Editing History of South Africa (section)

===Resistance to apartheid===

[[File:Murder at Sharpeville 21 March 1960.jpg|thumb|Painting of the Sharpeville massacre of March 1960]]From the 1940s to the 1960s, anti-apartheid resistance within the country took the form mainly of passive resistance, influenced in part by the pacifist ideology of [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. After the March 1960 massacre of 69 peaceful demonstrators at [[Sharpeville]], and the subsequent declaration of a state of emergency, and the banning of anti-apartheid parties including the [[African National Congress]] (ANC), the [[Pan-Africanist Congress]] (PAC), and the [[Communist Party of South Africa]], the focus of national resistance turned to [[armed struggle]] and underground activity.<ref>Sibiso Ndlovu (ed.)[http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol1/SADET1_chap02.pdf The Turn to Armed Resistance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130912011731/http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol1/SADET1_chap02.pdf |date=12 September 2013 }}. University of South Africa (Unisa) Press, Pretoria, Chapter 2, Vol 2, 2001</ref> The armed wing of the ANC, [[Umkhonto weSizwe]] (abbreviation MK, meaning Spear of the Nation) claimed moral [[Legitimacy (political)|legitimacy]] for the resort to violence on the grounds of necessary defence and [[just war]].<ref>Padraig O'Malley,[https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02985.htm ''Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Operations Report''], Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Johannesburg. Accessed 25 April 2015</ref> From the 1960s onwards until 1989, MK carried out numerous acts of sabotage and attacks on military and police personnel.<ref>South African Department of Justice, [http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix 4 ''Further submissions and response by the African National Congress to questions raised by the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929205028/http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/hrvtrans/submit/anc2.htm#Appendix |date=29 September 2018 }}, 12 May 1997</ref> The Truth and Reconciliation Commission noted in 2003 that, despite the ANC's stated policy of attacking only military and police targets, "the majority of casualties of MK operations were civilians."<ref>South African Press Association (SAPA), [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02918/06lv02938.htm "ANC killed mostly civilians"], 21 March 2003. Accessed 18 October 2015.</ref>

Organised resistance to Afrikaner nationalism was not confined exclusively to Black and Coloured activists. A movement known as the [[Torch Commando]] was formed in the 1950s, led by white war veterans who had fought the [[Axis Powers]] in Europe and North Africa during World War II. With 250,000 paid-up members at the height of its existence, it was the largest white protest movement in the country's history. By 1952, the brief flame of mass-based white radicalism was extinguished, when the Torch Commando disbanded due to government legislation under the [[Suppression of Communism Act, 1950]]. Some members of the Torch Commando subsequently became leading figures in the armed wing of the banned African National Congress.<ref>''Sunday Times'' (Johannesburg), ''Insight'' section. 1 November 1998</ref>

<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Hector pieterson.jpg|thumb|upright|The body of Soweto school student [[Hector Pieterson]]. In this photo he is being carried away from the scene of a shooting after being shot dead by police on 16 June 1976]] -->The national liberation movement was divided in the early 1960s when an "Africanist" faction within the ANC objected to an alliance between the ANC and the Communist Party of South Africa. Leaders of the Communist Party of South Africa were mostly white.<ref>Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg [http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/sites/default/files/files/downloads/Learners%20book%20Chapter4.pdf Resistance to Apartheid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923172619/http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/sites/default/files/files/downloads/Learners%20book%20Chapter4.pdf |date=23 September 2015 }} Accessed 26 April 2015</ref> The Africanists broke away from the ANC to form the Pan-Africanist Congress and its military wing named [[Poqo]], which became active mainly in the Cape provinces. During the early-1990s, Poqo was renamed [[Azanian People's Liberation Army]] (APLA). Its underground cells conducted armed robberies to raise funds and obtain weapons and vehicles. Civilians were killed or injured in many of these robberies. In 1993, attacks on white civilian targets in public places increased. APLA denied the attacks were racist in character, claiming that the attacks were directed against the apartheid government as all whites, according to the PAC, were complicit in the policy of apartheid. An attack on a Christian church in Cape Town in 1993, left eleven people dead and 58 injured.<ref>South African Broadcasting Corporation and South African History Archive,[http://sabctrc.saha.org.za/glossary/apla_attacks.htm Truth Commission Special Report: APLA attacks.] Accessed 26 April 2015</ref>

Hundreds of students and others who fled to neighbouring countries, especially Botswana, to avoid arrest after the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976, provided a fertile recruiting ground for the military wings of both the ANC and PAC.<ref>Gregory Houston and Bernard Magubane, [http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/rtd/vol2/volume%202%20-%20chapter%208.pdf "ANC Political Underground in the 1970s"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227110146/http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/RTD/vol2/Volume%202%20-%20chapter%208.pdf |date=27 February 2012 }}, in ''The Road to Democracy'', Pretoria: South African Democracy Education Trust, Vol 2,  p.381, Accessed 4 May 2015</ref> The uprising had been precipitated by Government legislation forcing African students to accept Afrikaans as the official medium for tuition,<ref>{{Citation| last = Giliomee| first = Hermann| year = 2003| title = The Rise and Possible Demise of Afrikaans as a Public Language| publisher = PRAESA| location = Cape Town| url = http://www.praesa.org.za/files/2012/07/Paper14.pdf| access-date = 1 May 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150906111057/http://www.praesa.org.za/files/2012/07/Paper14.pdf| archive-date = 6 September 2015| df = dmy-all}}</ref> with support from the wider [[Black Consciousness Movement]]. The uprising spread throughout the country. By the time it was finally quelled, hundreds of protesters had been shot dead with many more wounded or arrested by police.<ref>SA History.org [http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising-casualties Soweto uprising casualties] Accessed 1 May 2015.</ref>

A non-racial [[United Democratic Front (South Africa)|United Democratic Front]] (UDF) coalition of about 400 civic, church, student, trade union and other organisations emerged in 1983. At its peak in 1987, the UDF had some 700 affiliates and about 3,000,000 members.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kraft |first=Scott |date=1991-03-05 |title=Anti-Apartheid Group Disbanding in August : South Africa: The UDF alliance, which united some 700 organizations, says its goals have been met. Many key figures have become ANC leaders. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-05-mn-227-story.html |access-date=2023-12-28 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> A strong relationship existed between the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) and the UDF, based on the shared mission statement of the Freedom Charter.<ref>''Daily Dispatch'', [http://www.dispatch.co.za/2000/01/07/features/UDF.HTM "UDF unites Apartheid divides"], 7 January 2000. Accessed 28 March 2016</ref> Following restrictions placed on its activities, the UDF was replaced in 1988 by the Mass Democratic Movement, a loose and amorphous alliance of anti-apartheid groups that had no permanent structure, making it difficult for the government to place a ban on its activities.<ref>Padraig O'malley, [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03480.htm "Mass Democratic Movement"] Nelson Mandela Foundation. Accessed 29 March 2016</ref>

A total of 130 political prisoners were hanged on the gallows of Pretoria Central Prison between 1960 and 1990. The prisoners were mainly members of the Pan Africanist Congress and United Democratic Front.<ref>News24.com [http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/remains-of-83-hanged-prisoners-to-be-exhumed-from-kgosi-mampuru-ii-20160323 Remains of hanged prisoners to be exhumed.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323061434/http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/remains-of-83-hanged-prisoners-to-be-exhumed-from-kgosi-mampuru-ii-20160323 |date=23 March 2016 }} Accessed 25 March 2016.</ref>