[1] In the 1980s, the South African apartheid government led by PW Botha implemented system reforms aimed at creating divisions, and thus weakening the resistance of the people.
At the same time organisations such as the newly formed United Democratic Front were applying pressure on the government through civic associations.
[3] Events such as the Langa Massacre in Uitenhage, the consumer boycott in Port Elizabeth, the killing of The Cradock Four and the shootings in Aliwal North created an atmosphere of unrest in the Eastern Cape townships.
This led to the formation of a coloured vigilante group, supported by the local SAP and SADF, which attacked the black people in Mlungisi.
Narrating the events of the day in the article titled "Your bullets will not stop us: A recollection of the 1985 Queenstown massacre" in "The Daily Maverick" of 19 November 2015, Daniel Lolwana, Chairperson of the Residents Association who was addressing the meeting, said: "I noticed an old man, Lizo Ngcana, being dragged inside, bleeding.
[citation needed] In response to questions in parliament over a year later, the then Minister of Justice, Mr Kobie Coetsee, said that an inquest into nine deaths from that incident had found that nobody was criminally liable.
In 1996, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found the SADF and SAP guilty and accountable for the death of 14 people at Nonzwakazi Methodist Church in Mlungisi township.