The end of a Chapter Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #402)

indispensable requirements that should have been given top priority. In actual fact the coming of the republic ended a chapter neither for blacks nor for whites and the country's economic, political and social pattern remains practically the same as before with a government based on inequality and injustice. Soon after making the announcement that South Africa would hold a referendum Verwoerd declared the ANC and the PAC illegal. At the time we were already detained and soon after our release on August 31st 1960 the National Executive of the ANC met, either in September or October the same year, and publicly announced that the organisation would not disband but would carry on from the underground. The decision brought about a host of internal and external problems. Internally it meant a drastic departure from the democratic proceedures outlined in the constitution of holding national and provincial conferences, local branch meetings, public meetings called by the organisation, elected committees, open recruitment of members. The new situation demanded an equally severe trimming down of the organisational structure in which the executive committees at all levels had to be reduced and shaped for illegal conditions. The changed conditions also required the dissolution of the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women's League and an adjustment in our personal lives. From 1949 when we adopted the Programme of Action, membership of the ANC had ceased to be primarily a pastime where leading