Today in Kimberley's History
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118 days since beginning of the Siege of Kimberley, 1900
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
This morning there was comparative peace till just before breakfast, when it began hotly again, and the shells fell 50, 80, and 100 yards from us into the Market Square. And again, further off, as the gun turned round. Shells then fell by the Mounted Camp, cut a horse belonging to the ambulance driver in two, and did no end of damage to different buildings.
There was peace again at lunch time for an hour, during which time people rushed up to the soup kitchen and rushed off again with their share. The shops have all been closed for the last few days, and whilst shelling is going on the streets are utterly deserted though crowds of men and little boys are lurking behind walls at the time of the report, who dash out to examine the damage done after the fall of the shell, and to pick up the inevitable pieces.
All afternoon we have been horribly bombarded, and some women are half frantic, though the majority are wonderfully 'game'. It is noticeable that those who are unable to eat horse-flesh, either from prejudice, or real dislike, are the most nervous and unstrung for these cases are living practically on mealie 'pap', tea, bread, and siege soup - and not much of these either, and such poor diet seems bound to pull them down mentally and physically.
After dinner there was a lull, and Jack decided to ride down to Beaconsfield to try and get us rooms out of the line of fire of the 100-pounder, and in a comparatively safe position from the smaller guns.
He was particularly lucky, and found just the right place or, rather, one that, after the hotel, would be heaven; though it stood not far below the Sanatorium. We are to go into this house to-morrow with two other people and their children living here, as there are three rooms to spare.
At 8 o'clock this evening the funeral of Mr Labram took place and to the horror and disgust of everyone, the body was just leaving the hospital when boom went the big gun and a shell dropped close to the poor remains.
In some marvellous way information of the time of the funeral had been carried out to the enemy and they took this fiendish means of showing their hatred of anything connected with De Beers. They would know, of course, that an immense crowd would attend the funeral, particularly Mr Rhodes, and the De Beers people.
Whilst the sad service was being held at the cemetery another shell fell close by, and so on about every 15 minutes till Sunday arrived. They seem to respect Sunday. But they cannot respect a funeral.
Extract from "The Diary of a Doctor's Wife – During the Siege of Kimberley October 1899 to February 1900" by Winifred Heberden.
This morning there was comparative peace till just before breakfast, when it began hotly again, and the shells fell 50, 80, and 100 yards from us into the Market Square. And again, further off, as the gun turned round. Shells then fell by the Mounted Camp, cut a horse belonging to the ambulance driver in two, and did no end of damage to different buildings.
There was peace again at lunch time for an hour, during which time people rushed up to the soup kitchen and rushed off again with their share. The shops have all been closed for the last few days, and whilst shelling is going on the streets are utterly deserted though crowds of men and little boys are lurking behind walls at the time of the report, who dash out to examine the damage done after the fall of the shell, and to pick up the inevitable pieces.
All afternoon we have been horribly bombarded, and some women are half frantic, though the majority are wonderfully 'game'. It is noticeable that those who are unable to eat horse-flesh, either from prejudice, or real dislike, are the most nervous and unstrung for these cases are living practically on mealie 'pap', tea, bread, and siege soup - and not much of these either, and such poor diet seems bound to pull them down mentally and physically.
After dinner there was a lull, and Jack decided to ride down to Beaconsfield to try and get us rooms out of the line of fire of the 100-pounder, and in a comparatively safe position from the smaller guns.
He was particularly lucky, and found just the right place or, rather, one that, after the hotel, would be heaven; though it stood not far below the Sanatorium. We are to go into this house to-morrow with two other people and their children living here, as there are three rooms to spare.
At 8 o'clock this evening the funeral of Mr Labram took place and to the horror and disgust of everyone, the body was just leaving the hospital when boom went the big gun and a shell dropped close to the poor remains.
In some marvellous way information of the time of the funeral had been carried out to the enemy and they took this fiendish means of showing their hatred of anything connected with De Beers. They would know, of course, that an immense crowd would attend the funeral, particularly Mr Rhodes, and the De Beers people.
Whilst the sad service was being held at the cemetery another shell fell close by, and so on about every 15 minutes till Sunday arrived. They seem to respect Sunday. But they cannot respect a funeral.
Zinzi Mandela reads out a statement to a rally in Soweto from her father, Nelson Mandela - 1985
On 31 January 1985 State President P W Botha offers Nelson Mandela, leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC), conditional release from the prison sentence he had been serving since the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial in 1964. The condition of his release is that he renounces violence, and violent protest, as a means to bring about change in South Africa.
Mandela communicates his refusal of the offer through his daughter, Zinzi Mandela, who reads his statement to this effect at a rally in Soweto on 10 February 1985. He states that the ANC's only adopted violence as a means of protest "when other forms of resistance were no longer open to us”. Mandela had refused previous offers of conditional release where the condition was that he be confined to the Transkei.
