IN 1986 violent resistance to the government’s apartheid policies reached a climax and under the iron fist of then state president PW Botha, a state of emergency was declared.

A decision was taken by the government to use young white servicemen who were doing their compulsory national service in the SA Defence Force (SADF) to suppress their black and coloured fellow South Africans living in the townships.

Neighbouring countries such as Angola were being destabilised by the SADF as they went into the country searching for “terrorists” and members of the ANC and South West Africa Peoples Organisation (Swapo).

Thousands of young men were “called up” to fight in these wars.

Repulsed by the thought of fighting in Angola and South African townships, a group of young activists, with support from the Conscientious Objectors Support Group, founded the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) in Cape Town in October 1983, and encouraged conscripted school- leavers to reject the national service call-ups.

By the end of the year the organisation existed in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, although 1984 is regarded as the founding date of the ECC because that is when they held their first public meeting in the Claremont Civic Centre.

It is estimated 15000 men either left the country to avoid the draft or simply moved and refused to notify the authorities where they were living. The first two objectors, in 1982, who refused to serve in the army on religious or pacifist grounds, were Billy Paddock and Pete Hathorn. For refusing to serve in the SADF the two were jailed.

In 1983 the maximum penalty for avoiding military service increased from two to six years imprisonment.

Early objector Brett Myrdal travelled around the country and spoke at various universities.

The Black Sash joined in the call to stop compulsory military service and passed a resolution to this effect in 1982.

By 1985, when the ECC hosted an international peace conference in Johannesburg, there were branches in Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Stellenbosch, Pietermaritzburg and Pretoria. When Botha declared a state of emergency in 1986, the SADF started deploying national servicemen into the townships.

The ECC campaign was very successful and after only two years it was restricted by the government. Then in 1988 it was declared a banned organisation.

For refusing to serve in the SADF, 13 conscientious objectors were jailed and by the time the apartheid regime stopped the compulsory call-up, more than 700 had publicly refused to serve.

In the late 1970s, in London, political exiles founded the Committee on South African War Resistance. This organisation provided support for young men seeking political asylum after refusing to serve in the South African army.

Banning the organisation had little effect on the draftees and the ECC continued to operate as an underground movement and was even more successful.

Minister of Police Adriaan Vlok and SADF chief Gen Magnus Malan referred to the ECC as “public enemy number two – after the ANC”.

A key ECC figure in Cape Town, Crispian Olver, said 23 conscripts declared publicly they would not serve in the SADF in August 1987.

“The second time, there were 143. Two years later, the number that refused to go was 771. Then it grew to 1021. By the fourth call-up, they were not prosecuting people if they didn’t pitch,” he said.

Objector Michael Evans said: “It was illegal to persuade someone not to do military service. It was not illegal to call for an end to conscription ... Our campaign was not saying ‘Don’t go to the army’ – it was simply that people were given a choice.”

After Peter Hathorn was jailed for refusing to serve, his sister Paula joined the ECC. She said: “Checking tyres before driving was always an absolute must”, as it was widely suspected the security forces would try to cause accidents by cutting brake cables and over-inflating car tyres.