Program Director of the Symposium, Members of the academia, dignitaries and students here present, Ladies and gentlemen. Good morning to you all.

Introductory remarks

I must confess to the Symposium that I am indeed feeling honoured for your invitation to the very first Symposium on Regional History Studies in South Africa – more especially because it takes place in Emfuleni – an area in the Vaal which is best known for its contributions in the history of the struggle in our country.
As a scholar and the aspirant historian myself, I do understand that symposium is a meeting or conference for discussion of a topic, especially one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations. My mandate for this particular symposium is to make a presentation on “Introducing Sedibeng and the broader Emfuleni region as a space in history”, and I believe that my presentation will meet the expectations of the symposium.

Program Director, Ladies and gentlemen, having said the above it remind me of the saying that the nation without knowledge of its history and origin is like a tree without roots, therefore I’m the happiest man that today I’m honored to talk about various events that this region hosted or the role it played in different epochs of the political and socio-economic struggles in our country.

I am glad that finally our local history is a focus of discussions taking place today. Thus in our context, today, we are going to be discussing the history of a people of Sedibeng and Sedibeng itself – a place previously known as the Vaal triangle. The discussions of today will hopefully put this region to its rightful place in the world map.

The Approach

Without going into too much details respecting time allocated to me to present on this important topic closer to my heart, I will try as much as I can to be clear an elaborative to show the links of various events in this our area of Emfuleni and the national, continental and international politics.

The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging

In 1899, a war to be later referred to as Anglo-Boer war, broke out between the English and the Boers in this country. The English or the British Empire was in control of the diamond rich Cape Colony as well as the Natal Colony. With the discovery of Gold in the Boere Republic of Trasvaal and later Oranje Rivier, the British Empire got greedy and had a desire to be in charge of the gold rich Transvaal and Oranje Revier Boere Republics as well. Therefore the war did not just break out of the blue. It was about the control of the riches of our country by the two settler groups. This was just after the discovery of gold here in Gauteng and diamonds in Kimberly.

This war started on the 11th October in 1899 and came to an end on the 31st of May in 1902. The negotiations for the end of the war were begun and concluded here in Vereeniging. The actual signing of the Peace Treaty, known as the Vereeniging Peace Treaty was signed at Melrose house in Pretoria.

This peace treaty which led to the end of the war, also included the agreement between the parties that the Africans in particular and blacks in general would be excluded from the running of the country and further that they would have no right to vote or selfdetermination.

In the then Cape and Natal Colonies the blacks and Africans with status or rank in the society like teachers, lawyers, Priests, Chiefs etc had the voting rights and those limited rights were also taken away as the results of the Treaty of Vereeniging,
This treaty, paved the way for the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The creation of the Union was followed by the 1913 and 1934 Land Acts which stripped off the Africans even their riches. The African majority, who were given to sending memorandums to the King of England at the time, felt that enough is enough.

It was therefore as a result of the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging in 1902, leading to the formation of the Union of South Africa that the African majority responded through the formation of the African National Congress, as their only hope and weapon of struggle, therefore the parliament of the disfranchised natives of our country.

It is for this reason that the African people came with the alternative, forming the parliament of all the people of South Africa, the African National Congress on the 8th January 1912. We can claim without fear of contradiction therefore that this our region of Vaal have a link in one way or the other with the formation of the ANC with its form and objectives.

The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging was the First Major Political event to take place in our region and it provided the basis for the process towards legislating the racial segregation and or the national oppression of the black majority of our country.

The Sharpeville Shooting of 1960

In 1958, the first forced removals were brought to bear on the community of Top Location into Sharpeville. The anger of the people of Sharpeville at this forced removals, led to the widespread response and support of the Anti-Pass laws.

The Sharpeville shooting of the 21st March 1960, brought about a second wave of altering the political land scape of the South African politics in that all the political organisations were banned in April 1960, Nelson Mandela, Sobukwe and other leaders were imprisoned and sentenced to life at Robben Island charged for treason. We can therefore claim without fear of favour again that the formation of Umkhontowesizwe on the 16th December 1961 and other armed forces other liberation movements was as the results of the Sharpeville shooting.

