On this day in history 15 October
Learn what happened on this day in history
Tuesday, 15 October 1889
South Africa effectively became a British colony in 1795. This led to great number of changes, such as the expansion into the interior of South Africa and the discovery of gold and diamonds. By the mid-nineteenth century, the mining industry was well established, particularly under the leadership of Cecil John Rhodes, a politician and mining magnate, who sought to further the influence of the British Empire over the African continent. A royal charter was sought to establish a company, based on the British East India model (BEIC), through which this goal could be achieved. On 15 October 1889, Queen Victoria issued such a charter, and the British South Africa Company (BSAC) was established. Trade was undertaken with various African leaders, in which vast amounts of land were acquired. The BSAC recruited its own army, which it used to defeat the Matabele and to establish a colony, later known as Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The charter was extended to 1914, but was eventually revoked in 1923 as the White settlers in Southern Rhodesia grew tired of company administration. The shares of the BSAC were eventually consolidated in various mining companies, one of which is Anglo American.
Monday, 15 October 1951
One of SAA’s early aircraft, a Dakota, crashed into the Ingeli Mountain in Kokstad on 15 October 1951. It was operating a service from East London to Durban when it crashed, killing all seventeen passengers. It was SAA’s third fatal crash.
The Dakotas were replaced by the Hawker Siddeley 748 turbo-prop aircraft in 1970, andby 1971, all Dakotas had been phased out.
Sunday, 15 October 1989
On this day, five of the eight African National Congress’ (ANC) long-term political prisoners, namely Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Endrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi were released from Robben Island. The remaining three prisoners, who were released before and after 1989, were Dennis Goldberg (1985), Govan Mbeki (5 November 1987) and Nelson Mandela (11 February 1990).
They were all arrested on 11 July 1963, when security police raided Lilliesleaf Farm, which was the ANC’s underground headquarters after the movement had been banned in April 1960 in terms of the Unlawful Organisation Act 34 of 1960. During the raid, scores of ANC leadership members and uMkhonto weSizwe commanders were apprehended and a large number of ANC documents were confiscated. They were tried in a trial which became known as the Rivonia Trial. On 11 June 1964, almost a year into the trial, Judge Quartus de Wet delivered his verdict, finding everyone guilty, except Rusty Bernstein as the evidence against him was insufficient.
Monday, 15 October 1990
The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 49 of 1953 formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. The Act enforced segregation of all public facilities, including buildings and transport, in order to limit contact between the different races in South Africa. The Act also stated that the facilities for different races did not need to be equal. In practice then, the best facilities were reserved for whites while those for other races were inferior.
The Act was part of the system of “petty apartheid,” the name given to apartheid laws concerned with the regulation of day-to-day life, most notably the Immorality Act 5 of 1927 (as amended), the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act 55 of 1949, and the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 49 of 1953. Petty apartheid is sometimes compared to the similar Jim Crow laws of the United States. Unlike Jim Crow laws however, petty apartheid made no effort to create the legal fiction of “separate but equal” public facilities.
Under FW de Klerk, the National Party dismantled the entire system of petty apartheid by the time of the 1994 general election that brought the ANC to power.
Friday, 15 October 1993
Presiding Judge CF Eloff sentenced Polish immigrant and supporter of the Neo-Nazi Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, Janusz Waluz, and Conservative Party politician, Clive Derby-Lewis, to death for assassinating the South African Communist Party (SACP) leader, Chris Hani. They were found guilty the previous day, but Gaye Derby-Lewis, Clive’s wife, was acquitted. Eloff slammed the two for their lack of remorse and their attitude towards the fact that killing Hani was likely to turn the country upside down. The sentence was welcomed by the African National Congress (ANC), and thousands of supporters of both the ANC and SACP. However, a senior ANC official was overheard stating that despite the fact that the two were sentenced to death, the organisation was totally opposed to the death penalty. Their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment after the abolition of the death penalty.
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