Daily Maverick publishes testimony about the 1985 events in Langa, South Africa
In South Africa, Daily Maverick published excerpts from a new book by Mark Swilling about the massacre in Langa near Uitenhage on March 21, 1985. According to the information cited in the article, 47 people died that day, and 35 of them had been wounded by shots in the back. The events took place during a march by Langa residents who were heading through Uitenhage to KwaNobuhle for a funeral.
Langa resident Sidney Ntlangeni, who testified before a commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Kannemeyer, stated that police fired at the front rows of the crowd and at people who tried to get up after being wounded. According to him, he himself was wounded in the back while holding a girl who had fallen.
Moses Bukwa's testimony
The central episode of the book is the story of Moses Bukwa, who was riding a bicycle along Maduna Road. According to eyewitness E. Thembani, he became the first person to be shot. The author writes that a police officer ordered Bukwa to ride between two Casspir armored vehicles, after which he was wounded by a shot to the back of the head. Bukwa survived, but used a wheelchair because of his injury.
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Police officers who testified before the commission said that there had been no bicycle at the scene. According to the author's account, human rights activist Molly Blackburn found Bukwa and arranged for him to appear at hearings on April 2 and 15, 1985. After that, Judge Kannemeyer, according to Swilling, questioned the reliability of the police officers' main testimony.
State of emergency and resettlement
Langa was a settlement whose residents the apartheid authorities repeatedly tried to forcibly resettle to KwaNobuhle. After protests intensified, a partial state of emergency was introduced in the country in July 1985, followed by a nationwide one on June 12, 1986.
Excerpts from the book also describe the forced eviction of 48,000 Langa residents to a tent camp in KwaNobuhle. The leader of the anti-resettlement movement, Wezu Made, was held without trial in 1986. In a letter from detention, he reported deteriorating conditions in his cell and the beating of one of the detainees by police officers.
