Apartheid's Genocide On Children: The Killing of African South African Kids from 1985 to Beyond Y2K

Setting Up The Apartheid Killing Squads

In his book, Unfinished Business" he wrote with Dumisa Ntsebeza, Terry Bell issued this advise: "So, in a matter in which the victimized poor seek to get the beneficiaries of Apartheid to be held to account for their unjust enrichment through apartheid, a crime against humanity, it is the leadership of a democratic government [ANC] that seeks to protect the partner in crime of Apartheid from their day of reckoning. ... I would also hope that you join me in committing yourself to ensuring that the truth about South Africa and Apartheid - in a global and national context - is never buried and distorted."

Botha's strategy to shrink the population were not the ravings of a mad man, but a deliberate and conscious effort effort to bring Africans in South Africa to their knees. The Botha regime learned valuable lessons from the Student revolts of 1976, and they set out to do something about it. Even today, most Whites in South Africa often pretend to be shocked and amazed by the after effects of these atrocities and their aftermath on the present day African youth of South Africa. The truth is that there has been a concerted effort to arrest, physically torture, psychologically terrorize, and harass children from a few months old to those in their late twenties by the Apartheid operatives. Most the Whites in South Africa did not and still do not understand and know their African neighbors and children and what has happened to them since 1979 to today. What has been written by Africans about the horrid conditions they were surviving under Apartheid has been wiped out of the South African Historical Memory. So, many whites, in order to assuage their guilt, write on behalf of and for Africans what has happened to them during the Apartheid regime's rule, exploiting the reality that most Africans have not been able to write about the hell they went through and are still going through under the new ANC government in South Africa.

Even during the rule of the ANC under Mbeki, and up to today, there is an unwritten law directed against Africans not say anything that will be perceived by these minions as being against the "People". There is even a term for those who are considered to be 'reactionaries' and 'anti-people' known as "Coping", named after the splinter ANC group which called itself "Cope". There has been a chilling effect on the intellectuals within South Africa to retreat from the social/political discourse within South Africa bout issues the African hold dear to their interests. This works neatly for those Whites within South Africa who wish to see a divided African society and a silenced intellectual class, thus denying the go-ahead to voice out their displeasures and be able to highlight the ineptitude of the ANC, about the backwardness of the African masses. This issues has been dealt with at length in my present hub "Cry the Beloved Peoples", and in this Hub we will be looking in a much in-depth manner through which the Boers carried out their Master Strategy of elimination children from 1985s, and the violence that has been visited upon the African people from 1985 to the Year 2000 onwards by the ANC.

JMCs and The Strategy to Win the Hearts and Minds(WHAM)

In democratic societies, ordinary people can express their political aspirations through the institutions of political society. When, however, an authoritarian state restricts democratic society's processes, the disempowered people tend to turn to social movements built within the civil society to express their political demands. Frantz Fanon put it this way: "The oppressed cures himself of colonial neurosis... when his rage boils over, he rediscovers his lost innocence and he comes to know himself in that he creates himself." Within the Apartheid state, there were important differences of opinion on how to respond to the deepening 1976 crisis. The military's solution to these problems was the formulation of "Total Strategy". The Apartheid military justified this Total Strategy by arguing that South Africa was under "Total Onslaught"

The first and most important phase of Total strategy involved the dramatic reorganization of the pinnacle of state power. The second phase involved cutting down the number of state department from thirty-nine to twenty-two. and a new mega-department was created in 1982,namely, the Department of Constitutional Development and Planning under Minister Chris Heunis. The Third phase involved the ongoing process of rationalizing areas of authority. The administration of Africans was spread across various departments. The Department of Constitutional Development and Planning emerged as the real power-center involved in managing African Affairs. However, its responsibilities were no longer defined in pure racial terms. By 1985, this department controlled a wide range of multi-racial structures including local authorities. This department also concerned itself with policies related to Homelands/Bantustans consolidation. (Hindson and Swelling)

Tightly tied to the office of the Prime Minister, was the security establishment, which became in effect, the institutional apparatus through which Botha consolidated his hold on State power. The security establishment at this time consisted of the following: the Department of Defense and the South African Defense Force(SADF; The Intelligence Services; the Intellectual community, based mainly at the Afrikaans Universities and organizations like the Institute for Strategic Studies at the University of Pretoria, and private concerns such as the Terrorism Research Center; Armscor(an arms producing cartel of the Apartheid regime); the South African Police. The raison d'etre of the State Security Council(SSC) was 'security', defined so as to include economic, political, constitutional, ideological and welfare issues. The main objective of the the government was to pull the state together into an efficient machine capable of synchronized action(Grundy) The security establishment in South Africa came closer than any other institution to do this because of its internally tight hierarchy of command and its substantial resources that were mobile and deployable. In a word, what took place was the Militarization of the State and the Politicization of the Military.(Seegers)

What emerged was a dual state that rested on a hybrid of party government based on the parliamentary process, and a militarized state rooted in the security establishment. Furthermore, the politicized security establishment operated on the assumption that although it had the right to formulate state strategy and control 'order functions', reformist and welfare functions were required by definition, to be carried-out by civilians. Hence, critical and central importance was given to the Department of Constitutional Development and Planning. Its director,Chris Heunis,was presented with a mandate to carry out this reform. The concept of Total Strategy had left many of the of Apartheid creations intact(such as Bantustans, Press control and constitutional exclusion of Africans from central government), but the state did introduce significant modification to some basic institutions of political society. In reality, however, what the White minority government was prepared to concede, fell too short of what the African majority was prepared to accept. In the end, Total Strategy failed because its idealistic intentions were thwarted by a sustained period of African resistance. This resistance exacerbated and brought to the fore key structural contradictions which Total Strategy reforms had failed to address.

All these extensions and other reform program were ad hoc responses to the deepening crises and to pressures from political movements, business organizations, the International Community and Trade Unions. What was important about these shifts was that they unintentionally undid the existing policy positions without being coupled to a coherent set of alternatives. The state was convinced that it was directly threatened with imminent revolution, and it turned to 'counter revolutionary warfare strategies' to resolve the general crisis. The strategies they used have been well articulated by McCuen in his book, "The Art of Counter-Revolutionary War". Up until 1986, the reform initiative within the state lay in the hands of groups largely located in Minister Heunis's Department of Constitutional Development and Planning, the Department of Manpower, Finance and Foreign Affairs and the National Party itself. Popular protests, therefore, produced two responses with the state. There were the 'political reformers' who believed that it was possible to extend the reform program and widen access points to political society. Then there were the 'Securocrats' who were straining to implement a counter-revolutionary program (Cawthra)

During the Period of April-May 1986, the reform division within the state emerged at a public level. Whereas Botha and the Security establishment were exhorting Total Strategy against Total Onslaught, maintaining the homelands, denying 'detention of political leaders', Heunis and the political Reformers were extending reforms and supporting negotiations between senior government officials and the ANC leaders in exile and in jail. Botha had previously stated that the 'suspension of violence' by the ANC was a sufficient precondition. When the ANC indicated that they would accept the former,Botha and the military were stuck with the sudden realization that they had to make a choice: release Nelson Mandela and negotiate a transfer of power to a weaker ANC, or, re-establish control by crushing resistance in civil society, outlawing it in a political society, creating new social relations and promoting African leaders. In choosing the latter option, the state put in application a 'counter-revolutionary strategy' which involved the imposition of the National State of Emergency and full scale activation of National Security Management System(NSMS) (Swilling and Phillips and the Washington Post, March 1985)

By mid-1986, political Reformists in the Department of Constitutional Development and Planning won-out. Instead of increasing functional specialization, the military began to train their officers to acquire expertise in internal security matters that were embracing all aspects of social,economic and political life. In fact, the decision to fight the battle through state institutions required a 'unified effort' of soldiers, policemen, politicians and bureaucrats. What emerged was a highly centralized bureaucratic-cum military structure with the power and ability to coordinate the implementation of both security and political policies. Political society and the dual state remained largely intact even though the NSMS took direct responsibility for the formulation and implementation of all strategies with the common objective of winning the war.

The 'counter-revolutionary' theory that informed state strategy was based on the desire to "Win the Hearts And Minds" of the people - the so-called WHAM program. The fundamental difference between Total Strategy and WHAM was that the latter was no longer concerned primarily with restructuring the access points of political society. Instead, the emphasis fell on recasting the foundations of civil society so that political access points could at some future date be restructured in a way that did not threaten the system as a whole. The lifeblood of the NSMS was the network of more than 500 regional districts and Joint Management Centers(JMCs). These brought together the military, police and civilian officials under the chairmanship of the ranking military officer. The JMCs interfaced with the public through the Joint Liaison Forums and Defense Manpower Liaison Committees(Delmacons) (Seegers)

JMCs were used by the state to rip communities apart, remove their leaders and put together the pieces in the image of the state. These repressive measures were complemented by the 'Reformists' dimension of state strategy. They have since been appropriated and recast by the 'counter revolutionary warfare' strategists. These security planners referred to this as 'soft warfare'. It consisted of the following:

1. Infrastructural Upgrading

200 Townships were earmarked for upgrading projects. The Directorate of Urbanization in the Department of Constitutional Development and PLanning funneled R16 billion($7 billion) from the proceeds of privatization for socio-economic upgrading.

