In the 1930s, there was diversity of ANC branch attitudes to labour, and attempts to bring them together with workers. At times, there was an aloofness from radical labour struggles. At other times, there was strong ANC support for black labour rights. Just as the Transvaal in the immediate post-World War I period, and Natal in the 1920s, were the scene of radical labour protests that Congress linked up with, so the Cape witnessed concentrated labour “agitation” in the early 1930s and important unifying campaigns in the late 1930s that brought together Congress and labour movement activists. This chapter presents a case study of these themes in the Cape; the following chapter treats the other provinces.

Congress in the Western and Eastern Cape

Closer ANC-labour ties developed in the Western Cape in the 1930s for three reasons. Firstly, many local ANC leaders focused on labour issues. Secondly, the impact of economic and political events on Africans was severe, notably the harsh effects of the depression and equally harsh state measures. Thirdly, in the Cape Peninsula and Boland towns many Africans were workers. ANCworker contacts in the decade were unstable: rising at the start and end of the decade, and abating in the mid-1930s, due largely to fluctuations in ANC policies and leadership. However, at both nodes the ANC became closely involved in the sharp class struggles of black workers, whilst even in the more quiescent interregnum it still supported their rights.

As black unemployment grew during the depression, so then the organisational work of the ANC intensified. The presence of socialists Tonjeni, Ndobe and Cetyiwe gave the ANC (WP) a sharper focus on workers. Tonjeni had mixed proletarian credentials. He stated publicly at a 1931 meeting in Tarkastad that he “never had any schooling. My father was a poor man and could not afford to give me any education,” yet his father had been a member of the Bhunga. Soon, the ANC in the Western Cape “emerged as a vibrant organisation”.

Much of the reported ANC rhetoric expressed African nationalist sentiment, but there also were direct appeals to workers. Tonjeni, at the time ANC Provincial Assistant Secretary, stated in March 1930 that the ANC was preparing a “general strike of all underpaid coloured workers in the country … to demand a minimum wage … for coloured farm labourers”.