SASO/BPC trial

The SASO/BPC trial, also known as the Black Consciousness trial,[1] was an apartheid-era legal trial in South Africa which resulted in the conviction of nine Black Consciousness activists from the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) and Black People's Convention (BPC). The trial ran from 31 January 1975[2] to 21 December 1976 in the Pretoria Supreme Court.[3][4]

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The nine accused are commonly known as the SASO Nine. They were Zithulele Cindi, Saths Cooper, Mosioua Lekota, Aubrey Mokoape, Strini Moodley, Muntu Myeza, Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, Nkwenke Nkomo and Gilbert Kaborone Sedibe.[1][2] They were first arrested, with four other Black Consciousness activists, by the Security Branch in September 1974; they were charged with treason for organising pro-FRELIMO rallies in Natal to celebrate Mozambican independence, in defiance of a police ban against the gatherings.[1][3]

In one of the longest political trials of the apartheid era,[1] witnesses for the defence included Steve Biko[5] and Rick Turner.[2] The trial received extensive public attention and press coverage.[1] When the trial ended, all nine defendants were convicted under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to periods of imprisonment on Robben Island: three were given six-year sentences and the six others were given five-year sentences.[3] The detention of the SASO Nine depleted the leadership ranks of the Black Consciousness movement.[6]

References
  1. Heffernan, Anne (12 September 2020). "The SASO nine trial and Steve Biko remain relevant to student protests in SA". IOL. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  2. Cooper, Saths; Nefolovhodwe, Pandelani (2007), "Steve Biko and the SASO/BPC trial", We Write What We Like: Celebrating Steve Biko, Wits University Press, pp. 111–116, ISBN 978-1-86814-701-4, retrieved 7 January 2023.
  3. "21 December 1976: Trial of nine BPC and SASO leaders ends". South African History Online. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  4. Du Toit, Darcy (1981). Capital and Labour in South Africa: Class Struggle in the 1970s. Kegan Paul International. pp. 402–403. ISBN 978-0-7103-0001-0.
  5. Morgan, Marcus (2018). "Performance and Power in Social Movements: Biko's Role as a Witness in the SASO/BPC Trial". Cultural Sociology. 12 (4): 456–477. doi:10.1177/1749975517752586. hdl:1983/d3f73249-8c69-441f-8038-dc385c568b28. ISSN 1749-9755. S2CID 149993613.
  6. Brown, Julian (2012). "An Experiment in Confrontation: The Pro-Frelimo Rallies of 1974". Journal of Southern African Studies. 38 (1): 55–71. doi:10.1080/03057070.2012.644978. ISSN 0305-7070. JSTOR 23267002. S2CID 145698378.
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