Overview

Overview
Taffy LongSouth Africa's biggest funeral procession - 10 000 people - was held in the 1920s for a man widely believed to be innocent, hanged by the government of General Jan Smuts. The man was 31-year-old Samuel Alfred Long, nicknamed Taffy, who, after two trials, was found guilty of murdering Pieter Marais during an uprising in Johannesburg that saw the city at war with its citizens, in the 1922 Miners' Strike. The hanging took place in November 1922, and the 10 000 people marched to Brixton Cemetery where Taffy was buried. Taffy came to symbolise the workers' unhappiness with the mine owners at the way they handled a drop in the price of gold in 1921 - by dropping wages and employing more blacks at cheaper wages. Many thought Taffy was innocent, but in the tensions of the time he was an Englishman who had allegedly killed an Afrikaner. The irony was that the Afrikaans government of Smuts was also killing Afrikaners, siding against them and with the mine owners. Taffy was born in Wales. He ran away from home at 10 and became a coal miner. At the age of nineteen he joined the army and was seriously wounded in November 1917 in France. He spent a year in hospital, was awarded the Mons Star and given a military pension. Taffy came to South Africa in 1920 and applied to join the Mounted Police in Pretoria, but was turned down because he did not speak Afrikaans. He then joined Crown Mines and became a timberman and machine operator. He was a regular church-goer, and by 1922 had a young wife and child. He was dark-haired, handsome and well-built. He lived in the working class suburb of Fordsburg, several kilometres west of the city. He was a paid-up member of the South African Mineworkers' Union, and attended the mine soccer club informally. Taffy delivered a short but poignant speech before the death sentence was passed. "Only a few years back I lay drenched in water and soaked in blood in the trenches of Flanders. Those were the immortal days when the Empire fought to make the world safe for democracy . . . But what did we find when we got back from the hell of war? I have listened to fine words about the dignity of the law. What do the mine owners care about our homes and the dignity of our lives? If they thought they could grind an ounce of gold from the Union Jack they would put it through the mills of their mines." He very adequately captured the feelings of the masses, although it is believed he was not a strike leader. He was apparently on leave at the time of the strike and did not return to work. He volunteered to combat looting in the chaos of the strike, and sjambokked nine people for looting. The incident that led to his hanging revolved around Pieter Marais, a Brixton shopkeeper and father of five daughters. Marais was believed to be hiding policemen in his house and was caught by the strikers and sentenced to death. On 11 March 1922 he was taken to a back street by three men and shot. Juliet Marais Louw recounts in When Johannesburg and I were young that "he realised that they meant to shoot him and he began to plead for his life for the sake of his wife and children. He folded his arms over his eyes and was shot through his elbow, his face and his stomach". He lived for another day, and gave a description of his murderer - a short, fair man - and he named him: Taffy Long, leader of the Irish Commando. The two men who accompanied the murderer - De Witt and Du Toit - turned state witness and named Taffy as the third man and the executioner. But witnesses maintained that militant Communist Party leader Percy Fisher was the third man.

Taffy LongSouth Africa's biggest funeral procession - 10 000 people - was held in the 1920s for a man widely believed to be innocent, hanged by the government of General Jan Smuts.

The man was 31-year-old Samuel Alfred Long, nicknamed Taffy, who, after two trials, was found guilty of murdering Pieter Marais during an uprising in Johannesburg that saw the city at war with its citizens, in the 1922 Miners' Strike. The hanging took place in November 1922, and the 10 000 people marched to Brixton Cemetery where Taffy was buried.

Taffy came to symbolise the workers' unhappiness with the mine owners at the way they handled a drop in the price of gold in 1921 - by dropping wages and employing more blacks at cheaper wages.

Many thought Taffy was innocent, but in the tensions of the time he was an Englishman who had allegedly killed an Afrikaner. The irony was that the Afrikaans government of Smuts was also killing Afrikaners, siding against them and with the mine owners.

Taffy was born in Wales. He ran away from home at 10 and became a coal miner. At the age of nineteen he joined the army and was seriously wounded in November 1917 in France. He spent a year in hospital, was awarded the Mons Star and given a military pension.

Taffy came to South Africa in 1920 and applied to join the Mounted Police in Pretoria, but was turned down because he did not speak Afrikaans. He then joined Crown Mines and became a timberman and machine operator.

He was a regular church-goer, and by 1922 had a young wife and child. He was dark-haired, handsome and well-built. He lived in the working class suburb of Fordsburg, several kilometres west of the city. He was a paid-up member of the South African Mineworkers' Union, and attended the mine soccer club informally.

Taffy delivered a short but poignant speech before the death sentence was passed. "Only a few years back I lay drenched in water and soaked in blood in the trenches of Flanders. Those were the immortal days when the Empire fought to make the world safe for democracy . . . But what did we find when we got back from the hell of war? I have listened to fine words about the dignity of the law. What do the mine owners care about our homes and the dignity of our lives? If they thought they could grind an ounce of gold from the Union Jack they would put it through the mills of their mines."

He very adequately captured the feelings of the masses, although it is believed he was not a strike leader. He was apparently on leave at the time of the strike and did not return to work. He volunteered to combat looting in the chaos of the strike, and sjambokked nine people for looting.

The incident that led to his hanging revolved around Pieter Marais, a Brixton shopkeeper and father of five daughters.

Marais was believed to be hiding policemen in his house and was caught by the strikers and sentenced to death. On 11 March 1922 he was taken to a back street by three men and shot. Juliet Marais Louw recounts in When Johannesburg and I were young that "he realised that they meant to shoot him and he began to plead for his life for the sake of his wife and children. He folded his arms over his eyes and was shot through his elbow, his face and his stomach".

He lived for another day, and gave a description of his murderer - a short, fair man - and he named him: Taffy Long, leader of the Irish Commando.

The two men who accompanied the murderer - De Witt and Du Toit - turned state witness and named Taffy as the third man and the executioner. But witnesses maintained that militant Communist Party leader Percy Fisher was the third man.