Epilogue
Report of the Lands Commission
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Native Life in South Africa
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(A) Who is the Author?
After wondering for some time how best to answer this question,
we decided to reply to it by using one of several personal references
in our possession. The next puzzle was: "Which one?"
We carefully examined each, but could not strike a happy decision
until some one who entered the room happened to make use
of the familiar phrase: "The long and the short of it".
That phrase solved the difficulty for us, and we at once made up our mind
to use two of these references, namely, the shortest and the longest.
The first one is from His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught,
and the second takes the form of a leading article in the `Pretoria News'.
==
Central South African Railways,
High Commissioner's Train.
On February 1, 1906, Mr. Sol Plaatje acted as Interpreter
when I visited the Barolong Native Stadt at Mafeking, and performed his duty
to my entire satisfaction.
(Signed) Arthur.
Mafeking,
February 1, 1906.
==
==
We commence to-day an experiment which will prove a success
if only we can persuade the more rabid negrophobes to adopt
a moderate and sensible attitude. We publish the first of a series of letters
from a native correspondent of considerable education and ability,
his name is Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje. Mr. Plaatje was born
in the district of Boshof, his parents being Barolongs,
coming originally from Thaba Ncho, and trekking eventually to Mafeking.
He attended the Lutheran Mission School at the Pniel Mission Station,
near Barkly West, as a boy, under the Rev. G. E. Westphal;
and at thirteen years he passed the fourth standard, which was as far
as the school could take him. For the next three years he acted
as pupil-teacher, receiving private lessons from the Rev. and Mrs. Westphal.
At the age of sixteen he joined the Cape Government service as letter-carrier
in the Kimberley Post Office. There he studied languages in his spare time,
and passed the Cape Civil Service examination in typewriting,
Dutch and native languages, heading the list of successful candidates
in each subject. Shortly before the war he was transferred to Mafeking
as interpreter, and during the siege was appointed Dutch interpreter
to the Court of Summary Jurisdiction, presided over by Lord Edward Cecil.
The Magistrate's clerks having taken up arms, Mr. Plaatje became
confidential clerk to Mr. C. G. H. Bell, who administered Native affairs
during the siege. Mr. Plaatje drew up weekly reports on the Native situation,
which were greatly valued by the military authorities,
and in a letter written to a friend asserted with some sense of humour
that "this arrangement was so satisfactory that Mr. Bell was created a C.M.G.
at the end of the siege."
Had it not been for the colour bar, Mr. Plaatje, in all probability,
would have been holding an important position in the Department
of Native Affairs; as it was, he entered the ranks of journalism
as Editor, in the first place, of `Koranta ea Becoana', a weekly paper
in English and Sechuana, which was financed by the Chief Silas Molema
and existed for seven years very successfully. At the present moment
Mr. Plaatje is Editor of the `Tsala ea Batho' (The People's Friend)
at Kimberley, which is owned by a native syndicate, having its headquarters
in the Free State. Mr. Plaatje has acted as interpreter
for many distinguished visitors to South Africa, and holds autograph letters
from the Duke of Connaught, Mr. Chamberlain, and other notabilities.
He visited Mr. Abraham Fischer quite lately and obtained from him
a promise to introduce a Bill into Parliament ameliorating the position
of the Natives of the Orange River Colony, who are debarred by law
from receiving titles to landed property. Mr. Plaatje's articles
on native affairs have been marked by the robust common sense and moderation
so characteristic of Mr. Booker Washington. He realizes
the great debt which the Natives owe to the men who brought
civilization to South Africa. He is no agitator or firebrand,
no stirrer-up of bad feeling between black and white. He accepts
the position which the Natives occupy to-day in the body politic
as the natural result of their lack of education and civilization.
He is devoted to his own people, and notes with ever-increasing regret
the lack of understanding and knowledge of those people,
which is so palpable in the vast majority of the letters and leading articles
written on the native question. As an educated Native with liberal ideas
he rather resents the power and authority of the uneducated native chiefs
who govern by virtue of their birth alone, and he writes and speaks
for an entirely new school of native thought. The opinion of such a man
ought to carry weight when native affairs are being discussed.
