THE PAC

Commemorating the 35th Anniversary of Mangaliso Sobukwe death

the distinguished founder and leader of the Pan Africanist Congress

Paper presented by Professor Sipho R Shabalala at the P.A.C. meeting held in Ntunzuma Township,
Durban on March 3, 2013.
 2

Commemorating the 35th Anniversary of Mangaliso Sobukwe death

the distinguished founder and leader of the Pan Africanist Congress,

Introduction
In commemorating the death of Mangaliso Sobukwe this year I have decided to focus on the
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania the political party he formed and led. This better position
Mangaliso Sobukwe within the party he formed and this best expresses his vision and ideas.
The P.A.C was Sobukwe’s vehicle for his political thoughts, ideas and ideals.

The historiography of the political struggle of Africans in the settler – colonial country, South
Africa, were enlivened by the brief expose last year by the SABC 1, of the contribution made by
the founding President of the P.A.C., Managliso Robert Sobukwe. This short paper aims at
expatiating on the political character and self-conceptuation of the PAC as a political
organisation started and led by such a towering figure on the liberation struggle landscapes.

The political character of a political organisation is manifested along, among others, the
following features:

- Its self –concept in terms of what it considers to be its primary purpose and mission;
- The conceptualisation of its environment and its problem structuring and definition within
that environment upon which its ideal goals are constructed. The positioning of itself in
terms of what it offers to is constituencies (beneficiaries). This is a fundamental strategic
tasks alignment function of the organisation with its task environment;

- Its internal distinctive competencies as represented by its organisational structure,

governance system; decision – making systems and processes, culture, membership
and intra-membership relationships, capabilities and resources.

Self – concept, Primary purpose and Mission

The PAC conceived and perceived itself to be an authentic African political organisation within
the South African and African continental political milieu. This political milieu was
overwhelmingly conflictful: the antithetical forces representing colonialists and imperialists on

2
 3

one side, being confronted by indigenous African people fighting for political emancipation, self –
determination and unbridled political sovereignty on the other side. On the side of the African
people this was a new phase in the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle.
The first phase being that which is represented by the Wars of Resistance against the
colonialists waged by indigenous people under the leadership of various Amakhosi of various
tribal groups. Through time, due to common historical experiences and mobilised political
consciousness, nurtured by common political oppression, economic exploitation and cultural
indignities a national consciousness and identity had emerged expressing itself as African-
nationalism, Africanism and continentally Pan Africanism. This phase of the struggle can,
therefore, be correctly expressed to be the African nationalist, Africanist and Pan-Africanist
phase in the quest of the African people to be liberated, self determinant and be united. This
issue is expressed by IKE F.H. Odimegwu as follows:

“The nation whose spirit and sovereignty are pursued in nationalism is the community of
the African person, who also is the subject of liberation as well as the operator of both
nationalism and the liberation in question”.

African nationalism, Africanism and Pan Africanism are movements and philosophies for
freedom as well as movement in unity. These are means to African liberation and unity.
Embedded in the European colonialist crusaders was the universalisaiton of European historical
experience, values, culture and world-views. The colonised people were forced to abandon their
spiritual – cultural values and rights and their world views in order to copy and mimic those of
the European colonialist. Where possible, these colonialists did not invent what they propagated
as customs, traditions and laws of the colonised “natives”. This was done wherever and
whenever this would contribute towards the success of the colonisation project. In this regard
the anti-imperialists and anti-colonialist struggle include spiritual – cultural emancipation: the
“return to the source” as asserted by Cabral. This had led Nabuderere (2001:69) to argue that:

“… it is only on the basis of the dynamic cultures and lived historical experiences of the
masses that real liberation of the African people can unfold and be completed”.

The primary purpose of the P.A.C. was not for having some votes for Africans within a settler-
colonial political economy; it was not for “good government” but for the overthrow of settler
colonialism, open colonialism and imperialism and the self determination of the African people in
this country and in the continent of Africa as a whole.

