Glenn Moss addressing the students with a loud hailer. Uniformed police can be seen in the background. They only arrived to conduct attacks after a few rounds of attacks by plain-clothes police. Two people standing on something high in the distance to get a view of the attacks.
The three men in white coats are medical students. Many of them joined the protest after lectures, and the bigwigs at Wits Medical School reprimanded them for taking part in the protests.
SB stands for Special Branch. They were the secret police, to whom no laws applied, and many of them infiltrated the protest, some very noticeable, some not. This one was being questioned by students.
This was very early in the day, before police and Rand Afrikaans University students had gathered on the pavement opposite the protest. There is one lone RAU student sitting on the wall, waiting to watch the spectacle. By lunch time the student leaders and Prof Bozzoli had persuaded the protestors to stay on university property.
The people standing on the pavement are journalists and other non-students. Many of the students were sitting down. A rumor had arisen that if you were sitting down the police would arrest you without bashing you.
The fire hydrant faced Jan Smuts Ave, with a sloping lawn and a few trees behind it. That lawn is now covered with the Oppenheimer Life Sciences Building.