pic7917. Solomon Mahlangu protest, 1979

Protesters gathered outside South Africa House for three days before the execution of Solomon Mahlangu on 6 April 1979. This protest took place on 3 April. Solomon Mahlangu was a young ANC freedom fighter sentenced to death in March 1978 for his involvement in a gun battle with police in which two men died. The judge accepted that he had not fired the fatal shots. He was hanged in spite of a huge international campaign. The UN Security Council and the governments of the UK and all the other major other Western European countries appealed to the South African government for clemency. US President Jimmy Carter also intervened.