Six from Sharpeville
The Sharpeville Six , English Sharpeville Six were, a group of South African demonstrators , as a result of the murder of Kuzwayo Jacob Dlamini, deputy mayor of Sharpeville were sentenced to death in September 1985. This ruling sparked a wave of protest and solidarity internationally .
history
On September 3, 1984, a demonstration against corrupt local politicians and against rent increases in Sharpeville got out of hand. The approximately 100 participants doused the deputy mayor of the township with gasoline and killed him. Two months later, the six Mojalefa Sefatsa, Theresa Ramashamola, Reid Mokoena, Oupa Diniso, Duma Khumalo and Francis Don Mokhesi - five men and one woman - involved in the demonstration were arrested and found guilty. You were sentenced to death by hanging .
A direct involvement in Dlamini's murder could not be proven to the accused. The judgment was based on the fact of common intent. The convicts waited 1076 days on death row to be executed on the gallows .
The Sharpeville Six trial increasingly took on a political dimension, as the release of the Six was demanded internationally. Protests for the release of prisoners took place around the world. The UN Security Council passed resolutions 610 and 615 against the condemnation of the Sharpeville Six. In November 1988, shortly before the execution date, the South African President Pieter Willem Botha commuted the death sentences of the six to prison terms between 18 and 25 years.
In the final stages of apartheid in 1991 and 1992, the Sharpeville Six were released in pairs.
See also
Web links
- Background of the trial against the "Six of Sharpeville" at sahistory.org.za (English)
- Obituary for Duma Khumalo
Individual evidence
- ↑ resolutions of the UN Security West 1988 (English, PDF file, 2.0 MB) accessed 17 June 2012 Google