The 1973 African workers’ strike at Coronation Brick and Tile Company in Durban and the 1976 student protests forced the government to introduce reforms pushed through by the verligtes (moderates) who had gained an upper hand over the verkramptes (conservatives) in the National Party. Balthazar Johannes (BJ) Vorster resigned as the prime minister. He was succeeded by Pieter Willem (PW) Botha, formerly minister of defence. The government appointed two commissions, the Wiehahn and the Riekert commissions of inquiry, to investigate labour relations and the utilisation of manpower respectively.

The commissions’ recommendations were reported in 1979. In summary, the Wiehahn Commission recommended that African trade unions be registered and recognised to enable them to participate in the collective bargaining system. It went on to propose that the formation and registration of racially mixed unions should be permitted. Not long after that, the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu) was formed.

The Riekert Commission, on the other hand, recommended that Africans with ‘section 10’ rights should be allowed to settle in urban areas permanently, with their families, and that Africans living legally in the urban areas had to be responsible for financing the development of their townships and for subsidising transport costs.

Although the government did not implement all the recommendations made by the commissions for fear of alienating its traditional constituencies, it did implement some. It created a black middle class which ‘… would have too much to lose to help the masses in the struggle for liberation’. It introduced a 99-year leasehold. Blacks were encouraged to buy (rather than rent) newly built houses – the government's strategy for dividing black people. In Kroonstad in 1977 a new residential section was established called ‘LTA’ – so named after the construction company that built houses there. Civil servants received loans from banks and purchased houses. And, significantly, the government introduced the relatively powerful community council to replace the urban bantu council.

It was against this background that the Young Christian Workers (YCW) and the workers employed by Union Steam Bakery in Kroonstad mobilised to challenge the blatant injustice prevailing in the town. Towards the end of the 1970s, some of the members of the YCW shifted their focus to the armed struggle and planned to engage in acts of sabotage.