On this day, 6 September 1966, Mozambican-Greek revolutionary Dimitri Tsafendas assassinated the architect of apartheid, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, by stabbing him during a parliamentary session. Tsafendas was at the time working in the Parliament building. Despite the bravery of his act, anti-apartheid leaders and his family distanced themselves from Tsafendas after the assassination. While in his statement to police he was clear about his motives, saying that he “did believe that with the disappearance of the South African prime minister a change of policy would take place… I was so disgusted with the racial policy that I went through with my plan to kill the prime minister.” But authorities decided to claim he was mentally ill so as to not admit their security had been beaten. And Tsafendas, under torture and facing the death penalty, eventually agreed to plead insanity. So he was subsequently found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, and sent to a secure psychiatric hospital. He survived to see the end of the apartheid regime, but the new African National Congress government did not order his release. He died in custody in 1999.
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Tsafendas’ story is featured with hundreds of others in our forthcoming book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion. You can preorder a copy through our Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/workingclasshistory/working-class-history-the-book/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1521335078051637/?type=3