The offer was also extended to prisoners serving long jail terms for sabotage. 18 accepted, including Dennis Goldberg, the only White found guilty at the Rivonia Trial, and 4 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) members. Goldberg left South Africa for Israel on 28 February 1985 and the PAC members were released on 15 February. Mandela had called for the unbanning of the ANC in January 1985 during an interview with Lord Bethell. He asked government to negotiate with the liberatory organisation as a political party. The interview was published in the Mail on Sunday, a British publication, in the same month. In response a South African government spokesperson stated that the apartheid regime would be prepared to negotiate with the ANC if the organisation renounced violence.
On 31 January 1985 State President P W Botha offers Nelson Mandela, leader of the banned African National Congress (ANC), conditional release from the prison sentence he had been serving since the conclusion of the Rivonia Trial in 1964. The condition of his release is that he renounces violence, and violent protest, as a means to bring about change in South Africa.
Mandela communicates his refusal of the offer through his daughter, Zinzi Mandela, who reads his statement to this effect at a rally in Soweto on 10 February 1985. He states that the ANC's only adopted violence as a means of protest "when other forms of resistance were no longer open to us”. Mandela had refused previous offers of conditional release where the condition was that he be confined to the Transkei.
The offer was also extended to prisoners serving long jail terms for sabotage. 18 accepted, including Dennis Goldberg, the only White found guilty at the Rivonia Trial, and 4 Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) members. Goldberg left South Africa for Israel on 28 February 1985 and the PAC members were released on 15 February. Mandela had called for the unbanning of the ANC in January 1985 during an interview with Lord Bethell. He asked government to negotiate with the liberatory organisation as a political party. The interview was published in the Mail on Sunday, a British publication, in the same month. In response a South African government spokesperson stated that the apartheid regime would be prepared to negotiate with the ANC if the organisation renounced violence.
Chris Hani killed - 1993
Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated on 10 April 1993.
On 10 April 1993, as he returned home to the racially mixed suburb of Dawn Park, Boksberg (Johannesburg), Hani was assassinated by Januzs Walus, an anti-Communist Polish refugee who had close links to the White nationalist AWB. With him was his daughter, Nomakhwezi, then 15 years old. His wife, Limpho, and two other daughters, Neo (then 20 years old) and Lindiwe (then 12 years old) were away at the time. Also implicated in the assassination was Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, and strangely a theory based largely on documents given to the Mail & Guardian point to a conspiracy beyond the right wing, linking the assassination to the ANC.
Hani's death came at a critical time for South Africa. The SACP was on the brink of gaining significant status as an independent political party. It now found itself bereft of funds (due to collapse in Europe) and without a strong leader. The assassination helped persuade the bickering negotiators of the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum to finally set a date for South Africa's first democratic election.
Walus and Derby-Lewis were captured, sentenced and jailed within an incredibly short period (only six months) of the assassination. Both were sentenced to death. In a peculiar twist, the new government (and constitution) they had actively fought against, caused in their sentences being lessened to life imprisonment – the death penalty having been ruled “unconstitutional.”
In 1997 Walus and Derby-Lewis applied for amnesty through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. Despite claims that they were working for the Conservative Party, and therefore the assassination had been a political act, the TRC effectively ruled that Hani had been assassinated by right-wing extremists who were apparently acting independently. Walus and Derby-Lewis are currently serving their sentence in a maximum security prison near Pretoria.
Chris Hani (28 June 1942 – 10 April 1993), born Martin Thembisile Hani, was the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of the apartheid government, and was assassinated on 10 April 1993.
On 10 April 1993, as he returned home to the racially mixed suburb of Dawn Park, Boksberg (Johannesburg), Hani was assassinated by Januzs Walus, an anti-Communist Polish refugee who had close links to the White nationalist AWB. With him was his daughter, Nomakhwezi, then 15 years old. His wife, Limpho, and two other daughters, Neo (then 20 years old) and Lindiwe (then 12 years old) were away at the time. Also implicated in the assassination was Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis, and strangely a theory based largely on documents given to the Mail & Guardian point to a conspiracy beyond the right wing, linking the assassination to the ANC.
Hani's death came at a critical time for South Africa. The SACP was on the brink of gaining significant status as an independent political party. It now found itself bereft of funds (due to collapse in Europe) and without a strong leader. The assassination helped persuade the bickering negotiators of the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum to finally set a date for South Africa's first democratic election.
Walus and Derby-Lewis were captured, sentenced and jailed within an incredibly short period (only six months) of the assassination. Both were sentenced to death. In a peculiar twist, the new government (and constitution) they had actively fought against, caused in their sentences being lessened to life imprisonment – the death penalty having been ruled “unconstitutional.”
In 1997 Walus and Derby-Lewis applied for amnesty through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. Despite claims that they were working for the Conservative Party, and therefore the assassination had been a political act, the TRC effectively ruled that Hani had been assassinated by right-wing extremists who were apparently acting independently. Walus and Derby-Lewis are currently serving their sentence in a maximum security prison near Pretoria.