, the Hlubi who had remained in

Natal were driven out of the reserve, their land confiscated and later sold, and their cattle

confiscated.12 Almost 200 amaHlubi were killed during the reprisals, while the neighbouring

chiefdoms that had harboured Langalibalele’s cattle when he fled to Basutoland were found

guilty of treason. Subsequently, Shepstone had their cattle confiscated, their kraals burnt,

and every adult taken prisoner.13 Langalibalele, now deposed, was captured and brought to

trial. He was found guilty of treason and rebellion and banished for life to the Cape Colony.14

In 1873 Cetshwayo succeeded his father as King of the Zulus. Theophilus Shepstone, now

Administrator of the British Colony of Transvaal, advised the British government to wage

war on the Zulu kingdom: only when the king’s power was broken would British rule be

secure. The colonial office in England instructed Shepstone to annex the Transvaal on the

11th of April 1877. With this act, Britain and colonial Natal conspired to annex Zululand, an

action which was effected soon thereafter.15 In 1879, the British army invaded Zululand, was

11 J. Wright and C. Hamilton, ‘Ethnicity and political change before 1840’, in R. Morrell (ed.), Political Economy and Identities in KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 1996, p. 48. 12 B. Guest, ‘Colonists, confederation and constitutional change’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest (eds), Natal and Zululand: From Earliest Times to 1910, Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press and Shutter and Shooter, 1989, pp. 151-5. 13

D. Morris, The washing of the spears: a history of the rise of the Zulu nation under Shaka and its fall in the Zulu War of 1879, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1965, p. 222. 14 Guest, ‘Colonists, confederation and constitutional change’, pp. 151-5. 15

N. Etherington, Preachers, Peasants and Politics Politics in Southeast Africa, 1835–1880: African Christian Communities in Natal, Pondoland and Zululand, London, Royal Historical Society, 1978, pp. 24-46.


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defeated at Isandhlwana, but emerged victorious at Ulundi a few months later. In the wake

of this victory, Cetshwayo was captured and deported, and the Zulu kingdom was divided

into 13 chiefdoms whose chiefs were appointed by the British administration.

The Ceza Caves, on Ceza Mountain, were the scene of the final act in King Dinuzulu’s

resistance against the British annexation of Zululand. After the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879,

Cetshwayo was restored as Paramount Chief, but civil war broke out in Zululand and his son,

Dinuzulu, succeeded him after his death in 1884. The young king was placed in the care of

the Usuthu faction who established a refuge for him in caves located in the Ceza Forest.

Dinuzulu eventually defeated his rival Zibhebhu with Boer aid and was installed as king. The

Boers then claimed the land they had been promised for their services and, Dinuzulu,

believing they wanted too much, appealed to the British for help. Instead, the British

annexed the whole of Zululand and Dinuzulu retaliated in 1887 by mounting attacks against

Zulus loyal to Britain and trying to drive white traders and missionaries out of Zululand.

In 1888, 2,000 British troops were sent to Eshowe to mount operations against Dinuzulu,

and eventually found him and his followers sheltering in caves on Ceza mountain. The Zulus

managed to escape during the night before the attack and fled into the Transvaal Republic.

Dinuzulu realised that he could not win against the British and surrendered to them some

time later.

In 1893, Natal was granted Responsible Government status, and the administration soon

introduced laws further eroding the power of the chiefs. In August 1905 the Natal

parliament passed the African Poll Tax Act, imposing a poll tax of one pound on every adult

African male in Natal. This caused great resentment, and soon developed into an open

rebellion when Bambatha, a minor chief of the Greytown district, defied the White tax-

collectors. Bambatha was deposed and a successor appointed by the colonial

administration. Bambatha responded by kidnapping his successor and fleeing across the

Tugela to avoid capture.16 During the rebellion, several Europeans and over 2,300 Zulus

were killed, while almost 5,000 Zulus were brought to trial. Dinizulu was brought to trial in

Pietermaritzburg, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Wars of Resistance in the North West

The key event of this nature in the current North West Province that gives rise to potential

national liberation heritage sites is the resistance to colonisation of the Tshidi-Barolong

under Chief Besele Montshiwa. Montshiwa was placed under direct attack by white

mercenaries (or ‘volunteers’) and their Batswana allies based in the Transvaal. He held on to

Sehuba, east of Mafikeng, through most of 1881, but was eventually driven back to his

capital in Mafikeng. In 1882 these attacks continued. Mafikeng was placed under siege, and

Montshiwa, assisted by a number of white volunteers he had recruited, constructed a

16 T.R.H. Davenport, South Africa: A modern history, Third edition, Johannesburg, MacMillan, 1987, p. 230.


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redoubt a few miles outside the town and tried to break out of the encirclement. This was

almost impossible, and the residents of Mafikeng were reduced to starvation by August

1882.

Montshiwa responded by appealing for British intercession while simultaneously trying to

enlist the support of Batswana allies sympathetic to his cause. He approached the

Bahurutshe under Ikalafeng in the Marico district, who sent a regiment under his uncle to

assist the Tshidi Barolong. As the Hurutshe were resident in the Transvaal, this did not sit

well with the Boer authorities. Anticipating an attack, Ikalafeng placed stone fortifications

around his capital at Dinokana. In February 1882 a commando was sent against the

Bahurutshe, and Dinokana was captured without a shot being fired. The stone fortifications

were pulled down and piled up as a so-called ‘monument to peace’. A monument honouring

Chief Montshiwa exists in Mafikeng and should be included in the national liberation

heritage route.

Wars of Resistance in Limpopo17

In the Northern Transvaal, resistance to colonial occupation in the second half of the

nineteenth century was a consequence of a growth in tension between polarised forces.

Heritage sites and key individuals around which heritage sites have or can be developed

have been identified from the wars of resistance of the Bapedi, Venda, and the Tsonga.

Liberation heritage sites identified here include the battlefield where Kgosi Sekhukhune

fought against the Boers and the British, the King Makhado memorial, and the battlefield of

the ‘Mapoch War’ and ‘Mapoch Caves’. The advent of the Voortrekkers in this region during

the mid-1840s was soon to lead to their subjugation at the turn of the 20th century. This

began with the role of the boer leader, Andries Hendick Potgieter. In 1845 Potgieter

negotiated an agreement with Pedi king Sekwati in which the Pedi supposedly granted land

rights to the Voortrekkers.18 Potgieter began to make more demands on the Pedi for labour

and tribute, which then soured relations between them. An offensive was lodged by the

boers on Sekwati in 1852 at Phiring. Sekwati was succeeded by his eldest son Sekhukhune,

who soon engaged in conflict with the Transvaal Boers. The results of the war were

devastating for both sides as there were losses of human life and the Pedi in particular lost

cattle, while drought strained their food supply and a number of chiefdoms shifted their

allegiance to the Republic. A subsequent peace settlement was rejected by Sekhukhune on

the grounds of its unfavourable conditions to the Pedi. Thus, at the time of annexure of the

Transvaal in 1877 by the British, the Pedi were still independent. It was only to be a few

years later in 1879 that the British finally lodged an assault which ended Sekhukhune’s rule.

He was imprisoned in Pretoria.

17 This section is edited from N. Pophiwa and L. Maaba, ‘The Liberation Struggle: Limpopo’, draft paper prepared for the Unsung heroes and Heroines Project, 2013. 18

P. Maylam, A history of the African people of South Africa: From the early iron age to the 1970s, Croom Helm, London, 1986, p. 128.


