| Pan Africanist Congress of Azania | |
|---|---|
| President | Letlapa Mphahlele |
| Secretary-General | Mfanelo Skwatsha |
| Founded | 6 April 1959 |
| Ideology | Pan Africanism |
| National Assembly seats |
1 / 400
|
| Website | |
| www.pac.org.za | |
| Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections |
|
The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (once known as the Pan Africanist Congress, abbreviated as the PAC), was a South African liberation movement, and is now a minor political party.
Contents |
The PAC was formally launched on 6 April 1959 at Orlando Communal Hall in Soweto. A number of African National Congress (ANC) members broke away because they objected to the substitution of the 1949 Programme of Action with the Freedom Charter adopted in 1955. Further they objected to the inclusion of other national groups such as the Communist Party of South Africa. Charismatic Robert Sobukwe was elected as the first president, and Potlako Leballo as the Secretary General.
On 21 March 1960, the PAC organized a campaign against pass laws. People gathered in Sharpeville and Langa, however in Sharpeville the police reacted with brutal force triggering the Sharpeville massacre. Sobukwe and other top leaders were arrested and later convicted for incitement. Sobukwe was sentenced to three years and Potlako Leballo was two years in prison, Sobukwe died in Kimberley, Cape Province, 1978 of lung cancer. Immediately after the Sharpeville massacre the Nationalist Party Government banned both the ANC And PAC on the 8 of April 1960.
It is Pan Africanism with three principles of African nationalism, socialism, and continental unity. Its body of ideas drew largely from the teachings of Anton Lembede, George Padmore, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, and W. E. B. Du Bois.
| Election | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 48,530 | 0.27 | 1 |
| 2004 | 113,512 | 0.73 | 3 |
| 1999 | 113,125 | 0.78 | 3 |
| 1994 | 243,478 | 1.25 | 5 |
|
||||||||