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eventREF E-0012294Revised

21 December 1976

Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends

Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends

Updated
19 Dec 2019
Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends

The lengthy trial of nine student leaders from the Black People's Convention (BPC) and the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) ended on this date. They were found guilty under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to periods of imprisonment, three for six years and six for five years. The next day they were driven from Pretoria to Cape Town in the back of a police van, and from there taken to Robben Island. The nine were first detained by Security Police in October 1974, following a Viva FRELIMO rally in Durban in September of that year. The trial commenced in the Pretoria Supreme Court in 1975.  Amongst the accused were Mosioua Lekota, Mweni Musa, Nkwenkwe Nkomo and Maitshe Mokoape.

How we know this

  1. 01Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.
  2. 02The Graphic, (1974), BCP pair claim "We're being harassed", from The Graphic, 03 January, [online], Available at  www.ukzn.ac.za

Last updated · 19 Dec 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012294

South African History Online (2011) 'Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012294 (Accessed: 14 October 2026).

South African History Online, Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012294, (accessed 14 October 2026).

"Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012294. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012294.

Also on 21 December

  1. 1795Kuruman missionary Robert Moffat is born
  2. 1870Sir Patrick Duncan, Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, is born
  3. 1915Miners strike at the Van Rhyn Deep mines
  4. 1938A fishing trawler off the South African Coast catches a coelacanth
  5. 1964SA signs treaty with Great Britain on the supply of military equipment to South Africa
  6. 1967Louis Washkansky dies
  7. 1975Madagascar adopts its second constitution
  8. 1982An inquest into the death in detention of the white trade union leader, Dr. Neil Aggett opens

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