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Events leading up to the Defiance Campaign
DF Malan's National Party government followed up its unexpected election victory in 1948 with a massive social restructuring programme, which included the enactment of new apartheid laws, as well as the stricter application of existing discriminatory legislation such as the Pass laws and amendments to the Immorality Act . In 1951 the Separate Representation of Voters Bill to remove Coloureds from the common roll was enacted. The apartheid policy of the nationalist government was not simply a small-scale social rearrangement and an extension of administrative controls. It was in fact a process which sought to deny political representation and participation of Black people at all levels of government and which affected all sectors and all classes within the Black communities. It was this that provided a context for the mounting tide of popular democratic resistance to the apartheid state in the 1950s.
On 6 April 1952 while white South Africans celebrated the tercentenary of Jan van Riebeeck's arrival at the Cape in 1652, the ANC and SAIC called on black South Africans to observe the day as a “A National Day of Pledge and Prayer”. The majority of Black adults and school children boycotted many of the festivities.
On that day mass rallies were held in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Durban, East London and Cape Town as well as some rural areas. Dr. J.S. Moroka was the main speaker at the Johannesburg rally chaired by Dr. Dadoo. In Port Elizabeth Prof. Z.K Matthews spoke about militant African nationalism and self-reliance. He said, “only the African people themselves will ever rid themselves of political subjugation, economic exploitation and social degradation”.
