After being called off in most areas at the start of the year, consumer boycotts were being reimposed or planned in a number of areas in the early months of 1986. A lack of response by the authorities to demands made and repressive actions against boycott leaders were the cause.
On 3 March an indefinite consumer boycott started in the East London area organised by various community organisations after the dissolution of the Border Consumer Boycott Committee. East London businessmen were warned that if any black staff were retrenched or sacked – as happened during the previous boycott – the boycott would be intensified. Pamphlets were distributed in rural areas and in Coloured and Indian areas calling for their support. The boycott is continuing in several other Eastern Cape towns.
Following the bannings of the regional vice-president of the UDF, Henry Fazzie, and the Consumer Boycott Committee leader, Mkhuseli Jack (see BANS), the boycott of white businesses in the Port Elizabeth area was due to be renewed on 1 April. It had been called off after the lifting of the State of Emergency. The boycott was effective in driving many white businesses into bankruptcy and was temporarily suspended at the end of last year after the local Chamber of Commerce had pressurised the police into releasing 19 community leaders from detention under the emergency regulations.
An indefinite consumer boycott began on 24 March in Pretoria. It was called by the local boycott committee because several earlier demands had not been met. The boycotters were demanding an end to restrictions on township funerals, the unbanning of COSAS, the reinstatement of workers fired from the Metal Box factory, the resignation of black councillors and the lifting of the ban on political meetings.
A 10-day class boycott and work stayaway by residents of Belabela, a township of Warmbaths in the Northern Transvaal, began at the beginning of March. It started after police arrested more than seventy residents following unrest in the area and continued because the authorities failed to attend to residents' grievances.
