ANC YOUTH LEAGUE RE-AFFIRMS THE POSITION THAT THE ANTI-PASS LAWS CAMPAIGN WAS HIJACKED BYTHE PAC 50 YEARS AGO.

The ANCYL remains firm on the position that the Pan Africanist Congress hijacked the anti-pass laws campaign and protests organised by the ANC in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The ANC Youth League has never said that the PAC did not participate in the Sharpeville protests, but has always emphasised that the anti-pass laws campaign was originally a campaign of the African National Congress, which was opportunistically hijacked by the PAC before the ANC could stage a march against the apartheid regime. This is absolute truth and will never be diverted by anyone. The article by ANC Youth League President Julius Malema on ANC Today gives a detailed clarity and all members of society are requested to familiarise themselves with the input.

Once more, the ANC Youth League reiterates the reality that the anti-pass campaign begun long before the breakaway of the narrow Africanist faction to form PAC, and the 21st of March 1960 was a culmination of the mobilisations that were led by the ANC for many years before that.

Statement issued by Floyd Shivambu, ANC Youth League spokesperson, March 30 2010

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