Word: mkhize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Driefontein's resistance to the draconian program had an unlikely leader in Saul Mkhize, 48, a quiet, slender accountant. He owned the land that his grandfather had settled in 1912, when 300 black families pooled their resources to purchase a 6,000-acre tract. But in 1981 the government announced that it needed all the land in Driefontein to build a dam. To show that they were serious, officials arrived to paint numbers on the heart-shaped gravestones in the Driefontein cemetery in preparation for moving the remains. Mkhize and his neighbors protested vigorously, insisting that they owned...
...conflict came to a head when Mkhize called a public meeting in the yard of Driefontein's school buildings to discuss the issue. Holding a bullhorn, Mkhize delayed his introductory speech to the 300 people present, waiting for more to arrive. Suddenly, a police van roared into the schoolyard and screeched to a halt. Flanked by a black officer, Police Constable J.A. Nienaber, a white, declared that the gathering was illegal. When no one moved, he threw a tear-gas canister into the crowd and then struck Mkhize in the face. The angry crowd surged toward the police, jostling...
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