Blacks in South Africa protest against segregation

On the 300 anniversary of the arrival of  Jan van Riebeeck in Table Bay,  the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) at a meeting held on Freedom Square, Fordsburg announced its campaign to mount a mass action against the passing of six unjust laws. The six laws were; Pass Laws, Population Registration Act, Suppression of Communism Act, Group Areas Act, Bantu Authorities Act, and Separate Representation of (Coloured) Voters Act. Dr Moroko reminded South Africans of injustices inflicted by the government and advocated a civil disobedience campaign that protested against the unjust laws of the apartheid regime. The campaign of defiance against unjust laws was one of the greatest non-violent passive resistance campaigns since that mounted by Mahatma Gandhi in 1913. Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, chairperson of the SAIC, said that this was the beginning of a struggle against 300 years of oppression. The Defiance Campaign was launched two months later on the 26 June and took the form of large-scale contraventions of apartheid regulations by handpicked “volunteers”.