Key Figures in the Break Down of Apartheid.

Organisations and Positions.

• Joined the ANC in 1940.
• Formed the ANC Youth League in 1943 with Oliver Tambo and Mandela. 
• Secretary-General and Deputy President of the ANC.
  • Also a key figure in the Spear on Africa.
  • Key figure in the Defence Campaign in 1952.
  • Represented AND abroad rallying support on an international scale. 

What did he do that was significant?

• Was imprisoned at Robben Island for more that 25 years!
  • Networked brilliantly around the world and in South Africa. 
  • Son of a white man, which caused controversy.
  • Was tried at Rivonia trial in 1963-64 which accused members of the ANC of Sabotage. He was imprisoned for life. 

Organisations and Positions.

• Joined the AND Youth League in 1948.
• Became ANC editor in 1957 of their paper 'The Africanist'. 
• He left the ANC and formed the PAC in 1959 (When he also became president of the party).

What did he do that was so significant?

• he left the ANC because he didn't want them to work with 'non-Africans'.
• he encouraged blacks to 'liberate themselves' and didn't want to work with whites.
• He deliberately broke the pass laws at Sharpeville and Soweto in order to get arrested.
• He was imprisoned on Robben Island and under the 'Sobukwe clause' the government reserved the right to renew his detainment every year.
• Once released from prison he lived in Kimberly under house arrest and lived under a banning order. 

Organisations and Positions.

• Helped found the South African Students Organisation (SASO)
• Founded the 'Black Consciousness Movement' in the min-1986.
• Was a key figure in resistance in Durban.

What did he do that was so significant?

• Helped raise awareness amongst the students - a new generation who were being educated and were rebellious. 
• Was openly defiant to the authorities.
• Was kicked out of university.
• Banned by the apartheid system in 1973.
• Was killed whilst in police custody in 1977 after being subjected to 22 hours of 'interrogation' (which involved beatings and torture). 
• This caused outrage in South Africa and on an international scale! he became a martyr.

Organisations and Positions. 

• He was an Anglican bishop. 
• He was given an award of 'Isitwalandwe' which is the highest honour given by the ANC.
• He became known as the 'Dauntless One'.

What did he do that was so significant?

• He was white and so highlighted the injustice from a different perspective.
• Illustration of international support and  opposition to apartheid.

Organisations and positions.

• Set up the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1975.
• Initially had the blessing of the ANC but then broke away in 1979.
• Is said to have secretly worked with the Nationalist government to attack the Zulus.
• He became opposed to the ANC.
• Eventually he signed a deal with Mandela and De Klerk that ended apartheid. (CODESA)

What did he do that was significant?

• He was an obstacle for the ANC at first.
• However, he influenced a large tribe and without his support the post-apartheid government could never have been formed. 

Organisations and Positions.

• He became the first black Anglican Dean of Johannesburg in 1975.
• In 1976, he protested in Soweto.
• Won the Nobel peace prize in 1984.
• tutu was elected as Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.

What did he do that was so significant?

• A high profile individual who gained lots of publicity for the anti-apartheid cause.
• Studied in England and had lots of high profile friends.
• Marched in Soweto in 1976 - dedication to the cause. 
• Won international support.

Organisations and Positions. 

• She was the first woman to be appointed to the executive committee of the ANC.
• Ngoyi joined the ANC Women's league in 1952.
• On the 9th August 1956, Ngoyi led a march of 20,000 women to government buildings in Pretoria to protest against apartheid.
• She encouraged the international support from women - such as Switzerland in 1955. 
• She was arrested in 1956, spent 71 days in solitary confinement, and was for a period of 11 years placed under sever bans and restrictions the often confined her to her home. 

What did she do that was significant? 

• Gain international support for the movement. 
• Mobilised women to protest.

Organisations and Positions. 

• Helped form the Federation of South African women.
• She also marched on Pretoria with 20,00 other women.
• Was put on trial at the Treason Trial after which she was banned in 1957.
• She narrowly escaped death, more than once,surviving bullets shot through her bedroom and a bomb wired to her front gate.

What did she do that was so significant?

• The treatment of such a peaceful protest highlighted the injustice of the system.
• She demonstrated the power of white support, women and the international community.

Organisations and Positions.

• She was elected to the House Assembly in 1953 as a memb
• er of the United Party (the party that took over from the Nationalists).
• She was the only member of parliament who was opposed to apartheid consistently for 13 years, from 1961-19974.
• She was once accused be a minister of asking questions in parliament that embarrassed South Africa, to which she replied; "It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers.".
• Suzman was awarded 27 honorary doctorates from universities around the world, was twice nominated for the Nobel peace prize.

What did she do that was so significant?

• She was the enemy from within concerning the apartheid system.
• She logically floored and arguments that supported apartheid.
• She gained lots of international recognition.

Organisations and Positions. 

• Married Nelson in 1958, and they had two daughters together.
• Helped raised the profile of the ANC while Nelson was at Robben Island.
• Beginning in 1969, she spent 18 months in solitary confinement at Pretoria Central Prison.
• In April 1986, where she endorsed the practice of necklacing (burning people alive using tyres and petrol).

What did she do that was so significant?

• She raised the publicity for the party.
• She put pressure on the nationalists to change.