The Growth of Black Resistance in the 1980's

• Between 1979-1983, the SADF carried out 30-40 assassinations. For instance, the letter bomb sent to Ruth First in Mozambique, dozens of abductions and thousands of deaths in raids and military operations in Southern Africa.
• The SADF supported the anti-government rebels in Angola, raiding MK and guerrilla bases.
• Galvanised black opposition to the 1983 Constitution led to the establishment of the United Democratic Front.
• Did the UDF have a clear leadership?

  no
• The UDF opposed the 1983 constitution, triggering a nationwide mass protest movement.
• The UDF filled the vacancy of organising protest as the ANC and PAC were still underground and banned.
• The UDF aimed to establish a non-racial united SA in which segregation is abolished and society is freed from institutional and systemic racism.
• In 1987, the UDF adopted the freedom charter.
• Squatter blacks flocked to cities due to the loosened influx control policies.
• By 1980, half the black people in SA were under 25 years old.
• In 1979, the Congress of South African Students was formed.
• Trade unions gain prominence in the 1980’s with groups like COSATU, acting on black grievances.
• Through strikes, in 1982, 365,000 working days were lost.
• Between 1980-81, nearly 100,000 school pupils and university student s boycotted classes in protest against conditions.
• Oliver Tambo (President of the ANC) called for the people "to make South Africa ungovernable". It was the South who took this up most vigorously.
• Riots increased enormously from fewer than a 100 in 1984 to more than five times that number in 1985.
• In 1988, on the 12th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, COSATU launched the largest strike in SA's history, securing the compliance of 70% of workers in manufacturing sectors.
• Banning the UDF, SOSATU and other Apartheid organisations did not prevent strikes, boycotts and mass refusals.
• The number of strikes by black workers increased tenfold during the 1980's.
• The increase in numbers of black South Africans living in the townships led to overcrowding and tension, invigorating the violence that became increasingly widespread in the 1980's.
• There was a dramatic increase in numbers of blacks living in secondary and higher education. In 1979, they formed COSAS (Congress of South African Students).
• In 1980, more than 100,000 school students boycotted classes.
• Only about 29% of non-whites voted in new parliamentary elections and town council election. Black Councillors who collaborated with the government were regarded as traitors.
• Operation Vula was a secret ANC programme that smuggled ANC leaders and weapons into the country.