The South African Industrial Federation riot in the Rand Gold mining district

Members of the South African Industrial Federation (SAIF), a miners union for people socially constructed as 'white', ran riot in the Rand Gold mining district. They were protesting against proposals to open semi-skilled jobs to 'non white' workers. To this end they  sabotaged trains, attacked people who were not considered to be 'white' and fired at the police.   The 1922 mineworkers strike was the biggest strike in the history of the sector and resulted in the execution of three of the union members. Samuel Long, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Petrus Marais and subsequently executed. Marais was found guilty by the Strike Committee of being a police informant. Other union members who were executed were Herbert Hull and David Lewis, both arrested for the murder of Lt. Rupert William Taylor. The three, Long, Hull and Lewis went to their deaths on the scaffold at Pretoria Central Prison singing the ‘Red Flag’ (the official anthem of early socialists and communists in South Africa).