The African National Congress (ANC) is Banned

The African National Congress (ANC) is Banned

On 8 April 1960, the apartheid Justice Minister Frans Erasmus informed Parliament in Cape Town that the apartheid government had just signed a proclamation under the Unlawful Organisations Act that was going to see the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) banned for a year. He further mentioned that a Government Gazette Extraordinary was to be issued later in the same day proscribing both organisations until 6 April 1961.

This followed the moving of the second reading of the Unlawful Organisations Bill in the House of Assembly on 29 March 1960 by Erasmus. In his motion, Erasmus included the term “certain other organisations” to the Bill to ensure that the ANC and PAC were not enabled to reappear under different names. Erasmus further mentioned that he understood that the ANC had already adopted what it called the M-Plan, which was intended to ensure survival under the ban, and accordingly added, “I have no hesitation in saying the acts of the PAC and the ANC border on revolution. They are sailing close to the wind.”

On the same evening, 29 March, Wolfie Kodesh received a call from Bram Fischer warning him about the raids that were about to take place all over South Africa within the same night, and that he should warn others about the impending arrests. After taking the call, Kodesh called his comrades that were involved in the underground throughout the country.

Before midnight, Hodgson visited Ben Turok’s home where he told him that there was a call from Durban warning comrades about a large number of apartheid police cars being seen at the Special Branch headquarters as well as in other parts of the country. The advice was that people should leave their homes in case of mass arrests. Immediately, Ben Turok packed his small suitcase and was driven to Johannesburg’s Observatory suburb, where he was accepted by Ralph Sepal and later joined by Moses Kotane the same night, as well as by Wolfie Kodesh and Michael Harmel the following morning.

In the morning of 30 March 1960, pre-dawn raids were undertaken by the Security Branch throughout the country, and over a hundred activists and underground operatives were arrested, including Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ronald Press, Duma Nokwe, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Moses Mabhida. When the police arrived at Jack Hodgson’s home, they found out that he had left and rather arrested his activist wife Rica.

The same night, a Government Gazette Extraordinary was published declaring a State of Emergency under which anybody could be arrested in the interest of public safety and order. The order was made to be applied retrospectively in order to cover those who were arrested the previous night. Two thousand men and women, leaders of the ANC, the SA Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), the SA Indian Congress (SAIC), the SA Congress of Democrats (SACOD), the Liberal Party and many others were arrested under the Emergency Regulations and held in prison for more than three months without charge or trial. Those arrested were denied the chance of seeing their lawyers and were consistently interrogated by the apartheid police’s Special Branch.

As the “New Age” newspaper, the weekly paper that had boldly exposed the crimes of the Nationalist Government, was closed down, the apartheid army and police were mobilised, which began a merciless campaign of terror and intimidation in the African townships, assaulting, insulting, arresting, sacking and looting at will. In the streets of Cape Town, horrified onlookers saw young White policemen setting about African and so-called Coloured people walking on the streets with sjamboks.

On 4 April 1960, when “The Star” newspaper reporter visited the ANC’s Transvaal provincial headquarters in Bezuidenhout Street, in Johannesburg, he found an ANC district official standing outside a locked door, who told him unequivocally, “We have gone underground”. Despite the harsh repression and intimidation, new signs of unrests and political activities continued to ruffle the surface of the South African political scene.

On a previous Monday, 28 March 1960, a car arrived in Lobatse, Bechuanaland, with Oliver Reginald Tambo, who was immediately interviewed by the Local District Commissioner. Tambo left South Africa shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre, on the instruction of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC. Learning that the Government was determined to ban the ANC and the PAC, the NEC of Congress met and decided that Oliver Tambo, their Vice-President, should go abroad as “ambassador”. He set out at once, without a passport, making for Bechuanaland.

Oliver Tambo maintained that he was the Deputy President of the ANC, and his organisation was about to be banned in South Africa. This followed an address by the apartheid Justice Minister, Frans Erasmus, to the House of Assembly that he was going to give the Governor-General emergency powers to ban the ANC, the PAC and other organisations. Tambo upheld that he feared that action was going to be taken against him by the Union government, and was thus seeking to receive political asylum.

Nevertheless, in their exceptionally hard and complex freedom struggle, the oppressed people of South Africa were greatly encouraged and inspired by the many acts of solidarity and sympathy of democratic and freedom-loving people, not only in Africa and Asia, but throughout the world. At meetings of the United Nations, the African and Asian members, solidly and consistently supported by the Soviet Union and other socialist members, had year after year sponsored resolutions condemning South African racial discrimination. Year after year the majorities voting for these resolutions grew greater, the minorities opposing them less.

Sources:
Wikipedia.
South African History Online (SAHO).
A. Lerumo, “The Agony of South Africa”, The African Communist, No. 3, September 1960.
Thula Simpson, “Umkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle”, Penguin, 2016.
Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom”, Abacus, 1994.

Castro Khwela
Good evening fellow Compatriots!