Battle of Ventersdorp

Part of Negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa

AWB Rally, Church Square, Pretoria in 1990.

Date	9 August 1991
Location	Ventersdorp
Result	Indecisive

Belligerents

AWB

South African Police

Commanders and leaders

Eugène Terre'Blanche

Hernus Kriel

Strength

2,000

Unknown

Casualties and losses

3 dead
13 injured

6 policemen injured
29 civilians injured
One passer-by killed

The Battle of Ventersdorp on 9 August 1991 was a violent confrontation in the South African town of Ventersdorp between right wing supporters of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and the South African Police and security forces. Though technically not a "battle", it became known as such in the media while official sources such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) simply refer to it as an "incident". Much of its notoriety lies in the fact that it was the first time in the 43 years of apartheid that police officers killed white protesters.

The confrontation took place outside the Ventersdorp town hall where then State President F.W. de Klerk was scheduled to speak. At the time, right-wing resentment of De Klerk was running high following his unbanning of the African National Congress, releasing Nelson Mandela from prison the year before, and beginning negotiations to end apartheid. Amid violent right wing rhetoric and talk of Boer resistance, De Klerk's appearance in Ventersdorp, a right-wing stronghold and home town of AWB leader Eugène Terre'Blanche, became a flashpoint. The AWB called a protest in which the town was inundated by angry opponents of De Klerk, including armed paramilitary members of the AWB. The supporters had showed up from far and wide, even a group of angered White Namibian farmers joined in the mass protest. Weapons were confiscated at several police road- blocks near Ventersdorp.

Three months before on 11 May 1991, white armed AWB supporters led by Terre'Blanche clashed with police at the Ventersdorp farm of Goedgevonden, while attempting to force black squatters off the farm. They managed to break police lines and destroy several structures when police opened fire wounding four of them. They then proceeded to the nearby black township of Tshing attacking more houses before calm was restored by the Minister of Law and Order, Adriaan Vlok and Conservative Party deputy, Ferdi Hartzenberg.

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