19 May 1967
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing an eleven member United Nations Council for South West Africa. Their task was to administer the Territory and to enter immediately into contact with South Africa to lay down procedures for its transfer. The resolution was supported by eighty-five votes, two against (Portugal and South Africa) and thirty abstentions, including the Union of Soviets, Socialist Republics (USSR), the US,, Great Britain and France. At the time of the UN’s resolution the political situation in South Africa was bleak as the African National Congress (ANC), South African communist Party (SACP), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and other liberation movements were banned under Unlawful Organisations Act in April 1960. The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO), aligned to the ANC in a liberation struggle against South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, then South West Africa, was also banned. References: O’Malley P. ‘1967’, from O’Malley, [online], available at www.nelsonmandela.org.za (Accessed: 03 May 2012) South African History Online, ‘Rivonia trial sentence is delivered’, [online], available at www.sahistory.org.za(Accessed: 03 May 2012)