1970s

The year 21 March 1978 to 20 March 1979 was designated as International Anti-Apartheid Year by the UN General Assembly. In Britain the AAM brought together 40 organisations in a broad-based co-ordinating committee to organise events during the year. As a UN member the British government supported the initiative and Foreign Secretary David Owen spoke at a public meeting in January 1979.

This leaflet was distributed during the May 1979 British general election campaign. It asked AAM supporters to raise the issues of an arms embargo and sanctions against South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia with prospective candidates. The election was won by the Conservative Party. The new Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, opposed sanctions and almost any form of anti-apartheid action throughout the 1980s.

Report of a UN Seminar held in London on South Africa’s nuclear capacity in February 1979.  The report presented evidence of how US and Western European technology had helped the apartheid government develop a nuclear bomb. The seminar was organised with the support of the UN Centre against Apartheid.

The Katumba Brothers, 16-year-old Benchard and 19-year-old Leavit, were sentenced to death in 1979 by the illegal government headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa. They were convicted of ‘carrying arms of war’. This poster was produced by the Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee, set up by the AAM, to ask the British government to intervene to stop the hangings.

ANC women picketed South Africa House to demand freedom for all women political prisoners on 7 March 1979, the eve of International Women's Day. They also called for the release of Solomon Mahlangu. In the photo are former political prisoner Dulcie September and ANC Women’s Section members Ramnie Dinat and Teresa Nannan.

Southampton AA Group supporters delivered a giant Barclays cheque to the local Barclays branch on 4 April 1979. The cheque was made payable ‘for bribery and corruption by the South African Government’ and signed ‘Connie Muldergate’. South African Information Minister Connie Mulder was forced to resign because he established a government slush fund to promote South Africa’s image overseas.

Protesters gathered outside South Africa House for three days before the execution of Solomon Mahlangu on 6 April 1979. This protest took place on 3 April. Solomon Mahlangu was a young ANC freedom fighter sentenced to death in March 1978 for his involvement in a gun battle with police in which two men died. The judge accepted that he had not fired the fatal shots. He was hanged in spite of a huge international campaign. The UN Security Council and the governments of the UK and all the other major other Western European countries appealed to the South African government for clemency. US President Jimmy Carter also intervened. 

Hundreds of people kept an all-night vigil at South Africa House in London before the execution of Solomon Mahlangu on 6 April 1979. In Scotland AAM supporters picketed the South African consulate in Glasgow. Solomon Mahlangu was hanged in spite of a huge international campaign. The UN Security Council and the governments of the UK and all the other major Western European countries appealed to the South African government for clemency. US President Jimmy Carter also intervened.