We have fallen into the habit of discussing and legislating
for the Native without ever stopping for one moment to consider
what the Native himself thinks. No one but a fool will deny
the importance of knowing what the Native thinks before we legislate for him.
It is in the hope of enlightening an otherwise barren controversy
that we shall publish from time to time Mr. Plaatje's letters,
commending them always to the more thoughtful and practical of our readers.
-- `Pretoria News', September, 1910.
==
(The writer of this appreciation, the Editor of the Pretoria evening paper,
was Reuter's war correspondent in the siege of Mafeking.)
(B) Prologue
We have often read books, written by well-known scholars,
who disavow, on behalf of their works, any claim to literary perfection.
How much more necessary, then, that a South African native workingman,
who has never received any secondary training, should in attempting authorship
disclaim, on behalf of his work, any title to literary merit.
Mine is but a sincere narrative of a melancholy situation,
in which, with all its shortcomings, I have endeavoured to describe
the difficulties of the South African Natives under a very strange law,
so as most readily to be understood by the sympathetic reader.
The information contained in the following chapters is the result
of personal observations made by the author in certain districts of
the Transvaal, Orange "Free" State and the Province of the Cape of Good Hope.
In pursuance of this private inquiry, I reached Lady Brand
early in September, 1913, when, my financial resources being exhausted,
I decided to drop the inquiry and return home. But my friend,
Mr. W. Z. Fenyang, of the farm Rietfontein, in the "Free" State,
offered to convey me to the South of Moroka district,
where I saw much of the trouble, and further, he paid my railway fare
from Thaba Ncho back to Kimberley.
In the following November, it was felt that as Mr. Saul Msane,
the organizer for the South African Native National Congress,
was touring the eastern districts of the Transvaal,
and Mr. Dube, the President, was touring the northern districts and Natal,
and as the finances of the Congress did not permit an additional traveller,
no information would be forthcoming in regard to the operation
of the mischievous Act in the Cape Province. So Mr. J. M. Nyokong,
of the farm Maseru, offered to bear part of the expenses if I would undertake
a visit to the Cape. I must add that beyond spending six weeks
on the tour to the Cape, the visit did not cost me much,
for Mr. W. D. Soga, of King Williamstown, very generously
supplemented Mr. Nyokong's offer and accompanied me on a part of the journey.
Besides the information received and the hospitality enjoyed
from these and other friends, the author is indebted, for further information,
to Mr. Attorney Msimang, of Johannesburg. Mr. Msimang toured
some of the Districts, compiled a list of some of the sufferers
from the Natives' Land Act, and learnt the circumstances of their eviction.
His list, however, is not full, its compilation having been undertaken
in May, 1914, when the main exodus of the evicted tenants
to the cities and Protectorates had already taken place,
and when eyewitnesses of the evils of the Act had already fled the country.
But it is useful in showing that the persecution is still continuing,
for, according to this list, a good many families were evicted
a year after the Act was enforced, and many more were at that time
under notice to quit. Mr. Msimang, modestly states in an explanatory note,
that his pamphlet contains "comparatively few instances
of actual cases of hardship under the Natives' Land Act, 1913,
to vindicate the leaders of the South African Native National Congress
from the gross imputation, by the Native Affairs Department,
that they make general allegations of hardships without producing
any specific cases that can bear examination." Mr. Msimang,
who took a number of sworn statements from the sufferers,
adds that "in Natal, for example, all of these instances
have been reported to the Magistrates and the Chief Native Commissioner.
Every time they are told to find themselves other places,
or remain where they are under labour conditions. At Peters and Colworth,
seventy-nine and a hundred families respectively are being ejected
by the Government itself without providing land for them."
Some readers may perhaps think that I have taken the Colonial Parliament
rather severely to task. But to any reader who holds
with Bacon, that "the pencil hath laboured more in describing
the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon," I would say:
"Do, if we dare make the request, and place yourself in our shoes."
