Azanian People's Organisation
President	Nelvis Qekema[1]
Chairperson	Simphiwe Hashe
Secretary-General	Chris Swepu
Honorary President	Mosibudi Mangena
Founder	Stephen Biko,Abram Onkgopotse Tiro,Harry Nengwekhulu,Mthuli ka Shezi,Mapetla Mohapi,Mongezi Sifika wa Nkomo and others.
Founded	28 April 1978 (1978-04-28)
Merger of	BCMA in exile and AZAPO inside South Africa
Preceded by	Black People's Convention (BPC)
Headquarters	Office Number 3, 5th Floor, Corner House, 77 Commissioner Street,Johannesburg
Student wing	Azanian Students' Convention (AZASCO)
Youth wing	Azanian Youth Organisation (AZAYO)
Women's wing	Imbeleko Women's Organisation
Armed wing	Azanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) (formerly)
Student Wing for High School Students	Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM)
Ideology	Socialism Black consciousness
Political position	Left-wing tofar-left
Colours	Black,Red, andOrange
Slogan	The People's Movement
National Assembly seats	0 / 400
Party flag
Website
www.azapo.org.za
Politics of South Africa Political parties Elections

TheAzanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) is a South African liberation movement and political party. The organisation's two student wings are the Azanian Students' Movement (AZASM) for high school learners and the Azanian Students' Convention (AZASCO) for university level students. The organisation's women's wing is Imbeleko Women's Organisation, simply known as IMBELEKO.Its inspiration is drawn from theBlack Consciousness Movement inspired philosophy of Black Consciousness developed bySteve Biko, Harry Nengwekhulu,Abram Onkgopotse Tiro,Vuyelwa Mashalaba and others, as well asMarxistScientific Socialism.

AZAPO was formed out of the prominent black consciousness organisations namely,Black People's Convention (BPC), theSouth African Students' Organisation (SASO) and the Black Community Programmes (BCP). These were three of the 17 black consciousness organisations that were banned on Wednesday, 19 October 1977 for their role in the 16 June 1976Soweto uprisings. A year after the formation of AZAPO, in September 1979, at its conference in Roodepoort, the national executive was elected withCurtis Nkondo as its president.^[2]: 436 During 1987, AZAPO was banned by the South African government and forced underground and into exile.^[2]: 436 It would be unbanned in 1990.^[2]: 436 In October 1994, AZAPO merged with its sister organisation in exile, the Black Consciousness Movement ofAzania (BCMA).^[2]: 436

AZAPO campaigned for theisolation of South Africa during itsapartheid years by waging a "culturalboycott" in the country;black people increasingly regained their resolve to fight for their freedom and formed trade unions and civic organisations.

The armed wing of AZAPO was theAzanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) which received support and military training from Iran, Yugoslavia, China, Libya, Botswana, Palestine, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Eritrea. AZANLA is a successor to the Azanian People's Liberation Front (APLF) whose cadres received military training from countries such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. There was an agreement with Iraq to train AZANLA combatants but that was thwarted by theFirst Gulf War in 1990. During the 1980s, it was engaged in a bloody internecine feud with theANC which operated under the guise of the United Democratic Front (UDF).^{[citation needed]}

AZAPO, along with its youth wing AZAYO were unbanned in 1990, which permitted it to continue its political programs legally. It was invited, but refused to participate in, thenegotiations to end apartheid, a decision which led to the resignation of two senior members, Monwabisi Vuza and Imraan Moosa.^[3] The party then boycotted the1994 elections, but has participated in each of the elections since then. AZAPO won one seat in each of the1999,2004 and2009 elections, but failed to win a seat in the2014 general election.

The current leader (National President) of the party is Nelvis Qekema who was elected at the 25th National Congress held at University of Johannesburg, Soweto on December 4, 2021. He succeeded Strike Thokoane who was elected as president of AZAPO in 2017, during the party's 23rd National Congress in Meadowlands, Soweto.^[4]

In February 2022, AZAPO and thePan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) announced a new unity pact with the intention to contest elections together.^[5]

The party has had regular negotiations withSOPA aimed at merging the two parties, but these broke down in 2004, 2007 and again in 2013.^[6][7]

Election	Total votes	Share of vote	Seats	+/–	Government
1999	27,257	0.17%	1 / 400	New	Opposition
2004	39,116	0.25%	1 / 400	0	Opposition
2009	38,245	0.22%	1 / 400	0	Opposition
2014	20,421	0.11%	0 / 400	1	Extra-parliamentary
2019	12,823	0.07%	0 / 400	0	Extra-parliamentary
2024	19,048	0.12%[a]	0 / 400	0	Extra-parliamentary

• Azanian People's Organisation official site
• Flag of AZAPO

• Azanian People's Organisation
• African and Black nationalist organizations in Africa
• National liberation movements in Africa
• Political parties in South Africa
• Political parties based in Johannesburg

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2014