2 . Housing Development

By way of special grants through the South African Housing Trust and National Housing Commission, the state, in conjunction with the private sector, embarked on the most extensive housing construction program since the 1950s.

3. Local Government Reform

Some corrupt local authorities were dismissed, and Regional Service Council introduced because African Township residents could no longer pay for rent and services.

4. Scrapping Influx Control

Millions of people who were previously excluded from the right to reside in urban areas could now do so, on condition they had access to employment and 'approved accommodation'.

5. Legitimation of State Structures

This involved massive expenditures on propaganda through Radio, TV and pamphlets to persuade people to pay rent, service charges and bus fares,. Extensive campaigns were designed to criminalize popular organizations.

6. Populist Cooption in Squatter Camps

JMC officials realized that squatter camps provided invaluable opportunities for co-option. They bought co-option by granting local populist 'warlords' control over the allocation of resources and provided them with basic urban services.

7. The National Council

To carry through to higher levels of government the inclusions of africans, a National Council was formed. It was to hammer out a post-Apartheid Tricamerial Constitution.

8. Bothanomics

This meant a responsive version of inward industrialization based on wage freezes, deregulation of uncontrolled regional-metropolitan labor markets and reckless privatization. The state was making important concessions, but on its own terms, whilst popular leaders were in jail. (van der Merwe, 1988)

The concrete counter-revolutionary strategies pursued by the state since 1986 illustrated the the dual security and welfare objectives. The repressive 'hard war' measures included the following: Press Restrictions, Mass Detention, Vigilante and Death Squad Activities, Forced Removals, Banning and Restricting Organizations and Activists, Evictions and Security Force harassment and the targeting of children. (Tomasseli, 1991)

Violence, Torture, Murder, and Psychological Abuse of Children

If there was one place where the debate over P.W. Botha's Constitutional Reforms seemed utterly irrelevant, that was SOWETO, the vast Township located just outside of Johannesburg that is really one of Africa's largest cities. It holds more people than the entire nearby countries such as Botswana and Swaziland, perhaps now upward of 5 million plus people. Soweto epitomizes Apartheid's failure. By all evidence, the vast majority of the people who live there regarded themselves not as "temporary sojourners" in White South Africa, but as permanent city dwellers and original South Africans, and were confined to an area where they are doomed to receive minimal services and maximum harassment. From the days of Apartheid up today under the ANC government, they demonstrate frequently and demonstrate that they do not accept the inferior system imposed upon them by the Afrikaner government and the ANC. For example, when the government regarded it as an important step toward self-management by urban Africans, and arranged for the people to hold municipal elections in Soweto in December 1983, fewer than a thousand people voted. When the effort fell flat on its face, the people of Soweto danced in the streets to celebrate the defeat of Apartheid and its selected puppets.

Until 1976, it was possible to believe that the South African government would be able to control the situation in Soweto indefinitely. But the student's revolution of 1976, in which tens of thousands were killed and injured, maimed and disappeared, this electrified Soweto and the place has never been the same since. The students' grievances were those against the instruction of their subjects in Afrikaans. This led to the explosion and war against the children because it was the children who were leading this revolution. Up to this point, the Whites in South Africa really did not know the people of Soweto or Africans throughout the whole of South Africa. Even today, although many whites, talk and write about and on behalf of South Africans and their history or lives under Apartheid, they clearly do not now anything about the people. They write about their music, artists, history, crimes, accuse them about their culture, criticize them at any given opportunity, and they do so without really knowing much about Africans in South Africa. Whites in South Africa are guilty of killing and torturing a large swath of the African population, and now they want to assuage their guilt by preempting African South Africans by becoming their "Spokes-men and Spokes-women" on anything African because they have made the rest of the African population utterly poor and sick, and the Apartheid White benefactors remained filthy rich. Therefore, when it comes to the Internet, few in the Ghettoes around South Africa own their own computers, save for the fledgling Internet Cafes sparsely dotting the ghetto landscape, so that, that's only when are the people able to have access to the Web. The fees for Africans to own their own internet are too exorbitant and people are too poor to pay for one on monthly basis.

As for Whites, they are so rich, they have now taken it upon themselves to tell the world about the people they have victimized, and in so doing, pick and choose all the narratives that put Whites in a "Good" light, and Africans as brutes, fiendish and immoral dim-wits who cannot even run a country, let alone take care of themselves, to the eyes of the world. For example, Basskap is still prevalent in South Africa as of writing of this Hub, African Students have, again, failed their matriculation exams dismally in droves in the New Rainbow government of 'National Unity' run by the ANC. The more things have changed at all in South Africa, the more they have steadfastly remained the same. Along with Afrikaans being taught as an overall subject in African schools, the above discourse is mostly part of what irked African students: the unbearable patronizing nature of Whites in all spheres of African life; pretentious and sneaky post-apartheid whites who are endeavoring to court International consent by exploiting the issues and lives of Africans through presenting them in a negative light, or picking and choosing what they want to highlight, irrespective of what Africans thought, did, or say about themselves. And the insensitive and corrupt ANC-led government which is still enjoying themselves abroad the never-ending gravy train since their being in power in 1994. This leads us now to the crux of the matter at hand, the abuse of children under apartheid in their own words and experiences. See the picture gallery for this part about Apartheid. Just like the Jews said about Hitler's concentration Camps, "Never Again", so are the Africans saying, "Never again and the truth about Apartheid and its minions shall out and liberate them." At present, Africans are saying to the ANC, "Sekwanele" (enough is enough), and they(ANC) seem to be arrogant and not listening to the African people.

The Apartheid Child Meat Grinders

Children Killed by the Apartheid Regime in the Streets

As the unrest flared up in every part of the country, for the first time there were doubts about whether the White regime, even with the extraordinary force it had at its disposal, would be able to bring the situation under control. South Africa's formidable military machine came to be required almost full-time to help suppress domestic protest, despite an increase of 25 per cent in recruitment into the police force. Fearful and frustrated over the growth of violence, and pressure from the verkrampte right, Botha imposed a State of Emergency and under it he gave the police and the military unrestricted power and authority to act when and where they pleased. Under the new curfew laws, thousands of people identified as the opponents of the regime were arrested without charges and detained with a naive perception that they could be taken out of circulation and peace could be achieved. As the state of emergency wore on, the daily death toll rapidly increased, and repression began to happen, and their legitimacy(Apartheid's) was scoffed-at by the world, and they were labeled a 'pariah', which stuck with them until their ultimate fall from power.

It is also widely known that the police, when sweeping through some African townships, arrested young children who refused to end their school boycotts and return to classes; in some cases, their parents had to search frantically for them in jails and they plead for their release. The lawyers committee for Human Rights, Black Sash and the Detainees Parents Support Committee charged that thousands of children have been killed, injured, maimed and left psychologically deranged at the height of the state of emergency. Some students and children suspected of throwing stones at official vehicles, were pursued with sjamboks (Metal-tipped whips) and badly beaten and tortured(See photos in the photo gallery); children who tried to run away from the confrontations with the police were randomly shot at, often from behind. With the government's unwitting assistance, an entire new generation of African South Africans was either wiped out or radicalized. And many children out of school, most of them went into exile and joined the ANC, PAC and Black Consciousness movements.

- For the whole of 1985 and onwards, thousands of people had been killed and all were Africans. The violence came with intensified opposition and escalating discontent and civil unrest within the African community within the Townships. (The Townships were segregated residential areas set side under the policy of Apartheid for African residents). They were particularly isolated from the 'privileged white areas' and many had only minimal or no facilities in the way of water, electricity, sanitation and other amenities - one can also see the place where where the Semenya girl was born and raised, dilapidated and very poor area, even today in the days of ANC rule). The 1985 State of Emergency imposed on African Townships was ruthless and crushed all opposition, suppressed dissenting voices, and barred the media from reporting what was going on. This particular State of Emergency lasted for eight months as happened in Soweto in 1976, infants, babies[were killed], children and young people in the township were at the forefront of protests and were on the receiving end of apartheid repressive juggernaut. Far from being spared the brunt of repression, babies, children and young people(teenagers) and others, were targeted and singled-out as special target of state-sanctioned violence. Here are some incidents that need to be considered, remembered and known:

- Joseph was a shy, quiet boy, only 14 years old. The fingernails of one of his hands were twisted and blackened as a result of electric shock treatment to which soldiers subjected him many times during the day he was kept, along with other children, at an army camp outside Daveyton. His wrist was scarred where he was burned with a cigarette lighter. His leg bears a wound where it was cut by soldiers with a broken soda drink bottle. Joseph was blindfolded when he was first picked up by the soldiers on September 19, 1985 while playing football and does not know exactly where the camp was. For nine days, the soldiers terrorized Joseph and other children they had picked up with him.

- Thirteen year old Moses Mope was on his way to church on October 21, 1985 with friends when a car pulled up beside the group. The children started to flee, but Moses was grabbed by a white policeman who savagely beat and trampled on the young boy. A neighbor took Moses home, covered with blood. 'When I touched his stomach, he pulled away in agony", his father told a reporter. "I also noticed his jaw was cracked and he was injured on the head and other parts of the body." Moses was only semi-conscious and died on the way to the hospital.

