Cape Town - Nearly 37 years after the Trojan Horse massacre, which saw an orchestrated attack against protesting students by the Apartheid security forces, the scene of the massacre has officially been declared a Provincial Heritage Site (PHS).
On Friday, Heritage Western Cape and Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Anroux Marais, with community members, gathered at the Dulcie September Hall, Athlone, for an official plaque unveiling.
On October 15, 1985, Security forces and the Railway Police shot and killed three protesting students, Jonathan Claasen, 21, Shaun Magmoed, 15, Michael Miranda,11, while injuring several others, in what is now known as the Trojan Horse massacre.
As a PHS, the portion of Thornton Road between Klipfontein and Repulse Road in Athlone, will now be protected under the National Heritage Resources Management Act of 1999.
Reflecting on the day, heritage practitioner, social historian and member of HWC Council, Ron Martin, said the incident occurred at around 5pm near the intersection of St Simons Road and Thornton Road, Athlone.
Three large wooden crates concealed two police officers each and two more hid between the front of the truck and the crates. Around 150 protesters had gathered and after the vehicle appeared for the second time, stones were thrown at it, hitting the windscreen.
The truck came to a halt with officers appearing from out of the crates and opening fire directly at the protesters.
Years later, the Truth and Reconciliation hearings established that the Trojan Horse massacre was premeditated, with weapons loaded with sharp ammunition.
“We were thinking of ways and means to overthrow an unjust regime, that was our lives. That was the core of our very existence at the time and our parents sometimes didn't understand. Our parents were fearful for us, they knew that we were at the forefront, at the coalface of the battle.”
The keynote address was delivered by Marais.
“While we do not wish to celebrate the atrocities committed by the government of the day, Thornton Road remains an important site in our province as it represented a powerful space of resistance politics in the 1980s.”