PAC of Azania

PAC of Azania

What is the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC)?

The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania is a former liberation movement. As a national liberation movement the PAC fought for the overthrow of white domination or settler colonialism which had been in control of our country for over three centuries. The PAC had to resort to armed struggle as the principal method of struggle after non-violent and peaceful methods of resistance were suppressed following the Anti-Pass Positive Action Campaign launched by the PAC and resulted in the Sharpeville and Langa massacres of 21st March 1960. As a result of this campaign, the PAC was banned under the Unlawful Organisations Act of 1960.

The armed struggle combined with mass struggles waged by the oppressed African majority in the form of resistance by workers, students at tertiary institutions, pupils at secondary and primary schools, resistance in the townships by the young militants and civic organizations against symbols and representatives of white minority rule and apartheid eventually led to the unbanning of the liberation movements and all civic organizations on the 2nd February 1990. The decision to unban the liberation movements; the release of the political leaders from Robben Island and other prisons; and the return of exiles opened the way for the beginning of negotiations that finally led to the writing of a interim constitution in 1993, on the basis which the 27th April 1994 elections were based and conducted. This was followed by a final constitution in 1996.

It was under these circumstances and conditions that PAC abandoned armed struggle and transformed itself into a political party contesting for political power through peaceful and non-violent means. The PAC had accepted to participate in the new dispensation due to the consensus arrived at by all the negotiating parties despite reservations on some of the provisions of the new constitution, especially the property clause that entrenches the status quo of land dispossession formalized by the Native Land Act of 1913. The PAC has since then participated in all the national, provincial and local government elections that have taken place from the 27th April 1994 and November 1995 respectively.

When was the PAC formed?

The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) was formed on April 6 1959 at Orlando Communal Hall, SOWETO. This day marks the landing and arrival of the colonialists led by Jan Van Riebeck on the Southern tip of the African continent in 1652 and the beginning of colonial conquest and occupation of this part of the African continent by the white settler minority. This was part of the scramble for and division of Africa by the imperial powers in the 19th century following the Berlin Congress of 1884-5. South Africa from this perspective was the result of colonial conquest; first by the Dutch and then by the British and this divided this tip of the African continent into two Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal and two British colonies of the Cape and Natal respectively; from the British perspective this was done to preserve and protect the sea route to India but also to assert the British dominance of the seas against the threat from France under Napoleon Bonaparte. The British occupation of the Cape and Natal eventually led to the conflict with the two Boer Republics in what is known as the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 arising from this scramble for territory and the mineral wealth such as gold and diamonds. The war that ensued resulted in the defeat of the Dutch colonialist (Boers) and the conclusion of the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902. The two white tribes formed the Union of South Africa under the South Africa Act of 1909 that brought together the two former British colonies of Natal and the Cape and the former Dutch colonies or Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal in 1910.

The colonial character and nature of the Union of South Africa did not change because the indigenous Africans who had fought against dispossession and occupation of their land had been excluded from the running of the affairs of the Union which united the two white tribes of British and Dutch descent. When PAC was formed on the 6th April 1959 its second aim was to overthrow white minority domination (settler colonialism) for the implementation and maintenance of the right of self-determination for African people; this was to restore sovereignty over the lost territory and the wealth below and above ground; from the PAC perspective, the land and wealth of this country have yet to be returned to the dispossessed majority of this country who are indigenous Africans.

Who formed the PAC?

The PAC was formed by a group of young men and women who came from the Youth League tradition and background. They had all imbibed the ideas and ideology propounded by Anton Muziwakhe Lembede; the Africanist ideology that stressed active resistance and also believed that the national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans themselves and thus rejected the foreign leadership of Africa. This was further strengthened by the 1949 Programme of Action that stated among others that: “Like all other people the African people claim the right of self-determination”. These young men and women were members of the African National Congress before they decided to form their own organization because of differences and disagreements in the way the struggle of the oppressed was conducted following the 1952 Defiance Campaign launched by the ANC under the 1949 Programme of Action.

The ANC had decided to abandon the 1949 Programme of Action for the Kliptown Charter later called the ‘Freedom Charter’ which deviated from the Africanist ideology which contended that the national liberation of the African people will be achieved by the Africans themselves. To accommodate Indians and whites the Freedom Charter states that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it Black and White’ thus abandoning the view that the struggle was anti-colonial for the right of self-determination of the African people who had been conquered, colonized and dispossessed of their land by the descendants of Jan van Riebeeck, the French Huguenots, the British Settlers of 1820 and other foreign nationalities.