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First contact between the Venda and the Voortrekkers came with the arrival of Louis

Trichardt and Hans van Rensburg in the 1830s on the Soutpansberg area. In 1848 Andries

Hendick Potgieter settled in the region. Khosi Makhado was regarded by the Boers as “the

troublesome Venda chief” owing to his power and their inability to defeat him. In 1867 the

Boers assembled an army under the command of Paul Kruger to attack the Venda. However

they were defeated and retreated. In 1895, when Makhado died from poisoning, the Boers

saw an opportunity to take on the weakened Venda people in the absence of their arch

rival. Following an attack in 1898 led by Commander Piet Joubert, the Venda were formally

subjugated by the ZAR government. Land expropriation from the Venda ensued and the

people were dispossessed of their land.

The ‘Mapoch War’ in the region also provides another series of national liberation heritage

sites linked to the wars of resistance. Mapoch was the first real leader of the Ndzundza

Ndebele who settled up near. Mapoch built the ‘caves’ or fortified settlements at what is

now Roossenekal. When he died and his son was too young to succeed, Nyabela became

regent. During 1892–1893 King Nyabela fought what is known as the Mapoch War against

the Boers and was defeated and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Caves were under

siege by the Boers for 8 months. Ndzundza crops were destroyed, their cattle were seized,

and a number of their smaller refuges were dynamited. By the middle of 1883 widespread

starvation made it impossible for them to continue the struggle, and in July Nyabela

surrendered. When Nyabela eventually surrendered all the fit and able of the clan were

divided amongst the farmers as indentured labourers and the old, infirm and very young left

to die.

Soshangana, the Tsonga King, led a kingdom populated by between 500,000 and 2,000,000

subjects stretching from close to the Nkomati River in the south, to the Zambezi and

Pungwe Rivers in the north, and from the Indian Ocean in the East to the Drakensburg and

Zoutpansburg, and eastern Zimbabwe in the west; a total of approximately 240,000sq km.

At the height of its power in the 1850s the direct authority of its rulers extended over what

is today southern Mozambique, large parts of western Zimbabwe, and the Limpopo and

Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa. Nghunghunyani (also spelt Ngungunyane) ascended

to power on the eve of the Berlin Conference in which the partitioning of Africa by the

colonial masters was decided. Several battles are recorded, among which is the Magule war

of 1895 in which the Portuguese armed forces of Captain Andrade and Couceiro were

attacked on route from Lorenco Marques to Mandlakazi by African regiments. Although the

Africans retreated after massive casualties, these were the first attempts to resist

Portuguese attempts to rule over them. In the same year another battle broke out at

Coolela (Khuwulela) in November when the Portuguese under the command of Colonel

Garlhado with 600 military officers, 500 African assistants and other Portuguese soldiers

tried to capture the Gaza capital. The Portuguese proceeded to enter Mandlakazi with little

opposition, forcing the king to retreat into exile in his sacred village of Chaimite. The

Portuguese captured the Gaza king and in 1896 King Nghunghunyani was exiled to Portugal

http://www.lydenburgmuseum.org.za/feature.asp?id=27


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only to die in 1906. Gaza land was divided into districts under Portuguese rule while some

parts fell into the colonies of Rhodesia and also parts of northern Transvaal which was Boer-

controlled territory.

Organised political opposition

The late 19th and early 20th centuries marked a new chapter in the history of resistance to

colonial occupation. It was a period of petitions, deputations and other forms of appeal to

reason to the White establishment both internally and in the colonial headquarters in

Britain. The key heritage sites for this period centre around leading individuals in political

and other organisations, as well as mission schools and other educational institutions which

were significant in the development of the leadership that led resistance. For instance, the

organisation that took the lead in these activities in the Western Cape during this period

was the African Political Organisation (APO). The APO was formed in 1902, eight years

before the establishment of the Union of South Africa and a decade before the formation of

the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC). Western Cape leaders such as

Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman begin to play a prominent role in liberation struggle history from

this period on.19

In the Eastern Cape, Isaac Wauchope, the Christian poet, urged his countrymen to throw

away their obsolete old guns and use the weapons of the colonialists themselves. The

mission-educated elite, personified by John Tengo Jabavu, the editor of South Africa’s first

black newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu, made full use of journalism, petitions, and the political

weight they carried, as voters in the old Cape Parliament, to put the case of the oppressed.

Jabavu is buried in the King William’s Town cemetery. Other leading members of the African

elite of the time include Philip William Momoti, Daniel Malgas, Nathaniel Cyril Mhala and

Peter Kawa. In large part, these developments in the Eastern Cape were a result of the

establishment of a number of mission stations that provided education to the emerging

African elite.20 Proposed liberation heritage sites include Healdtown, Lovedale and

Clarkebury institutions.

In KwaZulu-Natal, as in other parts of the3 country, mission schools and leader of political

organisations of the late 19th early 20th centuries form the basis around which heritage sites

have or could be developed. The two leading figures are Mahatma Gandhi and John

Langalibalele Dube. The key sites are the Phoenix Settlement and the J.L. Dube Legacy

Project. The Phoenix Settlement, established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1904, is situated on

the north-western edge of Inanda, some 20 kilometres north of Durban. The Settlement,

devoted to Gandhi’s principle of Satyagraha (passive resistance), has played an important

spiritual and political role throughout its long history, promoting justice, peace and

equality. Gandhi established the settlement as a communal experimental farm with the

19 www.sahistory.org.za. 20

Refer here also to C.C. Saunders, ‘The New African elite in the Eastern Cape and some late nineteenth century origins of African nationalism’, unpublished paper, nd. Available at www.sas.ac.uk.

http://wiki.ulwazi.org/index.php5?title=Phoenix

http://wiki.ulwazi.org/index.php5?title=Fatima_Meer


12

view of giving each family two acres of land which they could develop. He believed that

communities like Phoenix, which advocated communal living would form a sound basis for

the struggle against social injustice. Market gardens were established, their dairy supplied

milk to all the homesteads on the settlement as well as the neighbourhood, and they

produced their own butter and ghee for domestic use. Everybody on the settlement had to

participate in communal activities, such as the daily prayers and singing of hymns which

Gandhi himself had instituted.

The J.L. Bube Legacy project, established to commemorate the contribution of John

Langalibalele Dube to the liberation struggle, involves the restoration of John Dube’s grave-

site and the unveiling of a Dube statue at the Dube Tradeport at King Shaka International

Airport. The development of the Dube grave-site will include the construction of an

interpretative centre and a Tower of Hope dedicated to the first president of the African

National Congress (the South African Native National Congress when it was formed). The

interpretive centre, to be located in what was Dube’s house, will focus on his role in

politics, education, culture, economics and religion. This will be captured in an exhibition

that will be installed in the interpretative centre.

Other sites of significance are the Inanda Seminary, which was the first secondary school

exclusively for African girls in southern Africa; Adams College, one of the oldest schools is

South Africa with alumni that include Presidents of Botswana and Uganda, several ministers

and leaders of the ANC, including J.L. Dube; and the Ohlange Institute, founded by John

Langalibalele Dube in 1900 as a means for African social and economic advancement.

In the Northern Transvaal, the last decade of the 19th century brought on new challenges

that called on leadership to respond to. One of the leaders in the region at the time was

Sefako Mapogo Makgatho, who made his mark in the first decade of the 20th century when

he inspired the establishment of the Transvaal African Teachers’ Association (TATA). He was

also the key figure in the formation of the African Political Union (APU) and the Transvaal

Native Organisation, both of which merged with the SANNC in 1912. Sefako Makgatho’s

grave is a heritage site.


The years from 1910 to the end of the 1950s represent the consolidation of white power

and the escalation of resistance to minority rule. Firstly, in 1910 the Union of South Africa

was formed, officially handing power from the British colonial authorities to the white

minority. Secondly, apartheid policies to oppress black people began to be legally enforced

after the engineers of apartheid, the Nationalist Party, won the 1948 national elections.

