{"id":4578,"date":"2011-10-09T14:47:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T12:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/1990-northern-areas-uprising-briefing-sessions\/"},"modified":"2011-10-09T14:47:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-09T12:47:35","slug":"1990-northern-areas-uprising-briefing-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/1990-northern-areas-uprising-briefing-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"1990 Northern Areas Uprising Briefing Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Most of us will remember the Port Elizabeth Northern Areas Uprisings that occurred in August 1990 \u2013 an event that was baffling to all at the time coming as it was sandwiched between the sweeping reforms that led to the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 and the ultimate official repealing of Apartheid laws on 17 June 1991.<\/p>\n

At the time it was difficult to pinpoint the actual reason for the sweeping violence which was blamed on a number of ills; a rent boycott, gangsterism and even apartheid.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Lotto, the Northern Areas History and Heritage Project (NAHHP) was established to capture, document and archive the 1990 Northern Areas uprising.<\/p>\n

The NAHHP define \u2018The Problem\u2019 thus; \u201cThe \u2018Uprisings\u2019 in the Northern Areas in 1990 is an event that has not been documented in its totality. This historical event traumatised the Northern Areas community and has left scars of suffering that has not been addressed to this day. The event has to date not been adequately reviewed and its significance not evaluated and contextualised. Questions that need answers include: what lead to this event? Why did it happen? How did it happen? What were the overall circumstances at the time? How did the political climate influence the event? What was the significance of the rent boycotts? What role did forced removals play in the development of community\u2019s psyche and how did this affect what happened during before and after the event? Who are the people who live in the Northern Areas? What is the Northern Areas? What behaviour and actions lead to the spread of violence, looting, destruction of property and the killing of innocent people?\u201d<\/p>\n

So, even the people directly involved in the Northern Areas Riots still need to find the reasons for the uprisings and contextualise the uprising in terms of our history and in the name of reconciliation.<\/p>\n

At the time, I recall some of my clients saying with pride that they had deployed machine gun nests, manned by mercenaries to protect their shops from marauding gangs \u2013 please note that they SAID \u2013 I never saw this with my own eyes. You will notice too that the media descriptions used of the criminal acts perpetrated all refer to the \u2018participants\u2019 as looters and gangsters, not protesters.<\/p>\n

With all this background you can well understand my disquiet when I received a press release from the Municipality which contained this line; \u201cThe 1990 Northern Areas Uprising Working Committee, a structure comprising of family members of this Apartheid atrocity<\/strong>, will be hosting a series of briefing sessions from next week.<\/em>\u201d (The emphasis is my own).<\/p>\n

The release went on to say; \u201cMedia are generously requested to publish the dates for the meetings beforehand to assist with informing affected individuals of the initiative<\/em>\u201d and \u201cThe ultimate aim of the sessions is to establish a coordinating structure that will represent the interest of all the affected people.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons for my concern:<\/strong><\/p>\n