Conscientious Objector to the Apartheid Army

This book is Peter Moll's account of his resistance to the South African military in the years 1977 to 1980. After doing military service in 1974, he attended university and had contact with Black students via the Students' Christian Association. He became convinced that the army was not 'defending Christianity against communism', as it claimed, by fighting against SWAPO, the ANC and the PAC. The anti-communist rhetoric was a cover. Instead the army was conducting a civil war on behalf of white people and their political and economic interests, against the black majority. He became a conscientious objector in principle. He refused repeatedly to do army camps. After courts-martial in December 1977 and September 1979, he was tried on 4 December 1979 and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment in the Voortrekkerhoogte Detention Barracks. While there he refused military dress and training, so was repeatedly tried by summary court martial for 'disobedience' and placed in solitary confinement. There followed a spontaneous national and international campaign of support. After ten summary courts-martial and 125 days of solitary in total, the army yielded to public pressure and took him out of solitary. Peter then did odd jobs around the barracks, until his release on 2 December 1980. As the book explains, Peter's action resulted in much more public discussion about conscientious objection and led to more young men refusing army service. This in turn spawned the growth of Conscientious Objector Support Groups in all major cities, and this in turn prompted the founding of the activist End Conscription Campaign in 1983. After the dramatic political events of the 1980s, and the liberation of the ANC in 1990, conscription became unnecessary and in 1993 was abolished. The book includes a listing of all the hundreds of people who wrote to him during 1980, as well as a complete index.