Banned PAC Leader, Robert Sobukwe, is refused an exit permit to leave SA

  On 22 June 1971 a Pretoria court ruled that the former leader of the banned Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Robert Sobukwe, would not be allowed to use his exit permit (approved by the Minister of Interior Affairs) to leave South Africa for his studies in the United States. The Minister of Justice, Jimmy Kruger, refused to lift his banning order which confined him to the magisterial district of Kimberley. Robert Sobukwe was arrested after the Sharpeville anti-pass campaign of 1960 and sentenced to three years in prison. At the end of his sentence, Parliament passed a General Law Amendment Act, which empowered the Minister of Justice to extend the imprisonment of any political prisoner indefinitely. Subsequently, Sobukwe was moved to Robben Island where he remained for an additional six years. Kruger announced that Sobukwe was being released from custody on 13 May 1969. Upon his release, Sobukwe was allowed to join his family in Galeshewe, Kimberley. However, he still remained under twelve-hour house arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. References: Anon, (n.d.), ‘1971,’ fromO’Malley, [online], Available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za ,[Last accessed: 20 May 2011] Anon, (n.d.), ‘PAC leader Robert Sobukwe is released,’ from South African History Online, [online] Available at www.sahistory.org.za , [Last accessed: 26 May 2011]