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Urban Revolt in South Africa: a Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Edward Feit
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Extract

This article has as its theme the organisation of an African urban revolt in South Africa from 1960 to 1965. Reference is made mainly to events in Port Elizabeth and its near neighbour, East London; it need hardly be added that there were similar developments in other parts of the country. The way in which the revolt was organised was little reported at the time, and the details emerged only in the verbatim court records of the trials of both leaders and followers. Press reports of these trials are scattered over a number of South African newspapers, whose reporting—while good—is not as detailed as the documents; and a few items appear in the overseas press. The importance of this revolt, which is still being waged from outside South Africa's borders, might justify an analysis of what took place in the country itself, even if the research on which it is based remains incomplete.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 1970 , pp. 55 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

Page 55 note 1 Since the full titles of the court cases are fairly long and difficult to abbreviate, they will be cited in the footnotes by the surname of the first accused, e.g. Bongco, Goquabi, and the year of the trial concerned. An index of these surnames, in alphabetical order, giving full details of each case title and the place where it was heard, appears on p. 72, below.

Page 56 note 1 Judgement, Gcquabi (1963), p. 4.

Page 58 note 1 Africans live in separate ‘locations’, at some distance from the White suburbs. A description of life in these townships in the late 1950s and early 1960s can be found in a series of books published by Oxford University Press: Reader, D. H., The Black Man's Portion (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Mayer, P., Townsmen or Tribesmen (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Pauw, B. A., The Second Generation (London, 1963)Google Scholar; and Wilson, Monica and Mafeje, Archie, Langa (London, 1963)Google Scholar. There are also interesting contemporary newspaper reports on the townships, for example the Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth), 8 08 1966.Google Scholar

Page 58 note 2 Komani and Mashinyana in Kondoti (1964), pp. 196, 214, and 226; Magidwana in Tshela (1965), pp. 43–6; and Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 48–50.

Page 58 note 3 Joxo in Mtalana (1964), pp. 39–40; Tshume in Bongco (1964), pp. 172–5.

Page 58 note 4 Petros in Makinane (1965), pp. 44–6; Mashinyana and Mdube in Bongco (1964), pp. 231 and 362.

Page 58 note 5 Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 8–9; Petros in Makinane (1965), pp. 33–4; Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), p. 2; Meblwana in Tsishela (1963), p. 30; Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 49–50; Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 3–4; and Qumpula in Hlekani (1965), p. 1.

Page 59 note 1 Qumpula in Hlekani, p. 1; Magidwana in Tshela, p. 43; Petros in Makinane, p. 32; Ngoza in Magwayi, pp. 1–2 and 49–50; Dondashe in Mgalunkulu, p. 13; and Guiwa in Mapolisa, pp. 3–4. All these cases were heard in 1965.

Page 59 note 2 Mbanjwa in Mbolompo (1965), pp. 755–6 and 774.

Page 59 note 3 Ibid. p. 769.

Page 59 note 4 Dondashe in Mgalunkulu (1965), pp. 25–6.

Page 59 note 5 Tshume and Kumani in Bongco (1964), pp. 176, 196–9, and 214; Petros in Makinane (1965), pp. 45–6.

Page 59 note 6 Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 3–4.

Page 60 note 1 Dondashe and Kulele in Mgalunkulu (1965), pp. 19, 50, 64–5, and 81; Petros in Makinane (1965), p. 49.

Page 60 note 2 Gulwa in Mapolisa, pp. 3–4; Petros in Makinane, pp. 46–8; and Dondashe in Mgalunkulu, p. 30 (all heard in 1965).

Page 60 note 3 Njikalana in Siwundla (1964), pp. 16–23.

Page 61 note 1 Petros in Makinane (1965), pp. 82–3; Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 1–2; and Zepe in Mtalana (1964), pp. 20–3.

Page 61 note 2 Joxo in Mtalana (1964), p. 54; Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), p. 7.

Page 61 note 3 Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 10–11; Zepe in Mtalana (1964), pp. 20 and 34.

Page 61 note 4 Kulelo in Mgalunkulu (1965), pp. 77 and 81; Mhlawuli in Mapolisa (1965), p. 23; Ncingane in Makinane (1965), p. 118; and Tanana in Bongco (1964), p. 351.

Page 61 note 5 Mali in Magwayi (1965), pp. 114–17.

