On this Day in History

Tuesday, 4 June 1652

On 4 June 1652, sick-comforter at the Cape Willem Barentz Wijlant and his wife became the first people to move into the semi-completed fortress, the Fort de Goede Hoop (Fort of Good Hope).

Here their son, Bernert Willemz, was born on 6 June.

Jan van Riebeeck was appointed on a five-year contract as an employee of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

His task was to set up a refreshment station at the Cape, which could be used by VOC ships on their way to the spice-rich Far East.

The construction of a fort as a place of safety was a matter of great urgency to van Riebeeck.

He went ashore on 7 April, barely one day after dropping anchor in Table Bay, to select the best site.

100 men were occupied daily on the construction of the clay and timber building. On 3 August 1652, the northern rampart, Reijger, was completed and everyone moved in.

The fort collapsed partly as result of winter rains in 1663, which led to the erection of the Castle of Good Hope, which began in 1666.

Sunday, 4 June 1939

Kgalusi Seketa Masilo Ratshatsha Malaboch (Mmalebogo, Lebogo), chief of the Bagananwa in Northern Transvaal (now Limpopo) who led his followers in the Boer-Gagananwa war of 1894, dies in Bochum-Blouberg, Northern Transvaal

Sunday, 4 June 1961

Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hassim Jawad, announced that his country will not recognise the government of South Africa because of its apartheid policies.

The announcement came after the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 people were killed by security police after a peaceful protest led by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

The political conditions in South Africa were disturbing and the whole world was commemorating the first anniversary of the Sharpeville killings.

Political organisations like African National Congress (ANC),South African Communist Party (SACP), PAC and others were banned the previous year under the Unlawful Organisations Act of 1950.

Saturday, 4 June 1966

In June 1966, during the darkest years of Apartheid, United States (US) Senator Robert Kennedy made a historic visit to South Africa.

He was invited by the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), an anti-Apartheid student movement, to deliver its Annual Day of Affirmation Speech, which was to be at the University of Cape Town.

Kennedy was accompanied by his wife, Ethel, and a small number of close aides.

Wednesday, 4 June 1969

The denial of South Africa’s involvement in arms dealing with the former Rwandan Army came seven years into sanctions placed on South Africa by the United Nations.

South Africa’s involvement in the murky world of arms dealing began long before the UN arms and oil embargo on South Africa.

According to the Human Rights Watch report of May 1995, the National Party was instrumental the destabilising some African countries through its supply of weapons.

The report looks at Rwanda, and presents evidence that P. W. Botha, flew to the Seychelles on June 4, 1969 to negotiate the purchase of arms for the Rwandan army and that a consignment of military supplies was flown from South Africa to Zaire in terms of this contract.

Courtesy of https://www.sahistory.org.za/

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