Dr. Neville Alexander and four others were found guilty of sabotage and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. The judge found that the accused participated in the activities of the National Liberation Front (NLF), an offshoot of the Yu Chi Chan Club (YCCC), whose aims was to advance the revolution through violence. Along with Namibian activists Kenneth and Tilly Abraham from the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), he created the YCCC to promote guerrilla warfare, and subsequently founded the (NLF) to bring together people who were committed to the ‘overthrow of the state, irrespective of their political ideology’. In 1974, Alexander was released from prison, but banned and placed under house arrest for five years.
From 7 April until mid July 1994, ethnic violence broke out in Rwanda between the Tutsis and the Hutus. The Hutus who are the majority, set out to kill, rape and loot properties of the Tutsis. The genocide followed the day after the death of the Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana. Habyarimana died when his plane was shot down as it was landing in Kigali. It was never determined who was responsible but a widespread belief was that it was the Tutsi dominated party Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
By the end of the genocide, it is estimated that between half a million and a million people had been killed, a large percentage of them Tutsis. The genocide left the country devastated. Infrastructure, the economy and families suffered. Millions of children were left orphaned. Most of the violence was centred in the capital city of Kigali.
Phambili Ka Ntloko was born on 18 April 1960 in Queenstown, Eastern Cape. As a high school student, Ntloko became involved in the South African Students’ Movement (SASM), a black consciousness organisation for high school children. He became an organizer for the Queenstown branch. In 1978, Ntloko was one of seven others sentenced to five years in Robben Island for taking part in boycotts and burning of structures following Steve Biko’s death.
Ntloko completed his Matric while in prison, and was released in 1983. He joined the Azanian People’s Organisation’s (AZAPO) Queenstown branch and served on its community development secretariat. In 1984 he was elected Chairperson of the AZAPO Queenstown branch, and two months later its Vice-President.
Ntloko, who was also a human rights activist, was later ordained a priest. He died in 2000 when he was gunned down by criminals in Diepsloot.
On 18 April 2005, Zimbabwe celebrated twenty-five years of independence after the overthrow of white majority rule, under the then Prime Minister Ian Smith. The outright corruption and mismanagement that followed the repossession of 'White" owned farms must be laid squarely at the feet of the Mugabe regime, who despite mediation by South Africa, has failed to come to a politically equitable solution.
Added to the woes of the Zimbabwean people, was the general elections held by the Mugabe regime, which they have unfailingly won for the last twenty-five years. This despite the fact that the Zimbabwean currency has been devalued to levels last experienced by the German Mark after World War 1, that the Zimbabwean economy, once among the most robust in Africa is all but defunct and that Zimbabweans are dependent on food aid, even though Zimbabwe was once known as 'the breadbasket of Africa'.
Outright condemnation of the election results of 2005 Zimbabwean election results, have mostly come from Western governments, with the majority of Zimbabwe's neighbouring countries silent with regard to the situation. This has resulted in Mugabe declaring that criticisms of his regime is racist in nature and that critique voiced by both Black and White is part of a ploy by the West to re-colonise Zimbabwe. This in the face of a situation where pandemics of preventable diseases have ravaged the populace, with starvation becoming commonplace, the education and health systems have all but stopped working and masses of Zimbabweans have fled to neighbouring countries, notably South Africa. The only line of credit Harare can still access is provided by the Chinese as they expand their interests into Africa.
References:
The Zimbabwean working people and the land question (online), available at: britannica.com [Accessed 12 April 2010]
Mugabe's Celebratory Rant (online), available at:.news24.com [Accessed 12 April 2010]
Ken Oosterbroek, the Chief Photographer of The Star, was killed in bloody pre-election fighting in Thokoza township on the East Rand, just two weeks before South Africans went to the polls in South Africa's first historic democratic elections. It was a bittersweet time for those who worked at The Star during that period. Ken was a larger than life presence, an intricate personality with a wonderful talent. His untimely death in the crossfire between hostel dwellers and a South African peacekeeping force was a great tragedy.
Immediately after obtaining independence from Britain in 1980, Zimbabwe embarked on the process of renaming its cities, towns and streets. This was an attempt by Zimbabwe to eradicate all symbols associated with the British colonialism and White minority rule. On the second anniversary of independence,18 April 1982, Zimbabwe renamed its capital city Harare, after the Shona chief Neharawa. The initial name of the capital was Salisbury, named after the British Prime Minister 3 rd Marquess of Salisbury.
The Organisation for international cooperation and peace, the League of Nations, established by the Allied Powers at the end of World War I was officially dissolved in Geneva, Switzerland. From its inception, the League, though the brainchild of President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America (USA), was weakened by the failure of that country to join. The organisation ceased its operation during World War II and was replaced by the new international body, the United Nations, in 1946.
References:
Wallis, F. (2000). Nuusdagboek: feite en fratse oor 1000 jaar, Kaapstad: Human & Rousseau.
Enoch Mankayi Sontonga, writer and composer of the National Anthem Nkosi Sikelel' IAfrica (God Bless Africa) died at the age of thirty-two. He wrote Nkosi Sikelel' IAfrica eight years before his death, at the age of twenty four. There were initially uncertainties around the exact year of his death, but it was finally established that the exact date was 18 April 1905. Seven years after his death the African National Congress launched his hymn into prominence as an anthem of Black struggle against oppression.
Because of vandalisation of Braamfontein cemetery, where Sontonga was buried, the City of Johannesburg invited city officials, archaeologists and historians to locate his grave. Once his grave was identified, Nelson Mandela called for the erection of a memorial to Sontonga on the first post-apartheid Heritage Day. On 18 April 2005 the Johannesburg City Parks planned an event to commemorate his death.