Watershed moments which were meant to entrench separate development and worsen

oppression were met with parallel rigour in efforts to fortify anti-apartheid resistance.


13

National Liberation Heritage sites that emerge during this period centre around key

organisations and their leadership; and the significant massacres/acts of resistance during

the period. The core features of the liberation struggle during the period are, firstly, the

establishment of a large number of political and other organisations in response to repeated

assaults on the economic and political rights of the majority. Among the most important

were the South African Native National Congress (SANNC – later the ANC), the Industrial and

Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the All-

African Convention, the New Unity Movement, the ANC Youth League, the Congress

Alliance, and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Each of these organisations drew in

significant leaders whose contribution to the liberation struggle was apparent in their

leadership role and the role they played in the various campaigns of their organisations.

Among the most important campaigns include: the campaign against the 1913 land Act; the

anti-pass campaigns; the campaign against the Hertzog Bills, the Indian Passive Resistance

Campaign, the Defiance Campaign, the Bantu Education Campaign, and the Freedom

Charter Campaign.

Secondly, the various white regimes responded to the struggles of the black majority in

many ways, often resulting in significant massacres that deserve memorialisation. In

addition, there were significant acts of resistance on the part of the black majority that are

key moments in the liberation struggle. The significant massacres/acts of resistance during

the period include the Bulhoek Massacre, the Sekhukhuniland Revolt, and the anti-pass

revolt in Zeerust.during.

A number of sites have been identified that are linked to the various political and other

organisations that played a central role in the liberation struggle during the period. For

instance, a number of buildings that housed headquarters of political organisations and

trade unions have been included. Among the most significant are the building which housed

the national headquarters of the All Africa Convention in Harrington Street, Cape Town; the

offices of the Industrial Socialist League (the Socialist Hall) in Plein Street, Cape Town; and

Lakhani Chambers in Durban which housed the offices of the regional ANC, CPSA and

SACTU, as well as the Natal Indian Congress and various trade unions.

A number of sites also relate to key activities/events of organisations opposed to white rule.

These include: The Grand Parade, where numerous political rallies and meetings were held;

the bachelor flat zones of Langa, where numerous protests and clashes between

government agencies and the residents occurred;21 the Langa Market Hall, which is the site

where the Non-European Unity Movement held a meeting to plan its opposition to the Van

21 For recollections of life for migrants and other heritage sites in Langa refer to S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’, in S. Field, R. Meyer and F. Swanson (eds.), Imagining the City: Memories and culture in Cape Town, Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2007, 21ff.


14

Riebeeck Tercentenary Festival;22 the Salt River Hall, the site of numerous political meetings;

the University of Fort Hare, which became a ‘a beacon for African scholars from all over

Southern, Central and Eastern Africa’; a bastion of resistance and a school for freedom; and

a pan-African academy;23 the YMCA (Beatrice Street) Bantu Social Centre, where urban

workers and African intelligentsia, and cultural and religious activists gathered and became

a space to breed political consciousness and provided space for patrons to engage in critical

ideological discourse;24 the Red Square, a public space at the western end of the Pine Street

Reserve in Durban that was used as a site for open-air meetings by the budding labour

movement and the Communist Party;25 a vacant plot in Prince Edward Street that was

owned by the Natal Indian Congress and served as the venue of many meetings of the

Congress Movement; Cartwright Flats in Umgeni Road, Durban, which was the site of SACP

meetings and where Johannes Nkosi was killed; the Drill Hall in Lamontville, Durban, a site

of many community meetings; and the War Memorial Hall in Durban which also served as a

site of many community meetings.

Sites have also been identified that memorialise key activists in the liberation struggle

during this period. These include: the house of Claire Goodlatte (the 'Red Nun’) in York

Street, Woodstock (she was Jane Gool and I.B. Tabata's mentor and trainer in political

theory);26 the home of academic psychologist J.G. Taylor and his wife Dora Claremont,

where,27 in the late 1930s Taylor, a member of the Spartacus Club, wrote plays that were

performed by members;28 Jane Gool and Isaac Tabata’s home on the edge of District Six,

Cape Town, where they moved to in 1953 after the closure in the previous year of the

African section of the Stakesby Lewis Hostels;29 the grave of Cissie Gool at the Muslim

cemetery in Observatory; Annie Silinga’s graveyard in Langa cemetery; Jabavu House at Ann

Shaw, just outside the Middledrift town border, the house of D.D.T. Jabavu, who was

instrumental in forming the All African Convention; Xuma House in Manzana, Transkei, the

house of Dr Alfred B. Xuma, the seventh president of the African National Congress;30 the

grave of memorial of the prophetess Nontetha Nkwenkwe at Mnqaba village, KwaKhulile,

Debe Nek;31 Calata House at 26 Mongo Street in Lingelihle, Cradock, the home of the

Reverend James Calata, President of the Cape Provincial ANC and Secretary-General of the

22 Refer to L. Witz, ‘From Langa Market Hall and Rhodes' Estate to the Grand Parade and the Foreshore: Contesting Van Riebeeck's Cape Town’, Kronos, No. 25, Pre-millennium issue, 1998/1999, 187-206. 23 M. Nkomo, D. Swartz and B. Maja (eds.), Within the Realms of Possibility, Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2006, 86. 24 M. Cele, ‘A brief history of the Durban Bantu Social Centre’, The Thinker, Vol. 33, 2011, 34-38. 25 www.sahistory.org.za. 26 C. Rassool, ‘From Collective Leadership to Presidentialism: I.B. Tabata, Authorship and the Biographic Threshold’. Afrika Zamani, Nos. 13 & 14, 2005–2006, 27. 27

Ibid., 32. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid., 42. 30

Chris Hani District Municipality, Liberation Heritage Route, 45. 31 Buffalo City, ‘Buffalo City Heritage Sites’, 3.


15

National ANC from 1937 to 1949;32 the King Sabata Dalindyebo Memorial at the Bumbane

Great Place, in honour of the King of the abaThembu who resisted the introduction of the

Bantu Authorities system and fled into exile where he died; the gravesite in Stellawood

Road Cemetery of Johannes Nkosi, member of the Communist Party of South Africa and the

ANC, organizer in the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union who died after clashes with

Durban police after an anti-pass campaign in 1930; the statue of Josiah Gumede in

Pietermaritzburg; Dr. Modiri Molema’s house, Maratiwa, in the Mafikeng city centre, is the

home of the National Treasurer of the ANC from 1949 until 1953; Moses Kotane’s house in

Pello (Tamposstad), is the home of the former Secretary-General of the SACP, member of

the ANC National Executive Committee, and trade unionist;33 Other leaders who deserve

memorialisation include Dora Tamana, a leading member of the Communist Party of South

Africa (CPSA) and the ANC; Ray Alexander Simons, who joined the CPSA when she was 16

years old and became a leading member of the Party and various trade unions, as well as a

leader of the 1956 Women’s march; Sonia Bunting, member of the Communist Party since

1942, speaker at the Congress of the People in 1955, and Treason Trialist; Winnie Siqwana,

the first African woman in Cape Town to join the CPSA in 1930; Elizabeth Mafekeng,

founding member of the Food and canning Workers’ Union (which built her a home in

Mbekweni Township in Paarl after the unbanning of organisations in 1990), member of the

National Executive Committee of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and

leading member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) and the ANC; James

Thaele, president of the Western-Cape ANC; James la Guma, trade unionist and political

activist who participated in many organisations and campaigns; I.B. Tabata, one of the

founders of the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department group and leading member of the Non-

European Unity Movement (NEUM) from its inception in 1943, a leader of the All Africa

Convention, and founding president of the African People’s Democratic Union of South

Africa; A.C. Jordan, President of the African Teachers’ Association and leading academic and

author; Nathaniel Impey Honono, leading member of the Unity Movement; Mzisi Dube a

community leader in Lamontville, Durban, assassinated in 1983; Silas Thelesho Molema, a

leading supporter of the SANNC in the early years; Alpheus Maliba, CPSA leader, founder of

the Zoutpansberg Cultural Association and editor of Mbofolowo, the Venda language

section of Inkululeko who committed suicide by hanging in September 1967 while being held

in the Louis Trichardt prison under the Terrorism Act;34 David Bopape, a leading member of

the Transvaal African Teachers Association, CPSA, the ANC, and founding member of the

ANC Youth League (ANCYL); Elias Moretsele, joined the SANNC in 1917, and became

provincial president of the Transvaal;35 Flag Boshielo, who joined the ANC and CPSA in the

32 Chris Hani District Municipality, Liberation Heritage Route, 7. 33 www.sahistory.org.za. 34

www.sahistory.org.za. 35 www.sahistory.org.za.


