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The Changing Content of Apartheid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

South Africa's policy of “separate development” of the races is an enduring feature in that Republic's predicament but the theory and practice of Apartheid have been changing. During the last fifteen years the policy has undergone a fundamental transformation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1963

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References

1 The South African government's policy of Apartheid has evolved fundamentally on the basis of relations between Bantu and whites, the subject to which this article is devoted. In the theory and practice of Apartheid, Indians and coloreds (people of mixed racial origins) have been treated as peripheral to the central issue of the Bantu in society. Until recently the Nationalist Party's policy was the repatriation of Indians but it now proposes to apply Apartheid to Indians as well. The colored people have been and remain a contentious issue within the Nationalist Party. Dr. Verwoerd's present position is one of theoretical rigidity in that he will not admit this group to white privileges.

2 There is a problem of terminology in dealing with the South African scene. The term “native” has come to take on implications of servant status in a situation where European contact with natives has been predominantly that of a master-servant relationship. As a result the term is considered objectionable by many black South Africans. “Bantu” on the other hand has become the official terminology of the Nationalist Government and so, for many circles, has fallen into disrepute. “African” is now widely used to describe the black peoples of the Continent, and I would have chosen to use this term. Unfortunately it proves very unwieldy when discussing the topic of Apartheid and the officially designated “Bantu Areas.” As a result “Bantu” has been used to describe those southward moving tribes, the largest of which were the Zulus and Xhosas. This should not be construed as insensitivity to the feelings of many in South Africa.

3 Literally “separateness.”

4 The Fagen Report (Report of the Native Laws Commission, Union Government Printer, 1948)Google Scholar was issued on the eve of the 1948 election, and was, in principle, accepted by General Smuts and the United Party. It proposed an economically integrated South Africa in which the pattern of discriminating legislation would be maintained to allow for differing backgrounds of the various racial groups. The South African Institute of Race Relations (S.A.I.R.R.) has also been advocating an integrated society, but in this case one of a thoroughgoing nature. (See Go Forward in Faith: The Logic of Economic Integration [Johannesburg, 1952]Google Scholar. This pamphlet states the Institute's fundamental beliefs and attitudes.)

5 From a lecture delivered to the Witwatersrand Peoples Forum, October 8, 1948.

7 The following extract is from the Report of the Native Laws Commission. “The third view” represents the Commission's and the United Party's views:

For the purposes of our inquiry we may distinguish between three main tendencies…. On the one wing are the advocates of a policy that may be called that of total segregation. The goal at which they aim is an absolute territorial division between European and Native; ultimately there would be in South Africa a territory in which no Native, and another in which no European would be regarded as a permanent inhabitant…. On the other wing we may place those who consider that there should be no racial discrimination in the law and in administration. The third view, which one may place between the two already mentioned, is that European and Native communities, spread over the country as is the case today, will continue to exist permanently side by side, and they must therefore be recognized as permanent, but that there are differences between them which legislation must take into account and which make a measure of separation in matters of administration necessary and advisable.

8 From Professor Eiselen's Lecture to the Witwatersrand Peoples Forum.

10 The Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas within the Union of South Africa (Union Government Printer, 6/1955)Google Scholar.

11 For example, textiles, footwear, furniture, metal goods.

12 Approximately 300,000 family units or 1,500,000 individuals.

13 South Africa decimalized its currency in 1961 and changed the unit from the pound to the rand (2 rands = 1 pound). All figures have been expressed in rands for purposes of comparison.

14 A Minority Report (by Young and Prinsloo) appeared on this point, and rejected any participation of private European initiative and capital in the Bantu Areas. Responsibility for initiative and capital accumulation was to be placed solely on the government and on the expected emergence of a Bantu entrepreneurial class.

15 The following is a summary of the proposed expenditures for the first

16 Apart from the fact that Apartheid has never had significant support from non-Europeans, the Tomlinson Commission's findings can be criticized on other grounds. For example: the assumption that the South African economy would show basic characteristics in keeping with the Canadian economy, and an underestimation of the capital requirements necessary for separate development. See Van der Horst's Article, S., “A Review of the Tomlinson Plans for the Reserves,” South African Journal of Economics, 06, 1956Google Scholar.

17 The Bantu Trust is the treasury for the Bantu Areas.

18 See The Economic Development of the Reserves: The Extent to which the Tomlinson Commission's. Recommendations are being Implemented, S.A.I.R.R. (Johannesburg, 1959)Google Scholar.

19 This tax was raised in January, 1959, from R2 to R.3.5, and a sliding scale was introduced in January, 1960, for those Bantu earning more than R360 per annum.

20 These Bureaus controlled the movement of Bantu into “White” Areas and between the industrial and agricultural regions of these areas. For example, a laborer wishing to move from European agriculture into industry could only do so with a permit from a bureau, while an unemployed laborer in the cities was liable to deportation to the Reserves or European farming areas if he was without work for more than 72 hours. Only if the individual had been in constant employment for ten years or a resident in the “White” Area for fifteen years was he exempt from this latter condition.

21 During the twentieth century the real level of Bantu wages in the urban areas has increased by approximately two and a half times, but conditions of acute family poverty and artificially restrained labor productivity persist. For a detailed study see deGrunchy, Joy, The Cost of Living for Urban Africans, S.A.I.R.R. (Johannesburg, 1960)Google Scholar.

22 See “Political Party Developments” and “Attitudes of the Churches to Race Relations” in A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1961, compiled by Horrell, Muriel and published by S.A.I.R.R. (Johannesburg, 1962)Google Scholar.

23 In addition to the establishment of “basic services such as power, water and transport” government incentives to industry were to include the following: housing for European workers, higher depreciation allowances on buildings and plant, inclusion of costs of transferring firms to the Bantu Areas in the total on which depreciation allowances would be permitted, government reimbursement to the extent of 20% of costs should the enterprise fail (this to help raise mortgage loans), construction and lease of factory buildings, availability of credit from the Industrial Development Corp., maintenance of wage differentiation in Bantu Areas where lower productivity and lower cost of living justify it, vocational schools when necessary, the use of railway tariffs, on a limited scale, to favor new industries in the Border areas.

24 An Outline of Budget allocations for the Reserves and Border Areas:

R2 million for purchase of land.

R8 million for agricultural development and soil conservation.

R5 million for the establishment of villages.

R1 million for machinery and equipment.

R.4 million for electricity.

R1 million for the Bantu Investment Corp. (to function in the Reserve).

R2 million for the Industrial Development Corp. to function in the Border Areas.

25 See A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1961, pp. 97 ff. and Munger, Edwin S., “Transkei Independence: Fact or Fantasy?” African Report, 05, 1962Google Scholar.

26 The dissent of the intellectuals involved the inadequate implementation of Apartheid, but it was essentially a concern over the position of the colored people in the Republic. The central issue was t he participation of coloreds in Parliament. See A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1961, pp. 9 ff.

27 The African National Congress has roots going back to 1912. The Pan-African Congress was established in April, 1959, as a splinter group and was essentially a reaction against the continued moderation of the older organization.

28 A Supreme Court Judge, Justice Snyman, formed the one-man commission of inquiry. He stated that from both oral and documentary evidence he had come to the conclusion “that beyond all reasonable doubt” Poqo was one and the same body as the Pan-African Congress.

29 Taken from a Cape Town Press conference by the Minister of Justice, Vorster, on March 21, 1963, and reported in the Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth) on March 22.