Key Figures in the Break Down of Apartheid.

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  • Created by: Megan
  • Created on: 26-05-13 16:57

Walter Sisulu.

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. 
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Robert Sobukwe.

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. 
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Steve Biko.

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.
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Trevor Huddleston.

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.
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Chief Buthelezi.

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. 
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Desmond tutu.

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.
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Lilian Ngoyi.

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.
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Helen Joseph.

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.
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Helen Suzman.

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.
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Winnie Mandela.

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.
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