The Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the other being for university level students called the Azanian Students' Convention (AZASCO), its women's wing is Imbeleko Women's Organisation, simply known as IMBELEKO. Its inspiration is drawn from the

Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Afri ...

inspired philosophy of Black Consciousness developed by

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known ...

, Harry Nengwekhulu,

Abram Onkgopotse Tiro Onkgopotse Tiro (9 November 1945 – 1 February 1974) was a South African student activist and black consciousness militant. He was born in Dinokana, a small village near Zeerust. He was expelled from the University of the North (now known as Un ...

, Vuyelwa Mashalaba and others, as well as Marxist

Scientific Socialism Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book ''What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...

History

AZAPO was formed out of the prominent black consciousness organisations namely, Black People's Convention (BPC), the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) and the Black Community Programmes (BCP). These were three of the 17 black consciousness organisations that were banned on Wednesday, 19 October 1977 for their role in the 16 June 1976 Soweto uprisings. A year after the formation of AZAPO, in September 1979, at its conference in Roodepoort, the national executive was elected with Curtis Nkondo as its president. During 1987, AZAPO was banned by the South African government and forced underground and into exile. It would be unbanned in 1990. In October 1994, AZAPO merged with its sister organisation in exile, the Black Consciousness Movement of

Azania Azania ( grc, Ἀζανία) is a name that 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 Africa coast extending from northern Kenya ...

(BCMA). AZAPO campaigned for the isolation of South Africa during its

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid wa ...

years by waging a "cultural

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict so ...

" in the country;

black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in ...

increasingly regained their resolve to fight for their freedom and formed trade unions and civic organisations. The armed wing of AZAPO was the Azanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) which received support and military training from Iran, Yugoslavia, China, Libya, Botswana, Palestine, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Eritrea. AZANLA is a successor to the Azanian People's Liberation Front (APLF) whose cadres received military training from countries such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. There was an agreement with Iraq to train AZANLA combatants but that was thwarted by the First Gulf War in 1990. During the 1980s, it was engaged in a bloody internecine feud with the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

which operated under the guise of the United Democratic Front (UDF). AZAPO, along with its youth wing AZAYO were unbanned in 1990, which permitted it to continue its political programs legally. It was invited, but refused to participate in, the negotiations to end apartheid, a decision which led to the resignation of two senior members, Monwabisi Vuza and Imraan Moosa. The party then boycotted the 1994 elections, but has participated in each of the elections since then. AZAPO won one seat in each of the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

elections, but failed to win a seat in the 2014 general election. The current leader (National President) of the party is Nelvis Qekema who was elected at the 25th National Congress held at University of Johannesburg, Soweto on December 4, 2021. He succeeded Strike Thokoane who was elected as president of AZAPO in 2017, during the party's 23rd National Congress in Meadowlands, Soweto. In February 2022, AZAPO and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) announced a new unity pact with the intention to contest elections together.

Negotiations with SOPA

The party has had regular negotiations with

SOPA Sopa or SOPA may refer to: * Sopa (tribe), an Albanian tribe of the Sharr Mountains * Lake Sopa, Albania * School of Performing Arts Seoul, an arts high school in Seoul, South Korea * Senior Officer Present Afloat, a term used in the U.S. Navy ...

aimed at merging the two parties, but these broke down in 2004, 2007 and again in 2013.

Election results

National elections

, - ! Election ! Total votes ! Share of vote ! Seats ! +/– ! Government , - !

, 27,257 , 0.17% , , – , , - !

, 39,116 , 0.25% , , ±0 , , - !

, 38,245 , 0.22% , , ±0 , , - ! 2014 , 20,421 , 0.11% , , 1 , , - !

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, 12,823 , 0.07% , , ±0 ,

Provincial elections

! rowspan=2 , Election ! colspan=2 , Eastern Cape ! colspan=2 , Free State ! colspan=2 , Gauteng ! colspan=2 , Kwazulu-Natal ! colspan=2 ,

Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature ...

! colspan=2 ,

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

! colspan=2 ,

North-West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

! colspan=2 ,

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

! colspan=2 , Western Cape , - ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats ! % !! Seats , - !

, - , , - , - , , - , 0.16% , , 0/73 , 0.17% , , 0/80 , 0.54% , , 0/49 , 0.10% , , 0/30 , - , , - , 0.41% , , 0/30 , - , , - , - !

, 0.17% , , 0/63 , 0.35% , , 0/30 , 0.25% , , 0/73 , 0.26% , , 0/80 , 0.51% , , 0/49 , 0.19% , , 0/30 , 0.29% , , 0/33 , 0.52% , , 0/30 , 0.09% , , 0/42 , - !

, 0.20% , , 0/63 , - , , - , 0.21% , , 0/73 , - , , - , 0.38% , , 0/49 , 0.23% , , 0/30 , 0.25% , , 0/33 , 0.60% , , 0/30 , 0.07% , , 0/42 , - ! 2014 , 0.12% , , 0/63 , 0.16% , , 0/30 , 0.12% , , 0/73 , 0.15% , , 0/80 , 0.26% , , 0/49 , 0.09% , , 0/30 , 0.17% , , 0/33 , 0.25% , , 0/30 , 0.04% , , 0/42 , - !

, 0.08% , , 0/63 , 0.09% , , 0/30 , 0.08% , , 0/73 , 0.07% , , 0/80 , 0.17% , , 0/49 , 0.04% , , 0/30 , 0.08% , , 0/33 , 0.25% , , 0/30 , 0.02% , , 0/42

Municipal elections

, - ! Election ! Votes ! % ! +/– , - !

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, , 0.3% , - !

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 FIFA ...

, 74,627 , 0.3% , - !

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, 50,631 , 0.2% , - !

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh c ...

, 28,049 , 0.07% , - !

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, 17,744 , 0.06% , -

References

External links

Azanian People's Organisation
official site

{{Authority control African and Black nationalist organizations in Africa National liberation movements in Africa Political parties in South Africa