UDF members challenge the government to arrest them on charges of high treason

Boesak and his colleagues were addressing a protest meeting on the night of 27 February 1985. The meeting was attended by more than 5000 people at the Durban campus of Natal University. Boesak said "If what I did in helping found the UDF and in speaking out against Apartheid and the government was treason, then I should be charged and put in jail." He is joined in this campaign by Dr. Farook Meer, Professor Jerry Coovadia, Advocate Zai Yacoob, attorney Victoria Mxenge, former Robben Island prisoner Billy Nair and Dorothy Nyembe. In August 1983, Boesak and his comrades launched the UDF at Mitchells Plain outside Cape Town. Boesak was elected UDF's patron. Early in 1986 the UDF became an umbrella organization for some 700 organizations representing about two million white, mixed-race, and black South Africans. It was the largest and most powerful legal opposition force in South Africa. Its membership and especially its goals approximated those of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC).   References: Anon, (1985), 'Boesak Challenges the government on Treason' from The Star, 28 February (Available at National Library of South Africa, Cape Town Campus) Anon, (n.d.), 'Biography of Allan Aubrey Boesak' from Answersl.com [online] Available at www.answers.com [Accessed: 28 January 2011]