Mass protest against the circumstances of Neil Aggett’s death

A call for a thirty-minute work stoppage in protest the death of Dr Neil Aggett, who allegedly committed suicide while in police detention, was supported by virtually all independent Black unions, with more than 50 000 workers taking part in the protest. This was in response to a call for a nationwide work stoppage from the mostly nonwhite African Food and Canning Workers Union, where the young physician had worked.

A spokesman for the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) asserted that 52,000 workers in 83 factories took part in the protest. Witwatersrand University and Rhodes University, formally associated themselves with the stoppage. All university activities were halted and an overflowing crowd of about 2,000 listened to a series of speeches hailing Dr Aggett as a martyr to the cause of a nonracial South Africa.

''Many more will be imprisoned, banned and die,'' Bishop Desmond M. Tutu told the meeting. ''But freedom is coming. We shall all be free.''

Outrage at the circumstances of his death cut across racial lines and prompted White opposition politicians, lawyers, academics and church leaders to lead demands for the end of prolonged solitary detention without trial because of the intolerable conditions it created