The Pebco Three were three black South African anti-apartheid activists – Sipho Hashe, Champion Galela, and Qaqawuli Godolozi – who were abducted and subsequently murdered in 1985 by members of the South African security police. History of PEBCO After an increase in the cost of living for the Black population in Port Elizabeth – following a 100% rent fee price hike in the late 1970s – the residents of Port Elizabeth decided to organise themselves and form an organisation that would challenge socio-economic injustices that were meted out on Black people including the apartheid regime. On the 10 October 1979, after having officially established the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (PEBCO), a public meeting was held where it was decided that a protest against the increase in rent, transport, fuel and lighting, township services charges and food costs be held. PEBCO's immediate aims and demands were: to fight for equal rights for all people of Port Elizabeth; to fight all discriminatory legislation enacted by the government and local authorities; to seek participation in decision making on all matters affecting the people of South Africa; to fight for the granting of the right to Blacks to buy land under freehold title at any place of their choice; and to resist any attempt, direct or indirect, to deprive Blacks of their South African citizenship. Their fundamental aim included the creation of one municipality for the whole of Port Elizabeth, therefore rejecting the system of community councils and separate municipalities for Blacks and Whites. The disappearance The 1980s proved to be a volatile period for activism in Port Elizabeth and as such, leaders of PEBCO were detained for short stints from time to time. In 1980, five of its leaders were detained, including Thozamile Botha, the founding member, who in the previous year – 1979 – was dismissed at the Ford Company in New Brighton for his political involvement and organising workers on site. He soon left the country in May 1980 to join the ANC in exile, leaving his comrade Qaqawuli Godolozi as PEBCO's new president. Five years later, on 8 May 1985, three members – Sipho Hashe, Champion Galela, and Qaqawuli Godolozi – disappeared from the airport in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This was due to the fact that PEBCO had now affiliated itself with the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was believed by some at the time to be an