The South Africa was expelled from the Commonwealth in 1961 due to the killing of the people in Sharpeville on 21st March 1960. It was for this reason of expulsion from the Common Wealth that the apartheid government of South Africa adopted the Republic Constitution on the 31st May 1961.

In her speech delivered in 1963 at the United Nations special committee on apartheid and racism, Miriam Makeba, had the following to say:

“I ask you and all the leaders of the world, would you act differently, would you keep silent and do nothing if you were in our place? Would you not resist if you were allowed no rights in your own country because the color of your skin is different from that of the rulers, and if you were punished for even asking for equality? I appeal to you, and to all the countries of the world, to do everything you can to stop the coming tragedy. I appeal to you to save the lives of our leaders, to empty the prisons of all those who should never have been there.”

This address happened two years following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 which saw over 69 innocent people killed and many others injured, political leaders incarcerated and their Organizations outlawed and exiled as mentioned already.

This massacre, which happened right within our shores was not the first and definitely the last of the contributions by the people of Sedibeng in shaping the history and political landscape of South Africa.

The other important historic event that is linked to the Shooting was the declaration of the March 21st as the International Day for the Elimination of Racism by the United Nations General Assembly held in April 1964. Hopefully in addition to lobbying by the political leaders of the mission in exile, the address by Meriam Makeba referred also contributed in bringing to the attention of the United Nations how cruel was the apartheid system of government.

It therefore says without question that all the above happened as a result of what happened in Sharpeville making this the Second Major Political event in our region after the peace treaty of Vereeniging.

The Vaal Uprising of 3rd September 19984

As the apartheid regime continue to consolidate its base and with an intention to minimize the resistance by the black people they appointed the Reikert Commission to study the settlement patterns or urbanization process and to come up with the appropriate recommendations to further divide blacks which advised them on what was called the own affairs approach. The Tricameral Parliament was going to be formed and the black townships be imposed with un-Democratically established institutions of self-government in the form of BLAs in the Urban black and the so called self-governing states in the rural areas. These self-governing territories were referred to as the TVBC states.

In its endeavor to implement the Black Local Authority’s Act for the urban blacks the apartheid regime held the first elections of the apartheid councils in 1983 here in the Vaal. There was a massive rejection of the elections such that very few people, in fact less than 5% of the voting population turned out to cast their votes. Despite the poor voter turnout the process was reported as a major success by the regime not being aware of what was to come in about a year thereafter.

On the 3rd of September 1984, about a year later the protest to reject un-Democratically established local councils broke out in the Vaal Triangle Africans Townships calling for their immediate resignation. The protest referred to which was later to be known as the Vaal Uprising Vaal protest spread to all other black townships throughout the country. Both the fact that the first elections were held here in our region and the fierce protest to reject them happen here in our region provides what I refer to as the Third Major Political event in the history of our struggle.

Three township Councillors, including the deputy mayor of the Vaal Triangle, Kuzwayo Jacob Dlamini, were killed in mob violence on this day. In the weeks following the killings five men and one woman who become internationally known as the "Sharpeville Six", were tried, convicted and sentenced to hang for the killings. The six were Mojalefa Sefatsa, Reid Mokoena, Oupa Deniso, Duma Khumalo, Francis Mokhesi and Theresa Ramashemola. One of the three that were still alive comrade Theresia Ramashamola has just passed-on after a short illness on Tuesday the 25th November 2015. May her soul and those parted before her, rest in peace!

The Boipatong Massacre

During the negotiations for peace on our country post 1990 unbanning of the people’s organizations and free of their leaders, the regime undermined the process of negotiations by unleashing the state sponsored vigilante groups’ attacks on our people in an attempt to demoralize the masses therefore derailing the negotiation process by putting blame on the ANC that it cannot control its supporters. This was also an attempt by the regime to justify its long standing propaganda that the ANC is the blood thirsty organization whose objectives was to bring chaos and bloodshed into the country once it take state power.

