Poqo

PAC/Poqo activities 44 The PAC claimed that its 21 March 1960 campaign was only a part of an “unfolding programme of action” which would lead to total independence by 1963. With PAC leaders in prison, the task fell on the regional echelons. The wide media coverage of the anti-pass campaign ...

and leadership conflicts which rendered it ineffective and led to the commission of gross human rights violations against its own members in exile. Poqo 182 The establishment of a military wing known as Poqo in September 1961 followed the decision of the PAC to form underground cells and embark ...

... humanitarian law. 4. The Commission made three major findings against the PAC. It made a finding against the PAC’s armed grouping of the 1960s, Poqo; a finding against the PAC for violations committed in exile, and a finding against its armed wing APLA in the later period. FINDING ON POQO ...

Armed clash at Ntlonze Hill An armed clash took place at Ntlonze Hill on 12 December 1962 when armed Poqo members were intercepted by police while on their way to assassinate Chief Kaiser Matanzima. Seven Poqo members were killed in the encounter and three policemen seriously injured in what ...

... of these took place in either Port Elizabeth or Durban10 . 10 Tom Lodge, Black politics in South Africa since 1945. Johannesburg: Ravan, 1983. PAC/Poqo activities 62 In line with the national Poqo call for an uprising targeting whites and following the 1960 Pondoland Revolt, Poqo activity ...

... The ANC’s armed wing MK, initially engaged in acts of sabotage which targeted railway lines and telecommunications networks, rather than people. Poqo, the military wing of the PAC, used violence more widely. In addition, a group of largely young, white South Africans, the ARM, was formed in ...

... Commonwealth. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to ANC President, Chief Albert Luthuli, in October. ANC and PAC missions-in-exile open in Tanzania. Poqo, armed wing of the PAC, is formed in September. Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC, is formed. MK launches its first sabotage ...

COMMAND STRUCTURES Political and military leadership 1960s: PAC National Working Committee/Task Force/Poqo 279. The PAC explained in its submission that the response of the government to the anti-pass campaign (the Sharpeville massacre) led to the ‘formation of rudimentary units comprising ...

position on apartheid and the recognition of the PAC as a liberation movement, the Commission makes the following findings: Violations committed by POQO in the early 1960s WHILE THE COMMISSION TAKES NOTE OF THE EXPLANATION TENDERED BY THE PAC THAT ITS ACTIVITIES IN THE EARLY 1960S NEED TO BE ...

... traditional leaders who co-operated with the state as an extension of the apartheid system and thus as legitimate targets . 63. In 1962, members of Poqo attacked representatives of traditional authority in the homelands, killing two headmen in the St Marks district of Cofimvaba, Transkei. These ...

... the arrest of the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) high command at the Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg at around the same time. Mass arrests of Poqo or PAC members were followed by extensive torture and trials that led to death sentences for many of the accused. After further intermittent ...

39 Poqo targeted white suburbs and individuals seen to be ‘collaborators’. The popular theme at its branch and cell meetings was the overthrow of white rule by force. It also believed that the way to liberation was through a ‘bloodbath’. Part of the blood to be spilt was that of black ...

... 1963 the General Law Amendment Act (ninety-day detention law). Police were able to forestall the planned general uprising of the PAC’s armed wing Poqo by arresting over 3 000 Poqo suspects. In 1965 the government passed further amendments to detention without trial legislation, doubling the ...

... individual activists. The western Cape, however, also saw political conflict of a regional character emanating from the activities and campaigns of Poqo, a feature shared with the Eastern Cape. 25 The first half of the 1970s was characterised by continued personalised repression in the form of ...

... rights in this region included: a violations committed during the Pondoland Revolt of the 1960s; b armed attacks on civilians carried out by Poqo, the armed wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and the accompanying torture and executions of Poqo members; c deaths in detention ...

... by banning orders. Others fled into exile. 42 Among those detained were Mr Zephania Lekoane Mothopeng [JB04279/01GTSOW], a PAC activist and Poqo member (later president of the PAC). Mr Modise Mathews Mashea [JB04822/03VT] was taken to Leeuwkop prison after he had spent three weeks at ...

... the National Working Committee, the Revolutionary Council, the Secretariat and its armed wing, MK, as well as the PAC and its armed formations Poqo and APLA, committed gross violations of human rights in the course of their political activities and armed struggles, for which they are morally ...

... peaked in 1963 with the raid on the ANC headquarters at Liliesleaf farm and with large-scale arrests of members of the PAC’s armed wing, Poqo. 18 Assault and torture in detention led increasingly to deaths in custody. The Johannesburg office of the Commission received statements from ...

... Pondoland detainees reported the use of electric shock and torture involving forced posture. 133 A second wave of torture allegations came from Poqo members detained under the General Laws Amendment Act of 1961. The main form of torture remained beatings and general assault, although again ...

... a year, they were charged in terms of the Terrorism Act with training guerrillas in northern Natal and in Swaziland. Gxekwa, a founder member of Poqo and APLA, and Pule were acquitted but immediately re-arrested on other charges. Mhlekwa was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. As in the ...