Thousands of students marched through the streets of Soweto amid a contingent of heavily armed soldiers – the first time since the declaration of the national State of Emergency two years ago. The students, who came from different areas of Soweto, assembled yesterday at Pace College for a three-hour memorial service of 18-year-old Sicelo Dhlomo, killed last week Dhlomo was found shot in the head in Soweto on January 25, only days after he was released from detention.
He was a volunteer worker for the Detainees' Parents Support Committee and the Soweto Students Congress. A large contigent of armed soldiers blockaded the main entrance of the college and later surrounded the college yard. After the service students took to the streets of Soweto, marching from the college into Zola North – a distance of about 3km Students dispersed later. There were no incidents.
According to a student who did not want to be named, students from Zola Emdeni, Naledi and Zondi were yesterday released early from schools to enable them to attend the memorial service which commenced at 10am. The service was characterised by the reading of poetry and speakers who condemned the restrictions onDhlomo's funeral as a "provocation aimed at suppressing the feelings of the students".
A speaker from the Federation of Transvaal Women said she found it "amazing that after a reward has been offered for the murderer of Sicelo, his funeral should be restricted. "Sicelo lived with us and is only right to give him a decent funeral. If a soldier dies let us pick his spear and continue the fight" she added. Brigadier Gerhardus van Zyl, acting Divisional Commissioner of Police for the Soweto Division, yesterday placed restrictions on Dhlomo's funeral.
According to a notice published in the Government Gazette in terms of Emergency regulations 7 (1):
- Police permission must be obtained to hold the funeral
- The funeral service must be indoors
- Only ordained ministers may act as speakers
- No public address system may be used
- No more than 27 people may at- tend the service
- The funeral proceedings may not last longer than four hours
- Police permission must be obtained for the mute of the funeral procession, and
- No flags or banners may be displayed.
The order was made applicable in the areas of Soweto, Diepkloof, Meadowlands and Dobsonville. The order stated that no person – except family members – may remain at the funeral service if one of the conditions is contravened. In a statement released yesterday the South African Youth Congress condemned the restrictions imposed on Dhlomo's funeral. "It is not an unknown assassin responsible for the murder of Sicelo Dhlomo. He was killed by the enemy of the people, apartheid," the statement said.
"The murderers of political activists had never been uncovered by any apartheid state organ, but instead apartheid itself has often been responsible for murdering these activists," the statement added. Dhlomo's funeral will be held on Saturday at Regina Mundi from 9amto 12 noon. The cortege will then move to Avlon cemetery.
*A police representative yesterday said there had been no security force action at the memorial service.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
