1960s–1976: The PAC moves underground

As a result of being banned, the PAC had to change their method of resistance, and they decided to go underground, and remaining leaders went into exile. The PAC sponsored and was part of what basically became their underground military wing – Poqo. Poqo was not against the taking of human lives, and played a role in some riots. The PAC set up headquarters in exile, with offices in Dar es Salam, London and elsewhere. For a while they had a United Front with the ANC, but by 1962 this had failed as differences of opinion were still too difficult to reconcile.

The PAC was faced with problems resulting from lack of leadership throughout its existence. When Sobukwe was released from Robben Island in 1969, he was placed under house arrest in Kimberley until his death in 1978. Police continually renewed his arrest through the ‘Sobukwe clause’, which allowed the government to detain people after the completion of their sentence. Many other PAC leaders were also arrested on 21 March 1960, and those that were released quickly were restricted by bans.

In exile the PAC also faced many leadership problems under Leballo. Nana Mahomo, Peter Molotsi and Peter Raboroko managed to flee South Africa in 1960, and started organising the PAC in exile. Laballo left South Africa in 1963, after being released from prison, and set up a PAC office in Maseru, where he assumed the position of acting president of the PAC. In the same year he boasted from Lesotho about a revolutionary war that the PAC were about to launch. The police soon afterwards confiscated letters being carried across the border and found mailing lists of other PAC members. Massive arrests followed, and the police announced arrests of 3 246 PAC and Poqo members. This led to an almost complete collapse of the PAC inside South Africa. Leballo also managed to alienate other PAC leaders through his leadership style, and in 1968 they attempted to expel him from the PAC. The PAC was eventually expelled from Maseru and Lusaka, failed in many of its operations and found connections with China to be of little military use.

Due to the violence of Poqo, the organisation remained important for the South African government, who found that sporadic Poqo activity continued in the late 1960s and 1970s. These members remained under constant police surveillance and control.

about the PAC in exile