Schools Stoned, Fuzz Burnt

The strike spread to other schools over the next three weeks and there were sporadic attacks on police cars. On June 6 pupils set up pickets to prevent a return to school and a number of schools were stoned.

On June 10, pupils throughout Soweto refused to take a social studies paper in Afrikaans. Trouble built up with burnings of police cars and attacks on schools. The Government was warned of the developments but ignored them.

On June 15, pupils of secondary schools in Soweto planned a walk-out and a meeting for the next day at Orlando West where the strike began.

Seven a.m. on June 16 and 15,000 schoolchildren had massed, intending to march to the centre of Soweto. As students made their way towards the rally, they were singing and cheering, carrying placards saying, "Down with Afrikaans", "Afrikaans is oppressors' language". As they passed schools they called on pupils to come out and join them. The whole crowd at the rally was in an extremely jovial mood.