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eventREF E-0093794Revised

Event record

South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer

Date
18 Oct 1985
Updated
30 Sep 2019
South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer

Black upholsterer and poet, Benjamin Moloise was executed by apartheid government on 18 October 1985. Moloise was accused of murdering a black police officer. The African National Congress claimed responsibility for the murder and repudiated the claim that Moloise was involved. The US and the Soviet Union warned the apartheid government against the execution, but the government still decided to go ahead with it. The execution aroused so much anger in the townships that violence escalated. It spiraled out of control and subsequently reached areas like the Johannesburg CBD which had previously remained sheltered from it.

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How we know this

  1. 01Executed Today.com 1985: Benjamin Moloise, revolutionary poet [online] Available at: www.executedtoday.com  [Accessed on 5 October 2012]
  2. 02Dutta C. (2010) In-between Protest and Art from Art News and Views [online] Available at: www.artnewsnviews.com [Accessed on 5 October 2012]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, October 10). South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0093794

South African History Online (2012) 'South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer', South African History Online, 10 October. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0093794 (Accessed: 5 August 2026).

South African History Online, South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0093794, (accessed 5 August 2026).

"South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer." South African History Online, 10 Oct. 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0093794. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "South African black activist and poet Benjamin Moloise is hanged for allegedly killing a police officer." South African History Online. October 10, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0093794.

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