- Four years old Mitah Ngobeni was shot dead on September 10, 1985 by a rubber bullet while playing in the yard of her home in Atteridgeville. Although rubber bullets are supposed to be non-lethal, Mitah died of skull and brain damage and excessive blood loss.

- In November 1985 a local resident had witnessed the deliberate shooting of 15 year-old Dominic Ntlemenza: "This boy was walking and then I saw the Casspir(Military Vehicle) come down the road. One policeman jumped off the Casspir and shot the boy. The boy tried to stand up and then they shot him in the head. Then they went away and they left the body there. There were no boys throwing stones next to the road. The boy, whose name I now know as Dominic, was alone."

- A mother in Crossroads last saw her 13 year old son alive when he left the house at 4.30 p.m. on October 7, 1985,. It took days of searching before she found her son, shot by the police but no one had contacted her or her husband. She was unable to learn the circumstances of the shooting, but was horrified that the mortuary refused to hand over her son's clothing because they were too full of holes.

- In September 18,1985, the security forces opened fire on a crowd to disperse or kill them, and a ten year old girl was shot dead.

- Two babies were killed by tear gas in Mamelodi Township near Pretoria. On that day, 19 people were killed as a result of the police actions to disperse the women. Tear gas was fired into number of houses to "flush people out," and two babies later died in the hospital from the effects of the gas. One observer who was at the march explained: "Tear gas was fired directly inside the house and everyone had to hold a wet cloth over their face. The mother, of one of the dead children, her name is Phephi, had a small baby only a few months old. The baby was badly affected by the gas and her eyes were streaming. The next day I heard that the baby had died.... The police countered that one of the babies, Trocia Ndlovu, had died from malnourishment and diarrhea.

- Parents whose children did not return home faced the uncertainty of not knowing whether the child had been arrested and hospitalized with injuries or already dead. Sixteen year-old Oscar left his house on the evening of October 5, 1985 to go to the movies. It was not until 6 a.m. the next morning that his father learned that Oscar had stopped at a house where a wedding was being held and that a policeman had opened fire on the guests. When the father got to the scene, he learned that his son was already dead. When the police sot at the wedding crowds, and everybody scattered, his son was shot in the back, fell face down, the police came over kicked the body until it turned over. When a wake and night vigil was held for him, the police came and fired at Oscar's house in the early hours of the morning, and another child was killed.

- On January 6, 1986, in Walmer Township just outside Port Elizabeth, a thirteen year-old girl died from a head wound inflicted by a tear gas canister fired by police when they attempted to disperse a crowd at a student rally. The child, Ntombekhaya Magubase, was on a shopping errand when she was hit by the canister that fractured her skull.

- Three students, including a teenage boy, were shot dead by police on March, 1986 as they waited with a large crowd of school children outside a White River magistrate court where a number of their fellow-pupils were appearing on charges of public violence. Because the children could not be accommodated inside the building, the police came and opened fire without provocation, and the shocked attorney,with the consent of the Johannesburg Bar Council said afterwards; "I feel it is my duty to make the following observations: "The crowd was not uncontrollable. I heard no order to disperse. I neither saw nor experienced any tear gas being fired. I saw nothing to justify the view that the shooting was the last resort available to the police."

Injuries of Children Caused by the Police

- In January 1986, a Cape Town Hospital confirmed that three children had been admitted and were paralyzed by gun shot wounds. The youngest was 12 years old. The mother of one of the boys stated that they had been shot by the police.

- Fourteen year-old Ernest was shot by the police on october 25, 1985 while visiting his aunts in Meadowlands, Soweto. He was standing in the yard when a police car drove past and police in plainclothes shot him. He was hit in the spinal cord, and is now permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

- Children get caught-up in deliberate cross-fires whenever in the streets and confrontation with the police occured. Eleven year-old Peter spent four days in the hospital after he was shot on June 16, 1985 as he was waking to is sister's house: "I was walking along M. Street when I heard people chanting. I was approximately 30 meters away from crowd. I heard some shots, turned around and ran. I was shot and fell down. I tried to crawl away, two people unknown to me picked me up and took me to G's place. From there I was taken to Vryburg hospital."

- A young boy in Port Alfred was brutally beaten by police when they burst into a house in pursuit of rioters. The terrified child was hiding under a pillow. When the police found him, they dragged him outside and beat him, only releasing him when he pleaded that he was merely ten years-old. In one extreme case, in Port Elizabeth a father who was trying to protect his daughter by restraining them from hurting her, the police shot him dead on the spot.

- Thirteen year-old Sipho was walking home from the shops on September 30, 1985 when he noticed the police chasing some boys. Not wanting to get caught up in the chase, he ran into a nearby house to hide. When they saw him run away, the police followed him and put him in their van, where they beat him. According to a statement taken by the unrest monitoring group of the Progressive Federalist Party: "In the van the police beat Sipho, kicking him with their boots on the legs and in the stomach, while Sipho was half-lying on the bench inside the van. The police also beat Sipho on the front of the body with Sjamboks. One of the policemen squeezed him around the neck as if to strangle Sipho. A Sjambok was also used to pull Sipho's head back by pulling it across his open mouth. The police pushed Sipho out of the moving van some distance away from home. Some neighbors found him and he was taken to hospital with an ambulance, where he underwent surgery.

- On October 3, 1985, another 15 year-old boy in Nyanga was picked up at the place where he was working. The police were looking for some kids they were chasing. They asked him where the other boys were, and when he could not answer, they sjamboked him and threw him inside their van. Inside the van the police closed all the windows and put on tear gas masks. They shot off a tear gas canister while they were hitting him. They also made him drink some foul tasting liquid which was presumed to be urine from a small plastic juice bottle.

- Michael, who was only nine years old, went with some friends to watch a burning van that had been set alight near his home. On their way there, they saw the police, who came for them. As they fled, Michael was shot in both legs and ran into a neighbor's yard. The soldiers followed him, hit him and asked why he had run away. Eventually they left him and drove away.

- A 12 year old child, while on an errand was shot by the police even when he had fallen in October 1995. Doctors in a clinic in Crossroads treated the boy for gunshot wounds. The doctors said that the boy could not have been shot running away, but while lying on the ground. The boy said that when he was running away from the police, he fell whilst trying to climb a wall, after which the police came and shot him in both legs. He was later charged with public violence by the police.

- Zwakhe, aged four years, was shot as he was standing with his parents on a street corner near his house. A wedding was in progress and the excitement of the crowd attracted a policeman, who opened fire at random. Zwakhe's mother said:"My husband was shot with birdshot in both legs. I was shot in my leg and my right breast and I lost consciousness. My son was shot in the foot, the thigh and in his forehead. I was eight months pregnant at the time. The policeman came and apologized. He said he would "stand for everything." We went to the hospital three times. They could take out the stitches in his forehead because the wound was sceptic." Mrs. M. who gave birth to her baby prematurely shortly after the incident, explained that her on was now frightened and refused to play outside.

- A sixteen year-old in Cradock, the Cape, was grabbed by two police men, and they pushed him to run. As he ran, the policemen shot him and wounded him in the buttocks. The policemen came and pulled him with his legs and threw him into hippo(name for a military vehicle), and took him to hospital and kept him under 24 hours watch, accusing him of being a ringleader in the Township.

- Chantal was 17 years old, when she was arrested in Cape Town on September 24, 1985 after being stopped at a roadblock. She believes she was singled out because she was a member of the Student Representative Council at her school. She described how she was humiliated during interrogation at the police station. Ten males and one female were present: "[A policeman] smacked me from behind on the rear right hand side of my neck. I grabbed hold of the desk to prevent me from falling over. Everybody laughed about what had happened while the questioning continued... the short man smacked me on my right ear so that I almost fell to the ground and another "white man' smacked me on the left hand side of my face ... [T]he short man put both his hands around my throat and lifted me off the ground. He choked me in that position (i.e., feet off the floor) for about two minutes afterwards he threw me on the ground. I fell on my back. the rest of the people cheered and laughed and one of the men hugged the short policeman. ... [Two others] then pulled me by my hair about five times while I was questioned and while answering. ... A tall man was hitting continuously, hitting me with his fists on my back. ... [The short policeman] then smacked me against my right ear again. I was then feeling dizzy, my ear was "singing." The short man then hit me with his fist in my right eye. Everyone was then laughing and enjoying themselves. I told the person who was questioning me to tell them to stop hitting me because I thought that they were going to kill me...." Some of the policemen regarded their duties as a kind of sport.

Children in the Hospital Being Arrested by the Police

Children shot in the face faced the risk of arrest if they sought medical treatment. As a result, although swift medical treatment may have been vital for the child's survival after being shot, many parents were now afraid to take their injured children to hospitals for treatment.