3
 4

With liberation and self –determination realised developmental democracy and the restructuring
and management of the economy of the country for the benefit of all it citizens were to be
outcomes of political liberation.
The envisaged democracy was not liberal democracy but substantive democracy within an
egalitarian environment supportive of and substantiated by social and economic justice. A
developmental industrialisation programme was to be pursued within a substantive participatory
and deliberative democracy. The enrichment of the few (of whatever colour or historical origin)
was not to be acceptable in a liberated country.

Emancipating, developmental and substantive democracy is qualitatively different from the

liberal democracy prevalent in this country. Liberal democracy co-exists with inequality, poverty
and unemployment because of its correlate with unbridled capitalism. In the “South African”
case the pillar of national capitalism is racism, racialism and cheap African labour. These are the
bases of initial capital accumulation, the mode (conditions) of production with its distribution
consequences (outcomes) in the form of socio-economic inequality, poverty, unemployment and
uneven social, economic, infrastructural, cultural and political development. It is therefore, fool
hardy to concentrate on dealing with these consequences without dealing with conditions of
economic resource ownership, management and utilisation (mode of production and social
relations of production). The basic economic policy pronouncements of Mangaliso Sobukwe
address, these political economy, social relations of production and their consequences.

In a liberated South Africa the ownership of means of production would be a balanced

combination of socialised resource ownership and rights in property and utilisation including the
public, the collectives (co-operatives), communities and private individuals. Critical here is that
the power of the State is under the control of popular forces or citizens. Under this status quo
systematic central planning will be utilised within popular democratic conditions and the
operation of markets expressive of political and economic pluralism and decentralised decision-
making to minimise the dysfunctional effects for centralising error in dealing with uncertainly due
to variations in the economic and social environments would be permissible.

Systematic central planning would play a major role during the earlier stages of industrialisation
or in the restructuring of the country’s industrial base to be inclusive of excluded areas,
communities and individuals. The strategy here would be to ensure that the economic, social
and political tides lift all the boats. The dissolution of existing colonial unequal system of social
power weakens the role of markets. Furthermore, democracy should not be devalued through

4
 5

conflating it with liberal democracy under which inequality, poverty, unemployment and political
marginalisation of the economically weak members of society thrive.

Few excerpts from the documents of the PAC are presented below to support the above
assertions.
PAC Self – Conception
The following excerpts demonstrate how the PAC at its formation conceived of itself. This self-
conception is within the concept of African liberation movement and the role of the African
masses in liberating themselves in what is known as South Africa and in the continent of Africa
as a whole. The PAC did not subscribe to the white liberal notion of South African
exceptionalism. As part of his Inaugural Address at the formation of the PAC its founding
President Mangaliso Sobukwe had this to say on this issue” “,,,,, I wish to state that the
Africanists do not at all subscribe to the fashionable doctrine of South African exceptionalism.

Our contention is that South Africa is an integral part of the indivisible whole that is Africa. She
cannot solve her problems in isolation from and with utter disregard of the rest of the continent.”
The PAC conceived itself as occupying a central and motive force within the African liberation
movement. It expressed this self-concept as follows in its Manifesto.

“A liberation movement must find concrete expression in organisational form and

substance in order that it may achieve its historic tasks. The highest
organisational form and structure in which the African liberation movement has
found concrete expression in South Africa is the Pan Africanist Congress and the
various facet of its historic role are:

“ To create an organisational machinery for the galvanising of the oppressed,

exploited and degraded African masses into an irresistible social force bent
upon the destruction of all factors and forces that have reduced the stature of
man and retarded his growth; and also bent upon the creation of conditions
favourable for the restoration of man’s worth and dignity and for the
development of the African personality.

To establish for the liberation movement a training ground for the production of
a determined, dedicated and disciplined collective leadership that will serve,
not only as the symbol of national unity on a Pan African basis, but also as the
5
 6

repository, guardian and custodian of the ideas, principles and methods and
the movement, as well as the policies and programmes of the organisation.

