All very fine and noble sentiment Em. But sometimes, when violence and injustice are routinely meted out, when the injustice is enshrined in law, the arguments are reduced to meek submission or fight.
The danger with fighting is that you can lose control and lose direction, which is what ultimately happened with MK when they started to adopt a policy of landmines and bombing of "prestige" targets with the consequent loss of civilian life.
And of course Mandela, although a founding father of the movement, was locked up at that time on Robben Island.
Its worth reading Mandelas own words during the Rivonia Trial back in 1963-64. on his motivations about forming MK ( from wiki)
""At the beginning of June 1961, after a long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I, and some colleagues, came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be unrealistic and wrong for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
This conclusion was not easily arrived at. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe. We did so not because we desired such a course, but solely because the government had left us with no other choice. In the Manifesto of Umkhonto published on 16 December 1961, which is exhibit AD, we said:
'The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices - submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom.'"