If, after a proper declaration of war, you found your kinsmen
driven from pillar to post in the manner that the South African Natives
have been harried and scurried by Act No. 27 of 1913, you would,
though aware that it is part of the fortunes of war, find it difficult
to suppress your hatred of the enemy. Similarly, if you see
your countrymen and countrywomen driven from home, their homes broken up,
with no hopes of redress, on the mandate of a Government
to which they had loyally paid taxation without representation --
driven from their homes, because they do not want to become servants;
and when you know that half of these homeless ones have perforce
submitted to the conditions and accepted service on terms
that are unprofitable to themselves; if you remember
that more would have submitted but for the fact that no master has any use
for a servant with forty head of cattle, or a hundred or more sheep;
and if you further bear in mind that many landowners are anxious
to live at peace with, and to keep your people as tenants,
but that they are debarred from doing so by your Government
which threatens them with a fine of 100 Pounds or six months' imprisonment,
you would, I think, likewise find it very difficult to maintain a level head
or wield a temperate pen.
For instance, let us say, the London County Council decrees
that no man shall rent a room, or hire a house, in the City of London
unless he be a servant in the employ of the landlord, adding that
there shall be a fine of one hundred pounds on any one who attempts
to sell a house to a non-householder; imagine such a thing and its effects,
then you have some approach to an accurate picture of the operation
of the South African Natives' Land Act of 1913. In conclusion,
let me ask the reader's support in our campaign for the repeal of such a law,
and in making this request I pray that none of my readers may live
to find themselves in a position so intolerable.
When the narrative of this book up to Chapter XVIII was completed,
it was felt that an account of life in South Africa,
without a reference to the war or the rebellion would be
but a story half told, and so Chapters XIX-XXV were added.
It will be observed that Chapters XX-XXIV, unlike the rest of the book,
are not the result of the writer's own observations.
The writer is indebted for much of the information in these five chapters
to the Native Press and some Dutch newspapers which his devoted wife
posted to him with every mail. These papers have been
a source of useful information. Of the Dutch newspapers
special thanks are due to `Het Westen' of Potchefstroom,
which has since March 1915 changed its name to `Het Volksblad'.
Most of the Dutch journals, especially in the northern Provinces, take up
the views of English-speaking Dutch townsmen (solicitors and Bank clerks),
and publish them as the opinion of the South African Dutch.
`Het Westen' (now `Het Volksblad'), on the other hand,
interprets the Dutch view, sound, bad or indifferent, exactly as we ourselves
have heard it expressed by Dutchmen at their own farms.
Translations of the Tipperary Chorus into some of the languages
which are spoken by the white and black inhabitants of South Africa
have been used here and there as mottoes; and as this book is a plea
in the main for help against the "South African war of extermination",
it is hoped that admirers of Tommy Atkins will sympathize with
the coloured sufferers, who also sing Tommy Atkins' war songs.
This appeal is not on behalf of the naked hordes of cannibals
who are represented in fantastic pictures displayed
in the shop-windows in Europe, most of them imaginary;
but it is on behalf of five million loyal British subjects who shoulder
"the black man's burden" every day, doing so without looking forward
to any decoration or thanks. "The black man's burden" includes
the faithful performance of all the unskilled and least paying labour
in South Africa, the payment of direct taxation to the various Municipalities,
at the rate of from 1s. to 5s. per mensum per capita (to develop and beautify
the white quarters of the towns while the black quarters remain unattended)
besides taxes to the Provincial and Central Government, varying from
12s. to 3 Pounds 12s. per annum, for the maintenance of Government Schools
from which native children are excluded. In addition to these
native duties and taxes, it is also part of "the black man's burden" to pay
all duties levied from the favoured race. With the increasing difficulty
of finding openings to earn the money for paying these multifarious taxes,
the dumb pack-ox, being inarticulate in the Councils of State,
has no means of making known to its "keeper" that the burden
is straining its back to breaking point.
