MK attacks the Sasol fuel plants

The apartheid state hanged the young MK combatant despite a major international campaign for clemency. His final message became a rallying cry for resistance.

Independent unions created a nonracial federation built around strong workplace organization. FOSATU helped lay foundations for a larger labour movement in the 1980s.

The ANC used the Freedom Charter's twenty-fifth anniversary to promote a democratic alternative to apartheid and strengthen internal and international mobilization.

Three MK members, pursued by police, entered a Pretoria bank and took hostages. A police assault killed the three combatants and two civilians.

ANC combatants used rifles, rockets and grenades and scattered leaflets demanding Walter Sisulu's release from Robben Island.

After months of boycotts, authorities closed schools mainly in the Cape rather than address demands for equal education.

Media workers demanded higher pay and recognition of their union, connecting workplace rights with opposition to racial inequality in the press.

Commandos attacked homes used by ANC members near Maputo, killing activists and Mozambican civilians. The cross-border raid showed the regional reach of apartheid repression.

Boycotts and demonstrations marked twenty years of the republic by challenging a state founded on the exclusion of the Black majority.

Rocket fire struck the major military complex outside Pretoria, symbolically targeting the armed institutions protecting apartheid.