South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Port Elizabeth Boycott Begins

On July 15th, 1985, South Africans in the Port Elizabeth Township began a boycott of white-owned businesses to undermine the legitimacy of apartheid. A group of women suggested the idea of the consumer boycott, which was met with a 100% compliance rate.  Within five days of the boycott, a Member of Parliament noted that the economic boycott was the most effective weapon used-to-date in the South African anti-apartheid struggle. The movement demanded the integration of public institutions, the removal of troops from black townships, and the end of workplace discrimination.

In response to the boycott, which was rapidly causing white-owned businesses to close up, the government declared a state of emergency, imposing curfews, arresting thousands, restricting the movement of individuals, and sending the South African army to occupy the townships.

By November, white business owners were desperate and called upon the government to meet the demands. The movement negotiated . . . they would call the boycott off until March if their leaders were released from prison. The movement knew that Christmas was coming up, and it would have been hard to maintain the boycott through the season. Both sides agreed, leaders were released, and the boycott lifted for a few months.

In 1986, the movement informed the South African whites that the boycott would resume if the initial demands were not met by March 31st. This warning was ignored by the authorities, and on April 1st, the boycott resumed. Mkuseli Jack, a young South African leader, re-energized the boycott by proclaiming that, “our buying power is going to be the key that is going to decide the future, that is going to decide our destiny in this country.”  After nine weeks of boycotting, the government again imposed a state of emergency on June 12th, 1986. Offices were raided, South Africans imprisoned, the army occupied the townships again. Repression became harsher and used with increasing frequency. Anti-apartheid organizations were driven underground, ending the consumer boycott.

The following years saw an escalation of community organizing, constructive programs, noncooperation tactics, repression from authorities, and an overall intensification of the struggle as international boycotts were launched in conjunction with local efforts.  The movement used numerous nonviolent actions, including sit-ins, marches, funeral processions, rallies, civil disobedience, social boycotts, strikes and stay-aways, rent strikes, renaming of public spaces, and the building of parallel and alternative institutions, and a truth and reconciliation hearing process after the end of apartheid.  In 1989, the resistance culminated with the Defiance Campaign’s multiracial peace marches in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, and throughout the country.  The struggle moved to the negotiating table, creating a democratic resolution that set the stage for the truth and reconciliation process.

The Port Elizabeth boycott was a powerful moment of consolidating and demonstrating the power of nonviolent action to place economic sanctions on white South Africans. This piece of the long South African anti-apartheid struggle helps us remember the scope, arc, and duration of working for change. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and every step counts.

This article is from Rivera Sun’s book of nonviolent histories that have made our world. Click here for more information.

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Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She’s a love-based revolutionary and the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Way Between and ten other fiction, non-fiction and poetry books. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice, and have appeared in over a hundred journals nationwide. Rivera Sun speaks and facilitates workshops in strategy for nonviolent change across the country and around the world. She connects the dots between the issues, shares solutionary ideas, and inspires people to step up to the challenge of being a part of the story of change in our times. www.riverasun.com

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Learn more: http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/south-african-blacks-boycott-apartheid-port-elizabeth-1985-86

https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/the-anti-apartheid-struggle-in-south-africa-1912-1992/

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