According to Bantu Stephen Biko, 'Black Consciousness seeks to show the black  people the value of their own standards and outlook. It urges black people to judge  themselves according to these standards and not to be fooled by white society who  have white-washed themselves and made white standards the yardstick (measure) by  which even black people judge each other.' 
… As a supporter of the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy, together with other  literate Africans residing in the major urban centres, Biko developed into a highly  respected intellectual in the 1960s. Biko began his search for self-identity and hoped to  build up the pride of black culture, a culture that was scornfully (disrespectfully) viewed  by the settler regime. Biko and his student colleagues had been receptive (open) to the  political ideas expressed by many Black intellectuals, and learned to use the emotional  power of the message of Black Consciousness. 
… Black university students had tried for many years to make progress through the  multiracial and liberal National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). In particular,  NUSAS was outspoken in its criticism of government actions, especially at English speaking universities where its membership was strong.  
Young black students were inspired by Biko's ideology and wanted to establish an  exclusively all-Black movement. In 1969, African students launched a blacks-only  student union, the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) to which Biko was  elected president. 

[From http:// www.sahistory.org.za/topic/defining-black-consciousness. Accessed on 8 February 2018.]

… By the early 1970s, thanks to SASO's organisation on the campus, Turfloop was a  hotbed (centre) of activism. Boycotts and protest marches became a regular feature of  student life. In 1972 the rural campus came to national attention. At the university's  graduation that year, Onkgopotse Tiro, a SASO member and former president of the  SRC, gave a fiery (powerful) speech condemning Bantu Education and its  implementation at Turfloop. Tiro attacked the fact that a supposedly black university  was controlled by white leadership, that white companies received contracts to supply  the campus and that white dignitaries took seats from black parents who came to see  their children graduate.  
The speech sparked controversy at Turfloop and beyond. The all-white council of the  university expelled Tiro. Black academic staff walked out of the meeting where that  decision was announced, in protest. In response to Tiro's expulsion, Turfloop students  boycotted classes until administrators shut down the university and sent all the  students home. Meanwhile, students on other black campuses around the country  participated in solidarity protests and boycotts. SASO strengthened its national links  between campuses through this process. 

[From http://aidc.org/turfloop-soweto-back-dialectic-1976/. Accessed on 9 February 2018.]

We have been successful to the extent that we have diminished the element of fear in  the minds of black people. During the 1960s black people were terribly scared of  involvement in politics. The universities were putting out no useful leadership to the  black people because everybody found it more comfortable to lose themselves in a  particular profession, to make money. But since those days, black students have seen  their role as being primarily to prepare themselves for leadership roles in the various  facets of the black community. Through our political articulation (expression) of the  aspirations of black people, many black people have come to appreciate the need to  stand up and be counted against the system.  
There is far more political talk now, far more political debate and far more  condemnation of the system from average black people than there has ever been. I'm  referring here to the whole oppressive education system that the students are talking  about. After complaining about it, the apartheid government wants to further entrench  what the students are protesting about by bringing in police and Saracens (armoured  cars) and dogs. 
Now, the response of the students then was in terms of their pride. They were not  prepared to be calmed down even at the point of a gun. And hence, what happened,  happened. Some people were killed. These uprisings just continued and continued.  

[From I Write What I Like: STEVE BIKO by A Stubbs ed.]

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed in 1995 to investigate  human rights violations since 1960 and to grant amnesty to those perpetrators who  made full disclosure. The commission also had to foster reconciliation and unity among  South Africans. In exchange for full confessions of politically motivated crimes, the  TRC promised amnesty for those who came forward. In 1997 the five former security  officers who interrogated Steven Biko on 6 September 1967 applied for amnesty from  the TRC. The TRC's mandate was to be even-handed, but its composition was hardly  balanced. The chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was a patron of the United  Democratic Front, the ANC's internal front since the early 1980s … 
At the time, the TRC was the first restorative justice process of its kind to conduct  public hearings and provide space for survivors to tell their stories in their own words. These hearings served as an important symbolic function in a country where the  system of governance had been premised (founded) on the denial and silencing of, in  particular, black voices. 
Altogether the commission received some 21 300 statements from victims and  recorded some 38 000 gross violations of human rights. More than one thousand  perpetrators received amnesty after full disclosure. Instead of concentrating on the  context of a deed, the commission focused on the perpetrator or victim, with the result  that the context was in most cases only scantily (poorly) sketched (addressed). Cross examination of victims was not allowed in the victim hearings, but hearsay evidence  was. 

[From Race and Reconciliation by D Herwitz]

In January 1997, a group of notorious (ruthless) security policemen from the regional  headquarters in Port Elizabeth applied for amnesty for a string of murders in the  Eastern Cape. For years their names had struck terror in the townships as they cruised  (went) about acting with impunity (without approval). Now their only hope of avoiding  prosecution was to testify before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  
Their most famous victim was Bantu Stephen Biko, a dynamic young leader from the  Eastern Cape whose short life had a profound impact on black politics and thinking and  whose lonely death was to stand as a permanent monument to police brutality. 
Twenty years later the death of Biko was to be tested at a TRC amnesty hearing. Five  members of the interrogation (questioning) team were present: Major Harold Snyman,  Captain Daniel Siebert, Warrant Officer Johan Beneke, Warrant Officer Rubin Marx  and Detective Sergeant Gideon Nieuwoudt. 
The five policemen applied for amnesty for culpable homicide (murder). George Bizos,  on behalf of the Biko family, opposed the amnesty. 'The applicants', he said, 'had not  made a full disclosure of what had happened.' Statements made at the inquest have  merely been modified (altered) to try and explain away concrete evidence which did  not fit in with the false evidence given at the inquest. Nor did they have a political  motive when they fatally injured Biko. Torturing helpless detainees for the purposes of  extracting information to the point that they end up dead is not a political objective.' 

