Disbanding of Communist Party is announced

Sam Kahn, leader of the Communist Party of South African (CPSA) and natives' representative in parliament, announced in parliament that the party has disbanded. The announcement was made a few days before the Suppression of Communism Act, No. 44 of 1950 was approved in parliament in June 1950 and came into force on 17 July of that year. In 1950 the Communist Party had about 2 000 members, of which about three-fourths were Africans. After the disbanding of the CPSA, more than a thousand communists joined the African National Congress (ANC). Sources: Muller, C.F.J. (ed)(1981). Five Hundred years: a history of South Africa; 3rd rev. ed., Pretoria: Academica, p. 493. Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v. 3, p. 369. Karis, T. & Carter, G.M. (eds.)(1973). From Protest to Challenge: a documentary history of African politics in South Africa, Stanford: Hoover Institution, v. 2, p. 408. Reader's Digest. (1988). Illustrated History of South Africa: the real story, New York: Reader's Digest Association, p. 381.