Today, exactly 50 years ago the police opened fire outside Johannesburg at protesting school pupils. By the time the initial phase of what became known as the Soweto Uprisings was over at least 176 people lay dead. The following is an extract from an interview The Common Sense published today with Omry Makgoale, one of the student leaders of the Soweto Uprisings. It has been slightly edited for flow and readability.

“What happened on that day was this. Three days before the march, our leaders at Morris Isaacson High School, Tsietsi Mashinini and Murphy Morobe, briefed the students that the leadership of South African Students’ Movement had taken a decision that we should march on Wednesday, 16 June, against the introduction of Afrikaans in junior secondary schools.

“So we started preparing placards for the day. They also emphasised that we should not tell our parents, because some of our parents were police people, policemen and policewomen. If our parents knew, they might tell their bosses or the police chiefs, and then our demonstration might have been blocked before it started. So even those whose parents were police did not tell them.

“On the Wednesday, we came to school with the placards. After the Lord’s Prayer, instead of going to class as usual, the leaders shouted ‘Amandla’ from the assembly. Then the placards started coming up. The leaders said, ‘No, we are marching. We are marching towards Orlando Stadium.’ That was where we were meant to go.

“The idea was that, on the way, we would collect students from secondary schools. We did not want primary school pupils marching with us because we knew they were very young and they might get lost. But when we walked out of Morris Isaacson, going down from Central Western Jabavu towards White City, some primary school pupils joined us anyway.

“As we marched towards Orlando Stadium, we arrived near Orlando West High. Orlando West High was also called Matsike High, because the founder principal had been Mr Matseke. At the time, the principal was Mr Mzaidume. When we arrived, we found the students writing half-yearly exams. They were not really in the mood for marching.

“We asked some of them, ‘What is happening? Are you not marching?’ Then some of the students at Orlando West High started to trickle out of the classrooms. Others, perhaps because they were not going to pass that exam anyway, decided to leave the exam and join the march.

“After collecting those students, we moved further towards Orlando Stadium. Just near Orlando West High, we saw the police.

“It was a peaceful march in every respect. We had not thrown stones at anybody. Then the police came with dogs. There was a dog called Shaka, unfortunately they had named that dog Shaka, a black dog the police were using that day.

“The police started sending the dog at us and saying, ‘Stop, stop.’ That dog was killed that day. It had a string on it, so the students held the string and stoned it to death. Unfortunately, the dog died.

“It was around that moment that Hector Pieterson was shot. We saw Mbuyisa Makhubo picking him up, looking for transport to take him to hospital. Hector Pieterson’s sister was also there, looking at her brother, who had been shot.

“I would say that was the beginning of the worst of the crisis.

“At that time we did not know that they had already killed another pupil before. Hastings Ndlovu had already been killed, but we did not know that when Pieterson was shot. So the first two pupils to be killed may have been Hastings Ndlovu and Hector Pieterson.

“From then onwards, the students were angry. They started throwing things, stones and other objects. That was the beginning of what you might call pandemonium. It was the beginning of the crisis. After that, there was never stability.

“Students started attacking delivery trucks that were coming into Soweto to deliver goods to shops. Even some cars with white people in them were attacked. I am very sorry that some of the people who were killed really were not supposed to be killed.

“At Morris Isaacson, we had an English teacher who was white. We had to organise for him to be taken safely out of Soweto. He was taken out safely. He is still alive, and maybe one day you can interview him and he can give you his experience.

“But some white people who were in Soweto during that time were killed, unfortunately. One of them was Dr Melville Edelstein, a social worker and community worker at the municipal offices. Unfortunately, he was killed on that day. It was a very sad story.

“The delivery trucks were attacked. Later, the bottle stores were attacked. There was some hooliganism too. Liquor was taken and some people drank it because the bottle stores had been broken into.

“But I would say that was the beginning of the crisis. From that day onwards, Soweto was never normal again.

“The police started looking for what they called ringleaders, or what they used to call agitators. All those terms were used for people they said were causing riots. Those who were regarded as ringleaders were hunted down, in some cases to their homes. Others started sleeping outside their homes.

“That was the beginning of the crisis which ultimately led many former students to go into exile, to join the ANC, the PAC, and other Black Consciousness movements in exile.

“That is how I would explain it briefly. I cannot capture everything, because not everybody had the same experience on the same day. But that is how I would put it.”