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The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress (ANC) at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in December 1951. [1] The Campaign had roots in events leading up the conference. The demonstrations, taking place in 1952, were the first "large-scale, multi-racial political mobilization against apartheid laws under a common leadership". [2]
In 1948, the National Party (NP) won the election in South Africa and began to impose apartheid measures against Black people, Indians and any people of mixed race. [3] The NP restricted political power to white people only and allocated areas of South Africa for different races of people. [4] Workers, trade unionists and others spoke out on 6 October 1949 against these apartheid measures and began to discuss a possible political strike. [3] In December of that year, leaders in the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo, took power. [3] The African National Congress (ANC) also "adopts the Programme of Action" on 17 December, which advocated a more militant approach to protesting apartheid. [3]
In 1950, the ANC started promoting demonstrations, mass action, boycotts, strikes and acts of civil disobedience. During this time, 8,000 black people were arrested "for defying apartheid laws and regulations". [3] The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) worked in partnership with the ANC. [5] The NP used the Population Registration Act to ensure that individuals were permanently classified by race and only allowed to live in areas specified by the Group Areas Act. [3] On 26 June 1950, the National Day of Protest took place. [6] The ANC asked that people not go to work as an act of protest. [7] As a result of the protest, many people lost their jobs and the ANC set up a fund to help them. [7]
The Defiance Campaign was launched on 26 June 1952, the date that became the yearly National Day of Protest and Mourning. [3] The South African police were alerted about the action and were armed and prepared. [8] In major South African cities, people and organizations performed acts of defiance and civil disobedience. [5] The protests were largely non-violent on the parts of the participants, many of whom wore tri-color armbands signifying the ANC. [9] Black volunteers burned their pass books. [10] Other black volunteers would go into places that were considered "whites-only," which was then against the law. These volunteers were arrested, with the most arrests (over 2,000 people) being made in October 1952. [11] When protesters were arrested, they would not defend themselves in court, "leading to large-scale imprisonment". [10] Others who were offered fines as an alternative choice to go to prison. [12] The mass imprisonment, it was hoped, would overwhelm the government. [8]
The South African government labelled the protests as acts of anarchy, communism and disorder. [13] The Nationalist newspaper, the Oosterlig, wrote that the protesters "find prison a pleasant abode. These people only understand the lash." [9] Police often used batons to force protesters to submit. [9] On 9 November 1952, police fired on a group of black protesters in Kimberley killing 14 and injuring 39. [14] Other orders to shoot demonstrators "on sight" were issued by the South African Minister of Justice, Charles Swart. [15] Arrests of peaceful protestors "disgusted a section of white public opinion". [9] In July 1952, there were raids of ANC and SAIC offices. [16]
As a result of the protests, the NP started "imposing stiff penalties for protesting discriminatory laws" and then they created the Public Safety Act. [2] The goals of the Defiance Campaign were not met, but the protests "demonstrated large-scale and growing opposition to apartheid". [2] The United Nations took note and called the apartheid policy a "threat to peace". [15]
In the middle of April 1953, Chief Albert Luthuli, the President-General of the ANC, proclaimed that the Defiance Campaign would be called off so that the resistance groups could reorganize taking into consideration the new political climate in South Africa. [17]
The Defiance Campaigns, including bus boycotts in South Africa, served as an inspiration to Civil Rights Activists in the United States. [18] Albert Luthuli was tried for treason, was assaulted and deposed of his chieftaincy of his Zulu clan. [11] Mandela took over the ANC after Luthuli. [19]
Apartheid was finally ended in the early 1990s, as marked by the 1994 South African general election, the first South African election held using universal adult suffrage.
The Red Location is one of the oldest settled black townships of Port Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. It derives its name from a cluster of corrugated iron barrack buildings, which are rusted a deep red colour. [20] The Red Location consisted of three different locations namely the Gubbs Location, Coopers Kloof and Strangers Location. These locations were overcrowded and not in good condition. [21]
On 26 July 1952, Florence Matomela joined many others in a Defiance Campaign against the Apartheid pass laws at the New Brighton Railway Station which also included Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Vuyisile Mini and other men. She was one of the first women arrested.
Key role players of this Defiance Campaign included:
Nosipho Dastile (1938–2009) was a well known political figure and founder of the United Democratic Front. She was the first president of the Uitenhage Women's Organisation and was the chairperson of the ANC Women's League in Uitenhage, after the unbanning of liberation movements in the 1990s.
Lillian Diedericks (1925–2021) was born in Port Elizabeth near the railway line in Red Location.
She was an active shop steward and founding member of the Federation of South African Women in 1954. Her family was forced out of New Brighton during the 1940s. She was also one of the four women who led the Women's March on the Union buildings to oppose the pass laws in 1956.
Nontuthuzelo Mabala marched against the pass laws in 1956. She was jailed at the age of 24 for six years for the role she played in the struggle against Apartheid.