16

1940s and served in the ANC Transvaal Executive Committee as well as in Umkhonto we

Sizwe, and was captured near Caprivi (bordered by Botswana, Namibia and Zambia) by the

then Rhodesian security while trying to infiltrate South Africa with other freedom fighters

on an MK mission;36 and Godfrey Pitje, who served as president of the ANCYL and member

of the ANC National Executive Committee the same year.37

The key massacres/acts of resistance during the period that deserve memorialisation

include: a memorial in Paarl to commemorate the Paarl three who were shot by Officer

Bleeker in the 1927 Paarl Shooting Tragedy; a memorial to commemorate the people who

died during the riots in Worcester that occurred after an ANC meeting in Worcester on April

1929 when ANC members clashed with about 40 white members of the local vigilance

committee after the latter tried to disrupt the meeting; a memorial to commemorate the

Blouvlei anti-removal struggle in 1942, when the community of Blouvlei in Retreat resisted

the government’s attempt to clear and re-house squatters living in the area;38 a memorial to

commemorate the Port Elizabeth Workers Massacre, which occurred on 23 October 1920

when 23 workers were killed on what was then the market square while demanding the

release from detention at the Baakens Street Police Station of the leader of the Industrial

and Commercial Workers Union in Port;39 The memorial of the Bulhoek Massacre at

Ntabelanga, located at the site of one of several mass graves, commemorates the massacre

that took place in 1921 when 183 followers of the prophet Enoch Mgijima of the Israelite

Church (Church of God and Saints of Christ) were brutally massacred at Bulhoek, Eastern

Cape, on 24 May 1921; the memorial at Qhetho Village, Ngqushwa District in the Eastern

Cape which commemorates the conflict that arose from the dispossession and removal of

villages in rural areas caused by betterment and the Trust; a community museum at Cata

Village, Keiskammahoek, to memorialise all those who lost their land through betterment,

including the flooding of the Sandile Dam; Maqashu Village, Lady Frere District, is recognised

by the Chris Hani District Municipality Liberation Route to memorialise all those who were

burned out of their homes by K.D. Matanzima, the Transkei homeland leader, when the

Trust was implemented; the Dimbaza Wall of Remembrance, to commemorate the those

who died and suffered in the area as a result of forced removals and the establishment of

resettlement camps such Dimbaza where people forcibly removed from other parts of South

Africa were dumped in an area characterised by harsh living conditions, high infant mortality

rates and general inhumane implications of macro-apartheid;40 the Sister Mary Aidan

Quinlan Memorial in Duncan Village, East London, in the grounds of the Catholic Church in

Duncan Village, provides an opportunity to tell the broader story of Duncan Village and

resistance to apartheid in the 1950s, the activities of notorious security policemen like

36

www.sahistory.org.za. 37

www.sahistory.org.za. 38 www.sahistory.org.za. 39 Nelson Mandela Bay, Liberation Heritage Route, 9-10. 40

Refer to P. Green and A. Hirsch, ‘The Impact of Resettlement in the Ciskei: Three case studies’, SALDRU Working Paper No. 49, Cape Town, Southern Africa labour and Development Research Unit, April 1983, 87ff.


17

Donald Card and the Defiance Campaign;41 Lock Street Prison, East London, the women’s

prison where activists were held during the Defiance Campaign; Resistance Park in Umbilo,

in honour of all those who were banished, exiled and imprisoned during the Indian passive

resistance campaign between 1946 and 1948; the Two-Sticks Memorial to the women’s

struggle in Cato Manor; the Nye-Nye Tree in Dinokana, near Zeerust, situated outside the

kgotla in the village of Dinokana, was a meeting point where the residents planned their

strategies during the Hurutshe Revolt of 1957-58; the Anglican Church, Zeerust, was where

hundreds of refugees who fled the Reserve during the 1957-58 Hurutshe revolt were

housed and fed by an Anglican priest in Zeerust, the Rev. Charles Hooper, and his wife

Sheila; and the Sekhukhuneland revolt, which symbolises opposition to the system of racial

segregation and ethnic homelands.


This period is characterised by a number of significant events and processes within the

liberation struggle that took place and/or affected the country as a whole, as well as the

steady escalation of the liberation struggle until it reached its conclusion with the first

democratic elections in 1994. However, each decade had its own characteristics and key

historical moments, while different parts of the country experienced and were affected by

events in different ways. As in the 1910 to 1959 period, heritage sites have been identified

during this period in relations to: (1) key leaders of the liberation movements; (2) significant

massacres; (3) significant acts of resistance of the liberation movements; (4) deaths in

detention; (5) routes into exile; (6) military actions of the liberation movements; (7)

internecine violence; and (8) symbols of oppression.

The 1960s

At the beginning of 1960, several events took place that eventually led to a decade

characterised by extreme repression and demoralisation in the political life of the nation.42

The Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)

in April 1960 led to a wave of repression through the country. The liberation movements

responded by going underground, and eventually turning to armed struggle in an effort to

end apartheid. Acts of sabotage carried out by the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe

(MK), and the acts of violence carried out by members of the PAC’s Poqo led to an

escalation of repression, the imprisonment of opposition leaders, and the movement into

41

A. Manger and G. Manley, ‘Reaping the Whirlwind: the East London Riots of 1952’, Wits History Workshop, 6-10 February 1990, 2-3. 42 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Volume 3, Chapter 3, Regional Profile: Natal and KwaZulu, 29 October 1998, p. 164. Available at www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2003/trc/.


18

exile of large number of leaders and members of the liberation movements. It appeared as

if resistance to white oppression had been silenced.

Prominent individuals active during this decade around which liberation heritage sites have

or could be developed include: Chief Albert Luthuli, Johnny Makatini, Dr. Monty Naicker,

Moses Mabhida, Dorothy Nyembe, Eleanor Kasrils, Joe Mkhwanazi, Rusty Bernstein, and

Rowley Arenstein, and John Nkadimeng. An example here is the Mandela Arrest Monument

outside Howick, where Nelson Mandela was arrested after 17 months on the run.

The significant massacres/acts of resistance during the decade that give rise to heritage sites

include: the 21 March 1960 PAC anti-pass campaign, which gave rise to a Memorial in Langa

in honour of three people killed when a crowd assembled at the Langa Flats bus terminus in

Cape Town were fired upon and tear-gassed by police, and a memorial at the hostel where

Philip Kgosana, who led the subsequent march to Parliament, lived; the 1960 Ngquza Hill

Massacre Memorial, which commemorates one of the most important incidents of rural

resistance, the Mpondo or Peasants Revolt that culminated in an attack on the Mpondo on

Ngquza hill by the South African Police and paratroopers and led to the deaths of 11 people.

