Nonviolent Protest – Bus Boycotts
- Organized resistance against apartheid in the 1950s had two phases:
- Early 1950s: more peaceful, relying on boycotts and political pressure.
- Late 1950s: frustration led to more assertive and sometimes violent methods.
- Opposition to apartheid did not emerge suddenly – discrimination and racist laws had existed since the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, and non-whites already had traditions of political organization.
- Even before apartheid officially began in 1948, Black South Africans frequently protested bus fare hikes, with major boycotts in the 1940s.
- Example: in 1944, over 20,000 commuters joined a boycott, walking instead of taking buses.
- Boycotts were often spontaneous reactions to fare increases, rooted in poverty, low wages, and joblessness in Black townships.
- When fare hikes occurred, local committees of activists and residents quickly formed to organize boycotts and negotiate with transport companies.
- Bus boycotts often achieved their aims, since they placed economic pressure on urban businesses.
- Important to note: the majority of bus users were Black South Africans, giving boycotts real leverage.
- By the early 1950s, bus boycotts gained a new dimension – they became political protests as well as economic ones.
- These successes later inspired anti-apartheid organizations like the ANC’s Defiance Campaign in the 1950s.
Self review
- How effective were bus boycotts in the opposition to apartheid?
- Because boycotts were triggered by bus companies, not political movements. They couldn’t be fully controlled or timed by liberation groups.
- That also explains why even when at times fares were reduced or re-evaluated, the strategy of the bus boycotts did little to end Apartheid.
- Nevertheless, it did show that black organizations could achieve some aims and contributed to community participation, organization and political momentum that was capitalized by activists.
Case study
The Alexandra Bus Boycott (1957)
- In January 1957, a one-penny fare increase by the PUTCO bus company sparked a massive boycott in Alexandra Township.
- It involved around 70,000 commuters and spread to other cities like Sophiatown, Pretoria, and cities like Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, becoming a national moment of defiance.
- The black South African activists formed the Alexandra People's Transport Action Committee (APTAC). Supported by ANC leaders like Oliver Tambo and Alfred Nzo, they coordinated the 12 week long protest.
- Protesters marched daily to Johannesburg, often in difficult conditions, drawing rare public sympathy from some white South Africans and extensive media coverage.
- The boycott forced PUTCO to reverse the fare hike with state support, and also showed the government how dangerous spontaneous, mass-led protests could be.
- This highlighted both the power and unpredictability of grassroots resistance.
Historiography
- How relevant were the bus boycotts as a form of protest?
- Some historians elevate the role of bus boycotts as they showed that spontaneous mass action could be effective even without top-down leadership from the ANC.
- For them, boycotts played a foundational role in demonstrating the potential of non-violent resistance and in politicizing working-class Africans.
- Nevertheless, other perspectives sustain that bus boycotts were often reactionary rather than strategic, meaning they couldn’t be easily repeated or timed as part of a broader political plan.
- They also revealed a disconnect between formal ANC strategy and grassroots action, showing the limitations of political organization to stop apartheid.
