Monday, 27 August 1900
The last conventional battle of the South African War (1899-1902), the battle of Dalmanutha (Bergendal) ended. The battle ended six days after it broke out on 21 August when the Boers retreated. The climax of this battle came on the last day, when 70 men of the Johannesburg Zuid-Afrikaansche Rijdende Politie (ZARP), a special mounted police corps of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) or the Transvaal Republic, faced a full attack by General Sir Redvers Buller’s Natal Field Army (also known as the Natal Field Force). By 24 September the entire Transvaal south of the Delagoa Bay railway was under British control.
Tuesday, 27 August 1963
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a giant among African American activists. He was a key founder of the NAACP, the largest and oldest civil rights organization in the United States, and from 1910 to 1934 served it as director of publicity and research, a member of the board of directors, and editor of the Crisis, its monthly magazine. During this period NAACP advocacy was instrumental in securing anti-lynching legislation.
Besides serving as editor of The Crisis, Du Bois published numerous important works on race. By the time of his death in 1963 he had written 17 books and edited four journals, and greatly influenced public discourse on race relations not only in the United States, but also all over the world. His works remain required reading for activists and social thinkers to this day.
Wednesday, 27 August 1986
On 27 August 1986 a crowd of more than 500 marched to council offices in Soweto, demonstrating against evictions which had been carried out after an eleven week rent boycott. According to reports at the time, the South African Police threw teargas at the crowd. Police claimed that youths had set up barricades to prevent evictions and that they had also been setting fire to several homes of local Black councillors. They blamed them for the death of one of the councillors who was hacked to death. Black militants denied the allegation but emphasised that the councillors were traitors who acted upon the instructions of their White superiors without looking after the interests of the Black community. The majority of Blacks rejected Black Community Councils as puppets of the apartheid government. Twelve people were reported dead and about seventy injured, including five policemen, during a night of rioting following the march.
Saturday, 27 August 1988
The Ciskeian police disrupted a residents’ meeting, which was held to inform those residents of Peelton unable to attend a previous meeting, of the incorporation of the whole of Peelton into the Ciskei on 12 August 1988. The people of West Peelton were against the incorporation as they were going to loose their South African citizenship and did not wish to fall under the jurisdiction of Ciskei. The western portion of Pealton had already been incorporated into the Ciskei in 1981 and according to the Borders of Particular States Extension Amendment Act the government wanted in 1988 to consolidate the two sections as part of the Ciskei. However, resistance by the residents forced the South African government to reverse its decision and offer the Peelton people land in South Africa. This was one of the great rural victories of the 1980s and it gave all other people living in Ciskei confidence that it was possible to take on the Ciskei regime, and win.
Monday, 27 August 1990
Minister of Constitutional Development, Gerrit Viljoen on 27 August 1990 said that negotiations for a new South African constitution should begin in 1991 and be completed within two years. The African National Congress suggested that equal status be given to all participants in the process of drawing up the new constitution. Even before the process started there was a disagreement over the composition of the government during the drafting of the new constitution. The ANC wanted an Interim government, whereas the Democratic Party and Inkatha Freedom Party favoured the Nationalist Partygovernment to remain in power during the transition. The Organisation of African Union was also exerting pressure of the South African government to move fast in drawing [up] the constitution [or] face isolation from the organisation.
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