The attempt to ban the African National Congress, which for half a century has been the voice of the voteless African majority in this country, is a desperate act of folly, committed by a Parliament which does not contain a single African.
We do not recognise the validity of this law, and we shall not submit to it. The African National Congress will carry on in its own name to give leadership and organisation to our people until freedom has been won and every trace of the scourge of racial discrimination has been banished from our country.
An Emergency Committee of the African National Congress has been established which will continue until our elected leaders have been released and our organisation restored to legality.
It is impossible for the Nationalist Government or anyone else to halt the onward march of freedom in Africa. Equality and freedom, and an equal share of all in the government, must come to South Africa, as it has come or is rapidly coming to every other part of this great continent.
The question before South Africa is not whether the cause of freedom and justice for the African people will win, but how it will be brought about.
Ever since its inception in 1912, the African National Congress has sought the path of peaceful negotiation and non-violent struggle. As responsible and patriotic South Africans, we have rejected the counsels of revenge, racial hatred and violence, and sought the co-operation of like-minded democratic South Africans of all races.
The violence which exists, and has always existed in this country comes not from our people but from the police and the evil laws which they are employed to enforce - laws like the pass laws which can only be maintained by never-ending brutality and terror.
But we wish to make it very clear that we have chosen the path of non-violent struggle not out of weakness and cowardice but because we are confident of the victory of our cause, and do not wish to see the country dragged through bloody upheavals which may leave a legacy of bitterness for generations to come. For this reason, we have always been, and are even now, when the Government has committed shocking outrages against our people and our leaders, prepared to meet others and discuss peaceful solutions.
However, it is now clear to all that no peace or order can be restored to South Africa while the maniac Verwoerd clique remains in the government. Every day that the Government remains in office can only serve to deepen and intensify the crisis, and to make more certain of continued disturbances and upheavals. The first essential towards resolving the crisis is that the Verwoerd administration must make way for one less completely unacceptable to the people, of all races, for a Government which sets out to take the path, rejected by Verwoerd, of conciliation, concessions and negotiation.
We cannot and never shall compromise on our fundamental demands, as set forth in the Freedom Charter, for the full and unqualified rights of all our people as equal citizens of our country. We do not ask for more than that; but we shall never be satisfied with anything less.
However, in order to resolve the present grave crisis, which is sweeping the country towards a terrible blood bath in which all will suffer, we submit the following urgent proposals:
We call upon all our people, and upon all South Africans - Black and White, to rally around these demands and to struggle against the dictatorship of Nazi Verwoerd with all their courage, self-sacrifice and determination.
We call upon all the peoples and Governments of the whole world to help us in this noble struggle, a part of the aspirations of all humanity for peace and brotherhood.
We call upon the United Nations to quarantine the racialist Verwoerd Government by imposing full economic sanctions against the Union of South Africa.
From: Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M. Carter (ed.) From Protest to Challenge; A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1964, Volume 3, pages 572-74.
The Unlawful Organisations Act was enacted on April 1, 1960, and ANC was banned on 8 April. Meanwhile, thousands of political activists were detained under the State of Emergency proclaimed on 30 March.