The South African Border War - Internal strife escalates - the "Soweto Uprising"

1975 saw the large sale melding of the South African Military in Angola.

However 1976 would see the emergence of a whole new facet of the Apartheid governments problems.

In 1974 they issued the Afrikaans Medium Decree. It basically would enforce that black students would have to receive half of their school subjects taught in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans was associated with Apartheid and so since at least 1948 those who were discriminated against preferred to use English rather than Afrikaans.

This decree was put in place to limit the decline of Afrikaans among the black peoples of South Africa.

Students found it difficult to learn their subjects while battling with the language and resentment began to grow.

On 30 April 1976 children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike and refused to go to school.

This quickly spread to other schools and by June a massive rally to protest was planned.

On June 16th 1976 a march to the stadium was planned with groups of hundreds and later thousands of students. These groups were met with significant police brutality and quickly the situation escalated into wholesale rioting, stoning, arson and pitched battles with the police.

According to Wikipedia sources.

The number of people who died is usually given as 176 with estimates up to 700. The original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed; the number of wounded was estimated to be over a thousand people.

It would take till the end of the year to quell the uprising and unrest but the Soweto Uprising would spell the end of the relative calm that had prevailed up till then.

The effective use of the situation would elevate the ANC into the dominant role it played from then on.

The images of dead and dying school children would further damage the Apartheid governments image abroad and at home, with fresh calls for tougher sanctions.

Other posts in this series

The piece of the cold war nobody told you about - Africa's forgotten war

The Air Battles
The SA Fighter Aircraft
The SA Bomber Aircraft
The conflicts deep roots and start
Regional Tensions
Africa's forgotten cold war - Angolan War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Mozambican War of Independence.
Africa's forgotten cold war - Rhodesian Bush War
Africa's forgotten cold war - The Angolan War of Independence transitions to the Angolan Civil War
The South African Border War - The start of Operation Savannah and Large scale South African involvement.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - the wheels start coming off.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Quifangondo
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Ebo
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Bridge 14
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah - Battle of Luso
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah comes to an end.
The South African Border War - Operation Savannah the withdrawal.
The South African Border War - Meanwhile back on the home front.
The South African Border War - Meanwhile over in neighboring Mozambique.
The South African Border War - Meanwhile back at the South West African Border and 32 Battalion.