PIONEER
Onkgopotse Tiro
Youth Activist | Human Rights Activist
Born: 9 November 1947 Died: 1 February 1974
“We black graduates, by virtue of our age and academic standing, are being called upon to bear greater responsibilities in the liberation of our people. Our so-called leaders have become the bolts of the same machine which is crushing us as a nation. We have to go back to them and educate them. Times are changing and we should change with them. The magic story of human achievement gives irrefutable proof that as soon as nationalism is awakened among the intelligentsia, it becomes the vanguard in the struggle against alien rule. In conclusion Mr Chancellor I say: Let the Lord be praised, for the day shall come, when all shall be free to breathe the air of freedom which is theirs to breathe and when the day shall have come, no man, no matter how many tanks he has, will reverse the course of events.”
Who is
Onkgopotse Tiro?
A student leader and Black Consciousness activist who delivered the “Turfloop Testimony” in 1972, and was assassinated via parcel bomb in 1974.
Professions
and Roles
Student, activist, teacher, and student leader.
Best Known For
His address at Turfloop’s graduation ceremony in 1972, when he criticised the policy of Bantu Education, and his subsequent assassination via a parcel bomb in Botswana, two years later.
Life highlights
- Tiro studied a Humanities degree at The University of the North (now the University of Limpopo), and was elected president of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) in his final year.
- He gave a speech at Turfloop’s graduation ceremony in 1972 that censured the Bantu Education Act of 1953, and was expelled for the speech, later called the “Turfloop Testimony”. His expulsion sparked several protests at other black universities in his support, as well as at the University of Cape Town.
- Tiro became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement, took over the position of Permanent Organiser of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) after its leaders were banned in 1973, and was elected President of the Southern African Students’ Movement (SASM).
- He began teaching as a history teacher at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, at the request of the then Headmaster, Lekgau Mathabathe. Tiro used his position to encourage pupils to question Bantu Education. He was fired from this position after six months, under pressure from the apartheid government.
- Tiro travelled around the country promoting Black Consciousness philosophy before he got word that the police were going to arrest him and fled to Botswana where he continued his political work. This included forming links with other revolutionary organisations like the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1973.
- Tiro was killed by a parcel bomb handed to him by a student in Botswana in 1974.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“From this meeting some of you will be called a number of names, the most prominent of which will be communist, some of you will be forced to sleep with hungry stomachs, some will be faced with external separation with their parents, and friends, some will languish in prison. This is not new; our forerunners have suffered all this. No struggle can come to an end without casualties. It is only through determination, absolute commitment, and self-assertion that we shall overcome”.
– Onkgopotse Tiro, SASO 5th General Student Council
IN THE WORDS OF OTHERS
“In remembering him, we remember that we must always fight against anyone and any system that uses the colour of our skins as a means of our oppression. In remembering him, we too unequivocally restate that ‘the primary source of income for black people is land, and that land had to be restored to the dispossessed’ without compensation. In remembering him, we continue to call for free quality education for which he died trying to pursue.”
– Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, Economic Freedom Fighters member, 2015
