The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), formerly known as Poqo, was the paramilitary wing of the Pan Africanist Congress, an African nationalist movement in South Africa. In the Xhosa language, the word 'Poqo' means 'pure'.

After the murder of several white families the APLA was subsequently classified as a terrorist organisation by the South African National government and the United States.

APLA was disbanded and integrated into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in June 1994. Its new name was derived from Azania, the ancient Greek name for Southern Africa.

The name Azania has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa. In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym referred to a portion of the Southeast African coast extending from Kenya, to perhaps as far south as Tanzania.

History

Formation and early resistance

Poqo was founded in 1961 following the massacre of PAC-led protestors at the hands of police outside the Sharpeville police station the previous year. Two white residents, Frans Richard and Rencia Vermeulen were killed.

Leballo had planned a massive revolt for 8 April 1963, but Basotholand police managed to track down and raid the PAC's headquarters, seizing a complete list of Poqo members. In the following government crackdown, nearly 2000 Poqo members were sent to prison, almost wiping out the entire organization. Consequently, Poqo ceased to be an important participant in the anti-Apartheid struggle during the remainder of the 1960s. Ntantala's original group of 70 APLA soldiers felt threatened by the influx of new recruits, leading Ntantala to attempt a coup against then commander, Potlako Leballo in Dar es Salaam. This was prevented by LLA soldiers, a move which exacerbated tensions within two PAC factions, the "Diplomat-Reformist" (DR) and "Maoist-Revolutionary" (MR) factions. Vusumzi Make's appointment as Leballo's successor sparked a mutiny at Chunya, an APLA camp in Tanzania, on 11 March 1980, during which several APLA forces were killed and the rest further factionalised and confined to different camps; many escaped to Kenya. Leballo himself relocated to Zimbabwe in late 1980 along with senior intelligence and air force personnel from the MR faction. Pressure from Tanzania, however, resulted in his deportation in May–June 1981, as well as the deportation or imprisonment of the others. Make was replaced by John Nyathi Pokela

Operation Great Storm

In 1991 APLA launched Operation Great Storm, a violent paramilitary campaign aimed at displacing white farmers to reclaim land for black Africans and obtaining arms and funding. Initially APLA attacked and robbed farmsteads in the Free State and Eastern Cape provinces resulting in a number of farm deaths. Attacks would later expand to urban civilian targets such as churches, hotels and drinking establishments. The APLA's chief commander, Sabelo Phama, declared that he "would aim his guns at children - to hurt whites where it hurts most."

Phama proclaimed 1993 as "The Year of the Great Storm"

  • Highgate Hotel in East London on 1 May 1993, killing five people.

Additional attacks by APLA during this period included:

  • Crazy Beat Disco attack in Newcastle on 14 February 1994 resulting in the death of Gerbrecht Salomina Van Wyk and the wounding of two others.

In total thirty-two applications were received for attacks on civilians. In these incidents, 24 people were killed and 122 seriously injured.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded that the PAC-sanctioned action directed towards white South Africans were .

End of the armed struggle

In April 1992, PAC President Clarence Makwetu declared during the PAC's Annual Congress that his party would now not oppose participation in the multi-racial negotiations to end the apartheid. In spite of their failure to achieve their goals at the negotiations, the PAC decided to participate in the 1994 elections, and PAC leader Clarence Makwetu ordered APLA to end its armed struggle.

Post-1994

In 1994, APLA was disbanded and absorbed into the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF), although this resulted in widespread racial tension within the SANDF between the former liberation fighters and their white officers. During the 1999 Tempe military base shooting, a former APLA guerrilla that enlisted in the SANDF massacred 7 white soldiers.

Awards

See also

  • Military history of South Africa
  • Nelson Mandela
  • African National Congress
  • Umkhonto we Sizwe
  • Internal resistance to apartheid

Further reading

  • Leeman, Lieutenant-General Bernard “The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania” in Africa Today, A Multi-Disciplinary Snapshot of the Continent in 1995 Edited by Peter F. Alexander, Ruth Hutchison and Deryck Schreuder The Humanities Research Centre The Australian National University Canberra 1996, pages 172–195

References