When Sir John French appealed to the British people for more shells
during Easter week, the Governor-General of South Africa
addressing a fashionable crowd at the City Hall, Johannesburg,
most of whom had never seen the mouth of a mine, congratulated them
on the fact that "under the strain of war and rebellion
the gold industry had been maintained at full pitch,"
and he added that "every ounce of gold was worth many shells
to the Allies." But His Excellency had not a word of encouragement
for the 200,000 subterranean heroes who by day and by night,
for a mere pittance, lay down their limbs and their lives
to the familiar "fall of rock" and who, at deep levels ranging from
1,000 feet to 1,000 yards in the bowels of the earth, sacrifice their lungs
to the rock dust which develops miners' phthisis and pneumonia --
poor reward, but a sacrifice that enables the world's richest gold mines,
in the Johannesburg area alone, to maintain the credit of the Empire
with a weekly output of 750,000 Pounds worth of raw gold.
Surely the appeal of chattels who render service of such great value
deserves the attention of the British people.
Finally, I would say as Professor Du Bois says in his book
`The Souls of Black Folk', on the relations between
the sons of master and man, "I have not glossed over matters
for policy's sake, for I fear we have already gone too far
in that sort of thing. On the other hand I have sincerely sought
to let no unfair exaggerations creep in. I do not doubt
that in some communities conditions are better than those I have indicated;
while I am no less certain that in other communities they are far worse."
Chapter I A Retrospect
I am Black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar,
as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me:
my mother's children were angry with me; they made me
the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.
The Song of Songs.
Awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African Native
found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.
The 4,500,000 black South Africans are domiciled as follows:
One and three-quarter millions in Locations and Reserves,
over half a million within municipalities or in urban areas,
and nearly a million as squatters on farms owned by Europeans.
The remainder are employed either on the public roads or railway lines,
or as servants by European farmers, qualifying, that is,
by hard work and saving to start farming on their own account.
A squatter in South Africa is a native who owns some livestock and,
having no land of his own, hires a farm or grazing and ploughing rights
from a landowner, to raise grain for his own use and feed his stock.
Hence, these squatters are hit very hard by an Act which
passed both Houses of Parliament during the session of 1913,
received the signature of the Governor-General on June 16,
was gazetted on June 19, and forthwith came into operation.
It may be here mentioned that on that day Lord Gladstone signed no fewer
than sixteen new Acts of Parliament -- some of them being rather voluminous --
while three days earlier, His Excellency signed another batch of eight,
of which the bulk was beyond the capability of any mortal to read and digest
in four days.
But the great revolutionary change thus wrought by a single stroke of the pen,
in the condition of the Native, was not realized by him
until about the end of June. As a rule many farm tenancies expire
at the end of the half-year, so that in June, 1913, not knowing
that it was impracticable to make fresh contracts, some Natives
unwittingly went to search for new places of abode, which some farmers,
ignorant of the law, quite as unwittingly accorded them.
It was only when they went to register the new tenancies
that the law officers of the Crown laid bare the cruel fact
that to provide a landless Native with accommodation was forbidden
under a penalty of 100 Pounds, or six months' imprisonment.
Then only was the situation realized.
Other Natives who had taken up fresh places on European farms
under verbal contracts, which needed no registration, actually founded
new homes in spite of the law, neither the white farmer nor the native tenant
being aware of the serious penalties they were exposed to
by their verbal contracts.
In justice to the Government, it must be stated that no police officers
scoured the country in search of lawbreakers, to prosecute them
under this law. Had this been done, many 100 Pound cheques
would have passed into the Government coffers during that black July,
the first month after Lord Gladstone affixed his signature
to the Natives' Land Act, No. 27 of 1913.
The complication of this cruel law is made manifest by the fact
that it was found necessary for a high officer of the Government
to tour the Provinces soon after the Act came into force,
with the object of "teaching" Magistrates how to administer it.
A Congress of Magistrates -- a most unusual thing -- was also called
in Pretoria to find a way for carrying out the King's writ
in the face of the difficulties arising from this tangle of the Act.
