Ultimately unity in black political South Africa can only be achieved and preserved to the extent that the democratic process ensures that leadership operates within the framework of public opinion, and is legitimised by the aspirations of the people. If organisations cannot hold mass meetings; if the mass media is not available to them,; if they cannot form constituencies in which local, regional and national debate determines policies, and if leadership has no fears of legitimising their actions through popular support overtly expressed, inevitably political leadership must become alienated from mass opinion. After the banning of the ANC and the PAC, cliques of leadership emerged in the late sixties and early seventies each claiming to be the authentic interpreters of mass sentiment and the aspirations of the black public.

Inter and intra-organisational conflicts were inevitable in these circumstances. The African National Congress, ever since its banning in 1960, and its subsequent transformation into a revolutionary underground organisation, has pursued one political vendetta after another against rival leaders and organisations in an attempt to regain the position of political dominance which it had previously enjoyed in the country.

Political feuding between the ANC and the PAC which had commenced in South Africa before the organisations were banned, continued to be pursued in their exiled positions. The ANC at the very commencement of its role in exile set about establishing itself as the sole representative of the South African struggling masses. They took every advantage available to them to discredit the PAC. The PAC in exile in turn reciprocated. It was an unfair political contest because when the PAC went into exile they did so as a newly formed organisation which had not yet developed a strong leadership structure. The political trials and tribulations in the external world proved too much for the PAC and it soon crumbled into an inconsequential body. The Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations, however, in deference to black South African experiences in the late 1950's and early 1960's recognised both the PAC as legitimate revolutionary organisations. In practice however, it is the ANC's mission in exile which has gained recognition in many international quarters.

The conflict between the PAC and the ANC however continued unabated. The Organisation of African Unity had eventually to step in and both the ANC and the PAC were recognised as legitimate liberation movements in exile and they were exhorted to work in harmony together against a common enemy rather than to remain bent upon the destruction, each of the other. Ever since the ANC has however pursued every possible avenue to denounce the PAC and to discredit it in OAU and UN circles. The desire for total political dominance of black South Africa by the ANC's mission in exile was persistently shown right up to their unbanning.