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TUESDAY 20 October 2020 | Tel: 021 910 6500 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za
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People’s Post
OFFICERS READY TO TACKLE CRIME: A group of 58 Law Enforcement officers have been deployed to Hanover Park to assist in crime and violence prevention initiatives. Deployed on Monday 12 October, the initiative was relaunched on Friday 16 October with a pamphlet drive and vehicle checkpoint. Read more on page 9. PHOTOS: SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS
TROJAN HORSE MASSACRES
‘We can never forget’ SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS SAMANTHA.LEE@PEOPLESPOST.CO.ZA @SAMANTHA_LEE121
O
n 15 October 1985, scores of local youth took to the streets in a peaceful protest against the apartheid regime. Unbeknownst to them, it would result in death, injury and arrests. While protesting along Thornton Road in Athlone, officers attached to the railway police and apartheid security forces and defence force – hidden behind crates at the back of a railway truck – opened fire on the protesters, killing 11-year-old Michael Miranda, Jonathan Claasen (21), and Shaun Magmoed (15), injuring several others. Their plan was to suppress the uprising while going undetected. According to Dr Martha Evans of the University of Cape Town (UCT), officers could not enter communities in police vehicles because of how unpopular they were. By concealing themselves in the back of the truck, they
planned to arrest ringleaders of protests and uprisings. “No one knew there were policemen in the back. The truck drove down and came back. Because it was a railway truck, it was symbolic of authorities and government,” she says. “Youth started pelting the vehicle with stones and almost immediately policemen popped out of the crates and started shooting.” The next day, the same fate awaited Mabhuti Fatman (20) and Mengxwane Mali (19) who were also gunned down by officers hidden in crates. The act of the officers concealing their presence behind the crates and opening fire on the youths is known as the Trojan Horse Massacres, which took place 35 years ago in both Athlone and Crossroads, claiming the lives of five youths. Emeritus Prof Crain Soudien, also from UCT, says the reconnaissance of the decoy truck driving up and down the road was not known to be planned at the time. “This was a planned event. The security po-
lice organised with the railway police to set up this decoy truck,” he says. “They must have had approval from (higher up). You have this extraordinary complicity by the highest level of security police in the country to pull this event off. It was a deliberate thing.” Soudien says, because the same thing happened in Crossroads a day later, it is clear this was a strategy. “This was a strategy these security people used to try and quell, put down this uprising as it was happening. The people who were killed in it could hardly have properly known what was going on,” he says. Because of the ages and the brutality of the events that unfolded, Soudien says the hurt can still be felt in communities 35 years later. Faiez Jacobs, member of provincial parliament for Athlone, says the lives of these youths and everyone else who was part of the Trojan Horse Massacres should be celebrated as it played a role in the fight for freedom and democracy during the apartheid regime. “We also have great heroes and sheroes that
must be commemorated and celebrated. People’s heroes who played a role in the struggle for freedom and democracy. We can never forget this community. It is important for the community of Athlone to remember,” says Jacobs. Brian Alcock, of the Athlone District Advice Office, says many who are still residents of Athlone remember that fateful day. “Many of us will remember the Trojan Horse Massacre of 1985 on the corner of Thornton Road And St Simons Road in Sunnyside, Athlone, when Jonathan Classen, Shaun Magmoet and the only 11 years old Michael Miranda lost their lives. “It was a period of times when students from schools in the Athlone area used to gather and together show they stand against the unjust system and together raised their voices. These youth members with many others around South Africa lost their lives or sacrificed their lives because they wanted change,” says Alcock. V Continued on page 4.
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