A number of people died in detention during the decade. Among the key individuals in this

category: Looksmart Khulile Ngudle, an ANC leader and MK cadre who died in police

detention on 5 September 1963;43 Imam Haron, a respected leader in the Muslim

community and former editor of Muslim News, who died in detention at Maitland police

station on 27 September 1969.44

A number of significant routes into exile and infiltration points should be included in the

National Liberation Heritage Route. Included here are: the Tele Bridge, which was used as a

route into and out of South Africa, and was also an area in which returning cadres clashed

with the security forces; the Matatiele area, which includes a number of major MK crossing

points; the Railway Station in Zeerust, which is where many recruits seeking to leave the

country in the early 1960s were met by mainly ANC supporters from the nearby Lehurutshe

who assisted them to cross the border; the Zeerust/Mafikeng and Rustenburg route into

exile; and various routes into exile and entry points on the borders of the current Limpopo

province.

Some existing or proposed liberation heritage sites linked to the armed struggle during the

1960s include: the Mamre training camp, at the farm where MK recruits underwent military

training in December 1962 at a farm; the Poqo attack in Paarl on 21 November 1962, where

two white people and five Poqo members were killed; a memorial in the Transkei for the

Poqo members hanged for their role in the Paarl attack; Queenstown Station, the site where

three Poqo members were killed in December 1962 while on their way from Cape Town to

the African rural areas in the former Transkei where they planned to mount attacks against

43

www.sahistory.org.za. 44 www.sahistory.org.za.


19

the Tribal Authorities; Ntlonze mountain, where seven members of the second group of

Poqo fighters from Cape Town were killed on 12 December 1962, while others were

arrested and two sentenced to death and executed; the Emlotheni Memorial Park, situated

at the site of meetings during the 1952 Defiance Campaign, is dedicated to the memory of

MK cadres Vuyisile Mini, Zinakile Mkhaba, Jonas, Mpetse and Wilson Khayinga who had

been hanged in 1963;45 and the Washington Mpumelelo Bongco Memorial in Fort Beaufort,

in honour of a senior member of MK who was executed in Pretoria on 10 December 1964. It

is suggested here that memorials for casualties in the ANC’s Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns

in Zimbabwe in 1967-68 and the PAC’s Villa Piri Campaign in Mozambique in 1968 should be

established in their home towns. An example is the Cradock Flame of Hope and Liberation,

in honour of four MK cadres from Cradock who perished in the Wankie Campaign.

Some National Liberation Heritage sites commemorate symbols of oppression. An example

here is the KwaMuhle Museum, which is housed in the former premises of Durban’s Native

Affairs Department that was responsible for the control of the influx of African migrants into

the city.

The 1970s

The 1970s saw the growth of Black Consciousness activity amongst Africans, Indians and

coloureds throughout the country. In 1973, a wave of strikes in Durban provoked the revival

of the trade union movement throughout the country, with both white and black activists

inside the country playing a central role in the formation of union structures. The 1976

revolt and the 1980s’ school protests showed unprecedented militancy with a high number

of deaths and injuries. During the first half of the 1970s, student leaders were a particular

target of banning orders, while many activists and other individuals had their passports

withdrawn or applications refused. In 1971 a security swoop across the country resulted in

numerous long-term detentions. 1974 saw a spate of detentions and trials in the wake of

the Pro-FRELIMO commemoration rallies held at various campuses. The 1976 student

uprising also revived the activities of the exiled liberation movements, and a corresponding

increase in military activity inside the country occurred during this period.

Among the leaders of the liberation movements that have been or should be honoured by

heritage sites are: Onkgopotse Abram Tiro, whose grave in Dinokana should be a site

honouring this leader of the Black Consciousness Movement who was killed by a parcel

bomb on 1 February 1974; Steve Biko, whose in Tyamzashe Street in Ginsberg was declared

a national monument (now Provincial heritage site) in 1997; Rick Turner, the house in

Queensburgh, Durban where he was killed on 8 January 1978; and Robert Mangaliso

Sobukwe, whose grave in Graaf Reinet should be included in the Route to honour the

founding president of the PAC who died on 27 February 1978.

45 Nelson Mandela Bay, Liberation Heritage Route, 18-19.


20

Significant massacres/acts of resistance that should be memorialised in the National

Liberation Heritage Route include: the 1974 BCM ‘Pro-Frelimo’ rallies, particularly at

Curriess Fountain Stadium in Durban, the site of many political events, where a large crowd

gathered to celebrate the independence of Angola and Mozambique;46 and the 1976

Soweto uprising, with appropriate sites being selected in some of the provinces, such as the

Western and Eastern Cape, where significant events occurred.

Several people died in police custody during this period, and heritage sites have been

identified or are being proposed to honour them. These include: the Mapetla Mohapi

Memorial, in memory of the Black Consciousness leader who died in police custody 5 August

1976; the Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance & Grave, in honour of Steve Biko, the Black

Consciousness leader who died in police custody on 12 September 1977 as a result of a

brain injury, after being beaten and tortured and then driven naked in a state of

unconsciousness from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria; while memorials should be established at

the gravesites of Heritage sites should be established in honour of: Joseph Mdluli, the ANC

member who died in detention on 19 March 1976; Luke Mazwembe, Western Province

Workers’ Advice Bureau employee who died in the Caledon Square police headquarters in

Cape Town on 2 September 1976; George Botha, who was detained in Port Elizabeth on 10

December 1976 and died in the Sanlam Building five days later; Aaron Khoza, the PAC

member from Krugersdorp who died in Pietermartizburg prison on 26 March 1977; Elijah

Loza, trade unionist and underground member of the ANC who died on 1 August 1977 in

Tygerberg hospital while still in custody after 65 days in detention; Dr. Hoosen Mia Haffajee,

a 26-year-old dentist at Durban’s St George V hospital who died in detention at the Brighton

Beach police station on 3 August 1977; Bayempini Mzizi, an underground ANC operative;

and Walter Shandu, who died in the Zeerust Police Station in 1978 after being arrested

while making his way into exile.

A heritage site linked to the armed struggle should be established in Witkleigat, a village in

the far north of the Hurutshe Reserve close to the Botswana border, which was the scene of

a confrontation between the security forces and a well-armed MK unit comprising of six

cadres in April 1976. Other sites lined to the armed struggle include the area near Pongola

where a guerrilla fighter was killed and a policeman injured in November 1977;47 the bomb

explosion in Cawood Street in the commercial area of Port Elizabeth, killing the cadre

carrying it;48 and the bomb explosion at the Bantu Affairs Administration building in New

Brighton, Port Elizabeth, on 10 March 1978.

The symbols of oppression that should be included in the National Liberation Heritage Route

include: the cell in Kei Road Police Station in King Williams Town where Mapetla Mohapi

died (a plaque has been erected there in memory of the death of Mohapi); the SANLAM 46 Ibid., p. 142. 47 Ibid., p. 185. 48

J. Cherry, Umkhonto Wesizwe, Jacana, Auckland Park, 2012, pp. 53-54; J. Cherry, ‘No Easy Road to Truth: The TRC in the Eastern Cape’, Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop Conference, June 1999, pp. 1, 3.


21

building in Port Elizabeth where Steve Biko was detained and tortured in 1977, and where a

number of other detainees died; and the Walmer Street Police Station in Port Elizabeth,

which also served as a place of detention for political detainees.

