1. NAME
The name of the organisation shall be the Pan Africanist Congress.
2. MOTTO
S.S.S Serve, Suffer and Sacrifice
3. AIMS
(a) African Nationalism be the basis of our philosophy for an African Socialist Democratic State.
(b) To maintain ourselves and the movement as vanguard in the struggle for African liberation, we courage and determination.
(c) To wage the struggle in this country for national independence under the banner of the Programme of Action of 1949 adopted in Bloemfontein.
(d) Africanism shall be the ideal for an Africanist Socialist Democracy.
(e) To secure and maintain the complete unity of the movement.
(f) To maintain complete purity of the P.A.C. the only organisation of the African people struggling for the national liberation in South Africa.
(g) To work with other nationalist democratic movements in Africa, with a view to the overthrow of imperialism, colonialism, racialism, tribalism and all other forms and all other forms national and racial oppressions of the African people.
4. DISCIPLINE
(a) There shall be a Disciplinary Tribunal of Justice consisting of three or more members appointed by the National Executive Committee.
(b) Its decision shall be reported to the National Executive Committee for ratification or otherwise.
(c) Until Appeal comes before the Annual National Conference the decision of the National Executive Committee shall be effective and binding.
5. SANCTIONS AND PENALTIES
(a) The Disciplinary Tribunal of Justice shall enforce all the provisions of this Code in their entirety.
(b) Sanctions and penalties shall include fines, ostracism, isolation, suspension and outright expulsion for a long or short period or for good.
6. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS
(a) Statements relating to policy, programme of principles and tactical line of the P.A.C. should not be lightly uttered.
(b) All public utterances or statements must reflect the policy and programme of principles of the P.A.C.
(c) Policy statements in the Press or Radio must be made by the National Executive Committee or the President or the National Secretary.
(d) Irresponsible statements made by anybody shall not be countenanced.
7. RESPONSIBILITY
(a) Members must develop a high sense of responsibility and discipline with respect to all matters relating to the Pan Africanist Congress.
(b) They should refrain from tale-bearing, backbiting, gossiping, rumour-mongering and spreading lies and distortions of the truth.
(c) Their utterances must reflect the ideas, philosophy, policy and programme of the P.A.C. The ideas of Africa for the Africans, Africans for Humanity and Humanity for God must be understood and appreciated.
8. SPREADING OF IDEAS
(a) Members must spread the ideas of the P.A.C. through the Press, Radio and fearlessly.
(b) It is the duty of members to circulate ideas contained in official dodger’s bills, circulars, lecturettes, journals, written addresses etc.
(c) It should be the duty of each and every member to strive to convert people to the ideas of the P.A.C. and into the movement itself.
(d) Members must spread the ideas of our cause in the streets, in house to house campaigns, in the trains, in the restaurants, at the state functions, cinemas, on the sports fields, at railway platforms, in social gatherings, tea parties, dance parties, in schools and at orations by the grave-side.
9. ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE
(a) It shall be the duty of each member of the PAC to improve, increase and develop his or her knowledge of the affairs of mankind in general and of the continent in which we live in particular.
(b) Members must read books and newspapers, for it is an offence in the PAC to be ignorant of current events.
(c) Members should make it their duty to read and to hold discussions. Lectures should be arranged to educate the rank and file and the less advanced.
(d) The more theoretically advanced members should conduct classes for the less advanced.
(e) A library of pamphlets, newspapers, clippings, extracts from books, lecturettes, etc, should be compiled in order to improve and develop and build the ideas of the members around the central philosophy of African nationalism.
10. PERSONAL HABITS
(a) Members of the P.A.C. should develop healthy and sound personal habits.
(b) Members should maintain an exemplary standard of cleanliness.
(c) Members should deport themselves with honour, dignity and proper decorum in the sight of the movement and the nation.
(d) They should be punctual for their appointments, especially for meetings, discussions or other duties relating to the Pan Africanist Congress.
