In the 1910s, the most pronounced class and political contradictions existed in the Transvaal, and steady, if gradual, industrialisation and urbanisation proceeded in other major cities. This, combined with increasingly repressive legislation and the post-war economic crisis, influenced the whole country. The 1913 Natives’ Land Act had particularly deleterious effects on farm tenants and labourers in the Orange Free State. Municipal restrictions on Africans in Durban spurred worker protests. In the Cape, the 1920 Port Elizabeth strike mirrored the dramatic events on the Rand in 1918-1919. During this decade, Congress responded to these and other events affecting labour, not always with great impact or consistency, but always with a measure of concern for their working-class compatriots.

The Cape

Congress had various regional strengths. The Cape Native Congress and Bechuanaland-Griqualand West Congress were particularly active, with strong branches in Ndabeni, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Kimberly, and Queenstown; the first three places were also notable for strikes by black workers. By 1910, some 9,800 Africans lived in Cape Town. In Ndabeni dissatisfaction continued among labourers compelled to live there whilst another 350 inhabited the Docks Location, where many were labourers contracted for South West Africa. Other wage earners, such as, warehouse workers and messengers, included registered voters able to live elsewhere in the city. There also were other pockets of wage earners in the area, such as vineyard labourers and, across False Bay, workers in the De Beer's explosives factory at Somerset West. The latter lived in compounds and were largely poorly paid migrant labourers from the Transkei. They were far from passive and, following fatal explosions, went on strike in 1920. They protested at the paltry £20 death compensation and demanded an increase of their daily wage from 4 shillings to 6 shillings a day. These labourers were probably influenced by the strikes in Cape Town and showed signs of organisation by forming pickets.

Against a background of limited proletarianisation and limited political experience, some people with working-class experience nevertheless joined Congress. These included a migrant worker, Thomas Zini, and S. B. Macheng, who was once a mine labourer. Some wage-earners with radical ideas, such as James Ngojo, a court interpreter from Paarl, with IWA and TNC experience, also joined the movement. The background of such activists was diverse. For instance, before 1917, Ngojo was active in the Ethiopian Catholic Church.