The internecine political violence that broke out in October 1976 between township youth

and hostel-dwellers in Nyanga Township in Cape Town is the single event of this kind during

the decade in the provinces under review that needs to be commemorated. Approximately

twenty-four people were killed (thirteen according to the police), 106 were wounded and at

least 186 homes were burnt.49

Other sites that should be included in the National Liberation Heritage Route are:

Umgababa beach, where many events of the Black Consciousness Movement were held;

Bolton Hall in Prince Edward Street, Durban, which was the site of meetings of the trade

unions in the 1970s; and the University of the Western Cape, the site of many struggles

during the 1970s.

The 1980s

The South African liberation struggle literally exploded during the 1980s, reaching levels of

activity never seen before. This was accompanied by an equally unprecedented level of

state repression and counter-revolutionary mobilisation. There are too many watershed

moments in the history of the liberation struggle during this decade that allows for a

summary of such events, and a correspondingly large number of sites that can be included

in the National Liberation Heritage Route. However, among the dominant features of the

liberation struggle relevant for this study are: the emergence and growth of popular

organisations, culminating in the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF), National

Forum (NF) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the first half of the

decade; the various campaigns and activities of popular organisations, often accompanied

by excessive state repression that resulted in numerous deaths; the internal activities of the

liberation movements; the counter-revolutionary activities of the state; and internecine

political violence. It must be noted, however, that there is considerable overlap between

these different processes. In addition, the various provinces under study experienced each

of these processes differently.

A number of heritage sites which have been established or should be established for a

number of leaders/cadres of the struggle during this period should be included in the

National Liberation Heritage Route. These include: Dorothy Zihlangu, the leader of the

United Women’s Organisation (UWO) and United Women’s Congress (UWC) whose home in

Gugulethu should be include in the Route; Dorothy Mfacu, community leader in Cape Town,

whose home in Gugulethu should be include in the Route; Dulcie Evonne September, ANC

representative who assassinated in Paris in 1988; Anton Fransch, the MK cadre who was

killed by members of the apartheid security forces in 1989, whose house where he was 49 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The Report, Volume 3, Chapter 5, p. 414.


22

killed should be declared a heritage site; the Cradock Four, Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow

Mkonto and Fort Calata, and Sicelo Mhlauli, who were abducted and assassinated outside

Port Elizabeth on 27 June 1985; Griffiths and Victoria Mxenge, community leaders and

underground members of the ANC who were both assassinated and whose gravesite at Rayi,

just outside King William’s Town, their home in Umlazi, Durban, and Umlazi Stadium where

Griffiths Mxenge was murdered should be included in the Route; Bathandwa Ndondo,

student leader and underground activist who was assassinated in Mthatha in September

1985; Skiri Schoeman Ramokgopa (combat name, Solomon ‘Kruchev’ Mlonzi) and Bushy

Voltaire Swartbooi (combat name, Calvin ‘Marx’ Kakhasa), MK cadres who were killed by the

security forces in an ambush at a place called Silent Valley in the Derdepoort-Thabazimbi

area in May 1983; the six MK cadres killed by the security forces in an ambush near Alldays,

which is close to the Botswana border, on 10 July 1987; and Peter Mokaba, youth leader

during the decade.

Massacres during the decade that have been memorialised or should be memorialised and

included in the Route are: the killing of 11 people at Egerton Station, Mdantsane, in August

1983 by Ciskei security forces during the Mdantsance bus boycott; the Bongolethu Three

shooting in Oudsthoorn in June 1985; the Trojan Horse incident in Athlone, Cape Town, in

October 1985 during which police hiding in large wooden crates on the back of a railway

truck fired directly into a crowd of about a 100, killing three; the Queenstown massacre of

17 November 1985 in which 11 people were killed by the police during the course of

community resistance to certain apartheid measures; the killing of the Gugulethu Seven in a

calculated operation carried out by the police in Gugulethu, Cape Town, in 1986; the killing

of six youth activists from Middleburg who were killed by apartheid state police during the

period between 1985 and 1993; the killing of eleven community activists from Molteno by

apartheid forces between 12 August 1985 and 13 November 1993; the killing of six

members of the Hankey Youth Congress who were shot dead by state security agents at

Hankey on International Workers Day in May 1986; the killing of four activists from

Vuyolwethu township in Steytlerville during the decade; the killing of three protesting

students of Nompendulo High School in Zwelitsha in July 1985; the Langa Massacre, when

29 people on their way to a funeral were killed by the police in Langa Township, Uitenhage

in March 1985; the killing of three youths during youth anti-apartheid demonstrations in

KwaNonkqubela Township in Alexandria in the Eastern Cape on 23 May 1986; the Duncan

Village Massacre, when 31 people from Duncan Village, East London, were killed during anti-

apartheid activity in August 1985; the killing of four members of the Chesterville Youth

Organisation in an undercover operation using askaris in May/June 1986; the killing of four

men believed to be part of an MK cell in Durban by the security forces in Quarry Road; the

Trust Feed massacre, during which 11 people were killed in an attack carried out by

members of the security force in a town in the Umgungundlovu District Municipality in

December 1988; the Umlazi Cinema Massacre, during which seventeen people died when

they were attacked allegedly by Inkatha supporters while attending a memorial service for

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umgungundlovu_District_Municipality


23

Victoria Mxenge; and the Winterveld Massacre, during which 11 people were killed at a

football ground in Winterveld in Bophuthatswana whilst attending a meeting in protest over

the police detention of youths in the area on 26 March 1986.

Various acts of resistance during the decade that deserve memorialisation include: the 1981

Anti-South African Indian Council Campaign in Durban; the 1983 campaign against the Tri-

cameral Parliament; Tambo Village in Gugulethu, Cape Town, which is a symbol of the

struggle of the residents of the KTC informal settlement for land for housing during the

1980s; Bloubergstrand and Strand beaches in Cape Town and Durban beach, the sites of

high-profile acts of ‘beach apartheid defiance in 1989 when thousands of people defied

‘whites-only’ beaches; the 1988 Bophuthatswana Coup attempt, during which 15 people

were killed; the resistance of the people of Huhudi Township, outside Vryburg, to

incorporation into the Bophuthatswana homeland; and resistance to independence in

KwaNdebele and Lebowa.

A number of people died whilst in police custody in this period, and memorials in their

honour should be included in the National Liberation Heritage Route. Included here are:

Tshifhiwa Isaac Muofhe, an underground agent of the ANC, who died on 12 November 1981,

two days after being detained by Venda police; Tshikhudo Tshivase Samuel Mugivhela, who

died in detention on 20 January 1984 after being arrested by the Venda police for

harbouring and feeding ‘terrorists’’; Ngoako Ramalepe, chairperson of the Student

Representative Council (SRC) at Modjadji College of Education in the Gazankulu homeland,

was beaten to death by members of the Lebowa Police in October 1985 after being arrested

at a shopping centre; Peter Nchabaleng, leader of the UDF in the Northern Transvaal, who

died in police custody on 11 April 1986; Alf Makaleng, a student leader and member of the

South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU) who was detained in June 1986 and died two

years later in police detention; Solly Matshumane, a member of the Motetema Youth

Congress who died in police custody in March 1986; and Makompo Lucky Kutumela, a 26

year-old journalist and AZAPO member, who was beaten to death at Makopane police

station in March 1986.