To provide an administrative machinery for the direction, guidance and control

of the national liberation movement in its grand march towards the inevitable
goal of complete freedom.”

“The final triumph of the liberation movement under the direction of the P.A.C. is assured.
The movement must triumph because in their march to freedom the African people have
history on their side. The militant progressive forces of African nationalism are bound to
crush the reactionary forces of white domination. The movement must triumph because
P.A.C. alone has a message for the oppressed, that their salvation lies in manifest
determination to untie as a nation and to struggle for the noble ends of freedom and self-
determination. The movement must triumph because, having been purified in the crucible
of oppression, the African people can demonstrate to the world genuine democracy in
action, a democracy founded upon the ruins of the material and spiritual conflicts and
contradictions of the existing material and spiritual conflicts and contradictions of the
existing social order, a democracy in which man shall at long last find his true self, and a
democracy in which the human personality shall blossom to the full.”

Presenting the P.A.C. Case Sobukwe had this to say: “we are a mass organisation and we
believe that every African should be involved in the struggle for national liberation. Having said
that I should further point out that we believe in a disciplined planned struggle”

Primary Purpose and Mission of the P.A.C.

The Fundamental purpose of the P.A.C. was to overthrow white rule and political and economic
domination and exploitation of the indigenous Africans by settler colonialists and imperialists in
general. To do this Africans had to be organised into an African organisation with a primary
purpose being their political liberation and an end of their economic exploitation and cultural
indignities. The final goal was a democratic South Africa promotive and protective of the
political, economic and cultural needs of the indigenous Africans and all those who would owe
their loyalty to this country and Africa and assume full responsibility for the equitable
development of all its peoples having reversed conditions created by inequalities brought about
by illegitimate processes of robbery and alienation of land and economic resources from the
6
 7

indigenous African people. The P.A.C. declared the right of the African people in South Africa to
shape their own destiny. To this effect the P.A.C. maintained: “The days of European
domination of Africa are numbered. Even in South Africa, the writing is glaringly on the wall for
those of our European rulers who can see and decipher it.
For exactly three hundred and seven years today, the African people have been criminally
oppressed, ruthlessly exploited and inhumanely degraded. They have in the past, as they do
now, declared themselves for freedom. They reject white domination in any shape or form. They
are unflinchingly determined to wrest the control of their country from alien hands.

They are determined to exercise the most fundament of human rights, the inalienable right of the
African people for self-determination. There can be no room in any way or in any part of Africa
for any non-indigenous peoples who deny to indigenous people their right determined and
shape their own destiny. To the African people there can be no room in any way or in any part of
Africa for any non-indigenous peoples who deny to the indigenous populations their fundamental
right to control their own material and spiritual interests effectively. South Africa, which is an
integral part of the continent, is the inalienable heritage of the African people and its effective
control is their undoubted and unquestionable birthright.”

P.A. C maintained that the political issues in what the white settler colonialists called South
Africa are clear. “The decks are cleared, and in the arena of South African politics there are
today only two adversaries: the oppressor and the oppressed, the master and the slave.” The
“Freedom” Charter blatantly violated the centrality of land and territoriality as bedrock of national
sovereignty, in alienable right and claim on natural resources by people who have organised
themselves as a nation, bearing particular national consciousness which also embed their
culture, historical experiences and future aspirations. Land in this respect is not a commodity but
a collective (commons) assets of the nation or nation in – becoming and is a foundation of equity
when it comes to the right of use by all the members of the nation.