The state sponsored violence resulted into a series of Massacres throughout the country with the most horrific being Boipatong Massacre in 1992 which brought CODESA 1 to a halt. During the funeral of the victims of Boipatong Massacre and at the subsequent Mass Rally that was called by the ANC at Zone 7 Stadium the people through freedom songs they told the ANC president then comrade Nelson Mandela that ” O ikentse konyana, na o ya bona setjhaba se ya fela?”. I refer to as the Fourth Major Political event where our region got directly engaged or involved in the history of our struggle.

However the negotiating forum was reconstituted into CODESA 2 and it continued with negotiations till the fatal killing of the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, comrade Chris Hani in 1993. This was one of the most testing times in the history of the ANC. The ANC leadership headed by comrade Nelson Mandela managed to save the country from looming racial civil war. The regime realized during this period of the brutal killing of comrade Chris Hani that the sponsored violence will never defeat the masses. This added momentum to the negotiating process and the first Democratic Elections date announced.

The Boipatong Massacre was the Fourth Political event in our area of Emfuleni in particular that had a direct impact to the political landscape of our country

Signing of the Democratic Constitution

The constitution of South Africa was signed into law on the 10th of December 1996 by former President Nelson Mandela. The signing took place at the George Thabe Stadium and Sharpeville was chosen as the venue owing to the historical significance of the negotiation process that took place in Vereeniging in 1902 to end the Anglo-Boer War and the tragedy of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.

After the signing Nelson Mandela said; “… we will redeem the faith, which fired those whose blood drenched the soil of Sharpeville and elsewhere in our country and beyond. Today we humbly pay tribute to them in a special way. This is a monument to their heroism.
Today, together as South Africans from all walks of life and from virtually every school of political thought, we reclaim the unity that the Vereeniging of nine decades ago sought to deny.”

I refer to as the Fifth Major Political event where our region got directly engaged or involved in the history of our struggle, these was a closure of an error that was opened here in our region.

All the above makes me to refer to this area of ours Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending of an era with the Peace Treaty of 31st May1902 and the Signing of Democratic Constitution on the 10th December 1996.

In concluding this part of talking about our region and the history of struggle in our country let me indicate that the above are not the only major political events that took place in our region where we led the country there are many more the above are those that in records and achieves as such. Some of those that we as the Vaal people need to talk about and popularizes are the March 26, 1990 shootings during the Groote Schuur Minutes. The Sebokeng Night Vigil Massacre – Nanga Lembe Massacre to mention but few.

Ladies and gentlemen, local history concentrates on the local community or communities with national, continental and international impact. It also incorporates political and social aspects of history. In Emfuleni, we have historic plaques as one form of documentation of significant occurrences of the past.

Monuments of Struggle and Important sites
If colleagues are to allow me just to mention few interesting monuments that are found in Emfuleni and therefore put us in a space of South African history. We boast amongst others, those dedicated to commemorating the fallen soldiers and glorious victors of the Anglo Boer War, to the women and children who died in the English-run concentration camps, and those dedicated to the victors and loser in various tribal wars.

Colleagues, for the benefit of time I am going to fast track our history and start with the significance of the Peace-Treaty of Vereeniging Monument which is housed at the Vereeniging City Library. This is yet another indication of the historical significance of the town of Vereeniging which is located at the heart of Emfuleni in South African politics through the Anglo-Boer war.

Apart from the Emfuleni having been the site of many bloody battles, Vereeniging enjoys the accolade of being the town ‘where it all began and ended’.

Industrial Revolution

The George William Stowe Monument exists largely due to the discovery of coal in the Vaal River bed in 1878, and the George William Stow Memorial stands on the Bedworth Farm, on the opposite bank of the Vaal River to Vereeniging.

The discovery of the coal fields not only lead to the energy wealth that fueled the growth of Vereeniging and concluded in the construction of the Sasol 1 Power Station in the 1900s among other developments, but also to the discovery of unique plant fossils, found nowhere else on earth. These can be viewed at the Vaal Teknorama Museum, along with the unique rock engravings found at the Redan Rock Art site on the Macuvlei Farm near Vereeniging, and a few other fascinating Vaal Triangle discoveries and snippets of a unique history.

Colleagues, we need to cherish and protect our rich history at all times for the benefit of coming generations. It is in that context that we welcome such initiatives. Today’s Symposium on Regional History Studies and many others will help us to avoid distortions.
I thank you.