Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act

Date: 23 Jun 1969
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appeared in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act. It is alleged that they had conspired or incited others to kill White people or police in the Graaff-Reinet district in the Cape Province (now Eastern Cape Province). The killings occurred between January 1966 and January 1967. The Sabotage Act commenced in June 1962. The act detained any person who willfully or wrongfully act whereby the person injured, obstructed, tampered or destroyed health or safety of the public, the maintenance of law and order, the supply of light, water, power, fuel ,or foodstuffs, sanitary, medical or fire extinguishing services. Furthermore the act declared organisations unlawful, and provided for further restrictions, including house arrests to be included in banning orders. The act was applied in many cases were Black people were convicted of killing White people. This resulted in a number of trials and executions of members of the armed wings of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the African National Congress (ANC), which were called Poqo and uMKhonto weSizwe (MK) members respectively.

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How we know this

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
02South African Democracy Education Trust (2004),‘The Road to Democracy in South Africa’, vol.1 (1960-1970), (Zebra Press), p.345
03Mphaki A. (2011), ‘More PAC activists hanged in 60s’, from iol, 14 December, [online], Available at: www.iol.co.za [Accessed: 20 June 2014]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, June 22). Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0086290

South African History Online (2012) 'Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act', South African History Online, 22 June. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0086290 (Accessed: 21 July 2026).

South African History Online, Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0086290, (accessed 21 July 2026).

"Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act." South African History Online, 22 June 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0086290. Accessed 21 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Twenty-four Africans from the Graaff-Reinet district appear in the Grahamstown Supreme Court on charges under the Sabotage Act." South African History Online. June 22, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0086290.