It is for these reasons that land is also central in the colonial conflicts: conflicts between the
colonisers and the colonised. The resolution of the National and Colonial Questions is or should
be the resolution of the Land and Territoriality Question. For the colonised to declare that they
observe and entertain the idea of co-ownership of their land with the colonisers before the
resolution of the National and the Land Questions is commission of the a grotesque or heinous
crime against those engaged in the war of liberation from colonial rule. The resolution of the
colonial conflict provides the opportunity and possibilities for new arrangements on how the
national collective will award various rights over the national land among the new post – colonial

7
 8

conflict citizens. This is the position taken by the P.A.C. against the provisions of the “Freedom”
charter written by and large by white liberal and communists and imposed on the African
membership of the African National Congress. Today the “Freedom” Charter is, when
expediency demands, taken as a meta-policy document of the ANC, and when, it is not
convenient, some of its provisions are declared to be not ANC policies. The call for the
nationalisation of mines by the ANC Youth League is but one example. The ambivalent
behaviour of the South African Communist Party in this regard is very much entertaining.
It was this advantage position that the P.A.C. rejected the Freedom Charter. Accusing African
leaders that had succumbed to the document written by the white liberals and the Communist
Party of South Africa the P.A.C. had this to say:

“ These “leaders” consider South Africa and its wealth to belong to all who live in it, the
alien dispossessors and the indigenous dispossessed, the alien robbers and their
indigenous slave, the white exploiter and the African exploited, the foreign oppressor and
the indigenous oppressed. They regard as brothers the subjects Africans and their
European overlords. They are too incredibly naïve and too fantastically unrealistic to see
that the interests of the subject peoples who are criminally oppressed, ruthlessly
exploited and inhumanly degraded, are in sharp conflict and in pointed contradiction with
those of the white ruling class. Citizen Toussaint once remarked that” “Whenever
anybody, be he white or mulatto, wants a dirty job done, he always gets a Blackman to
do it. The so-called leaders after doing a dirty job namely, seeing to it that the African is
deprived for all time of his inherent right to control his country effectively; of seeing to it
that whatever new social order is established in this country, the essentials of white
domination are retained, even though its frills and trappings may be ripped off. This
attitude has been labelled multi-racialism by their white master. They have even boldly
suggested that being a multi-racist in a virtue”

After Liberation, what will happen?

In presenting the P.A.C Case Mangaliso Sobukwe provided the following statement with respect
to the ultimate goals of his party, the P.A.C. during the post liberation struggle:

“Politically we stand for government of the Africans, for the Africans, by the Africans, with
everybody who owes his loyalty only to Africa and accepts the democratic rule of an
African majority, being regarded as an African. We guarantee no minority rights because
8
 9

we are fighting precisely that group – exclusiveness which those who plead for minority
rights would like to perpetuate.

It is our view that if we have guaranteed individual liberties, we have given the highest
guarantee necessary and possible. I have said before and I still say so now, that I see no
reason why in a free democratic Africa, a predominately black electorate should not
return a white man to Parliament, for colour will count for nothing in a free Africa.
Economically, we stand for a planned economy and the most equitable distribution of
wealth. I have said that to me at least, the slogan of “equal opportunities” is meaningless
if it does not take equality of income [and wealth] as the springboard from which all will
take off.

Or problem, as we see it, is to make a planned economy work within the framework of a
political democracy. It has not done so in any of the countries that practice it today, but
we do not believe the totalitarianism is inherent in a system of planned state economy.

Socially, we stand for the full and complete development of the human personality with
the active creation of conditions that will encourage the rapid disintegration of group –
exclusiveness and the emergence of a United African nation, devoted to the tremendous
task of developing the country and creating a distinctive African culture.

Lastly, of course, we who are Pan African in outlook, do not subscribe to the doctrine of
South African exceptionalism and are committed to Pan Africanism and a Union of
African States which we would like to see as a unitary, centrally controlled organic
whole.”

The P.A.C. was in agreement with Dr. Nkuma’s stages in the liberation and post liberation
stages: “The attainment of freedom and independence; the creation of unity and community
between the free African States; the economic and social reconstruction of Africa.”