Page 61 note 6 Mtoloko and Mali, ibid. pp. 92 and 117–18; Zepe in Mtalana (1964), p. 37; and Dondashe and Kulelo in Mgalunkulu (1965), pp. 19 and 82.

Page 62 note 1 Ncingane in Makinane (1965), pp. 175–6; Zepe in Mtalana (1964), p. 37.

Page 62 note 2 Zepe, ibid.

Page 62 note 3 Golden City Post (Johannesburg), 08 1964.Google Scholar

Page 62 note 4 Kulelo in Mgalunkulu (1965), p. 82.

Page 62 note 5 See, for instance, Mandela, Nelson, No Easy Walk (New York, 1965), p. 169.Google Scholar

Page 63 note 1 Mgemuntu in Mbolompo (1965), p. 13; Gungulu in Khayingo (1965), p. 17; and Mashinyana in Bongco (1964), p. 247.

Page 63 note 2 Tollie and Senna in Tangala (1965), pp. 93–5 and 196–7.

Page 63 note 3 Zepe and Joxo in Mtalana (1964), pp. 13 and 42–3; Magidwana in Tshela (1965), p. 47.

Page 63 note 4 Gulwa in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 5–7; Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 53–5. It is interesting to compare the instructions given by Lenin, who called for combat groups in the 1905 revolution to arm themselves with ‘bombs, knives, knuckle-dusters, sticks, rags soaked in kerosene for starting fires’. Lenin, V. I., Collected Works (Moscow, 1962 edn.), vol. XIX, p. 420.Google Scholar

Page 64 note 1 Zepe in Mtalana (1964), pp. 12–13; Gulwa and Mhlawuli in Mapolisa (1965), pp. 5 and 23; Petros in Makinane (1965), pp. 33 and 56; and Ngoza and Mtloko in Magwayi (1965), pp. 3–4, 52, and 66.

Page 64 note 2 Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 15–16 and 33–7.

Page 64 note 3 Ngoza, Mali, and du Preez, ibid. pp. 3–4, 124–6, and 141–4.

Page 65 note 1 du Preez, ibid. p. 146.

Page 65 note 2 Quoted from New Age (Johannesburg), 21 12 1961.Google Scholar

Page 66 note 1 Mtolo, Bruno, Umkonto we Sizwe: the road to the Left (Durban, 1966), pp. 25–9.Google Scholar

Page 66 note 2 Mbanjwa in Mbolompo (1965), pp. 751–4; Mashinyana and Mdube in Bongco (1964), p. 231.

Page 66 note 3 Joxo in Mtalana (1964), p. 46.

Page 66 note 4 Ibid. p. 12.

Page 66 note 5 Mbeki in Rivonia Trial (1963–1964), p. 380; Mbanjwa in Mbolompo (1965), p. 756.

Page 67 note 1 Mbanjwa, ibid. p. 759.

Page 67 note 2 Mtolo, op. cit. pp. 78–88.

Page 67 note 3 Nyombo in Mbolompo (1965), pp. 647–53; Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 39–43.

Page 67 note 4 Mtolo, op. cit. pp. 30–4.

Page 67 note 5 My figures are calculated from Rivonia Trial, Annexure A, which sets out the list of acts of sabotage done by Umkonto.

Page 68 note 1 Ngoza in Magwayi (1965), pp. 39–43. This is the only case where the evidence of the accused has been drawn upon (cf. p. 56, above)

Page 68 note 2 Ibid. p. 44.

Page 69 note 1 Metshane in Tangala (1965), pp. 178–86.

Page 69 note 2 Makamba in Gcquabi (1963), p. 4.

Page 69 note 3 Mokgoro in Tangala (1965), p. 53–5.

Page 70 note 1 Ngoza, Mtloko, and Mali in Magwayi (1965), pp. 13, 72, and 112; Joxo in Mtalana (1964), pp. 59 and 65–7; Mtolo in Rivonia Trial (1963–1964), pp. 235–6; and Dondashe in Mgalunkulu (1965), pp. 52–4.

Page 70 note 2 Mali in Magwayi (1965), p. 113; Zepe in Mtalana (1964), p. 31.

Page 70 note 3 Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 26 01 1969.Google Scholar

Page 71 note 1 Rapoport, David, ‘The Political Dimensions of Military Usurpation’, in Political Science Quarterly (New York), LXXXIII, 4, 12 1968, pp. 560–1 n.Google Scholar