(e) They should be tireless in day-today work in the interest of the P.A.C. and the nation.
(f) They should develop and demonstrate honesty, frankness and courtesy towards one another.
(g) They should strive to be principled in their approach to the main problems of life and the world.
(h) They should develop and show a true respect for African womanhood and demonstrate in practice the theory of sex equality with respect to men and women in the Pan Africanist Congress.
(i) They should develop a true love for the African people, the Fatherland in particular, and for all mankind in general.
11. RELATION WITH OTHER MOVEMENTS:
(a) Pan Africanists should be armed with theory to such an extend that they can meet other movements or groups on the basis of equality, but must not promote the ideas of other Movements or Parties.
(b) Members of the P.A.C. should be keen to study different ideologies especially the philosophy of African nationalism in order to equip themselves fully.
(c) Members should deport themselves with poise, calmness and dignity in the presence of other movements or groups, in debating chambers or elsewhere.
(d) They should not display immaturity or pettiness, or apologeticness or ill-conceived inferiority.
(e) Their poise should be natural, dynamic and human but ruthless where necessary.
(f) Vanquish the other man with arguments, and not with a knuckle duster.
12. MEETINGS
(a) There should be punctual attendance at meetings which should be made known in good time to all members concerned.
(b) Meeting should be short, precise and to the point.
(c) The Chairman of the meeting must be respected.
(d) He must conduct the meeting in a proper procedure and with fairness to the members.
(e) His rulings must be respected by all members of the P.A.C.
(f) Clear decision with no equivocations must be taken and these should be practicable and within the scope of the Pan Africanist Congress.
(g) Meeting of the P.A.C must be business-like and serious-minded. The Chairman must know his job well, and must have studied methods of conducting meetings
(h) Members must be open, objective, brief and business- like in their approach to discussions. There should be no waste of time; redundancy or irrelevant bickerings.
13. DISCUSSION DECISION
(a) Decisions affecting the P.A.C. should be arrived at after the issue has been properly discussed by a quorum.
(b) In the course of a discussion each and every member is free to air his views and to agree or disagree with all or any member of the movement, including the leader
(c) No man or woman will if necessary enjoy a privileged position entitling his or her view to greater weight than those of merely because they are expressed by so-and-so. The weight of views should depend on relevance and substance, and not on who puts them forth.
(d) All discussions shall be on a democratic basis. Every man or woman is entitled to a hearing, and each and all are subject to criticism.
(e) Once a decision has been properly taken after a democratic and objective discussion of the subject matter, then it becomes binding on all. In the execution of such a decision, no differences must be allowed, the leader of the movement has to issue directives which must be obliged and carried out.
(f) At that stage the leader exercises almost dictatorial powers which he wields with impunity, so long as he acts within the letter and spirit of the democratic decision and the Code.
14. DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM
(a) This means that the power of directing the Pan Africanist Congress is centralised in the National Executive Committee which acts through the President who wields unquestioned powers as long as he acts within the grounds laid by the decisions of the organisation which must have been democratically arrived at. It means a centralisation of directive, and executive implementation of a decision. If P.A.C. wants to forge ahead, it must adopt and carry out this principle with firmness and thoroughness.
(b) The President shall have emergency powers, which he may delegate, to suspend the entire constitution of the Pan Africanist Congress so as to ensure that the movement emerges intact through a crisis. At that time he directs the Movement by decree, and is answerable for his actions to the National Conference.
15. FACTIONALISM
(a) Factionalism is the enemy of solidarity and unity of action.
(b) To destroy it at its roots, maximum self-criticism should be encouraged within the movement. A movement that adopts democratic centralism in its approach to its organisational problems will know how to deal with the virus of factionalism.
(c) Where the normal processes of free discussion fail to curb factional tendencies, then firm iron discipline should come into play, and functional elements, no matter how important, should be chopped off without ceremony.