We may add that nearly all white lawyers in South Africa,
to whom we spoke about this measure, had either not seen the Act at all,
or had not read it carefully, so that in both cases they could not tell
exactly for whose benefit it had been passed. The study of this law
required a much longer time than the lawyers, unless specially briefed,
could devote to it, so that they hardly knew what all the trouble was about.
It was the Native in the four Provinces who knew all about it,
for he had not read it in books but had himself been through its mill,
which like an automatic machine ground him relentlessly
since the end of the month of June. Not the least but one of
the cruellest and most ironical phases -- and nearly every clause of this Act
teems with irony -- is the Schedule or appendix giving the so-called
Scheduled Native Areas; and what are these "Scheduled Native Areas"?
They are the Native Locations which were reserved for the exclusive use
of certain native clans. They are inalienable and cannot be bought or sold,
yet the Act says that in these "Scheduled Native Areas" Natives only
may buy land. The areas being inalienable, not even members of the clans,
for whose benefit the locations are held in trust, can buy land therein.
The areas could only be sold if the whole clan rebelled; in that case
the location would be confiscated. But as long as the clans of the location
remain loyal to the Government, nobody can buy any land within these areas.
Under the respective charters of these areas, not even a member of the clan
can get a separate title as owner in an area -- let alone a native outsider
who had grown up among white people and done all his farming
on white man's land.
If we exclude the arid tracts of Bechuanaland, these Locations
appear to have been granted on such a small scale that each of them
got so overcrowded that much of the population had to go out and settle
on the farms of white farmers through lack of space in the Locations.
Yet a majority of the legislators, although well aware of all
these limitations, and without remedying any of them, legislate,
shall we say, "with its tongue in its cheek" that only Natives may buy land
in Native Locations.
Again, the Locations form but one-eighteenth of the total area of the Union.
Theoretically, then, the 4,500,000 Natives may "buy" land in only
one-eighteenth part of the Union, leaving the remaining seventeen parts
for the one million whites. It is moreover true that, numerically,
the Act was passed by the consent of a majority of both Houses of Parliament,
but it is equally true that it was steam-rolled into the statute book
against the bitterest opposition of the best brains of both Houses.
A most curious aspect of this singular law is that even the Minister,
since deceased, who introduced it, subsequently declared himself against it,
adding that he only forced it through in order to stave off something worse.
Indeed, it is correct to say that Mr. Sauer, who introduced the Bill,
spoke against it repeatedly in the House; he deleted the milder provisions,
inserted more drastic amendments, spoke repeatedly against
his own amendments, then in conclusion he would combat
his own arguments by calling the ministerial steam-roller
to support the Government and vote for the drastic amendments.
The only explanation of the puzzle constituted as such by these
"hot-and-cold" methods is that Mr. Sauer was legislating for an electorate,
at the expense of another section of the population which was without
direct representation in Parliament. None of the non-European races
in the Provinces of Natal, Transvaal and the "Free" State
can exercise the franchise. They have no say in the selection of members
for the Union Parliament. That right is only limited to white men,
so that a large number of the members of Parliament who voted for this measure
have no responsibility towards the black races.
Before reproducing this tyrannical enactment it would perhaps be well
to recapitulate briefly the influences that led up to it.
When the Union of the South African Colonies became
an accomplished fact, a dread was expressed by ex-Republicans
that the liberal native policy of the Cape would supersede
the repressive policy of the old Republics, and they lost no time
in taking definite steps to force down the throats of the Union Legislature,
as it were, laws which the Dutch Presidents of pre-war days,
with the British suzerainty over their heads, did not dare enforce
against the Native people then under them. With the formation of the Union,
the Imperial Government, for reasons which have never been
satisfactorily explained, unreservedly handed over the Natives
to the colonists, and these colonists, as a rule, are dominated
by the Dutch Republican spirit. Thus the suzerainty of Great Britain,
which under the reign of Her late Majesty Victoria, of blessed memory,
was the Natives' only bulwark, has now apparently been withdrawn or relaxed,
and the Republicans, like a lot of bloodhounds long held in the leash,
use the free hand given by the Imperial Government not only to guard against
a possible supersession of Cape ideals of toleration, but to effectively
extend throughout the Union the drastic native policy pursued by the Province
which is misnamed "Free" State, and enforce it with the utmost rigour.
