Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Apartheid policies sparked the uprising on that fateful day
Judge Cillie, the only member of the commission, also concluded there were other cornerstone policies of apartheid that had generated unrest.
Non-white South Africans faced discrimination and division, as well as not having any say in their affairs.
It found no evidence the police had used excessive force in dealing with protesters and placed most of the blame on the Soweto Students’ Representa- tive Council (SSRC).
In August, a student boycott at the University of the Western Cape developed into fullfledged protests in Langa, Nyanga and Gugulethu. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 21 people were killed on August 11.
An 18-year-old Langa student, Ezekiel Xolile Mosi, was among the first killed. His funeral was also one of the first to be banned under a national renewal of the prohibition on open- air gatherings, announced on August 4.
The Cillie Commission put the final death count from August 11, 1976 to February 28, 1977 in the Western Cape as 149. Some 117 of those people were killed by the police.
Many of these violations included coloured people, something unique to the Western Cape. Out of the 108 people killed by the police in the peninsula, 53 were coloured.
The TRC also found police force was used excessively in the Western Cape as most protesters were unarmed.
The weapons used by the minority were limited to stones and in some cases petrol bombs.
Even though looting was criminal, the commission said non- lethal force could have been used to stop looters in many cases.
Another finding of the commission was that conflict between hostel- dwellers and township residents in 1976 and 1977 emerged from socio-economic divisions imposed on these groups by apartheid legislation.
The methods protesters used to enforce work stayaways and liquor boycotts sparked the conflict.
The commission found the force used during the 1980 school boycotts excessively harsh, as many of the 42 people killed were under 18. Most were women.
Those killings were found to be gross human rights violations.
In conclusion, the TRC found the Cillie Commission failed to take into account the evidence of community leaders and students about the underlying cause of violence.
The Cillie Commission was also found to have failed in its findings against police, saying that excessive force was not used despite the high numbers of deaths and injured people.
The failure of the commission created an atmosphere of impunity within the police force and led to further gross human rights violations.
The TRC also found the Cillie Commission was directly responsible for the students being charged with sedition because of their finding that the SSRC was responsible for the protest.