Pan-Africanist Congress

The Pan-Africanist Congress was founded in 1959 after a number of members broke away from the African National Congress (ANC). Robert Sobukwe was elected as the first president, at the founding conference in April 1959 in Johannesburg.

At one point the PAC had more supporters than the ANC, and led a successful (in terms of support) campaign against the pass laws. Sobukwe urged people to leave their passes at home and to non-violently hand themselves over for arrest at the nearest police station. The protest erupted in tragedy when police opened fire on a group of protestors in Sharpeville, killing 68 people and injuring 186, many being shot from behind. Shortly after this the National Party government imposed a state of emergency, and banned both the PAC and ANC. Sobukwe was arrested and jailed, only to be released in 1969. Many members fled into exile, and when Sobukwe died in 1978, the PAC was left with a leadership vacuum which it never successfully filled. It was unbanned in 1990, along with the ANC, but was plagued by infighting, and only gained a small percentage of votes in the 1994 election, which shrank even further in the 1999 election. In 2003, after yet another failed congress, one of the parties more prominent and popular members, Patricia De Lille left to form her own party, the Independent Democrats.