Yusuf Dadoo - Apartheid and Resistance

Apartheid and Resistance

In 1948, the National Party (NP) was elected into power in the all-white 1948 general election. The NP immediately began implementing a formal policy of apartheid. In 1949, they also introduced the Suppression of Communism Bill to ban the Communist Party, causing the CPSA to pre-emptively disband and go underground. In 1950, Yusuf was elected president of the SAIC, which promptly joined with the ANC in organising a defiance campaign against unjust laws. Yusuf was the deputy chair of the planning council, headed by Walter Sisulu, and the two were mainly responsible for the report around which the campaign was organised.

By 1952, the government responded to the Defiance Campaign by introducing new and more oppressive legislation. Yusuf was banned from attending all gatherings and ordered to resign from the SAIC and the Defiance Campaign planning committee. In 1953, Yusuf and others secretly reconstituted the CPSA as the South African Communist Party (SACP), with Yusuf serving as chairman of the central committee. That same year, Yusuf was further banned from participating in 15 protest organisations. Under these bans, he was unable to openly participate on the Congress Alliance and the writing of the Freedom Charter, although he continued to be consulted in secret, his advice being greatly respected. In 1957 he was explicitly banned from speaking to more than one person at a time.