Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
A taste of police brutality in city 66 years ago
WORLD War II veterans – some of whom would later become influential figures in the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe – mounted spirited resistance in the early 1950s to the National Party’s depredations on the constitution and its determination to strip coloured people of the vote.
The anti-fascist Springbok Legion and its offshoot, the Torch Commando, galvanised liberal opposition which, in one striking instance in Cape Town, led to a violent clash with police. The war veterans’ march at the end of May in 1951 left about 75 people injured, including 17 policemen, and a trail of damage.
Here is a report from the day after:
The injured tell their stories – provoked police charged ‘without restraint’
On mattresses in the corridors, and stretchers and beds crammed into wards already crowded, dozens of people injured in last night’s disturbances in Cape Town spent the night at Groote Schuur Hospital.
In the X-ray department of the hospital, today Mr HH Godden, an ex-serviceman of 33a Mill Street, Gardens, waited to hear the result of an X-ray of his head. He had a wound on the back of his head and plaster on his nose.
He said: “I had marched in the torch procession from the Parade… I was walking towards Plein Street when, suddenly, the police came rushing from Church Square with batons in their hands.
“I don’t know what happened after that. When I woke up, my head was full of blood. I had done absolutely nothing.”
Lying in another casualty ward, her head bandaged, Mrs De Jager of St Alfred Street, Observatory, said: “I was outside the Groote Kerk building, on my way to the station, when the police charged. I was knocked over and was hit on the back of my head, but I don’t know what really happened.”
Mr W Smyth of Clifton, a 33-year-old ex-serviceman, was discharged from Groote Schuur Hospital today with a broken arm and eight stitches in his scalp, both injuries caused by baton blows.
Major J Taillard, District Commandant of Police in Cape Town, said today: “I held my hands last night as long as was humanly possible, and then I had to give the order for punitive action. My men were severely provoked. They were being scorched by torches and bottles were being thrown at them. Round stones – obviously not picked up in the city – were thrown at them.”
In Parliament, Mr HG Lawrence, acting leader of the opposition, said something bubbled over in Cape Town last night which had too long been suppressed.
He asked what the position would be in 10 years’ time if timely steps were not taken. Dr Loock (HNP MP) shouted. “You will be hanged.” Mr Speaker shouted: “Order! Order!” until he was hoarse.