During the first year of the Union, it would seem that General Botha
made an honest attempt to live up to his London promises,
that are mentioned by Mr. Merriman in his speech (reproduced elsewhere)
on the second reading of the Bill in Parliament. It would seem
that General Botha endeavoured to allay British apprehensions and concern
for the welfare of the Native population. In pursuance of this policy
General Botha won the approbation of all Natives by appointing Hon. H. Burton,
a Cape Minister, to the portfolio of Native Affairs. That the appointment
was a happy one, from the native point of view, became manifest
when Mr. Burton signalized the ushering in of Union, by releasing
Chief Dinizulu-ka-Cetywayo, who at that time was undergoing
a sentence of imprisonment imposed by the Natal Supreme Court,
and by the restoration to Dinizulu of his pension of 500 Pounds a year.
Also, in deference to the wishes of the Native Congress,
Mr. Burton abrogated two particularly obnoxious Natal measures,
one legalizing the "Sibalo" system of forced labour, the other prohibiting
public meetings by Natives without the consent of the Government.
These abrogations placed the Natives of Natal in almost the same position
as the Cape Natives though without giving them the franchise.
So, too, when a drastic Squatters' Bill was gazetted early in 1912,
and the recently formed Native National Congress sent a deputation
to interview Mr. Burton in Capetown; after hearing the deputation,
he graciously consented to withdraw the proposed measure,
pending the allotment of new Locations in which Natives evicted
by such a measure could find an asylum. In further deference
to the representations of the Native Congress, in which they were supported
by Senators the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, Colonel Stanford, and Mr. Krogh,
the Union Government gazetted another Bill in January, 1911,
to amend an anomaly which, at that time, was peculiar to the "Free" State:
an anomaly under which a Native can neither purchase nor lease land,
and native landowners in the "Free" State could only sell their land
to the white people.
The gazetted Bill proposed to legalize only in one district
of the Orange "Free" State the sale of landed property by a Native
to another Native as well as to a white man, but it did not propose
to enable Natives to buy land from white men. The object of the Bill
was to remove a hardship, mentioned elsewhere in this sketch,
by which a "Free" State Native was by law debarred from inheriting
landed property left to him under his uncle's will. But against
such small attempts at reform, proposed or carried out by the Union Government
in the interest of the Natives, granted in small instalments of a teaspoonful
at a time -- reforms dictated solely by feelings of justice and equity --
ex-Republicans were furious.
From platform, Press, and pulpit it was suggested that
General Botha's administration was too pro-English and needed overhauling.
The Dutch peasants along the countryside were inflamed by hearing
that their gallant leader desired to Anglicize the country.
Nothing was more repellent to the ideas of the backveld Dutch,
and so at small meetings in the country districts resolutions were passed
stating that the Botha administration had outlived its usefulness.
These resolutions reaching the Press from day to day
had the effect of stirring up the Dutch voters against the Ministry,
and particularly against the head. At this time General Botha's sound policy
began to weaken. He transferred Hon. H. Burton, first Minister of Natives,
to the portfolio of Railways and Harbours, and appointed General Hertzog,
of all people in the world, to the portfolio of Native Affairs.
The good-humoured indulgence of some Dutch and English farmers towards
their native squatters, and the affectionate loyalty of some of these
native squatters in return, will cause a keen observer, arriving at
a South African farm, to be lost in admiration for this mutual good feeling.