The adoption of the Kliptown Charter in 1955 led to the formation of the Africanist bloc within the ANC. There emerged two factions or tendencies within the ANC that wrestled to control the direction of the ANC. There were Africanists on the one hand and what came to be known charterists on the other. This internal struggles and contradictions culminated in the Africanists being thrown out of the Transvaal Congress of the ANC in 1958. It was this incident that led to the Africanists taking a decision to launch on their own. This led to the formation of the PAC on the 6th April 1959 and Sobukwe emerged as the indisputable leader of the newly formed Pan Africanist Congress.

Why was the PAC formed?

When the Pan Africanist Congress was launched, the newly elected President Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe stated in no uncertain terms what the PAC was and what it stood for. In his speech on ‘The State of the Nation’ Sobukwe reminded the audience that “just over three months ago, on the 6th April 1959, we met in the Communal Hall in Orlando, Johannesburg to launch the ship of freedom – the Pan Africanist Congress. On that historic day, the African people declared total war against white domination, not only in South Africa but throughout the continent. On that day there entered into the maelstrom of South African politics an organization committed to the overthrow of white supremacy and the establishment of an Africanist Socialist Democracy”. These were Sobukwe’s words that explained why the PAC was formed.

The struggle was not only for national freedom but it was also for the total liberation of the continent and for the establishment of an Africanist Socialist democracy. To achieve this vision the first aim of the PAC was and still is to unite the African people. The second aim was to overthrow white domination for the implementation and maintenance of the right of self-determination of the African people. Today we are faced with another form of domination, that is, neo-colonialism – characterized by the partnership between the old apartheid elites and the new African political, bureaucratic and business elites who represent the interests of neo-liberalism and the new form of imperialism known as globalization – domination by transnational corporations of the developed and industrialized countries of the North and Japan supported by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which are imposing privatization and the free market economy in South Africa and the continent. This system is perpetuating and sustaining the continued exploitation of the resources of this country; the socio-economic inequalities and disparities and the worsening poverty of the majority of the African people of this country.

Sobukwe made it very clear that “the struggle in South Africa is part of the greater struggle throughout the continent for the restoration to the African people of the effective control of their land. The ultimate goal of our struggle therefore, is the formation of a United States of Africa”. The PAC has remained steadfast on this position of the return of the land to its rightful owners – the indigenous African people of this country who are also the majority in this country and on the continent. We know how far land reform has gone in this country and why it is not making any progress and impact on the lives of the landless majority of this country.

The leaders of this country are caught up in their own trappings: ‘South Africa belongs to all who live it Black and White’ and the acceptance of willing seller, willing buyer free market economy principle. They keep on saying we have the best constitution in the world and yet it does not serve the interests and needs of the majority in this country who live in squalor, abject poverty, ravaged by HIV/AIDS, TB, other common diseases and high infant mortality rate.

On the issue of the United States of Africa we have heard leaders in this country and some on the continent saying it is impracticable or utopian. This is not surprising for the Africanists and Pan Africanists because Sobukwe made it clear in his inaugural address when he stated that: “The Africanists do not subscribe to the fashionable doctrine of South African exceptionalism. Our contention is that South Africa is an integral part of the indivisible whole that is Africa. She cannot solve her problems in isolation from and with utter disregard of the rest of the continent”.

We know that the leaders in this country talk of integration which for us is not African unity or the United States of Africa. This is simple cooperation and will not lead to the United States of Africa because it is based on sovereignty and perpetuation of the colonial created boundaries or nation states or state nations or fragmentation or balkanization of Africa as a result of the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. Any form of integration that does not eventually lead to African unity or the United States of Africa is unacceptable to the Africanists and Pan Afrivanists in this country.

The PAC still stands for the return of the land to its rightful owners – the African majority of this country; who have been on this part of the continent from time immemorial. The salvation of Africa and the African people lies in the unity of this continent – regionally or sub-regionally.

By Molefe Ike Mafole
(The writer is a stalwart of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania and member of APLA Military Veterans Association [APLA-MVA]. Contact: 072 630 2206)