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Three young men, Johannes Shabangu, Anthony Tsotsobe and David Moise, were sentenced to death in Pretoria on 19 August 1981. They were charged with taking part in attack on the SASOL oil-from-coal power station and a Johannesburg police station. All three were school students who left South Africa to join Umkhonto we Sizwe after the Soweto uprising in 1976. After an international campaign the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on 7 June 1983.

Vigil outside the US Embassy in London on 10 September 1981 to protest against US and UK funding of the South African military in its war against SWAPO guerrillas fighting for independence for Namibia. In the summer of 1981 the South African army crossed Namibia’s northern border to invade Angola.

Letter to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling on the British government to support UN mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa in response to South Africa’s invasion of Angola in 1981.

South Africa repeatedly raided neighbouring states to abduct or murder political exiles. This pamphlet documented incursions going back to the early 1960s. It showed how the South African security forces had violated the borders of seven independent states. The pamphlet called on the international community to take action against South Africa for violating international law. 

Every year the AAM held a meeting at the Labour Party conference with speakers from the Southern African liberation movements and the parliamentary Labour Party. The 1981 meeting focused on economic sanctions and South Africa’s aggression against Angola. The Labour Party declared itself in favour of UN mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa at its 1979 national conference. 

Sheffield was the first local authority to pass an anti-apartheid declaration, in October 1981. It pledged to boycott South African goods and ban South African entertainers and sports people from its venues. It also stated it would encourage positive teaching about African liberation struggles in local schools.

Leaflet advertising a conference on South Africa’s nuclear bomb and the campaign against British nuclear collaboration with apartheid.

Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) marked the UN Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners on 11 October 1981 with a vigil on the steps of St Martin’s in the Fields. The vigil protested at the repression of the South African trade union movement and called for the release of veteran trade unionist Oscar Mpetha.