In 1966, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Robben Island on charges of sabotage related to the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the militant wing of the Pan Africanist Congress; he had helped found the APLA in 1961, along Z. B. Molete and Clarence Makwetu. While incarcerated, Pokela worked towards uniting the various factions of the PAC. In 1980, having served his sentence, Pokela was released from Robben Island. In February 1981, he was appointed to succeed Vusumzi Make,, to become head of the Tanzanian backed faction of the PAC. His leadership was rejected by the survivors of the 500 strong APLA Chunya force as well as the Maoist PAC factions in Zimbabwe, Libya, Ghana, and Kenya but Tanzania persuaded the Mugabe government to deport or imprison the major opponents .
Chairmanship of the Pan Africanist Congress
Attempts at intra-party reconciliation
Once he assumed the position of chairman, Pokela set to work reuniting the PAC, which had been fractured since the 1979 Tanzanian-backed deposition of Chairman Potlako Leballo, leader of the party from 1962 to 1979. He held talks with the 70 member Azanian People’s Revolutionary Party, a short-lived offshoot of the PAC formed by members expelled by 1978 PAC National Executive meeting in Arusha. Because of this reconciliation effort, they rejoined in 1982 and the APRP disbanded.
During the Iran–Iraq War, Pokela visited Baghdad, Iraq with a PAC delegation, and stated his support for Iraq. However, this was contrary to the position of the PAC, which was to not pick sides in a conflict between members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and Pokela was criticized for this action by other members of the party, including Henry Isaacs and Mike Muendane. Iraq later sent 50,000 dollars to the PAC.
Reorganization of the party
Pokela also attempted the reorganization of the party itself, which was suffering from both differences between various Central Committee members and differences between the leaders and the party members. He appointed outgoing Chairman Make to the position of Deputy Chairman, even though Make was being investigated for misuse of funds at the time, and increased the power of the Chairman. Pokela also encountered more opposition from Isaacs about his organizational changes Under Pokela, the use of funds was set, with 50% set aside for military operations, 30% going to administration, and 20% used for propaganda; the idea of members submitting annual financial reports about their use of PAC funds was also floated. Nevertheless, money went missing at various points in time, and the PAC ran out of funds between March and November 1981.
