SUMMARY

One-sided violence perpetrated by the Government of South Africa and recorded in UCDP data has taken place in the context of the transition from apartheid to majority rule. The transitional years (and also the decades that came before) were filled with demonstrations against the government and its policies, and civilian deaths came about as a consequence of the government’s sometimes violent crack-downs on demonstrations.

The Government of South Africa first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached on 6 September that year when large-scale protests against the apartheid election took place, resulting in the death of at least 29 civilians.