Police invasion of UCT campus

Student unrest at South Africa's ivy-league campuses is nothing new. What is unique about the Police invasion of the University of Cape Town's upper-campus, an event also known as UCT April because it occurred during April, 1987, is that it marked the first time since 1972 that South Africa's police services dared to cross a line separating the country's "bush" colleges and their predominately white counterparts.

Until then, most unrest had occurred on "black campuses". When the riot brigade invaded the University of Cape Town's upper campus. "Large parts of the University of Cape Town campus were at times uninhabitable ... and some lectures were disrupted as a result of actions of certain people which may not be reported in terms of state-of-emergency press censorship," read the article in the Cape Times the following day.

apartheid government refused permission for the Cape Times to publish the full facts concerning the event. They also refused the newspaper permission to publish three photographs taken during the afternoon, including one of a burnt out South African Breweries vehicle.

A four-hour confrontation between police and about 150-200 students followed a lunchtime meeting attended by about 700 students at which various members of banned organisations appeared and anti-apartheid slogans were chanted. Reference was made to "a non-racist, non-sexist, nuclear-free continent"

"I remember teargas, helicopters, rubber bullets and a lot of chaos. Police sjamboked women in the library and some Sasco students set a South African Breweries truck on fire.", says one student who was there.

The extent to which there has been a cover-up of this event can be seen by the fact that an online exhibition of "protest at UCT" totally ignores one of the most shattering events to occur on campus in recent times. Not only were student activists involved in the revolt, but innocent bystanders were caught up in a stand-off between police and the administration, which resulted in lectures being cancelled, papers being lost, and marks dropped from the careers of those who merely wanted to exercise academic freedom.

Clashes on Campus, Cape Times, Saturday, April 25, 1987

Large parts of the University of Cape Town campus were at times uninhabitable yesterday afternoon and some lectures were disrupted as a result of actions by certain people which may not be reported in terms of state-of-emergency press censorship.

South African Breweries suffered a R120 000 loss when a cab of one of their vehicles was burnt on the upper campus in the wake of a students’ protest march over the deaths of six railway workers and the dismissal of 16 000 others.

The government’s Interdepartmental Press Liaison Centre, last night refused the Cape Times permission to publish the full facts concerning the day’s events at UCT. They also refused the newspaper permission to publish three photographs taken during the afternoon, including one of the burnt out vehicle.

A four hour confrontation between the people who may not be identified and about 150 - 200 students followed a lunch time meeting attended by about 700 students, called to protest at the deaths and firing of SA Railway’s and Harbour’s Workers Union (SARHWU) on Wednesday.

As a result of the presence of several vehicles which may not be identified on De Waal Drive, a severe traffic jam several kilometers long developed on the highway and the Eastern Boulevard at rush hour.

The lunchtime meeting was addressed by SRC president Ms Carla Sutherland and a member of SARHWU from the Transvaal, identified only as “Comrade Jeffrey”.

Ms Sutherland read out a statement by the black staff of UCT in which the action against SA Transport Services (SATS) workers on Wednesday and Thursday was condemned in the “strongest possible terms”.

“Comrade Jeffrey” said he had come to the Western Cape to explain to SARHWU workers here what was happening in the Transvaal.

“What was happening may be shocking to you, but we are used to being shot at and killed by these people - the whites who work with us always carry their guns with them. They have shot at us and called us kaffirs in the past.”

Here is how on of the “200 students” engaged in campus unrest remembers the event

The incident started with a small group of anti-apartheid protestors carrying placards on the verge of the campus, between the rugby field and highway. This was I believe a number of weeks after a march in Rondebosch has ended in a sit-down and shambocking by riot police.

Suddenly, there was this sense that a revolt was taking place. People called out to each other, and a decision was taken to move to the entrance of UCT where it was considered safer, as a student had been detained in the tunnel to middle campus.

I was on my way down to the sports center, when all of a sudden I see a group of students jogging past towards me. At first, I thought it was a cross-country marathon, but low and behold, a contingent of riot police were behind them. Caught up in the fray, I turned and joined them. What proceeded was a two hour stand-off, with SAP and special branch taking up a line at the sports center.

Teargas canisters were fired. And some of the missiles were lobbed back at the police, who didn’t venture any further. The following day the same thing happened. Except this time, the unrest started out as an impromptu march by COSAS. I witnessed an SA breweries truck being burnt, and was tear-gassed on the field, as helicopters flew overhead.

On Friday, a meeting of the student body was called to discuss the “invasion of campus” by riot police, since it turned out they had returned later on Thursday afternoon, teargassed most of the campus, whipped students in the library and even a pregnant woman on Jameson Steps.

The Friday meeting was relatively calm, although there was considerable tension. Members of the SRC called for a boycott of lectures to some consternation from those who had exams and were worried about their marks. In the law faculty, there was talk of replacing lectures with “teach-ins’ although not much came of this idea, since there were issues of safety.

“Perhaps its time to teach you about habeous corpus” remarked one lecturer. Of course, since people were being detained, the phrase didn’t make any sense. As far as the report in the Cape Times is concerned, it would seem to paint a one-sided picture, focusing on the plight of various unionists and an apparent strike by railway workers.

The solidarity with various unions was only one factor in the anti-apartheid movement and campus unrest of 1987. In addition to calls for the end of apartheid, other calls were made by the women’s movement and environment & peace movements.

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