Commemoration of military actions during the decade that should be part of the National

Liberation Heritage Route include: the 30 October 1980 attack on the Port Elizabeth House

of the Transkei Consul carried out by an MK cell operating in Port Elizabeth; the August 1981

clash between members of MK and the security forces at Elliot where five cadres were killed

and buried secretly by the apartheid security forces; the 28 June 1982 attack on the Port

Elizabeth police station and New Law Courts carried out by MK cadres; the 26 January 1983

bombing of the New Brighton Community Council offices Building, in which one MK cadre

was killed; the June 1985 bombinig of a fuel depot in Mthatha by MK cadres; the 31 July

1985 fire fight between MK members and members of the apartheid security services

during which one member of the South African Police (SAP) and two MK members were

killed; the 3 August 1985 bombing of the Zwelitsha Magistrates Court by MK; the 19


24

February 1986 limpet mine attack at the Cambridge East police station in East London

carried out by Marion Sparg; the 17 April 1986 Bomb blast on the 12 storey Botha Sigcau

government building in Mthatha carried out by an MK cell; the 18 April 1986 double limpet

mine attack on the Wild Coast Sun casino at Mzamba carried out by an MK cell and which

resulted in three deaths; the 29 June 1986 bombing of the Alice post office; the 15 July 1986

skirmish with the SAP in Mdantsane which resulted in the death of one MK cadre; the 11

July 1986 battle between MK and South African and Ciskei security forces between

Breidbach and Zwelitsha in which four cadres were killed; the 29 July 1986 attack on the

Madeira Road Police Station in Mthatha carried out by an MK unit in which eight policemen

were killed; the January 1987 MK battle with Transkei security forces in the Mendu forest,

Willowvale district; the July 1987 skirmish with the SAP in Mdantsane in which two

members of the police and one MK cadre were killed; the 25 and 27 January 1988 shootout

between MK cadres and the security forces in Mount Fletcher and one at Ugie in which one

MK cadre was killed; the 7 March 1988 skirmishes with the SAP in Queenstown in which one

cadre and a civilian killed by the SAP; and the 21 April 1988 shootout between MK cadres

and Ciskei security police at Lower Gqumashe near Alice, in which two policemen were

killed.

The Route should also include sites that commemorate internecine violence such as: the

Khayelistha Remembrance Square, in honour of the victims of the 1983 conflict in

Crossroads, KTC and Nyanga between the ‘witdoeke’ and the young ‘comrades’; the killing

of the Middelburg Three during fighting which ensued in KwaNonzame township,

Middelburg between members of the community and government-supporting community

councillors in April 1986; the Midlands war between members of Inkatha and ANC-aligned

youths in areas in and around Pietermaritzburg from 1986 that resulted in hundreds of

deaths; and the Inkatha/ANC conflict in Mpumalanga (Hammarsdale) and the Summertime

House attack which resulted in nine deaths.

Other sites that should be included in the National Liberation Heritage Route are: the

Rocklands Civic Centre in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, which is the site of the launch of the

United Democratic Front in 1983; Community House in Salt River, Cape Town, which is the

location of the offices of many popular organisations and trade unions and the venue of

many political meetings; the Luxurama Theatre in Wynberg, Cape Town, St. Francis Adult

Education Centre in Langa, Samaj Centre, the Indian temple/cultural place in Rylands, the

DCO Makiwane Hall in Pietermaritzburg, Diakonia Centre in Durban, and other similar

venues where meetings were held in the 1980s phase of the struggle; and Nelson Mandela’s

house in Victor Verster prison in Paarl where he was imprisoned just before his release in

1990.

The 1990s

In terms of liberation heritage, this period is marked by a variety of different features that

relate more to violence between groups, and the efforts of the security forces and


25

homeland authorities to undermine open political activity and the revival of ANC and ANC-

aligned organisations (the campaign for open political activity). An unusual feature was the

activities of the Pan Africanist Congresses’ military wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation

Army (APLA), during the period. In addition, various acts of defiance are dealt with in this

sub-section to highlight some of the incidents of this type during the period under study

that deserve memorialisation.

Among the most significant leaders who deserve memorialisation and who should be

honoured in the National Liberation Heritage Route are: O.R. Tambo, whose memorial at his

birthplace in Nkantolo should be included in the Route; Nelson Mandela, whose memorial

at his birthplace in Mveso should be included in the Route; and Chris Hani, whose memorial

at his birthplace in Sabalele should be included in the Route.

A number of significant massacres occurred in this period that should be memorialised and

included in the National Liberation Heritage Route. Included here is: the Odi massacre, in

which eleven people were killed during a march by residents of Garankuwa, Mabopane,

Soshanguve and Winterveld to present a petition demanding reincorporation into South

Africa and the resignation of Chief Mangope on 7 February 1990; the Northern Areas

massacre, during which 49 people died in the Northern Areas coloured townships of Port

Elizabeth while participating in various protest actions between July 1990 and July 1991; the

August 1992 killings of community members in Dikidikana village by Brigadier Gqozo’s Ciskei

state security agents; the September 1992 Bhisho Massacre, during which 28 people were

shot dead by soldiers loyal to Brigadier Oupa Gqozo; the SADF raid on the home of an

Mthatha PAC member, Sigqibo Mpendulo, in which five youths, including a 12 year-old

child, were shot dead on 8 October 1993; and the Nquthu massacre, when eleven people

were killed during an attack by unknown gunmen on the house of the local traditional

leader on November 7, 1993.

Incidents of internecine political violence were the dominant relevant events during this

period. Among the most important conflicts that should be memorialised and included in

the National Liberation Heritage Route are: the conflict in Khayelitsha between

community/ANC members and community councillors in the early 1990s, which resulted in

several deaths; the killing of three people in Steynsburg during a conflict between members

of the Steynsburg Youth Congress and the local authorities in 1990; clashes between police

and residents in the Northern Transvaal towns of Messina and Nancefield over protests

against Black Local Authorities (BLAs) and a campaign opposing VAT in 1990 which resulted

in the death of one person; the conflict between the civic-aligned residents and members of

the Western Cape United Squatters Association (WECUSA) in Macassar, Khayelitsha in April

and May 1991 resulting in the deaths of least ten people; the conflict in Lwandle Township

in the Strand area between members of SANCO and members of WECUSA in the

neighbouring squatter camp of Waterkloof; the conflict in Crossroads between 1990 and

1993 between members of the community and councillors, which resulted in numerous


26

deaths; the 1993 conflict between members of the Trevor Vilakazi SDU and members of the

ANC in Khayelitsha and Nyanga; the conflict between the PAC and ANC in Fort Beaufort in

February 1993 resulting in the death of three men in separate incidents; the conflict

between the vigilante group AmaAfrika and supporters of the UDF, which began in

1986/1987 and flared up again in late 1989, continued into the 1990s in Uitenhage; the

conflict in Pondoland between ANC supporters and supporters of tribal authorities, which

left many people dead; the conflict between Ciskei government supporters and members of

the ANC in 1991; the Seven Day War in the lower Vulindlela and Edendale Valleys, south of

Pietermaritzburg, between Inkatha members and ANC-aligned communities in March 1990

during which 200 residents in the lower valley were killed; the killing of 16 township

residents by approximately 1,200 hostel-dwellers and other Inkatha supporters in the

township of Bruntville, near the farming town of Mooi River in the Natal Midlands, on 8

November 1990, and the killing of another 18 people on the night of 3–4 December 1991;

the killings carried out by Inkatha members in Sokhulu, a rural area north of Richards Bay;

the conflict between Inkatha and ANC-aligned youths in Bergville in the Drakensberg areas,

KwaZulu-Natal in 1993; the conflict in the northern Natal township of Ezakheni between

ANC and Inkatha members which resulted in a number of deaths in 1992 and 1993; the

conflict between ANC and IFP supporters in the Richmond area which flared up in the latter

half of the 1980s and peaked between 1991 and 1992 that resulted in a substantial number

of deaths; the conflict between ANC and IFP supporters in Umlazi Township, Durban, in

March 1993 which resulted in the deaths of 15 women and three children; the killing of

twelve IFP-supporting youths at Bomela, on the lower South Coast, on 4 September 1992;

and the killing of twenty IFP supporters in an attack on a religious ceremony at Folweni, in

the Umbumbulu district south of Durban on 26 October 1992.

