Robert Sobukwe: founding president

SOURCE: The fabric of dissent: public intellectuals in South Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2020
TITLE AUTHOR(S): G.Houston
SOURCE EDITOR(S): V.Reddy, N.Bohler-Muller, G.Houston, M.Schoeman, H.Thuynsma
KEYWORDS: AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (ANC), INTELLIGENTSIA, POLITICS, SOBUKWE, ROBERT
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 11804
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/15837
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/15837

If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.

Abstract

The founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, was the leading architect of the anti-pass campaign of March 1960. It was planned as a five-day non-violent event in which people would march to police stations without their passbooks, which would force the police to arrest them, clog the jails, and bring industry to a standstill. But the reaction of the police at Sharpeville, which made headlines around the world, turned everything on its head. Drum journalist Stanley Motjuwadi recalled an interview with Sobukwe: "A day after the Sharpeville shootings I had an interview in Johannesburg's Fort (prison) with Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe...He was awaiting trial on a charge of incitement and seemed to have aged overnight. He was depressed and almost at the point of tears " the Sharpeville tragedy had really hit him hard."

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