Honouring of the Colesberg four
The Northern Cape Provincial Government is set to unveil a memorial in honour of four  people who were killed by the apartheid police at Kuyasa township in Colesberg in the Pixley ka Seme District. The unveiling is scheduled to be done by Premier Ms. Sylvia Lucas who will be accompanied by the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture Ms. Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba on Thursday, 15 December 2016.
It will be held at Kilimane Street as part of the Northern Cape Provincial Government’s Reconciliation Day programme.
The Colesberg Four Uprising was a series of protests against poor service delivery. They had started on 3rd July 1983 and led by Colesberg Youth Organisation. The South African National Defence Force, SADF soldiers set up a camp outside the Kuyasa residential area, resulting in clashes with the youth.
The following day police entered the township, firing tear gas. Mr. Solani Gcanga was arrested and repeatedly assaulted and paraded around the township on top of a Casspir with a sjambok around his neck. This precipitated events, leading to the killing of the Colesberg Four.
The youth torched the township house of a policeman and set fire to his car. Later that day, at around 20h00, police Casspirs and vans entered the township. When youths approached the houses of two police officers, police inside the house opened fire, killing Ms. Funeka Siyonazana (17), Krakra Maciki (17), Mr. Mongezi Juda (17) and Mr. James Marumo 23).
Numerous other residents were injured and were subsequently charged with public violence. In the wake of these events, over seventy residents of the township were arrested. Many of these groups were subjected to severe assault and torture while in police custody. The graves of the four victims were declared national monuments by the South African Heritage Resources Agency in March 2008.