- 12 years old Mirriam was shot on June 17, 1985 returning from the shop with a loaf of bread. She saw a large group of boys and girls running in all directions, and they told Mirriam to run because the police were coming. She could not keep up with the others, and she fell behind: "I saw a while policeman come out of a house I was running past. He had a long gun .... I was alone in the street and ran faster, still holding the bread. I did not hear any call from the policeman. As I reached the corner of 5th Avenue, I heard one bang and felt a terrible pain, but I was conscious. I felt the pain was in my back and saw my hand was bloody. The policeman did not pursue Mirriam, after he shot her. Her neighbors called her father who took her to the hospital. Once at the hospital, Mirriam was formally arrested and kept under police guard. She spent a month in hospital, then the police moved her to court and was charged with violence and stone throwing, a charge she denied. Without any legal representation, she was sentenced to five years' suspended imprisonment. The bullet was lodged in her back and the doctors told her that they could not remove it otherwise she would be paralyzed for life.

- Sixteen year-old Zisamile Mapela died in Soweto on August 3, 1985 from gun shot wounds. Police fired after a stone was thrown at their armored vehicle, and Zisamile was hit. His father did not dare take his son to the hospital because he feared Zisamile would be arrested. A local doctor stitched the wound but could not remove the bullet. The next day the boy's eyes seemed strange and he complained of feeling unwell. Hours later, he was dead.

- A doctor at a hospital in the Eastern Cape described how he tried to safeguard patients brought to him with gun shot wounds and other unrest-related injuries by keeping records that did not reveal the exact nature of their injuries. Police would walk in at any time through Casualty. At one point they installed a permanent booth outside the entrance to the Casualty Department and the hospital looked more like a military camp with police everywhere. They all carried guns and it created an atmosphere of great fear and tension so that people were afraid to come for help. The nurses were instructed to keep a list of everyone with a bullet or gun-shot wounds and copy of the list went straight to the police. Hospital administrators claimed they were legally bound to do this. This went on to the up until the 1990s. Once the police arrested someone who required hospitalization, they kept an armed guard by the bed day and night. Patients were sometimes handcuffed to their beds, even the ones who were so sick they could never escape.

A health spokesman to the Eastern Cape Provincial Council in May 1985, said that 47 patients were held under police or prison guard at eight different hospitals in the Eastern Cape between November 1984 and February 1985. Four of them , aged between 17 and 35, were restricted with leg irons and nine others were handcuffed to their beds. Fifteen of them were aged 18 or younger; the youngest patient under guard was only eight years old.

Police Attack and Patrol Funerals

- Funerals had become the occasion for police harassment and brutality. And these funerals for unrest victims were attended by thousands of people and often resembled political rallies where people came together to express their grievances and anger. The residents ignored the State of Emergency imposed on them by the government and the security forces took it upon themselves to break up the funeral crowds, and children were frequently caught up in these confrontations.

- In Mzinoni Township on August 27, 1985 at the funeral of Mpopi Sam Nhlanhla who was shot dead by the police, became a seriously sad scene when the police came and beat up everyone attending the vigil. They whipped everyone with sjamboks. Somo Vilakazi, a 15 year old girl was asleep when the police assaulted everyone, and when the policeman saw her, he kicked her in the mouth resulting in her loosing five teeth. Another girl, Gugu Shabalala was whipped across the face and at least ten other sustained eye injuries as a result of the beatings.

- Nombulelo aged 15, was among four busloads of mourners on their way to a funeral in White City, Soweto on January 1986 when the buses were stopped at the cemetery entrance by the police: "A land rover with sneezing Gas appeared and released the gas into the buses .... [W]e tried to get out of the bus, we then broke the windows and went out. We ran to the nearest houses ... the police then appeared and chased me. He caught me and threw me to the ground and beat me and kicked me."

- Petros who was 15 in August 3, 1985, got the similar experience and treatment when he was leaving the cemetery after a funeral: "While the buses were moving towards the Molele home, our bus was stopped by a hippo and policeman boarded it .... They asked all older people to alight and told us they found petrol bombs and huge rocks on the bus. The started to beat us with their guns, sjamboks and batons. I was injured on the left knee and left knuckle with the butt of a gun .... All of us were beaten up including the girls .... [W]e were not arrested or charged.

- 16 Years old Amos attended the same funeral. Afterwards he went to the bereaved family's house for some refreshments: "While we were eating a lot of policemen arrived in hippos and a land rover and started shooting tear gas canisters at us outside in the yard. We ran outside into the street and then I ran to someone's house. I was followed by two black policemen but while I was still outside the yard at the house they started beating me with sjamboks on my legs, my back and my head and through my face .... I became unconscious.

- In october 1985, Lawrence Cindi who was 15 years old was shot dead by the police attending a vigil for a young school friend of his, Mandla Radebe, who was shot by the police a few days earlier. Lawrence and a few of Mandla's friends were in the yard of Radebe's house when three police vehicles drove by. The police fired tear gas and bullets, and Lawrence was fatally shot in the head. At Lawrence's vigil, the police arrived and broke up the crowd of mourners, brutally whipped them with sjamboks and arrested many of them.

The Incident of the "Trojan Horse"

- In Athlone ,Cape Town on October 15, 1985, an incident provoked country-wide outcry that was known as the "Trojan Horse", and it involved a deliberate and wanton ambush by the police. This is what happened: The township atmosphere had been tense on that day, and some children had been throwing stones and setting up barricades and the police disguised their entry into the township by hiding behind crates in a delivery van, knowing there will be stone throwing. As the van drove into the townships, before the residents realized what was happening, the police started shooting wildly from their hidden positions on the truck. In one home alone, one boy was killed, and seven other were shot, and none of these children were involved in stone throwing. The family where one boy was killed, had brought in the children into the house. One child wanted to return to his home, as he opened the door, followed by four others, the police at that time opened fire aiming at the house, and one adult narrated the incidence as follows: "Two seconds after the door opened, the police started shooting. I saw a yellow truck with boxes in it and I realized the police were hiding behind the boxes and shooting. They were aiming straight at the open door. It all happened very quickly. As I tried to shut the door, I was shot in the shoulder. Two of the younger children were cowering on the bed just inside the door. Andrew(aged 7) was shot in the arm, leg, chest and hip. Thabo (age 10) was shot through his leg and thigh. Michael (16 years) was shot under one arm four times. Jerry, aged 16, was one of the children who had gone outside. He came crawling back inside on all fours and we didn't realize it then, but he had been shot in the head. He staggered into the room and collapsed on a bed where he died seconds later. A nine-year old child who had been playing in the street with his bicycle was also shot dead. I slammed the door shut but four of the police came to the house and kicked it open .... They dragged Jerry's body roughly off the bed and across the floor. They tried to drag another child out too, but my mother pleaded with them to wait until his father came .... Another child outside who was terrified told the police that I was his mother so that they would let him come inside. They told him that if he came in, he must not say anything about what he had seen. Then the police went around the house and picked up all the shot pellets and left." The police continued to come back to the house and harass the family. Two children, aged six and nine were hysterically afraid whenever they saw a policeman near the house that one family member said: "It was as though they used the house for target practice. It was so deliberate. We can patch up the house, but we can never patch up all the children who were shot."

The SADF Abuses against the Children

During the state of emergency there was an increasing number of serious abuses by the army units deployed in the townships to assist the police. These mostly White young conscripts were part of the army's display of power and determination to crush all opposition by the use of force. The soldiers maintained a campaign of terror on their own initiative and frequently acted without regard for the law.. They took their victims into an open 'veld'(field) outside the townships or held them inside their armored vehicles, and this indicated that the soldiers were aware that they were acting extra-judicially. They would pick up the children in the street and hold them for many nightmarish hours. Because children are not formally arrested, there are no statistics that can be gleaned. The Detainees Parents Support Committee(DPSC) says that the army's abuses were very serious and widespread, as we have noted in the cases above, even the Human Rights communities were not really aware of.. so that, too many children who were afraid of the SADF were too scared to come forward and tell of their abuses.

- The few who spoke, like 17 year-old Siphiwe, who lived in Soweto, related what happened to him on October 9, 1985 when soldiers came into his house and dragged him outside, slapped him in the face and forced him to run along the streets followed by the Casspir: "They told me not to speak to anyone as they would let me go and then shoot me. They made me sit on the floor. There were about 8 soldiers in the Casspir. One soldier ... asked me to give name and addresses of COSAS members(COSAS was a broad-based student organization, and was banned). I could not as I did not know any. They then put a perfume like stuff on my hands and inhale it. It made me dizzy, they poured it on my hair ... [and one] held a cigarette near me. The Casspir stopped at a circle in White City(Soweto). A number of other Casspirs also stopped and a soldier form one of the Casspirs came to our Casspir. He started beating me with his fists and my mouth and nose were bleeding. A number of soldiers were kicking me back and forth between them. They then pulled my hair and someone else was stamping on my stomach. As one of the soldiers hit me, I ducked and when he hurt his hand against the Casspir, he made me lick the blood off his hand. I tried to hide behind one soldier, but he took his rifle and hit me on my face with the rifle butt. Another stamped on my neck while I was on the floor of the Casspir, and another one of the soldiers also poured water up my nose while another held my head back by my hair(water-boarding? ). In the end, the soldiers knew that they could not take him to the police station, so they "threw him out of the moving Casspir onto the road, where Siphiwe was picked up by two men and took him home.