The determination of the P.A.C. leadership to realise the effective liberation of the African
people in what the white settler colonialists called South Africa was expressed by Sobukwe as
follows:

9
 10

“We will continue until we walk the streets of our land as free men and free women, our
heads held high. We will go on until the day dawns when every person who is in Africa
will be an African, and a man’s colour will be irrelevant as is the shape of his ears. We
will go on, steadfastly, relentlessly and determined until the cry of “Africa for Africans, the
Africans for humanity and humanity for God” becomes a reality: until government of the
Africans by the Africans for the Africans is a fait accompli”
The Political Environment and Political Problem in “South Africa”
and Africa
We have already provided information on how the P.A.C. perceived and described the
contesting political, economic and cultural forces in South Africa and Africa as a whole. The
rejection of the Freedom Charter was the explication of this position..

The 1959 P.A.C. Manifesto identifies European mercantilist capitalism, the invasion of the land
of Africa to satisfy the needs of mercantilist capitalism and finally the needs for raw materials
and markets by the Europeans industrial capitalism are all the forces that led to the political
subjugation of Africa and its people. Settler colonialism in South Africa was a component part of
the European political and economic expansionism which was initiated by guns and swords and
maintained by the same. This led to land robbery and the political subjugation of African people
in the continent of Africa.

“The advent of European imperialism and colonisation to Africa brought in its wake the
phenomenon of white domination, whether visible or invisible, which is characterised by
the political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation of the indigenous
African masses……. White dominion was established by the sword and is maintained by
the sword.”

According to the 1959 P.A.C. Manifesto: The liberation movement in Africa effectively
represented efforts and campaigns aimed at the “expulsion of imperialist exploiters”,
“decolonisation and independence”, “the liquidation of the forces of oppression”, and the result
will be freedom and independence of individual states and finally the creation of “monolithic
Giant – Union of African States”. In this regard the P.A.C. perceived its historic task as follows:
“The historic task of the African liberation movement is clearly a product of Africa’s history, of the
forces and factors which have made it what it is. “To attain complete freedom in Africa, the
historic tasks of the movement are:

10
 11

“To forge, foster and consolidate the bonds of African nation-hood on a Pan-African
basis. To implement effectively the fundamental principle that the dominion of
sovereignty over the dominion or ownership in the whole territory of the continent rest
exclusively and inalienably in the indigenous people.

The create and maintain a United States of Africa that will serve and provide a concrete
institutional form for the African nation.

To establish an Africanist Socialist democratic social order, recognizing the primacy of

the vital material, intellectual and spiritual interests of the individual.”

WHAT P.A.C. OFFERS AS PART OF ITS TASK ALIGNMENT

STRATEGY
P.A.C. has positioned itself as a liberation instrument for the African people in “South Africa” and
in the African continent as a whole. It offers the opportunity for the African people to engage in
their struggle for liberation and in reaping the fruits thereof. It provides the opportunity for
indigenous African people who are oppressed to be subjects of their liberation and freedom. It is
an institution for post liberation struggle for equitable restructuring of the political power and
economic structures in “South Africa” and Africa for the benefit of all the people and citizens of
the continent of Africa. Liberation will bring about institutions under the control of the African
people that will ensure effective participation by all African people in the control and exploitation
of their land and economic resources for the collective good. All shall work hard, and all shall
benefit from the results of hard work. As a preamble to the above, the basic assumptions of the
P.A.C. in its struggle for liberating the African people are as follows:

1. “The illiterate and semi-literate masses of the African people are the key, the core and
cornerstone of the struggle for democracy in South Africa.
2. African Nationalism is the only liberatory creed that can weld these masses who are
members of heterogenous tribes into a solid, disciplined and united fighting force; provide
them with a loyalty higher than that of the tribe, and give formal expression to their desire
to be a nation.