Florence Matomela (1910–1969) was a South African anti-pass law activist, communist, civil rights campaigner, ANC veteran, teacher and mother who dedicated her life to fighting against Apartheid laws in South Africa. Matomela was the provincial organiser of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) and vice-president of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in the mid 1950s.
Veronica Sobukwe (27 July 1927 – 15 August 2018), spouse of Robert Sobukwe, played an integral role in the Defiance Campaign. Her family was constantly harassed by the police. [22]
The ANC's Regional Headquarters in Nelson Mandela Bay was renamed Florence Matomela House in November 2012. [23] Angie Motshekga, the Minister of Basic Education and President of the ANC Women's League, described Florence Matomela in the Florence Mathomela Memorial Lecture as having battled the 'triple oppression' of colonial, patriarchal and class domination. [24] The Red Location Museum in New Brighton held a year-long exhibition dedicated to these women of the liberation struggle, by paying tribute to Florence Matomela, Nontuthuzelo Mabala, Veronica Sobukwe, Lilian Diedricks and Nosipho Dastile. [22]
Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.
Albertina SisuluOMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was the founding co-president of the United Democratic Front. In South Africa, where she was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu, she is often called a mother of the nation.
Albert John Luthuli was a South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader, and politician who served as the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death in 1967.
The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956.
Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo OMSG was a South African Communist and an anti-apartheid activist. During his life, he was chair of both the South African Indian Congress and the South African Communist Party, as well as being a major proponent of co-operation between those organisations and the African National Congress. He was a leader of the Defiance Campaign and a defendant at the Treason Trial in 1956. His last days were spent in exile in London, where he is buried at Highgate Cemetery; a few metres away from the Tomb of Karl Marx.
Elias Mathope Motsoaledi OMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. He was Accused No.9 in the Rivonia Trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1963 with a group of anti-Apartheid revolutionaries which included Nelson Mandela who was Accused No.1.
Manonmoney Ama Naidoo OLS or Ama Naidoo was a South African anti-apartheid activist.
Thomas Titus Nkobi was a senior leader of the South African African National Congress (ANC) and a key figure in the Anti-Apartheid movement. Until his death he was the Treasurer General of the ANC and also its Member of Parliament.
Internal resistance to apartheid in South Africa originated from several independent sectors of South African society and took forms ranging from social movements and passive resistance to guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with South Africa's growing international isolation and economic sanctions, were instrumental in leading to negotiations to end apartheid, which began formally in 1990 and ended with South Africa's first multiracial elections under a universal franchise in 1994.
The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of the Republic of South Africa since 1994. The ANC was founded on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein and is the oldest liberation movement in Africa.
Moosa Moolla OLS was an Indian South African activist and diplomat. A member of the African National Congress, Moolla was arrested and eventually found not guilty in the 1956 Treason Trial. In 1961, he was arrested and tried for incitement at the time of the May 1961 stay-at-home protest. In May 1963, he was arrested under the 90-day law. On 11 August 1963, Moolla and others escaped prison by bribing a young guard. He later served as the ANC representative to Asia while living in exile in India. Following independence, he became the first South African ambassador to Iran.
In 1953, the Public Safety Act was enacted by the apartheid South African government. This Act empowered the government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law.
Red Location, Ilali Ebomvu, is one of the oldest townships in South Africa. It is situated in the township of New Brighton in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape. It is commonly described as 'the umbilical cord of New Brighton'. It has its characteristic red appearance due to the corrugated deep red structures of the settlement which date back to the early twentieth century. These corrugated iron structures were sourced from a de-constructed concentration camp established in Uitenhage during the South African War. The recycled structures were painted red and consequently the oldest section of New Brighton became known as the Red Location. The township was aimed at housing black people and started development in 1902. Many prominent political and cultural South African leaders were born or spent time in the township.
Nosipho Dastile (1938–2009) was a community and anti-Apartheid activist in the small town of Uitenhage, just outside Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. She was elected councillor under the banner of what was then the new democratically constituted Uitenhage Transitional Local Council from 1994 to 1999.
Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe OMSS was a South African activist and politician.
Florence Matomela OLG (1910–1969) was a South African anti-pass law activist, communist, civil rights campaigner, ANC veteran, teacher and mother who dedicated her life to fighting against Apartheid laws in South Africa. Matomela was the provincial organiser of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) and vice-president of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) in the mid 1950s.
Arthur Elias Letele was a politician and physician in South Africa and Basutoland.
Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe OLS was a South African nurse who played an integral role in the Defiance Campaign. Her husband, Robert Sobukwe, was a prominent political dissident. Her family was constantly harassed by the police.
Lilian Diedericks OLS was a South African activist known as a founding member of the Federation of South African Women.
Amina PahadOLS was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the Transvaal Indian Congress, she rose to prominence for her role in passive resistance against the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act of 1946. She was also known as the matriarch of the Pahad family's politically active home in Johannesburg.
