The Zulu leader said that most of the youths were “children,” not members of the Pan‐Africanist Congress, and noted that they had chanted the names of leaders of the “Black Consciousness” movement, a militant group with a strong following among younger blacks. When asked how he felt about being spat on, the chief replied: “It makes me proud.
Outside, Chief Buthelezi argued with reporters, telling one who questioned hini about the gunshots: “You are treating me like a kaffir!”-an abusive term for blacks. When the gunshots were fired, most of the 5,000 people at- tending the ceremony thought the noise was from firecrackers. The youths, many of them in their early teens, ran screaming after the Zulu leader as he stalked from the field protected by a screen of aides. However, Bishop Desmond Tutu, an Anglican prelate with close ties to the black nationalist movement, eventually asked the Zulu leader to depart, telling him that the funeral could not begin as long as he remained. The Zulu leader stood his ground, telling the youths: “If you chaps want to kill me, do so. Pandemonium broke out as the youths demanded that he leave, taunting him with cries such as: “You are Vorster's man!” and “Government stooge, get away from here!”
taunting white police officers and bystanders with cries of “White pigs!” and “Death to Vorster,” a reference to Prime Minister John Vorster.Īs the coffin was laid beneath the sackcloth awning in the center of the sports field, adorned by the yellow, green and black flag of the black nationalist movement, the youths surrounded Chief Buthelezi, who was standing with other dignitaries. Abdut 300 youths led the cortege down the town's main street. Sobukwe's coffin was carried of the sports ground from the shabby black township nearby where he was born, an atmosphere of tension pervaded the funeral. Immediately after the gunshots, this reporter saw the aide stuffing the revolver into a shoulder bag. One journalist said he had seen the aide firing into the ground, apparently attempting ,to deter the youths milling around the chief. The only weapon seen by any of the reporters was a revolver carried by an aide to Chief Buthelezi. “The whole matter is under investigation,” he said. He said that the police had not determined who had fired the shots, but that none of his own men, who attended in plain clothes, had fired any shots. The police official said that one of the youths had a flesh wound in the chest, one had been hit in the hand and the third in the leg. However, none of the dozens of reporters at the scene saw anyone struck by bullets. Coetzee, divisional commissioner of police for the southwestern Cape Province, said that three youths, two of them aged 18 and one of them 13, had been admitted to the local hospital with bullet wounds. The Zulu leader noted that he had attended college with the nationalist leader, and called him friend.Īfter the fighting was brought under control, Brig. build a following among other black ethnic groups, said afterward that he had been invited to attend the funeral by the Pan‐Africanist Congress through its office in London. Although the Zulu leader also strongly opposes apartheid, he serves as chief minister of Kwazulu, the rural “homeland” reserved for Zulus.Ĭhief Buthelezi, who has been attempting to. Sobukwe, who was jailed and restricted under a Government banning order for the last 17 years of his life, was a bitter opponent of those, like Chief Buthelezi, who accept leadership positions in Government‐created political institutions for blacks.
After the, disturbance, Helen Suzman, a white opposition Member of Parliament, who had been scheduled to speak at the funeral, decided to withdraw her name ‐from the,speakers’ list. Ambassador of the Transkei, black “homeland” that was granted independence by South Africa last year. Within a few minutes, several other dignitaries left, including Sonny Leon, leader of the Colored Labor Party, a group based among the country's mixed‐race population that opposes the Government's racial policies, and Mhalani Njisane. After Chief Buthelezi departed, the young militants turned their attention to others attending the funeral whom they accused of cooperating with the Government.
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