11
 12

3. The struggle in South Africa is part of the greater struggle throughout the Continent for
the restoration to the African people of the effective control of their land. The ultimate
goal of our struggle, therefore, is the formation of a United States of Africa.
These pronouncements have struck a responsive chord in the hearts of the Sons and
Daughters of the land, and awakened the imagination of the youth of our land while
giving hope to the aged who for years lived in the trough of despair. Indeed, the aged can
now truly say: “Lord now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy will,
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”

The P.A.C Internal Competencies

The internal competencies of the P.A.C. can be represented by the following structures,
processes and culture:

- Organisational structure
- Rights of members with regard to decision – making processes.
- Expected or sanctioned behaviour of members.
- Required personal habits of members.
- Relation of P.A.C. members with members of other organisations
- Relationship between P.A.C. members and members of their communities.
- The P.A.C. motto and the party flag.

Given the nature of the political struggle and the determination of the white settler colonialists
and their international supporters members of the P.A.C. were exhorted to stand up to the
demanding challenges of the political struggle through the Party’s Motto: Service, Sacrifice and
Suffering, which became known as the triple S’s.

The official colours of the P.A.C. flag are Green, Black and Gold. It has a greed field with a black
map of Africa and the gold star in the northwest of Africa. The P.A.C. Constitution provides the
following explanation on the colours of the P.A.C flag:

“ Green shall represent the youth and vitality of the continent. Black shall represent the
colour of the people, and Gold shall represent the wealth, actual and potential”

The organisational structure was configured as follows:

12
 13

- The National Executive Committee

- The National Working Committee
- The Annual and Special national Conferences
- Regional Conferences
- Regional Executive Committees
- Local Branches and Branch Executive Committees.

Rights of members with regard to Decision – making

Processes
The P.A.C. Disciplinary made this Provision:

a. Decision affecting the P.A.C. should be arrived at after the issue has been properly
discussed by a quorum.
b. In the course of a discussion, each and every member is free to air his views and to
agree or disagree with all or any member of the movement, including the leader.
c. No man or woman will of necessity enjoy a privileged position entitling his or her
views to greater weight than those of others merely because they are expressed by
so – and – so. The weight of views should depend on relevance and substance, and
not on who puts them forth.
d. All discussions shall be on a democratic basis. Every man or woman is entitled to a
hearing, and each and all are subject to criticism.
e. Once a decision has been properly taken after a democratic and objective discussion
of the subject matter, then it becomes binding on all. In the execution of such a
decision, no divergences must be allowed. The leader of the movement has to issue
directives which must be obeyed and carried out.
f. At that stage the leader exercises almost dictatorial powers which he wields with
impunity, so long as he acted within the letter and spirit of the democratic decision
and the Code.

Factionalism:

13
 14

a. Factionalism is the enemy of solidarity and unity of action.

b. To destroy it at it roots, maximum self – criticism should be encouraged within the
movement. A movement that adopts democratic centralism in its approach to its
organisational problems will know how to deal with the virus of factionalism.
c. Where the normal processes of free discussion fail to curb factional tendencies, then firm
iron discipline should come into play and be functional.

Acquisition of knowledge, personal habits and relations with other

movements:

The provisions under this sub-topic demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt that the P.A.C.
and its founders were much ahead of every other organisation with respect to building and
planting the seeds of substantive and deliberative democracy in this country. These provisions
from the Disciplinary Code are worth inculcation by any political and social organisation:

Acquisition of knowledge

a. It shall be the duty of each member of the P.A.C. to improve, increase and
develop his or her knowledge of the affairs of mankind in general, and of the
continent in which we live in particular.
b. Members must read books and newspapers, for it is an offence to the P.A.C. to
be ignorant of current events.
c. Members should make it their duty to read and to hold discussions. Lectures
should be arranged to educate the rank and file and the less literate members.
d. The more theoretically advanced members should conduct classes for the less
advanced.
e. A library of pamphlets, newspapers, clipping, extracts from books, lecturettes,
etc. should be compiled in order to improve and develop and build the ideas of
the members around the central philosophy of African nationalism.

