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Published 29 April 2020Updated 29 April 2020

At seven p.m. sharp, seven nights a week, during the darkest days of apartheid, an incendiary radio broadcast beamed out from Lusaka, Zambia. It began with the clack of machine-gun fire, followed by a familiar call-and-response:

Amandla Ngawethu!

“Power to the People!”

The shooting faded in and out, waxing and waning with the chant.

Published 29 April 2020Updated 3 November 2020

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Helen Newton Thompson

Helen Newton Thompson, an anti-apartheid political activist and founding member of the Black Sash, has for the most part of history, been a fleeting footnote mentioned once or twice among her better known, women comrades.

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This Day in History: 23 March 2020
On 23 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster in terms of section 27 of the Disaster Management Act. This was an urgent response as the World Health Organization declared the Corona outbreak as the global pandemic. There were more than 162 000 people who have tested positive across the globe, 61 confirmed cases in South Africa. Given the speed and the spread of this virus, South African government decided to take drastic measures to protect and contain the impact of the virus to the health system, society and most importantly the people within the borders.
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