Bisho

A nurse at Bisho Hospital, in the more rural Eastern Cape province, said patients were getting just 30 minutes of oxygen at a time because there weren’t enough access points.

Inspired by the success of the mass action campaign, a group within the ANC decided to march on Bisho, the capital of the Ciskei homeland in the eastern Cape, a bantustan led by Brigadier Oupa Gqozo.

On the morning of September 7, 1992, seventy thousand protesters set out on a march to Bisho’s main stadium.

Now Bisho joined Boipatong as a byword for brutality.

Like the old proverb that says that the darkest hour is before the dawn, the tragedy of Bisho led to a new opening in the negotiations.