It’s nearly 30 years since the end of legalized racial oppression in South Africa — known officially as “apartheid.” However, most people still don’t know the name of an important anti-apartheid hero — a man named Dimitri Tsafendas (pronounced “Sa-fendas”); October 7th marks the 24th anniversary of his death in a psychiatric hospital.
In an attempt to bring an end to white supremacy in South Africa, Tsafendas assassinated South Africa’s then-Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd, in 1966. The South African government responded to the assassination of the Prime Minister by incarcerating Tsafendas for the rest of his life; holding him for decades on death row; systematically torturing him; and labelling his actions as the senseless work of a “madman.”