Some sites are linked to the activities of the armed wings of the liberation movements.

These include: the killing of MK combatants who died in the nearby Barkly Pass as well as

community members in Barkly East who were killed whilst protesting in 1990, 1991 and

1992; the St. James’ Church Massacre, during which 11 people were killed when two APLA

cadres entered a church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, and fired upon the congregants on 25

July 1993; the Heidelberg Tavern attack carried out by APLA cadres, during which three

women were killed in the tavern in Observatory, Cape Town; the killing of Amy Biehl by PAC

youths in Gugulethu, Cape Town, on 25 August 1993; the early 1992 attack on the

Wilgespruit farm at Lady Grey near Aliwal North and an attack on police at Lady Grey carried

out by APLA cadres; the 15 August 1992 attack on an Umtata police station, including theft

of weapons, carried out by APLA cadres; the attack on the golf club at King William’s Town

on 28 November 1992 carried out by APLA cadres, resulting in the deaths of four people;

the attack on a Spur restaurant in Queenstown on 3 December 1992; the attack on the

Yellowwoods Hotel at Fort Beaufort on 20 March 1993 carried out by APLA cadres that

resulted in one death; the 13 March 1994 attack on members of the Baha’i faith in

Mdantsane carried out by APLA cadres; and the March 1994 attacks on a minibus near Fort


27

Jackson and on a minibus at the Da Gama factory outside East London carried out by APLA

cadres, in which a police officer and two attackers died; and the attack on the Crazy Beat

Disco Club in Newcastle carried out by APLA cadres on Valentine’s Day 1994 in which one

woman died.

Conclusion

The liberation struggle has given rise to hundreds of heritage sites throughout the country,

which together form the basis of local, municipal, district, provincial and national liberation

heritage routes. Many of the sites have a specific geographical location and/or structure(s),

while many others do not. In terms of the former, this is clearly the case for the early wars

of resistance, rebellions, uprisings, massacres, freedom trails, significant military

confrontations between guerrillas and security forces, graves of freedom fighters, houses of

significant leaders, significant buildings and sites where activities of the liberation

movements were conducted, etc. However, in terms of the latter, there are many events

that cover a wide geographical area such that no single site or structure can be identified

that epitomizes these events. Examples here include the many communities that

experienced years of extensive repression and resistance which have no heritage site

memorializing this history (e.g. the Vulindlela community outside Pietermaritzburg which

experienced years of political violence from 1987 in what has been termed the Midlands

War), and the June 16th uprising in places like Cape Town which drew in thousands of

activists over wide geographical spaces and resulted in the deaths of many.

The relatively small number of interviews and workshops the research team has conducted

has given rise to two suggestions of relevance here. The first is to create a series of

liberation struggle memorials throughout the country consisting of plaques that contain the

history of resistance and repression in that community (e.g. the Midlands War in Vulindlela)

and/or of the event(s) being memorialised (e.g. the 1976 uprising in Cape Town), as well as

the list of names of people who died during that event or series of events. The second

suggestion is the establishment of Centres of Memory in each Province and/or major city

that serve both as repositories and resource centres for memory on the liberation struggle.

These Centres could be new establishments, or already-identified liberation heritage sites

that could easily serve the purpose of collecting, storing, exhibiting and displaying, and

distributing (to other liberation heritage sites) relevant liberation history artefacts and

archival material (photographs, documents, etc.).

References

“1808: The Day Cape Town was turned Upside Down”, Iziko Museums of Cape Town. 16 October 2008.


28

Cele, M., ‘A brief history of the Durban Bantu Social Centre’, The Thinker, Vol. 33, 2011.

Cherry, J., Umkhonto Wesizwe, Jacana, Auckland Park, 2012. Cherry, J., ‘No Easy Road to Truth: The TRC in the Eastern Cape’, Paper presented at the Wits

History Workshop Conference, June 1999. Chris Hani District Municipality, Liberation Heritage Route (Queenstown, Chris Hani DM,

2008). See http://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/corylibrary/ documents/Icon%20Site%20Guide%20Electronic.pdf. (Site accessed 13 June 2013).

Davenport, T.R.H., South Africa: A modern history, Third edition, Johannesburg, MacMillan, 1987.

Etherington, N., Preachers, Peasants and Politics Politics in Southeast Africa, 1835–1880: African Christian Communities in Natal, Pondoland and Zululand, London, Royal Historical Society, 1978.

Field, S., ‘Sites of memory in Langa’, in S. Field, R. Meyer and F. Swanson (eds.), Imagining the City: Memories and culture in Cape Town, Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2007.

Green, P. and Hirsch, A., ‘The Impact of Resettlement in the Ciskei: Three case studies’, SALDRU Working Paper No. 49, Cape Town, Southern Africa labour and Development Research Unit, April 1983.

Guest, B., ‘Colonists, confederation and constitutional change’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest (eds), Natal and Zululand: From Earliest Times to 1910, Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press and Shutter and Shooter, 1989.

Lives of Courage: David Stuurman published on the South African History Online available at the URL: http://www.sahistory.org.za (retrieved on 2013-06-06).

Manger, A. and Manley, G., ‘Reaping the Whirlwind: the East London Riots of 1952’, Wits History Workshop, 6-10 February 1990.

Mati, S., ‘‘Western Cape Historical Narrative: Khoi Wars of Resistance to 1910’, draft paper prepared for the Unsung Heroes and Heroines Project, 2013.

Maylam, A history of the African people of South Africa: From the early iron age to the 1970s, Croom Helm, London, 1986.

Mellet, P.T., ‘Two world events that influenced the Cape slave uprising. Cape Slavery Heritage: Slavery and Creolisation in Cape Town’. Available at www.cape-slavery-heritage.iblog.co.za.

Mellet, P.T., ‘Cape Slavery Heritage: Slavery and Creolisation in Cape Town’. Available at www.blogs.24.com.

Morris, D., The washing of the spears: a history of the rise of the Zulu nation under Shaka and its fall in the Zulu War of 1879, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1965.

Mountain, A., The First People of the Cape, Claremont, David Philip, 2003. Nkomo, M., Swartz, D. and Maja, B. (eds.), Within the Realms of Possibility, Cape Town,

HSRC Press, 2006. Peires, J. and Webb, D., ‘National Liberation Route – Sites Associated with Unsung Heroes

and Heroines in the Eastern Cape’, draft paper prepared for the Unsung Heroes and Heroines Project, 2013.

Pophiwa, N. and Maaba, B., ‘The Liberation Struggle: Limpopo’, draft paper prepared for the Unsung Heroes and Heroines Project, 2013.

Saunders, C.C., ‘The New African elite in the Eastern Cape and some late nineteenth century origins of African nationalism’, unpublished paper, nd. Available at www.sas.ac.uk.

The Record, 205, van Riebeeck’s Journal 4 April 1660.

http://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/corylibrary/%20documents/Icon%20Site%20Guide%20Electronic.pdf

http://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/corylibrary/%20documents/Icon%20Site%20Guide%20Electronic.pdf

http://www.sahistory.org.za/

http://www.sas.ac.uk/


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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, The Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Volume 3, 29 October 1998, p. 164. Available at www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2003/trc/.

Witz, L., ‘From Langa Market Hall and Rhodes' Estate to the Grand Parade and the Foreshore: Contesting Van Riebeeck's Cape Town’, Kronos, No. 25, Pre-millennium issue, 1998/1999.

Wright, J. and Hamilton, C., ‘Ethnicity and political change before 1840’, in R. Morrell (ed.), Political Economy and Identities in KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 1996.

http://www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2003/trc/

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The South African liberation struggle and national liberation heritage sites

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