Personal Habits:
a. Members of the P.A.C. should develop healthy and sound personal habits.
14
 15

b. Members should maintain an exemplary standard of cleanliness.

c. Members should deport themselves with honour, dignity and proper decorum in the
sight of the movement of the nation.
d. They should be punctual for their appointments especially for meetings, discussions
or other duties relating to the Pan Africanist Congress.
e. They should be tireless in day to day work in the interest of the P.A.C. and the nation.
f. They should develop and demonstrate honesty, frankness and courtesy towards one
another.
g. They should strive to be principled in their approach to the main problems of life and
the world.
h. They should develop and show a true respect for African womanhood and
demonstrate in practice the theory of sex equality with respect to men and woman in
the Pan Africanist Congress.

Relations with Other Movements

a. Pan Africanists should be armed with theory to such an extent that they can meet other
movements or groups on a basis of equality, but must not promote the ideas of other
Movements or Parties.
b. Members of the P.A.C. should be keen to study different ideologies, especially the
philosophy of African nationalism in order to equip themselves fully.
c. Members should deport themselves with poise and calmness and dignity in the presence
of other movements of groups, in debating chambers or elsewhere.
d. They should not display immaturity or pettiness, or apologeticness or ill-conceived
inferiority.
e. Their pose should be natural, dynamic and human, but ruthless where necessary.
f. Vanquish the other man with arguments, and not with a knuckle duster.

Relation between Branch Executive Committee Members and

Members of their Communities:

Branch Executive Committee were expected by the P.A.C. to work close with local masses in
addressing social, cultural, political and economic problems facing local communities.
The following provisions are worth noting:

15
 16

Branch Executive Committee

The duties of such committees were:

a. To carry organisational and propaganda work among masses in order to acquaint them
with the stand point of the P.A.C.
b. To keep in close contact with the masses and to report periodically their experiences to
the Regional Committee.
c. To study the educational and cultural life of people in this area.
d. To foster the spirit of initiative among the masses by taking a leading part in organising
them to solve their problems.
e. To recruit new members and to collect the P.A.C. membership dues.
f. To forward the list of members to the Regional Executive Committee and to report any
act of indiscipline and other dishonour and disputes.
g. To discipline any member of the branch as provided for in the Disciplinary Code,
h. To foster political and general education amongst P.A.C. members, especially the youth.
i. The Branch Executive Committee shall prepare and submit a financial statement to the
Annual Members Meeting which shall have been endorsed as correct by the Regional
Committee.

The quality of leadership which was/is the culture of the P.A.C represented by Mangaliso
Sobukwe to be as follows:

“ True leadership demands complete subjugation of self, absolute honesty, integrity and
uprightness of character, courage and fearlessness and, above all, a consuming love for
one’s people.”

This country will, indeed, be a different one if the political and appointed executives running the
affairs of government would share, adopt and be guided by the type of leadership that is ably,
described by Mangaliso Sobukwe.

CONCLUSION
This paper has endeavoured, albeit briefly, to highlight the quintessential political characteristics
of the P.A.C. This has been done as part of the commemoration of the 35 years anniversary of

16
 17

the death of Mangaliso Sobukwe. He founded and led the P.A.C.: this mighty political
organisation that is poised to re-emerge as a catholic and dynamic catalyst in the social, political
and economic impasse facing what white settler colonialists maned South Africa. The African
people of this country once truly liberated will take the opportunity to give a meaningful historical
and futuristic name for this country. This will be followed by a befitting National Anthem.
Deliberate silence on the P.A.C. at worst repugnant misinformation vendetta against this
organisation has not succeeded to kill it.

P.A.C. will not die because the African people in this country need it. Fond and energising
memories of Mangaliso Sobukwe will not wane because the ideals and goal he set for himself
and his party are yet to be realised. This will be represented by redemptive development for the
benefit of the African people in this country.

This include the work of the commissioned fifth-columnists, Members of the public and members
of the P.A.C. (active or non-active) are being reminded of the greatness of this organisational
giantess through the content of this document. The reader is invited to read, reflect and enjoy.
Then get committed to the cause for true and effective African liberation and freedom both in
this country and on the continent of Africa as a whole.

- END -

17