Why pac was formed

An anti-pass campaign was announced by the charismatic leader, Robert Sobukwe. With this campaign, he said, the organisation would be crossing its "historic Rubicon". There was little support for the PAC campaign in most parts of the country. In Sharpeville this tactic failed. In the early afternoon of 21 March , 69 people were killed when police fired at crowds. Two people were also killed in the Cape Peninsula when police opened fire at a crowd of 6 in Langa.

After the Sharpeville tragedy and the arrest of most of the Transvaal PAC leadership, the situation calmed down. The shooting incident in the Cape Peninsula had the opposite effect, though. A week of protest and stay-away actions followed and on 30 March , 30 blacks marched to Parliament.

After negotiations with the police, the crowd dispersed. These events led to a massive government crackdown. All public meetings of more than to people were prohibited and a state of emergency was declared. The event had such an impact that the ANC became more involved in the resistance after the Sharpeville incident.

In o the entire PAC leadership was sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment on the grounds of inciting violence. After the banning, the organisation went underground. The leadership was taken over by members of the executive committee who had either evaded the police or been imprisoned for shorter periods.

After his release from prison, Potlako Leballo took over as acting president of the organisation. In the period following the banning of the organisation, militant PAC supporters formed a quasi-military movement, Poqo. There is no clarity on the meaning of the word "Poqo". The generally accepted ex-planation is that it is an abbreviation of the Xhosa name UmAfrika Poqo, meaning "blacks only". Initially this movement enjoyed considerably more support than the ANC's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

It was also more inclined to resort to violence. Poqo drew most of its support from the Vaal Triangle and the Western Cape. Violence committed by Poqo during the period to can be divided into four categories:.

Assassination attempts on the lives of Transkeian captains and chiefs. The first three categories were organised and executed by the Eastern Cape members of the organisation, while Leballo attempted to over-throw the South African government from outside the country. One of the most widely publicized attacks by Poqo members occurred on 22 November in Paarl when a group of Poqo members tried to free their comrades from a Paarl prison.

The attempt failed, however. Two whites were killed and four wounded. This is one of the few instances in the political history of South Africa where whites were attacked in their own neighbourhood.

Leballo planned a massive revolt for 8 April , during which thou-sands of Poqo supporters or sup-posed supporters were to attack strategic points and kill whites indiscriminately. However, he publicized these plans at a press conference two weeks in advance.

The Basotholand police today the Lesotho police searched the PAC head-quarters and seized a complete list of Poqo members. The publication of these names enabled the South African police more or less to wipe out the entire organisation.

By nearly 2 members had already been sent to prison. Consequently Poqo all but disappeared off the South African scene. With the exception of odd attempts by guerrillas to infiltrate the country, the organisation was given little publicity. More recently its slogan "one settler, one bullet" has attracted wide publicity. He stated this during his visit to Britain in April Attempts to form diplomatic and political ties with foreign states have not been very successful.

The PAC leaders who sup-ported the communist programme suggested that Chinese communists were also "non-white", and that their value system had not been tainted by European thought.

Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Evans, M. Pan Africanist Congress of Azania. Further Reading. The South African General Elections: Know something about this topic? Towards a people's history.

The PAC insurgents were much more numerous than their counterpart. He further asserts that the perspective of this movement over relatively long time span and over a large geographic area, qualifies Poqo to lay claim to being the most sustained insurrection by black in this country in modern times. Plethora of hanfged political prisoners are PAC leaders and their monument today can reveal that in Pretoria, Mamelodi. How Prof was treated and other PAC leaders in prison tell the whole story.