He will wonder as to the meaning of the fabled bugbear anent the alleged
struggle between white and black, which in reality appears to exist
only in the fertile brain of the politician. Thus let the new arrival go
to one of the farms in the Bethlehem or Harrismith Districts for example,
and see how willingly the Native toils in the fields; see him
gathering in his crops and handing over the white farmer's share of the crop
to the owner of the land; watch the farmer receiving his tribute
from the native tenants, and see him deliver the first prize
to the native tenant who raised the largest crop during that season;
let him also see both the Natives and the landowning white farmers
following to perfection the give-and-take policy of "live and let live",
and he will conclude that it would be gross sacrilege to attempt to disturb
such harmonious relations between these people of different races and colours.
But with a ruthless hand the Natives' Land Act has succeeded
in remorselessly destroying those happy relations.
First of all, General Hertzog, the new Minister of Native Affairs,
travelled up and down the country lecturing farmers on their folly
in letting ground to the Natives; the racial extremists of his party
hailed him as the right man for the post, for, as his conduct showed them,
he would soon "fix up" the Natives. At one or two places
he was actually welcomed as the future Prime Minister of the Union.
On the other hand, General Botha, who at that time seemed
to have become visibly timid, endeavoured to ingratiate himself
with his discontented supporters by joining his lieutenant
in travelling to and fro, denouncing the Dutch farmers for not
expelling the Natives from their farms and replacing them with poor whites.
This became a regular Ministerial campaign against the Natives,
so that it seemed clear that if any Native could still find a place
in the land, it was not due to the action of the Government.
In his campaign the Premier said other unhappy things which were
diametrically opposed to his London speeches of two years before;
and while the Dutch colonists railed at him for trying to Anglicize
the country, English speakers and writers justly accused him of speaking
with two voices; cartoonists, too, caricatured him as having two heads --
one, they said, for London, and the second one for South Africa.
The uncertain tenure by which Englishmen in the public service
held their posts became the subject of debates in the Union Parliament,
and the employment of Government servants of colour was decidedly precarious.
They were swept out of the Railway and Postal Service
with a strong racial broom, in order to make room for poor whites,
mainly of Dutch descent. Concession after concession
was wrung from the Government by fanatical Dutch postulants for office,
for Government doles and other favours, who, like the daughters of
the horse-leech in the Proverbs of Solomon, continually cried, "Give, give."
By these events we had clearly turned the corner and were pacing backwards
to pre-Union days, going back, back, and still further backward,
to the conditions which prevailed in the old Republics,
and (if a check is not applied) we shall steadily drift back
to the days of the old Dutch East Indian administration.
The Bill which proposed to ameliorate the "Free" State cruelty,
to which reference has been made above, was dropped like a hot potato.
Ministers made some wild and undignified speeches, of which
the following spicy extract, from a speech by the Rt. Hon. Abraham Fischer
to his constituents at Bethlehem, is a typical sample --
"What is it you want?" he asked. "We have passed all the coolie* laws
and we have passed all the Kafir laws. The `Free' State
has been safeguarded and all her colour laws have been adopted by Parliament.
What more can the Government do for you?" And so the Union ship
in this reactionary sea sailed on and on and on, until she struck an iceberg
-- the sudden dismissal of General Hertzog.
--
* A contemptuous South African term for British Indians.
--
To the bitter sorrow of his admirers, General Hertzog,
who is the fearless exponent of Dutch ideals, was relieved of
his portfolios of Justice and Native Affairs -- it was whispered
as a result of a suggestion from London; and then the Dutch extremists,
in consequence of their favourite's dismissal, gave vent to their anger
in the most disagreeable manner. One could infer from their platform speeches
that, from their point of view, scarcely any one else had any rights
in South Africa, and least of all the man with a black skin.
In the face of this, the Government's timidity was almost unendurable.
They played up to the desires of the racial extremists, with the result that
a deadlock overtook the administration. Violent laws like the Immigration Law
(against British Indians and alien Asiatics) and the Natives' Land
were indecently hurried through Parliament to allay
the susceptibilities of "Free" State Republicans. No Minister found time
to undertake such useful legislation as the Coloured People's Occupation Bill,
the Native Disputes Bill, the Marriage Bill, the University Bill, etc., etc.
