South African Students' Organisation

The founding members of the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) were black students from the University of Fort Hare, the University of Zululand, the University of the North at Turfloop, the so-called Black Section of the University of Natal (UNB), various theological seminaries and teacher training colleges, and other institutions of higher education in South Africa, which at the time were segregated under the apartheid-era Bantu Education Act. However, SASO has its roots in two other student organisations, which had emerged as focal points for student-led resistance to apartheid during the heightened state repression of the 1960s.'''''' The first was the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), the main nationwide progressive students' union, with a decades-long history of political activism. The second was the University Christian Movement (UCM), an ecumenical students' association which, partly because of the growing influence of black theology, attracted a membership of politically inclined black Christians. Both NUSAS and the UCM were multiracial, but their membership and leadership were dominated by white students,''' In the case of NUSAS, the black students in question also disagreed politically with white liberals in the organisation, who at the time outnumbered those advocating for a more radical stance on apartheid. At the 1968 NUSAS conference in Grahamstown, black students broke off to discuss separately the problems facing black students and the best means by which to address them. After another consultative meeting organised by UNB students in December 1968, SASO was officially launched in July 1969 at its inaugural conference, held at the Turfloop campus of the University of the North, where its constitution was ratified.''' from a base of fourteen branches (four in seminaries, and the largest at Turfloop) in June 1970. == Ideology ==

According to its 1971 policy manifesto:SASO is a Black Student Organisation working for the liberation of the Black man first from the psychological oppression by themselves through inferiority complex and secondly from physical oppression accruing out of living in a White racist society. Black self-reliance Reflecting the terms of the founders' dissatisfaction with NUSAS and UCM, membership of SASO was restricted to blacks only – although "black", in the Black Consciousness movement, was used as a positive identification for those formerly known as "non-white", and therefore included Indians and Coloureds as well as so-called black Africans. Indeed, portions of the ANC Youth League advocated for closer cooperation with SASO precisely because they believed that the ANC was wrongly foregrounding class (and the socialist revolution) over race (the so-called national revolution). By July 1976, however, the SASO president himself, Diliza Mji, had begun to link apartheid to capitalist exploitation, imperialism, and class interests, reflecting a growing ideological debate within the Black Consciousness movement.''' The increased preoccupation of some SASO members with socialism was the result of increased exposure to the South African workers' movement, to the ANC (through the ANC underground, Radio Freedom, and other propaganda), and to socialist-leaning liberation movements in Portugal and Mozambique.'''''' == Activities ==

Education and media SASO's constitution identified as one of the organisation's aims the imperative to "project at all times the Black Consciousness image culturally, socially and educationally". The same motion recommended that black students should participate only in protests "directed primarily at the Black population". In the winter of 1972, however, SASO was centrally involved in infamous student protests which shut down several black campuses across the country. The protests broke out with a sit-in by students at Turfloop in May 1972, after Turfloop expelled SASO activist Onkgopotse Tiro for having addressed the annual graduation ceremony with a fiery renunciation of apartheid and Bantu Education. Black students nationwide were galvanised by the heavy-handed response of the university and police, which effectively blockaded and then expelled the occupying students. A SASO regional formation school being held in Alice, near the University of Fort Hare, held an emergency meeting and drafted the so-called Alice Declaration, which called upon "all Black students [to] force the Institutions/Universities to close down by boycotting lectures". According to historian Julian Brown, the 1972 protests marked a break with SASO's earlier policy and inaugurated a newfound "embrace of public and confrontational forms of protest". Perhaps the most prominent outcome of this change in policy was the rallies which SASO and the BPC co-organised in September 1974 in Durban and at Turfloop. The rallies aimed to demonstrate public support for the Mozambican liberation movement Frelimo, in the wake of the news that Portugal would grant Mozambique its independence the following year. They garnered extensive public attention, were broken up by the South African Police, and were followed by a government crackdown on Black Consciousness leaders and organisations: the same evening, SASO's Durban offices were raided, as were the homes of several leaders, including Biko. Many leaders were arrested "as part of a general round up" of Black Consciousness activists. == Crackdown and aftermath ==

In the aftermath of the arrests which followed the 1974 pro-Frelimo rallies, the South African government in January 1975 charged the so-called SASO Nine with violations of the Terrorism Act. Following a high-profile trial, all were found guilty of "encouraging and furthering feelings of hostility between the Black and White inhabitants of the Republic" and were sentenced to imprisonment, leaving SASO – and the BPC – effectively "leaderless". However, other former members of SASO joined Congress-aligned organisations: revived militancy and state repression drove many students into exile to train with the ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe, while, inside South Africa, Congress-aligned organisations began increasingly to dominate community organising (the so-called civics), the trade union movement, and, through the Congress of South African Students, the students' movement.'''''' == Notable members ==

National leaders of SASO included: • Steve Biko (inaugural president) • Barney Pityana (former president) • Rubin Phillip (former vice president) • Nkosazana Dlamini (former vice president) • Ben Langa (former secretary-general) • Abram Tiro (former organiser) • Mosioua Lekota (former organiser) == See also ==