Pan Africanist Congress
 Pan Africanist Congress  (Political party)   | |
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| Parent organization | J Street |
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) is a South African national liberation Pan-Africanist movement that is now a political party.
The PAC was founded by an Africanist group, led by Robert Sobukwe, that broke away from the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959, as the PAC objected to the ANC's "the land belongs to all who live in it both white and black" and also rejected a multiracialist worldview, instead advocating an Azania (South Africa) based on African nationalism.[1]
Ideology
The PAC followed the idea that the South African Government should be constituted by the African people owing their allegiance only to Africa, as stated by Sobukwe in the inaugural speech of the PAC:
- "We aim, politically, at government of the Africans by the Africans, for the Africans, with everybody who owes his only loyalty to Africa and who is prepared to accept the democratic rule of an African majority being regarded as an African."
Campaigns
On 21 March 1960, the PAC organised a campaign against pass laws. People gathered in the townships of Sharpeville and Langa where Sobukwe and other top leaders were arrested and later convicted for incitement. Sobukwe was sentenced to three years and Potlako Leballo to two years in prison. Robert Sobukwe died in Kimberley, Cape Province, 1978 of lung cancer.
Immediately after the Sharpeville massacre the National Party Government banned both the ANC and PAC on 8 April 1960.
The PAC responded by founding its armed wing, the Azanian People's Liberation Army.
Party leadership
The PAC has been beset by infighting and has had numerous changes of leadership since its transition to a political party. In 1996, Clarence Makwetu, who led the party in the 1994 elections, was removed on the basis of "bringing the party into disrepute".
In August 2013, the PAC elected Alton Mphethi as president, after previous leader Letlapa Mphahlele was expelled in May amidst allegations of attempting to cause division in the party, financial impropriety and poor quality leadership.
A faction of the PAC continued to regard Mphahlele as leader. The matter was resolved in the courts, with Mpheti eventually being confirmed as party leader for the 2014 election.
Mpheti has since been charged with murder for the death of a Swazi national, Mthunzi Mavundla, and sentenced for R3 million school transport fraud.
Luthando Mbinda was elected president at the 2014 congress in Botshabelo, while Letlapa Mphahlele was elected in July 2015 in Manguang. Mbinda claimed that Mphahlele's election was not valid, as he was not a valid member, while Mphahlele challenged his expulsion in court.
The Independent Electoral Commission suspended the party's statutory fund’s allocations until there was clarity about who led the party, and in October 2015 the High Court confirmed that Mbinda was the recognised leader.
Conflict then arose between Mbinda and Chief Executive Officer Narius Moloto. Mbinda was subsequently charged by the PAC and later expelled for bringing the organisation into disrepute. Narius Moloto was elected party leader in December 2017.
Infighting continued after the 2019 elections, with leader Narius Moloto unilaterally dissolving the party's structures, a decision which was later set aside by the courts.
In August 2019, in Limpopo, one faction elected Moloto as leader, while a week later in Bloemfontein, another faction elected Mzwanele Nyhontso as leader. In October 2019, the Independent Electoral Commission recognised Nyhontso as the legitimate party leader.
In November 2020, speaker of the National Assembly Thandi Modise received notice that the PAC had expelled Nyhontso, and notified him that he had therefore lost his seat in parliament as the PAC's sole representative. The opposing faction got a court order in December 2020 to reinstate Nyhontso, pending a court order challenging his removal from the party.
In August 2021, the court confirmed that Moloto's election was invalid, confirming Nyhontso as president, and in September 2021 Nyhontso was again sworn in as the party's sole MP.[2]
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Olof Palme - The Man Who Played With Fire | book review | 2020 | Simon Matthews | Bernt Carlsson, a colleague of Olof Palme’s and UN Commissioner for Namibia 1987-1988, died in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. Carlsson's presence on Pan Am Flight 103 has been cited as the reason it was bombed. |
| Document:Sajid Javid Signs Off £1 Billion Private Health Windfall | Article | 14 January 2022 | David Hencke | Sajid Javid, the Health and Social Care Secretary, has agreed an ‘insurance policy’ with private providers, in breach of Treasury spending guidelines, reports David Hencke |
References
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