ABSTRACT
In 1948 the National Party government embarked upon a series of radical new policies which encountered widespread opposition, notably from the African population which was most severely affected. The initial stage of opposition was the Programme of Action, when the policy of deputations and petitions was rejected in favour of boycotts, strikes and civil disobedience. However, opposition was not united and the Durban riots in January 1949, when 142 people were killed, illustrated the tensions between the Indian and African communities. In 1952 the joint Defiance Campaign was launched to obstruct the imposition of the multitude of repressive laws which were emanating from parliament. To counter opposition, the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 was passed, with a remarkably flexible definition of what constituted the promotion of that ideology. Confrontation over the banning of the South African Communist Party led to more deaths, and to the virtual adoption of the party’s programme and personnel by the African National Congress. This was symbolized by the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown in 1956, to the unease of the Africanists, who seceded to form the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959. Defiance campaigns and legal contests remained the main form of opposition throughout most of the 1950s, while the government systematically plugged the loopholes in the legislative and administrative structures of apartheid, and adopted further security legislation to enforce them.
