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