A peaceful protest turned violent and bloody on the morning of August 6 1990, setting off a series of riots across Port Elizabeth’s northern areas that resulted in more than 50 people dying and dozens more being injured.
Several businesses were looted - never to recover.
Homes and vehicles were destroyed - even a church.
We remember.
HOW A PEACEFUL PROTEST TURNED VIOLENT
“I am a revolutionary slave of the uprising. Not a day goes by that my mind is not occupied by 6 August.”
- Godfrey Ackley
LOSING LOVED ONES
“I knew that he died. I could feel it in me because I woke up that night, and I came to knock on the door by my granny, and I said ‘Ma, something happened to Chris’. And at the same time, the phone call came to say that he was shot.”
- Shireen Mentoor
“Every time I see one of those Casspirs I think that my father was in one of those and that he was begging for his life. That is what I think about every time.”
- Bettie Hendricks
AUGUST 1990: A TIMELINE
CAPTURING THE CHAOS
“There was chaos everywhere. It was tense. There were people standing at their houses to see what was going on. It was an experience that you cannot describe to anyone else that wasn’t there.”
- Charles Pullen
IN THEIR WORDS
OPINION
“Hundreds of people still carry the physical and psychological injuries inflicted during the conflict, with buildings, and bodies, left derelict, looking for ways to be repurposed.”
- Allan Zinn
THE WAY FORWARD
“You have to have something positive come out of it [the uprising] — not just a commemoration every year where we say ‘ag shame’.”
- Michael Barry
DEDICATED TO
All the victims of the 1990 Northern Areas uprising - the named and the unnamed
Neville DennisGwendoline MalgasDeon MassynKenneth MitchelP NelPeter NelsonMichael PaulusDeon RaymondChristopher SealeDennis Van SchalkwykBrian Van WykAlton Walker
Elliot BloemetjieEdward ClaasenLesley CoetzeeDavid GoliathThomas CastelloRoderick De BoerFred DouglasRubin EnfinWarrick FillisAbraham FredricksF FrieslandZelda Gallant
Michael JacobsCarolus JacobsNathaniel RobertGodfrey SaulsCyril JassonShafiek JohnsonElsie GoliathJacob GoliathChristo PlaatjiesPieter LouwskieterMadelaine KorkieGavin Louw
Samuel WilliamsTony BennetAndrew RobertsMelvin ArmoedKorkie ShavonHendrik KoertErnest LowkeeMarius WalkerDavid PlaatjiesDerrick AbrahamsMartin AndrewsBenjamin Seagarts
IN MEMORY OF: A memorial at the Paapenkuils Cemetery bears the name of 48 people who died as a result of the Northern Areas uprising of August 1990 Picture: Fredlin Adriaan