From: mark@uctvax.uct.ac.za
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: UPI: Ciskei troops kill fifteen as ANC marches on Ciskei capitalbot
Date: 14 Sep 92 15:37:46 +0200
Organization: University of Cape Town

vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mbanane) writes:
>Gavan Tredoux writes:
>>a. They wanted the confrontation, and the massacre suits them down to
>>the ground. Notice similar actions planned for Bophuthatswana.

Sure the ANC wanted confrontation.  At worst we can say (with hindsight)
that some of the leadership was naive to believe Gqozo's troops would
not open fire in front of the international media and the National Peace
Secretariat.  The fact that the group who tried to storm round the
Ciskei troops into Bisho were unaware that there were soldiers lying
hidden in the grass in front of them has been widely reported.
No, I really doubt the ANC leadership wanted a massacre.  They
were reported to be shocked in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.
 
> And KwaKwa.
> 
> Also, tonights CNN has a story of a reporter who found handguns on some of
> those killed by the Ciskei soldiers, when surveying the aftermath.

According to local journalists, the ANC leaders prevented supporters who
were armed from retaliating, in the interests of containing the bloodshed.
One Ciskeian soldier was reported wounded, none of the (non-Gqozo) 
reports suggested there was any attempt to attack the Ciskeian troops
and if this had been the case, there would no doubt have been a few
more injured or wounded on the soldier's side.  
 
> Thirdly, how many of those marching were from Ciskei? In Eastern Europe,
> the people protesting lived in the country/area/province in which they
protesting, not mercenaries marched in.

The only people not from South Africa were the foreign journalists and
observers.  There were several hundred people from other regions
of the country, the rest of the 50 to 80 thousand were from the 
Border/Ciskei region.

Do you understand that there is no logical entity known as Ciskei in
this country?  The bantustan Ciskei was an apartheid brainchild.
Have you ever seen a map of Ciskei?  Most of the people of the Ciskei
work outside Ciskei.  Many places in Ciskei can therefore be labelled
"dormitory towns".  People commute to and from these areas where all
they do is basically sleep.  As far as I know the township of
Mdantsane at East London is classified as being in Ciskei while 
the "white" town is not.  Ciskei is a series of spots on the South
African map.

BTW:
The other bantustans are the same kind of thing.  For example KwaZulu
consists of scores of "pieces".  A lot of the townships and squatter
areas in Natal are designated as KwaZulu.  Some of the violence in
the last few years in Natal has arisen when the government attempted
to "clean up" and hand over the townships in and around Durban that
had not already fallen under KwaZulu to the bantustan authorities.
This was a move hotly resisted by the township residents. 
                                          
Mark Ramsden
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