- Another 17 year-old boy was picked up in Diepkloof (Soweto) on October 23, 1985 by soldiers and taken to a remote "veld"(field) beyond the township, and asked him if he was a member of COSAS. The boy described his abuse as follows: "One beat me with his fists and bent my thumbs back They made me sit on the ground with my legs stretched out in front of me apart. One soldier sat on each leg and they bent my fingers. One pushed his two fingers into my throat .... They kicked me on my back with their boots." Eventually the soldiers left they boy in the 'veld' and he managed to hitch a lift home, and the next day he was taken to a doctor for treatment.

- On December 2, 1985, a group of soldiers used tracker dogs to hunt for three boys who were hiding in a house in Dobsonville, Soweto. The boys had been visiting friends and ran away when they saw three Casspirs. They ran into a neighbors house where the third boy, fifteen years old Arthur, was asleep in bed. The soldiers got into the house, pulled him out of bed with his hair, beat him severely with their fists and rifle buts. The three were then thrown into the Casspir and beat them up some more. The soldiers picked up two more boys, and all were taken into the "veld", and eventually six more Casspirs joined them, and the soldiers set the dogs on them, beat, kicked and sjamboked, and they poured petrol over one of them and held a cigarette lighter near him. They tried to force them to tell them about the student organization, COSAS and the names of the people who had thrown petrol bombs. When the boys could not answer, they assaulted and whipped them again. Fifteen year-old Arthur was bitten and scratched by the dogs, and was so badly beaten so badly that eventually the soldiers took him to hospital for treatment. The soldiers in the end took him along with them and released him far from home about midnight.

Children were subjected to serious physical abuse by the soldiers who had set up their temporary barracks close to the townships. Some kids abducted by soldiers were kept there for several hours or days in detention.

- 12 year old Solomon was taken from his home in Soweto on October 21, 1985 at 2.30 am by five or six soldiers armed with rifles. The soldiers told his mother that they would take him to Orlando Police Station, but refused to tell her why. The family looked for him in several police stations, and could not find him. Finally, an SADF captain said that all children were being held at the base and would be taken to a police station later that day. The police let him go and dropped him three kilometers from his home. At first Solomon did not say much about his ordeal but complained the next day of a sore throat. He finally told his mother that soldiers had grabbed him by the throat and choked him until he could not breathe. He said he had been taken to the camp, beaten and forced to sleep outside on the ground without blankets or food. Solomon was released because his mother got an attorney who telexed the police Commissioner. Afterwards, the soldiers came and took Solomon in her absence and took him to Diepkloof prison(in Soweto), and released three days later.

- On September 19, 1985 while playing football, a shy fourteen year-old boy, Joseph, had finger nails of in one of his hand twisted and blackened, caused by the electric shocks he was subjected to many times during the days he was kept there, in a soldiers camp in Daveyton. He had a large burn mark where he was burned with a cigarette lighter, and he does not even know where the camp was. Joseph says that for nine days the soldiers terrorized him and that he and other boys were forced to get into a hole filled with sewage water up to their waist. "We were told by one of the White soldiers that we should force each other's heads down beneath the water. ... [At] times we were completely submerged beneath the water. I could not bear the filth that was in the water and consequently tried to climb out of the hole. One of the White soldiers who was standing next to the hole with a sjambok thrashed me a number of times. I started to scream .... [He] continued to thrash me so that I fell back into the filthy water." Joseph kept on trying to get out, and the soldiers finally took him into the van, and they whipped him for making the seat dirty. They showed him several photos of other children, and when he could not identify them, they tortured him. Joseph continued: "Another White soldier took my right arm and bent it behind my back. He then took out a lighter ... and he held it beneath the wrist of my right hand ... the pain was excruciating and I could smell my flesh burning. I screamed and felt faint from the pain. Soldiers then tied a wire around Joseph's right hand that was attached to a box with "a handle like a telephone handle". According to Joseph: "One of the soldiers turned the handle of this box a number of times and at the same time water was poured on my hand. I felt a tremendous shock and great pain. ... The soldiers continued to turn the handle of the green box and each time my body would convulse with the electric shocks and explode from the water. In exploding, it ripped out my thumbnail and took a chunk of flesh out of my thumb quite close to the first digit. ... When the soldiers saw that my nail had been ripped out they took the wire from my thumb and tied it around my index finger just below the nail. They turned the handle and poured water and shocked me a number of times. The pain was so intense that I almost fainted. I remember feeling dizzy and nauseous. They tortured me for the next seven days, kicked me, gave me electric shocks, and they cut my leg with a broken soda drink bottle. We were made to drink water from the sewage, slept outside on the ground, and one of the White soldiers spoke Zulu. Joseph was detained for another thirteen days and released to be examined by a district surgeon who said that the soldiers lied when they said his hands were burnt by a petrol bomb. After his release, the soldiers came to his home several times, and he has seen them on patrol in the township several times. He remained afraid that they would arrest him again and torture him.

Security 'Forces in the Schools

To enforce the restrictions of the state of emergency, both the police and the army units intensified operations in the schools. The security forces entered the classrooms, arresting pupils,harassing and arresting teachers, assaulting and sjamboking students, throwing tear gas in the school grounds and classrooms, opening fire at random and generally maintaining a highly visible and intimidating presence. Anyone who tried to intercede on behalf of the students was labeled a 'sympathizer' and accused of encouraging students to protest. Teachers who did that were arrested and detained, which further inflamed the situation.

- On august 29, 1985, students in a Cape Town school saw the police launch a full-scale attack though there was no trouble at the school that day. Three plainclothes policemen fired rubber bullets on students preparing to leave school. A principal reported that as students came out of the classrooms to see what was happening: "Within fifteen minutes virtually the whole police force, or so it appeared, had cordoned off the school grounds, and viciously bombarded us with tear gas and rubber bullets. The tear gas was so dense that "only the roof of the building was visible at one stage, and students sought refuge inside the school. When the police realized that they had us trapped like animals inside the buildings, they moved onto the grounds, smashed our windows, threw gas bombs inside the classrooms, wood work rooms and administration block .... Conditions inside [these areas] were like the gas chambers of Auschwitz." The principal tried to appeal to the police, and was nearly injured by a cop swinging his sjambok. The gates were unlocked to allow the parents to come into the school to help carry outside all the children overcome by the tear gas fumes. Similar incidents took place at Vista High school in Cape town on September 3, 1985. The police fired shots over the heads of the teachers on the school grounds and two policemen burst into the school and pointed a gun threateningly at 20 teachers and students and said that he wanted to shoot them dead.

- On September 6, 1985 police launched an unprovoked attack on Lamontville High School in Durban wounding seriously 12 children, many afterwards needed hospitalization. This started at 9.30 am and sjamboked the students, who tried to flee, and some of them were shot. The policemen told a staff member that they were doing it for law and order since the staff coukd not do it properly. The staff member had to restrain a policeman by the collar who was beating a student lying on the ground bleeding from a gaping wound on the head. Phillip, aged 14, tried to hide in the kitchen, said: "Many policemen suddenly came into the kitchen and they were all dressed in blue ... and carrying sjamboks. they began hitting me and all the other children who were in the kitchen. I tried to run away, but they followed me to the staff room ... One began hitting me with a sjambok on my legs. I was so badly hurt that when the policeman stopped hitting me,I crawled to the staff room and hid there."

- Some children were injured when they jumped from the second floor of the school building to escape the police. One student described how he was beaten until he managed to barricade himself in a classroom: "The police came inside with whips and sjamboks .... I got into the classroom and jumped from a window two stories to the ground. I hurt my ankle badly. When I got up from the ground, a lot of police were around, one started hitting me with a sjambok. I tried to escape ... and another policeman hit me with a whip. I was hit on the arm and thigh. I managed to get into the classroom where I barricaded myself in with desks across the door.

- The policemen shot children to try and stop them form running away. The boy the staff member protected explained before he lost consciousness: "Some tear gas had been thrown in the school grounds. I could smell it and see the smoke. ... I saw the police chasing pupils in the school grounds. I then jumped out of the window because I felt I would be cornered if I remained in the classroom .... One of the policemen shouted that if I kept on running away he would shoot me. Suddenly I felt a bang on my head and I can't remember what happened after I lost consciousness.... [At the hospital] I had seven stitches put into the right side of my head."

Security Forces Terrorization of Children in Schools

- The police hit students in schools at random, lashing them across their faces, arms, thighs, legs, head and shoulders. A police spokesman defended their actions that those who started the violence should be cognizant of their lawless behavior. A pervasive pattern emerged of the terrorization of schools by the security forces during the State of Emergency in the Schools of South Africa.

- Police controlled the schools and they walked in at any time to check that a teacher was teaching the prepared classes,. If a child was not in school by 8.00 a.m. he or she was immediately arrested. The police assaulted children whenever they caught them. Girls often got caught because could not run as fast. They were frequently beaten across the face and breasts.

- By mid-August [1985] police were always coming into the schools and would shoot at random. Casspirs stood outside the road with a soldier reading out the boycott regulations through a megaphone.

- At one time the police tried to break up one march and blocked the route with Casspirs. Eight riot police came marching down the road towards the children carrying shotguns and whips. Half the children ran into a bog at the side of the road and many collapsed into the water from the effects of the tear gas. Others tried to run and were caught and viciously beaten.

- One riot policeman was seen shooting at two small children who were running away; he was aiming directly at them.

