October 1-4, 1983: After a series of attacks elsewhere in South Africa, rebel forces make a massed attack in Johannesburg - this coincides with an Angolan offensive in SA forces there. Government offices and key roads are seized in the first day, and rebels take key infrastructure and capture/kill police during the next three days while government forces try to fight their way in. Helicopter gunships are shot down on the fourth day, the first use of foreign anti-aircraft missiles by the rebels. The government falls back to wait it out. CIA assets trapped in the city begin reporting in real-time to Langley. Most consulates in the city are evacuated but a small Irish consulate remains, after the UK quietly cuts a deal with Ireland so they can convertly keep channels open.
October 9th, 1983: The South African government publicises crimes being committed against Afrikaners in Johannesburg - which are at the moment opportunistic and not systematic, with the rebel leaders simply not thinking this is a priority to stop - and demands the rebels let the residents leave if they want. The rebels can't allow this, as they know it's only the Afrikaner population that keeps them from being assaulted with heavier weapons.
October 11th-12th, 1983: Joe Slovo is smuggled back into South Africa and heads for Johannesburg, to help get the rebel-held city organised. He demands the Afrikaner population are protected, both for humanitarian reasons and, more importantly, because they're losing support overseas and they need that to win. The Western members of the African Brigades are the rebels most hostile to the idea but are talked around.
October 14th, 1983: Following discussions with the Johannesburg Liberty Council and representatives of the white population, which are overseen by the Irish consulate, the Afrikaners are given a seat on the council and are allowed to form an official, armed "Neighbourhood Watch for the purposes of keeping the peace" in their area. The Soviet's global propaganda machine is instructed to promote this as a sign the rebels are not going to scourge the white population. The CIA, meanwhile, reports that Slovo is in the city.
October 15th-28th, 1983: "The Big Bad Battle of Jo'Burg". The SA regime launches are a sudden, brutal attack to liberate the city, hoping to kill Slovo. Airstrikes on the centre and borders are followed by infantry raids, supported by CIA intelligence. Despite initial sweeping success, the rebels fight ferocious withdrawals that slow the advance. An expected white uprising does not occur (the white locals don't want to risk it) and CIA intell is swiftly compromised by the speed of the battle & bad rumours by locals, which causes the regime troops to be badly distributed. By the 18th, the rebels are back on the offensive and the troops decide to fall back and specifically capture the white-only areas; they believe Slovo has fled the city anyway, after a CIA spy overheard a disgruntled Sizwe soldier say so (unaware that soldier was just bitching about what he assumed had happened).
Rebels and black rioters sweep across the rural part of the country in a spree of arson attacks, forcing regime reinforcements to be redirected from Johannesburg. (A thousand Africans are shot between the 17th and 19th to stop this violence, of which almost seven hundred are civilians) By the 23rd, regime forces have piled into the Afrikaner areas and a 'corridor' and are taking up siege. Rebel forces, under Slovo's advice, simply leave them there and publicly announce they won't attack a civilian-filled area. Praetoria orders air strikes across the city on the 27th anyway, killing hundreds - rebel forces expected this and use Soviet missiles to shoot down four of the six bombers sent, making it clear the regime can't keep doing this (actually this used most of the Russian missiles but the regime doesn't know that). Over a thousand civilians are left dead and western journalists at the Irish consulate report this.
On the 28th, rebel forces bring forward a planned attack on the corridor in revenge for the airstrikes. Regime forces evacuate with a third of the Afrikaners, unable to take more. The Joannesburg Liberty Council then declares both victory and that the October 14th agreement still stands (though a new Afrikaner rep is needed as the old one fled). This is a major, and intentional, propaganda coup, made worse for the SA government as news broke out days ago that the October 14th agreement was in place and many whites feel the government deliberately endangered the J'burg Afrikaners.
October 30th, 1983: The CIA ring in Johannesburg are rounded up after one spy is betrayed by the Neighbourhood Watch. The Liberty Council forces them to send false information back to Langley - two of the five men there try to alert Langley on the quiet, but this will be overlooked until December.