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Question

What sparked the ANC's decision to engage in an organized armed resistance against the South African government, and what series of events took place in the resistance as a result of this decision?

Answer 1

Formed initially on January 8, 1912 by John Dube, Pixley Seme and Sol Plaatje along with chiefs, people's representatives, and church organisations, and other prominent individuals to bring all Africans together as one people to defend their rights and freedoms, the ANC from its inception represented both traditional and modern elements, from tribal chiefs to church and community bodies and educated black professionals, though women were only admitted as affiliate members from 1931 and as full members in 1943.

The formation of the ANC Youth League in 1944 by Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo heralded a new generation committed to building non-violent mass action against the legal underpinnings of the white minority's supremacy. In 1947 the ANC allied with the Natal Indian Congress and Transvaal Indian Congress, broadening the basis of its opposition to the government.

The return of an Afrikaner-led National Party government by the overwhelmingly white electorate in 1948 signaled the advent of the policy of apartheid. During the 1950s, non-whites were removed from electoral rolls, residence and mobility laws were tightened and political activities restricted.

In June 1952, the ANC joined with other anti-apartheid organisations in a Defiance Campaign against the restriction of political, labour and residential rights, during which protesters deliberately violated oppressive laws, following the example of Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance in Natal and India. The campaign was called off in April 1953 after new laws prohibiting protest meetings were passed.

In June 1955, the Congress of the People, organised by the ANC and Indian, Coloured and White organizations at Kliptown near Johannesburg, adopted the Freedom Charter, henceforth the fundamental document of the anti-apartheid struggle with its demand for equal rights for all regardless of race. As opposition to the regime's policies continued, 156 leading members of the ANC and allied organisations were arrested in 1956; the resulting "Treason Trial" ended with their acquittal five years later.

In 1959, a number of members broke away from the ANC because they objected to the ANC's reorientation from African nationalist policies. They formed the rival Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe.


Protest and banning
The ANC planned a campaign against the Pass Laws, which required blacks to carry an identity card at all times to justify their presence in White areas, to begin on 31 March 1960. The PAC pre-empted the ANC by holding unarmed protests 10 days earlier, during which 69 protesters were killed and 180 injured by police fire in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, both organisations were banned from political activity. International opposition to the regime increased throughout the 1950s and 1960s, fueled by the growing number of newly independent nations, the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain and the civil rights movement in the United States. In 1960, the leader of the ANC, Albert Lutuli, won the Nobel Peace Prize, a feat that would be repeated in 1993 by the next leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, and F.W. de Klerk jointly, for their actions in helping to negotiate peaceful transition after Mandela's release from prison.





Violent political resistance
Underground or in exile, the ANC leadership concluded that the methods of non-violence such as those utilised by Gandhi against the British Empire during their colonisation of India, were not suitable against the apartheid system.It was decided that military tactics had to be used, which primarily involved targeting and sabotaging the government's resources, with a wish to minimise the bloodshed of civilians. A military wing was formed in 1961, called Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), meaning "Spear of the Nation". However, Mandela, as its first leader, was arrested for terrorism in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 on Robben Island, along with Sisulu and other ANC leaders after the Rivonia Trial.

During the 1970s and '80s the ANC, under the leadership of the exiled Oliver Tambo, engaged in a variety of militant attacks within South Africa, usually from bases in Botswana, Mozambique or Swaziland. One such attack was the 1983 Church Street bombing which killed 16 and wounded 130. Murder was occasionally used for political purposes. Tactics included car bombings as well as targeted assassinations. It has been alleged that people were tortured and detained without trial in ANC prison camps.During this same period, the South African military routinely engaged in a number of raids and bombings on ANC bases. Dulcie September, a member of the ANC who was investigating on arms trade between France and South Africa was assassinated in Paris in 1988.

As the years progressed, the ANC's attacks, coupled with international pressure and internal dissent, increased in South Africa. The ANC received most of its financial and tactical support from the USSR, which orchestrated military involvement with surrogate Cuban forces through Angola. In 1985 a group of businessmen, led by Dr. Theuns Eloff, met with the ANC in Lusaka and again in Dakar in 1987 but they returned empty-handed with the ANC immovable in their demand that there be a total capitulation of the White Regime. After the fall of the USSR, however, and the resultant demise of the Cuban exercise, which also brought an end to the ANC's funding, a more conciliatory tone from the ANC resulted in peace talks in the early 1990s, which ultimately resulted in a negotiated constitution, which has since been upheld by the courts.

After the ANC showed a willingness to work with the white government on a constitutional settlement rather than total, unconditional capitulation, State President F.W. de Klerk unbanned the ANC and PAC on 2 February 1990, and announced a referendum in March 1992 to end apartheid, which white voters approved, well before the constitution was finalized. President De Klerk served as President Mandela's deputy during a power-sharing period after the ANC won 62% of the vote in the first democratic elections in 1994.

Answer 2

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