- The riot police and solders came and went from most schools constantly. They terrorized the children and threatened them with detention, torture and even sodomy [italics mine]. Some kids were scared to death, others were angry. The atmosphere was so tense and the teachers were caught in the middle. It was impossible to carry on classes under those conditions.

- The police were determined to prevent any kind of activity at schools that did not constitute class teaching of the approved curriculum. They always quickly moved in immediately to break up meetings or suspected gatherings. Two children were killed in a Port Elizabeth secondary school when police attempted to break up a meeting between staff and student representatives on July 24, 1985. According to the teacher at the school, the meeting was already dismissed when the police arrived and scaled the school fence, threatening that they would control the children if the teachers could not. An argument ensued and the police started firing wildly. Many children panicked and tried to scale a fence, and two of them were killed. The teacher managed to persuade them to stay in the classrooms in order to avoid more casualties.

- Wynberg Secondary School in Cape Town had invited Graeme Bloc, a United Democratic Front executive member, to speak to the children. About 2000 pupils, aged 6 to 18 years and a number of teachers were present. Three policemen gave the principal 30 minutes to stop the meeting, which they said was a "political rally" . Graeme managed to speak for 10 minutes and the police became impatient and hustled Graeme out amongst scared but angry students. The police gave the students three minutes to disperse and threatened to fire if they did not. This was one of the very rare occasions no shooting took place. But the pupils were so angry and frustrated that they went into town and damaged several cars and shop windows.

- In Soweto, during the disturbances at an an adjacent high school on August 25, 1985, police fired tear gas into the Entokozweni Early Learning Center in Soweto, where more than 100 infants aged six months to two years were attending. Many were knocked unconscious by the fumes, and others vomited. When the principal sought emergency assistance form the police for the badly affected children, the police told her to contact a hospital.

- Two days earlier, again in soweto, police arrested 300 students, some as young as seven years old. The Star Newspaper asked a police Commissioner Brigadier Coetzee to comment on the fact that some of these children were only seven years old and the Star newspaper quoted him as saying that this was "quite possible".

Student Mass Arrests at Schools

The state of emergency regulations required children to stay within the school premises during specified hours.. Yet a number of children said that they had been arrested inside the school grounds or outside at legitimate break-times or on their way from school going home after school had been dismissed. The arrested school children were required to appear in court. One attorney said that while she was at the police station to negotiate the release of these children from custody on August 3, 1985, "[t]ruckloads of other children began arriving. There must have been about 600 of them and some were very young. It was pandemonium, and the police would not let the parents through the gates so the parents were angry and many of the children were screaming and very upset."

- One teacher noted that the police and soldiers were heavily armed and he attempted to supervise the children to keep the situation calm. He said: "A soldier pulled me aside and told me to go away. As I walked away ... the soldier turned around and punched in the nose .... Children were being loaded into the trucks as they entered and removed from the school premises. When the last three trucks were to be loaded, police went to the classrooms to look for any children who might still be there. These children were ordered by the police to leave the classrooms and to go to the trucks. Some of them were even carried out of the classrooms by the policemen and soldiers. When the parents wanted to take warm clothes to them, the police refused. The police told the parents and the lawyers that the arrests had been made because the whole was troublesome for the whole week.. Major Kotze said that the children had not been charged, that they have been detained in terms of the emergency regulations . He said that he was entitled to hold them for fourteen days and the order can be renewed. Parents and teachers were very angry at the police station. The police were not helpful and very aggressive to them, and the Divisional Commissioner told them that the children have been told to make the country "ungovernable" and he was not going to release them. The Supreme court ordered that the children should be released, and were released at 6.15 p.m. of the same day.

-Around mid-November, 1985, the end-of-the-year examination were due to take place, when the situation in the schools reached its point point. After much terrorism in the schools by the army and the policemen, pupils who wished to write were not prepared to do so. The examinations went ahead under extremely tense and intimidating circumstances. Some students who wanted to write were taken to military bases to do so. Most students tore up their papers and others pretended to write but filled their papers with drawings, slogans or other senseless stuff. A teacher told reporters that: "The police behavior was bizarre. They went through the classrooms,checked the scripts, not knowing what they were doing. Imagine writing an exam with a huge cop carrying a shotgun leaning over your shoulder checking what you are writing, especially when a week or two back the same cops were firing birdshot and tear gas at you and sometimes killing your buddies."

- One teacher said: "The exams are taking place under the most abnormal conditions one could find anywhere. Teachers and students were in detention, harassment of teachers and students continued without any break; there was no concern for the educational interests of the students, it was rather a matter of the authority of the State being forced onto the students. These exams were not part of an educational process, but part of a political power game."

Assault At the time of Arrest

Children continued to be arrested, assaulted and whipped badly by both the police and the army. Some were stopped in the streets and asked to give up names of the people that were wanted by the regime, if they did not provide the needed information, they were whipped and let go afterwards without any charges filed against them. For example:

- Martin and Steven were both arrested and accused of stoning a vehicle. Martin stated: "I was beaten with a gun butt on the mouth by a white policeman. Two of my front teeth were broken." According to Steven: They stated sjamboking me all over the body. I fell down and they started kicking me all over while I was lying down. I stood up and he sjamboked me on the left ear. I was bleeding profusely by then. We were never taken to a doctor." Both were taken to a police station in Randburg, and were subjected to some more beatings, and Steven started to bleed on the his left eye. Children like Martin and Steven were abducted in the street and forced to confess to alleged confessions and to put them in writing. Their confessions were elicited through inadmissible confessions, and they were subjected to brutal interrogations inside police stations.

- JM(aged 17) said: S. Called me to his office. He asked me if I threw stones at SM's house, I said no, I was at home. S. punched me, left me in the office and called B. B. placed [a] white sack over my head and I was taken to another room. I was alone, tear gas [was] sprayed, and I screamed [and I was] taken out back to S.'s office. [I was] asked if I threw stones. I denied. S. put the sack on and I was shocked with electricity. I then agreed that I threw stones.

- AK (aged 17) narrated as follows: ... they put a sack on my face choking me and tear gassing to [get me to] admit that I stoned a house of M .... Then they forced me to admit and write a statement .... Mr., he handcuffed me on a seat and choked me until I admit[ted] this .... On the very same day, [the] 19th, we appeared at court with two white policemen who forced us to admit, we then admit[ted] only because those policemen were there....

JM(aged 17) said: They pulled me out of the van and took me to a room where they threw [sic] me and opened tear gas and closed the room. They opened tear gas three times after every 5 minutes. At 8 a.m. the same morning, I was taken to Mr. S. He cross questioned me and every time I was beaten up by the other white policeman. I was bleeding from the nose .... I was kept there till friday .... I was told to go home .... [t]he white policemen told me that if they found me in the street or attending any meeting, they would shoot me and I'll be killed

- CC(aged 17) said: We were made to face the wall in the charge office ad repeatedly beaten with sjamboks. ... I was then interrogated alone and assaulted in the following manner: a. M. handcuffed me to a wooden chair; b. I was repeatedly assaulted with a sjambok and fists by three policemen. The assault was furious. I had sjambok marks all over my body and was covered in blood. My forehead was swollen from where [I was struck] with a sjambok on my head. Because of my injuries, I was taken from [interrogation] room 9 and placed in a [van]. I could not walk to the [van] and had to be dragged. While I was in the [van], a number of other people were taken individually into room 9. I heard [them] screaming.

- RM(aged 15) recalled that while we were waiting [a policeman] licked me on the mouth; (another policeman) struck me with a wire coat hanger. He also pulled the coat hanger through my hair causing me considerable pain .... I was taken for interrogation. I was told to take off my clothes and I was asked questions .... I was assaulted ... as follows: a. the short policeman burnt my hair with a cigarette lighter; b. a tube was pulled over my mouth and I was electrocuted on my back; c. the short white policeman hit me with a hosepipe on my fingers.

Children have also been threatened with death. Abraham was one of those accused of burning a policeman, and they threatened to hang him in the cell until he died. Abraham said: I broke down and wept. I was then ordered to lie down spread-eagled and ... [a policeman] came in and put his foot on my genitals and said I should own up to the killing .... then a [policeman] pointed a gun under my chin and said that if I didn't confess and identify others that he would kill me." Most of the kids who were arrested were not involved in incidents of the unrest.

Some "informers have later admitted that they gave any names they could think of because they frightened of what might happen to them if they refused. Sarrah was arrested in Bellville on september 5, 1985, described such an experience: "We were taken to a room in the police station where all the police were drinking coffee. a policeman said that we should be given pages to write down the names of those who had thrown stones. I was very afraid and began to write down any names I could think of. When I couldn't remember any more one policeman hit me me hard with an orange sjambok. I was just putting down any names that came into my head because I was so afraid. They then asked who had been burning tires. I was told to give names and addresses .... [None] of the people I named had to my knowledge been involved in these offenses or anything illegal."

