Today, 1 February, marks the day when Abram Onkgopotse Tiro was assassinated by the white police state of Balthazar Johannes Vorster. Tiro was killed in 1974 in Gaborone, Botswana, when he was in exile. Why was Tiro in exile?
Tiro belongs to the first generation of SASO, that cream-of-the-crop group of Black student leaders who were studying in the few universities that were open for Blacks at the time.
When he enrolled at Turfloop University, today's Limpopo University in 1969, Tiro was a matured man who came from a working environment to improve his education. He registered for a teacher's diploma. Like all gifted students of the time, Tiro ran for elections of the SRC in his very first year. He won a seat in the SRC.
Turfloop University was unique in those years, in many ways. It was the most politically active university at the time and, among its students, there were great minds such as Ranwedzi Nengwekhulu, Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, Aubrey Mokoena, Don Nkadimeng, Winifred Kgoare to name but a few. Of all universities, Bantu Biko would visit Turfloop more frequently than other universities and colleges. Like Fort Hare, Turfloop had a Theological Seminary on its premises with a strong Black Consciousness student presence. All the students at Turfloop were Black and, in those years, all the lecturing staff was white. The inaugural conference of this new pure Black organisation, SASO, was fittingly held at Turfloop.
Tiro is famous for two major speeches that he gave while he was the President of the Turfloop SRC. The first speech was in response to a white Minister of Education who had visited Turfloop. Tiro attacked the speech of the Minister while addressing the student body. His talk was promptly published in the student mouthpiece, SASO Newsletter. Tiro's second speech was delivered during a graduation ceremony. He surprised everyone in the main hall of the university; the white staff and many other whites who were in attendance, his fellow comrades in the SRC who were all unaware of what he was about to say, and Black parents who were made to stand outside the hall while their children were graduating.
With speed, as soon as he had finished his address, Tiro was, in the words of Don Nkadimeng, "bundled into a university car and escorted to the railway station" because the university had decided to expell him immediately. That year, 1972, saw the Abram Tiro toyi-toyi across South Africa, leading to massive expulsion of students in other universities. Those who were expelled took up teacher assistant posts in schools in Soweto together with Tiro. As a result, South Africa saw the next significant generation of student leaders, the Tsietsi Mashinini generation, who were students of these SASO guys.
Today, Prof Ranwedzi Nengwekhulu will speak in honour of the man, Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, someone who took up his position in SASO as the Permanent Organiser of the organisation.
It is important to mention that Abram Onkgopotse Tiro was elected as the President of the Southern African Students Movement (SASM), a student body of southern Africa. He publicized a resolution of SASM that vowed to collect resources on behalf of liberation movements in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Azania. On learning about this resolution "Tiro earned the wrath of the boer regime ... They decided to kill him" so says Prof Nengwekhulu.
As you spend your day, think of this man because many out there would wish that he be forgotten.
Dr Andile M-Afrika
(1 February 2024)
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