‘Sympathetic White Student’ Caught in Soweto Riots Recalls Frightening Events 44 Years Later

On Tuesday morning 16 June 2020, the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, News24 published an article chronicling a timeline of the events that proved to be a turning-point in South Africa in the fight against apartheid. For one person in Groot Marico who read that article – community worker Santa van Bart – it brought back three vivid memories. Here is Santa’s story in her own words, a story of pain and hope, published on SAPeople with her permission:

“This morning when I read an article in News 24 one sentence took me back many years ago… 44 years to be precise. The sentence read “… a sympathetic white student had been taken to safety by pupils when police retaliated…”

“I was that student, final year social work doing practical work with the social worker from the Department in Orlando, Soweto.

“It all came so unexpectedly, one moment we were driving to another visiting point and the next moment we were in the riots. When my colleague were pulled out of the car, I still had the presence of mind to take the car key out of the ignition switch… Later the day I discovered that the keys were in any case the only thing left from a burnt out car.

“I don’t want to share the whole story now, it is long… But I would like to share only three very vivid memories of that day.

“The masses were chanting… Kill the white, kill the boer. I was surrounded, trying to talk to them, telling them that I was a social worker, coming to help, but to no avail. At that stage it was more just school children involved. Then two big schoolboys grab me by the arms, also shouting and joining the crowd… but one whispers in my ear “Don’t worry ma’m, we are taking you to safety.”

“Don’t worry ma’m, we are taking you to safety.”

“They took me to a house, in the midst of this shouting crowd. The people inside reluctantly let me in, while the crowd gathered outside… At one stage they threw petrol around the house… It never ignited.

“During the almost five hours that i was in the house, the little son of the pastor came to me, crying, and his words to me: “Ma’m what are they doing to you?” I will never forget his small hands in my neck, trying to make a ponytail and hide my long hair, as he told me the family is going to paint me black and try to rescue me.

“And then at one stage the door was forced open and in came a lot of young people. They heard about me, and one guy said “other white people have been killed, why must we not kill you?” (I only later learnt that Dr Edelstein was killed a few blocks away.)

“But I got the strength to talk to the young people. I told them that if they kill me, I will have peace, because I belong to God. I pleaded with them not to kill me, but to think of their own lives and what will become of them if they don’t have peace with God.

“They left me and sometime afterwards the police came to fetch me and took me to Baragwanath Hospital. They treated my rescuers badly and with contempt. I was hurt and bleeding, and just left at the hospital by the police… Nobody paid any attention to me, as it was total chaos.

“It was here that I saw the ambulances coming in with moaning people, bleeding people, dead people, people crying and nurses running around… It was too much and I walked out and begged a lift from the first car that I saw leave the hospital grounds.

“Back to the News 24 article of today – “… with one student describing that when he opened the mortuary door, he saw a pile of bodies on top of each other”

“I saw the bodies coming in… Young people, like me.

“I am here to tell my story… A story that God allowed me that morning of 16 June 1976 to go into Soweto, as it was my choice to be obedient to His calling to work with black people (1976). And the Angels that He sent to protect me, and the fear that He took away from me, and the opportunity to talk to those who wanted to kill me.

“Those angel children that helped me, and the family of the pastor in whose house I got shelter, I have never seen them again, sometimes I wish that I could just thank them.

“My wish to the youth today on Youth Day 2020… May we seek Peace and live Love, honouring each other and work together for everybody’s good.”

– By Santa van Bart

SANTA VAN BART is the Groot Marico and Herman Charles Bosman Society information officer, and known as “Mother to all” of the Marico.