Wendy Orr was a district surgeon whose duties included the medical examination of emergency detainees. In her affidavit she pointed out that a large number of the detainees she examined complained of assault and showed symptoms consistent with their complaints. According to Dr. Orr: "They had weals, bruising, blisters over their backs and on the palms of the hands.Some had lacerated lips and the skin over their cheekbones was split. Several had their eardrums perforated." Dr.Orr concluded that assaults of detainees were taking place on a "massive scale" and that the police, who were protected by the indemnity in the emergency regulations, considered themselves not accountable.. Both the Departments of Health and Prisons turned a blind eye to what was happening in the prisons.

- Andrew, who was only 12 years old, was arrested on September 6, 1985 and detain in connection with the death of a black policeman in the Township. Andrew stated: "At the [CID] offices, I was assaulted by Constable Tswele and Constable Mgebuza, who struck me with clenched fists and kicked me.... I was assaulted by white policemen who beat me with a sjambok and cane on my back. I am unable to state how many blows were struck in that I was terrified .... I was not assaulted continuously, but at intervals."

- 16 years old Sukizani and Andrew were in the cells with four other detainees, three constables came into the cell with canes and a sjambok: "We were made to bend down and [were] caned on the buttocks.... We were also required to do exercises .... When we tired and were unable to do the exercises to the satisfaction of the aforesaid police, we were struck by means of the canes and sjambok... Constable Roberts struck me on the head with a sjambok causing and open wound which bled.... before they left, we were informed that it was their intention to return later that night, at which time we could expect a sound beating."

- Eugene Vusi Dlamini in August 1985 was arrested by about 20 policemen at is home at 6 a.m. whilst he was getting ready for school.. His mother said that a man who was hooded pointed out to Eugene. His mother was told to shut up and that Eugene was being arrested under the Section 29 of the the ISA(detention for the purposes of interrogation), and detainees under this section can be held indefinitely until they had answered their questions satisfactorily. A week later Mrs. Dlamini, on September 3rd when he telephoned her from hospital, stated: "At first I did not realize that the person whom I was speaking to was [Eugene], because he appeared to speak with great difficulty and seemed to be under great stress .... In my conversation with him, he advised me as follows: (a) He was a patient at Shifa Hospital since Sunday, 1 September 1985; (b) He had been injured as a result of having been severely assaulted by the police from the time that he arrived at C.R. Swart Square Police Station; (c) He had been assaulted at various times at the Security Police premises and that , as a result, he was unable to hear properly in one ear, that his jaw bones were broken and that he suspected his forearms and skull were also broken; (d) While he was at C.R. Swart Square the police interrogating him had given him wet blankets for use when he slept.

The Effects of Psychological Damage

70 percent of the children detainees have developed post-traumatic stress disorders and many of these children to date are particularly susceptible to anxiety disorders, depression, adjustment and behavior disorders and psychotic episodes. . These children frequently display acute feelings of fear, guilt, isolation and depression upon their release. The isolation experienced in detention came home to roost and the released children expressed hopeless desolation in words that expressed a longing to die. Some were unable to speak coherently and they seemed vacant and confused. Most of these kids were normal before their arrest, and from being beaten most of their time in detention, made to sleep with wet blankets, and made to sell-out their friends and family, they were filled with guilt and a sense of uncertainty, and mostly were now human cabbages. They were having acute fear of the police and this bordered on mental breakdown, and their road to physical and psychic trauma is still a very long and still unresolved one, up to today. While these children were undergoing the terrifying and dehumanizing experience of detention, interrogation and torture, as detainees, they were physically incapable of enduring the treatment meted against them by the security forces. It is a fact that children in detention rarely or completely did not know their rights and were not capable of exercising them fully. So that, any provision to protect them, is unlikely to provide much protection from future abuse. Today the cannot adjust and pretty maladjusted to the "new South Africa" and are not getting any type of health, given their vast numbers.

To Be Continued.....

The Congress of South African Trade Unions(COSATU) was formed in November 1985 and became the largest union federation in South African history, with some 500,000 members, most of them Africans. In the climate of protest and violence sparked by the new constitution, COSATU was quickly drawn into joint political demonstrations. In a joint communique with the ANC in March 1986 COSATU stated: There was a common understanding that ... lasting solutions can only emerge from the national liberation movement, headed by the ANC, and the entire democratic forces of our country of which COSATU is an important and integral part." On February 24, 1988, the apartheid regime effectively banned United Democratic Front(UDF) and 16 other organizations, and they also prohibited COSATU from any political activities. In 990 Chief Gatsha Buthelezi declared the Inkatha organization a non-racial political Party. Inkatha was made up of a membership of 1.9 million, and the vast majority of its members were Zulus. Buthelezi as a student was member of the ANC, but in the 1970s encountered criticism form the Black Consciousness Movement leaders because he partly criticized ANC's armed struggle philosophy but agreed with the the ANC's traditions and aims. In the 1980s his bellicose criticism of student's popular campaigns drew criticism from the then ANC president, Oliver Tambo, who declared that Buthelezi had emerged on the side of the enemy against the people.

On February 2, 1990, the South African State President, Frederick Willem de Klerk lifted a 30-year ban on the African National Congress(ANC). In a speech to parliament in Cape Town he declared that 'the season of violence was over, and that the time for reconstruction and reconciliation has arrived(Christopher Wren) Shortly thereafter, de Klerk freed Mandela after 28 years in jail, and he also dismantled the State Security Council which had formulated major policy decisions and strengthened the Cabinet, shifting power to civilian officials. In January 1990 de Klerk ordered the security forces to act in a non-political manner. Two months later he he ordered a landmark investigation into an incident where police shot 84 protestors in the back. In June 1990, he lifted the national state of emergency except in Natal. South Africa seemed to be changing at last.

Yet in July and August 1990, some seven months after the end of violence was announced, African townships around Johannesburg erupted in warfare. In one horrendous incident that occurred on September 13, 1990, 26 were were killed and at least 100 injured in an attack in a commuter train between Johannesburg and Soweto. Bodies were strewn along a five mile stretch of track, and it was the third terrorist-style attack of that week. By the end of 1990, more than 1,000 people had died in that area.(Allister Sparks)

According to a report by the Institute of Race Race Relations(SAIRR) on November 19, 1990, ten people were being killed everyday in South Africa in political violence. SAIRR called 1990 by far the grimmest ever because in the first ten months, 3,038 people died in political violence. The total number of deaths from 1984 to October 31, 1990 was 8,577. The SAIRR claimed that the conflict with the African community continued to be the main source of casualties. The SAIRR provided information that in 1989 there were 1,400 people killed in Natal. In 1990, in just the areas around Durban in Natal, more than 1,000 were killed. In areas near Johannesburg, the death toll for the period from July 1990 to the year's end was 1000. These statistics do not necessarily reveal the magnitude of the tragedy. John Aitchison wrote: "Behind these statistics lie people who live and die, who have holes made in them by 137 knife thrusts, who are burnt to death, who are blasted by shotgun blasts, who go to lawyers and appear in court as witnesses and are gunned down by people they testified against ... people who are interviewed by journalists, then detained and interrogated by policemen."

This part of the hub was written to show that the violence, orchestrated by the security forces against the ANC and Inkatha and the military security forces from 1986 to the mid 1990s. Those who were killed in this murderous rampage were both children and their parents. It is also important to note that the ANC is also responsible for the murder of Africans when Thabo Mbeki denied that HIV/AIDs was responsible for so many death in South Africa. The parents of many of these children have died in droves, that UNESCO has pointed out that about 5 million children will be parent-less and homeless by the year 2015. The children of South Africa have not received any respite from the death-throes that the African population is facing. This is one saga that still continues. The years from 1986 saw many children and their parents killed without any pause- those were the most deadly and vicious times in South Africa. Today, many children are suffering from AIDS, poverty, different diseases, poor education and still, the new government, with its corrupt cabal, ignores and suppresses the power and powerless African children and the African majority. The Struggle continues and the story is going to be continued....

Witnesses to Torture, Detention, Violence and Killings

Due to the responses to this article, I feel obligated to expand on certain themes presented above. To reiterate, this article was written as corrective means and measure in putting African history in perspective from the African point of view. This was done in order that the installments that are going to follow this article, of which two have already been written on the Health and Mental states of Africans, these, in combination and in tandem, will inform on key periods of Apartheid rule and its atrocities, which have been deliberately wiped-off the historical mind of both Africans and Whites who would rather forget that this has happened, to the African Peoples. What is interesting is that the respondents to this article have been White people of every stripe. This is good because most of them have never pointed out to the fact that they have gone back to those Townships whose residents they have tortured and decimated and left shattered, and these Townships full of 30 year or plus old people who are really destroyed forever; and, some of those responding to this article are not able to disprove the fact that what happened in the time period from 1985 onwards never happened. It did! Those who were witnesses to the torture of children, the children themselves and the African communities who are still nursing these young adults(who were children then) and are not fussing about it, except for the guilty perpetrators of these horrible acts, who dismiss this article, is only full of these victims who are willing to testify, as they have done above, to what happened to them. Witnesses to the the torture has been told by those tortured, those who today are still suffering, and those in the unmarked graves in the Doornkop and Avalon Cemeteries and in Nancefield Cemeteries, which all tell a serious and ugly tale of those who were caught-up in those violent times, as they lay being buried there. The graves are marked from 1976 all the way to 1994 are tell-tale signs of what took place in South Africa to the African people in South Africa. Africans in South Africa,today, are Primary sources of all that happened to them, and these stories have been made possible by them. It is easy, one should take it upon onemself and go and do research amongst the vicitims of the attrocities laid bare in this hub, in all the Townships and former Homelands dotting the South African landscape. In fact, I would like to add more to the narrative above as to what happened from 1986 to 1994, in a nutshell.