[From http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/media/pr/1999/p990216a.htm. Accessed on 9 December 2017.]

AMNESTY DECISION ON DEATH OF STEVE BIKO 

Four former officers of the security branch, who applied for amnesty for the murder of  Black Consciousness leader Bantu Stephen Biko in September 1997, were this week  refused amnesty by the Amnesty Committee of the TRC and their applications were  dismissed. 
The four officers who interrogated (questioned) Biko were Daniel Siebert, Warrant  Officer Johannes Beneke, Warrant Officer Rubin Marx and Harold Snyman. Their  accomplice and fifth applicant, Gideon Johannes Nieuwoudt, whose application was  heard by a different amnesty panel, was refused amnesty in December last year. 
In refusing amnesty to the four applicants, the committee based its decision on the  following reasons: 

1. The killing of Biko was not an act associated with a political objective, as required  by the Amnesty Act. 
2. The committee was not satisfied that the applicants had made a full disclosure, as  further required by the Act. 
3. It was not satisfied that the applicants testified truthfully to the events leading to the  injury of Biko. 
4. Finally the committee said it was satisfied that the killing of Biko was wholly  (entirely) disproportionate (unbalanced) to any possible objective pursued by the  applicants. 

[From http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/media/pr/1999/p990216a.htm. Accessed on 28 November 2017.]

Before the transition (change) to democracy, the clothing and textile industry employed  roughly 250 000 workers. It was supported by very high tariffs that kept foreign goods  out, very low wages that kept costs down and substantial financial subsidies that kept  businesses alive, particularly in the old homelands areas … which were not  sustainable from the mid-1980s onwards. 
In 1993, on the eve of the new democracy, South Africa took part in talks on a new  global trade deal aimed at setting lower tariffs and opening markets across the world. South Africa was represented by the out-going government, which had little interest in  long-term development and which offered to dramatically slash protection for local  industry. Even though the trade unions, with the support of Nelson Mandela (before he  became president of the country) tried to reverse this, they were only partially  successful. 
The result was that over the first decade of the democracy, protection for the clothing  and textile industry was lowered every year, from a high of 100% to 40% by 2002.  At the same time, China was building a massive, very competitive clothing industry  geared at export to other parts of the world. The result was that locally-made clothing  began to be replaced increasingly with imported goods, mainly from China. 
As imports started pouring into South Africa in the late 1990s, it led to very deep  destruction of jobs and the closing of factories. The effect of opening our markets as  quickly and as widely as this, were devastating (shocking). 

[From http://www.thejournalist.org.za/spotlight/unravelling-the-fabric-of-the-industry-south-africas clothing-and-textile-business. Accessed on 20 January 2018.]

SOUTH AFRICAN CLOTHING AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY DROPS FROM 200 000  JOBS TO 19 000 
6 April 2017, 15:55: CAPE TALK 

Ettienne Vlok, Director of Research at the Southern African Clothing and Textile  Workers' Union, spoke with Azania Mosaka about the challenges facing the textile  industry. 
Vlok says the impact of cheap imports on the local clothing industry has created a  significant decline in the number of people being employed. 
'About 15 years ago we had approximately 200 000 people in the clothing and textile  industry and we're down to about 19 000 now. Beyond the statistics it means that a lot  of people have been retrenched, a lot of factories have closed down.' 
Vlok adds that these numbers have contributed to the high numbers of unemployment and inequalities in South Africa. He says the industry is unique (different) in many  ways, one being that four out of every five workers are women compared to other  manufacturing sectors. This had a major impact on poverty eradication (removal)  among working class communities. 
'If we grow this industry, we are able to contribute to gender equity.' Vlok also  addresses the potential of major clothing and textile hubs in rural areas being able to  create jobs. He says another major challenge is the inability to compete with countries  such as China, which uses ways (low production cost) to make their products much  cheaper. 

[From http://www.702.co.za/articles/251378/sa-clothing-and -textile-industry-drops-from-200-000-to 19-000-jobs-researcher. Accessed on 20 January 2018.]

The Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Jeff Radebe, highlighted the clothing and textile industry as one of the sectors where the economy  could most effectively be bolstered (boosted).  
This is something of a miraculous turnaround, particularly in the face of investment downgrades and economic and socio-political instability. The clothing and textile  industry was one of the hardest hit by globalisation and increased competition following  the opening of South Africa's borders to global markets post 1994.  
Facing high import duties and the increased illegal imports and cheap textiles from  China, Pakistan and elsewhere, coupled with insufficient investment, the industry went  into decline. 
Fortunately a number of conscious interventions were implemented that have helped to  turn things around. 
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) developed a nation-wide clothing and  textile competitiveness programme (CTCP) whose broader objective is 'to assist the  industry in upgrading processes, products and people to re-position it so as to compete  effectively against other low-cost producing countries …' 
In fact the South Africa Conference (on clothing and textiles) brought to light that the  CTCP had created some 12 000 jobs and assisted more than 400 companies.  
According to Ebrahim Patel, local manufacturing industry sales in clothing, textiles,  footwear and leather increased from about R41,8bn in 2010 to over R50bn in 2015; an  increase of 21% over five years.  

[From https://www.fin24.com/Opinion/the-great-textile-turnaround-20171011. Accessed on 20 January 2018.]