The Killings in South Africa From 1990 to 1994(A Summary)

On february 2, 1990, the then South African State President, Frederik Willem de Klerk, lifted a 30 year ban on the African National Congress(ANC). In a speech to parliament in Cape Town he declared: "The season of violence is over. The time for reconstruction and reconciliation has arrived."(Christopher Wren, "Foes of Apartheid Praise Moves but Urge More Reform by de Klerk,", New York Times , February 3, 1990). Shortly after that, De Klerk freed ANC Deputy President Nelson Mandela after 28 years of imprisonment. Since assuming office on September 1989, de Klerk had dismantled the apparatus of the State Security Council, which had formulated major policy decisions, and strengthened the Cabinet, shifting power to civilian authorities. In January 1990, he ordered the security forces to act in a non-political manner. Two months later, he ordered a landmark investigation into an incident where police shot 84 protestors in the back. In June 1990, he lifted the National State of Emergency except in Natal. Up to that point, South Africa seemed to be changing at last.

Yet, in July and August 1990, some seven months after the end of violence was announced, African Townships around Johannesburg erupted in warfare. In one horrendous incident that occurred on September 13, 26 were killed and at least 100 injured in an attack on a commuter train between Johannesburg(Gauteng) and Soweto. Bodies were strewn along five mile stretch of track. It was the third terrorist-style attack that week(Allister Sparks, "South Africans Massacred Abroad Train," The Washington Post , September 14, 1990) By the end of 1990, more than 1,000 had died in that area. People in the Townships relate these events with even much clarity and recollection because it is they who were being affected by these callous acts of groups orchestrated by the Security Forces in collusion with the Apartheid State. In the forth-coming Hub I am going to write about these issues, I will be dealing much more in-depth on this era and effectively examine how the Apartheid State had discharged its responsibilities impartially to protect the rights of all citizens and expose ways in which it has been responsible for violating Human Rights. The Hub will be specifically addressing the behavior of security forces - principally the South African Police(SAP), the Kwa-Zulu Police(ZP) and the South African Defense Forces(SADF) - and the response of the State authorities when notified of abuses by those forces.

The primary informants and those who will be telling about the Killings in South Africa from 1990 to 1994 and beyond will be the African people themselves. There is abundant evidence that the Apartheid State was implicated in the violence that was dubbed"Black on Black" violence. The bias of the State security forces, who have either intervened or failed to intervene on a selective basis, fueled the conflict. Despite the pressure for reform from some elements in the State, the Apartheid government failed to deal effectively with the violence and the behavior of the security forces during the 1990s onwards. While the reasons for the actions of the security forces and government officials are complex, one of the most obvious factors that was frequently overlooked by the Press and by Political commentators, i.e., the Inkatha movement led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi held  government power in Kwazulu "Homeland"(Afrikaner government creation), and had at its direct disposal an arm of the South African State - namely, the KwaZulu Police, has been very disastrous to African people. The other major party to the conflict, the ANC and a constellation of organizations affiliated with it, and was only legalized in February 1990, following three decades of underground operations and severe state repression. Inkatha members held government office, while government agents imprisoned, tortured and executed ANC members. On these grounds alone, it is scarcely surprising that the organs of the state displayed some partiality between the two in that conflict of the 1990s, and this will be demonstrated in the Hub to be written on these issues.

In those days of the 1990s, the members of the government and the security forces opposed to negotiations with the African majority that they would have an interests in promoting such violence was easy to imagine and there are pictures of all those involved at present to solidify these assertions. This was the case because certainly a divided African population was less threatening to white domination than a united one. African conflict also encouraged White conservatives to pressure the government to halt Apartheid reform, justifying and calling for cautious and limited governmental approach. In addition, it made Buthelezi to resist aspects of the Apartheid homelands scheme, but more dependent upon the Apartheid state support as he battled the ANC.(John Aitchison, "Can the Torture of Natal ever be Ended?" Natal Witness Echo, August 23, 1980). To add, de Klerk's visit to Washington in September 1990 took place during the height of the Transvaal Killings, yet they were barely acknowledged by officials in the Bush administration.

The hub above was an introduction to the atrocities committed on African people by the rulers of Apartheid and their security forces on African Children. This cannot be wished away, and no amount of threats and intimidation will hide the truth. The more attacks on the articles without even talking about the articles have given me the fortitude to continue on this path of unraveling the Apartheid Order and its Murderous ways when it ruled over the African people of South Africa; but, not only that, the effects and affects this has had on African people up to this day will be exposed and accurately narrated and delineated. African people are so poor that they cannot even afford their own computers, let alone the exorbitant prices charged one to just use the Web. In some Township Internet Cafes, it cost up to R20.00 for 15 or 20 minutes to log on. The poverty-stricken African masses live on what is called "quarters" and "magwenya(fat-cakes) and some other poor foods just to make it through the day, let alone going to pay in an Internet Cafe to read or log on in the new technologies. The rich whites who have accumulated all the wealth through Apartheid slave labor and draconian laws can afford to buy their personal computers to log on easily, pay for their Internet services and attack and harass anyone who tells the truth about Apartheid, especially from an African perspective. This will not work, and in these times, the history of Africans under Apartheid will be told with the use of authentic pictures, and the reason for that is to record this as part of history and so that, when African people can have Internet for pittance, will be able to connect the Historical dots of their reality written from an African perspective, and for their own use and understanding. That much, is what I will do in the next Hub on the Violence from the 1990s. The brutality through which African children have been subjected, doubled-up when their parents, relatives and community were under full-scale attack by the Apartheid government and its Security Forces in the 1990s onwards. These events happened, and there is an oral and written historical record which these Hubs are now collating into a coherent African Historical record.

Apartheid Violence in Hindsight

Given South Africa's peculiar history and legacy of Apartheid, ethnic diversity, poverty and isolation, nation building was never going to be easy. The transition to multiracial rule proved to be difficult and bloody. Whites battled to preserve some power and privilege, sharing  crisis with Africans crisis of confidence about their future. It seemed that the birth of the new South African nation would be aborted by the pressures and dynamics of political transition. Violence was pervasive, a dread which hung, and is still hanging over all races and lingered in every household as crime, political killings, police brutality and suicides filled morgues and hospitals. The economy slumped, entering it worst recession in 80 years, and the government reeled under a series of dirty tricks and scandals, financial and military. Whites suffered unusual hardships with almost a quarter of the five million population floundering below poverty line. White right-wingers fiercely opposed the changes the leaders have been intending to implement. The African communities were tortured by rampant violence. Fierce fighting between ANC and Inkatha supporters claimed hundreds of lives. Police and soldiers, some conducting unofficial rearguard defense of Apartheid, added to the carnage. This really threatened the transition to democracy in South Africa seriously.

Violence is a fact of South African political and, economical and social life in South Africa and will remain so for several years to come. Apartheid was a violent system, and was violently imposed; and more violence is the legacy that Apartheid has been left to the new democracy of the present-day South Africa.. The were charred bodies and hacked bodies of innocent children and adult African South Africans who were working for the betterment of their communities.; some bodies were fond in the car trunks/boots that had been set alight. Some people who were apolitical were murdered in cold blood as they got caught-up in th mayhem of the violence of the day. The death and fate of countless others that will never see the new South Africa, highlights the nightmare existence of millions of decent African people who were yearning for peace and security, yet they became victims of endless violence, crime and intimidation in the Townships. In the Townships, death and violence were and are somewhat still a heartbeat from home. There have been times when those families who survived woke up and surprised to find that their families had not been butchered.

But these problems could not be dismissed as one s that concerned only Africans. A culture of violence, in which killings crated vendettas that created more killings, took hold in this society, which has largely been the result of Apartheid, and had no democratic traditions to fall back on. The Apartheid era legitimized violence, both on the part of the government in securing power, and on the part of of Africans resisting Apartheid. In the wake of the unbanning of African liberation groups, this conflict moved to center stage, with open warfare between different political factions, the police, the South African Defense Force(SADF) and right-wing organizations. Tis violence interrupted progress in the negotiations for a future democratic South Africa, and nearly eroded a peaceful solution to the country's problems.

A fact that has been overlooked by many people, and especially by whites in the heavily fortified homes, is that reports of the death of Apartheid have been greatly exaggerated. Terrible deprivation continues to exist outside the comfortable white suburbs. Although many apartheid laws have been repealed, the lot of most African South Africans will and and are still remaining in an unchanged social reality and existence, and will continue to do so for many years to come. Most Africans will judge the progress of reform by what material benefits it brings them, and how speedily. It is very sad to say that after 16 years of ANC rule, this is far from being realized, and progress is painfully slow. As long as Africans are kept poor by an economy built for and maintained by whites, and as long as they are degraded by white attitudes, fostered by decades of of official racialism, Apartheid will live on. It will remain a mind-set and an inheritance of legalized inequality for many decades to come.