An apology was demanded from the High Commissioner in London
for delivering himself of sentiments which were felt to be too British
for the palates of his Dutch employers in South Africa, and the Prime Minister
had almost to apologize for having at times so far forgotten himself
as to act more like a Crown Minister than a simple Africander.
"Free" State demands became so persistent that Ministers seemed
to have forgotten the assurances they gave His Majesty's Government in London
regarding the safety of His Majesty's coloured subjects within the Union.
They trampled under foot their own election pledges, made during
the first Union General Election, guaranteeing justice and fair treatment
to the law-abiding Natives.
The campaign, to compass the elimination of the blacks
from the farms, was not at all popular with landowners,
who made huge profits out of the renting of their farms to Natives.
Platform speakers and newspaper writers coined an opprobrious phrase
which designated this letting of farms to Natives as "Kafir-farming",
and attempted to prove that it was almost as immoral as "baby-farming".
But landowners pocketed the annual rents, and showed no inclination
to substitute the less industrious "poor whites" for the more
industrious Natives. Old Baas M----, a typical Dutch landowner
of the "Free" State, having collected his share of the crop of 1912,
addressing a few words of encouragement to his native tenants,
on the subject of expelling the blacks from the farms, said in the Taal:
"How dare any number of men, wearing tall hats and frock coats,
living in Capetown hotels at the expense of other men, order me
to evict my Natives? This is my ground; it cost my money, not Parliament's,
and I will see them banged (barst) before I do it."
It then became evident that the authority of Parliament
would have to be sought to compel the obstinate landowners to
get rid of their Natives. And the compliance of Parliament with this demand
was the greatest Ministerial surrender to the Republican malcontents,
resulting in the introduction and passage of the Natives' Land Act of 1913,
inasmuch as the Act decreed, in the name of His Majesty the King,
that pending the adoption of a report to be made by a commission,
somewhere in the dim and unknown future, it shall be unlawful
for Natives to buy or lease land, except in scheduled native areas.
And under severe pains and penalties they were to be deprived
of the bare human rights of living on the land, except as servants
in the employ of the whites -- rights which were never seriously challenged
under the Republican regime, no matter how politicians raved
against the Natives.
Chapter II The Grim Struggle between Right and Wrong,
and the Latter Carries the Day
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness
which they have prescribed;
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the fruit
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless.
Isaiah.
On February 18, 1913, General L. Lemmer, member for Marico, Transvaal,
asked the Minister of Lands: -- (a) How many farms or portions of farms
in the Transvaal Province have during the last three years been registered
in the names of Natives; (b) what is the extent of the land so registered;
and (c) how much was paid for it?
The Minister of Lands replied: (a) 78 farms; (b) 144,416 morgen;
and (c) 94,907 Pounds.
Some very disturbing elements suggest themselves in this question
and in its prompt answer. A question of the kind should have taken
some time to reach Pretoria from the seat of Parliament; more time
to search for and compile the necessary information, and further time
to get the answer to the Table of the House of Assembly in Capetown.
For instance, on March 11 Mr. T. L. Schreiner called for an explanation
in connexion with the same return. He had to ask again on April 1,
the answer in each instance being that the required "information
had been telegraphed for and would be laid on the table when it is available"
(vide Union Hansard, pp. 777 and 1,175). It was only on May 13
-- two months and two days after -- that an answer to Mr. Schreiner's
question of March 11 could be furnished.
Again, on May 20 Mr. Schreiner called for a similar return,
embracing the four Provinces of the Union.* If it were so easy
for General Lemmer to get a reply in regard to the Transvaal,
where most of the registration took place, it should have been
relatively more easy to add the information from the Cape and Natal,
since no registration could have taken place in the Orange "Free" State,
where Natives cannot buy land. But strange to say, all that Mr. Schreiner
could get out of the Minister was a promise to furnish a reply
when it is available, and it does not appear to be on record
that it was ever furnished during that session. Therefore, a Native
cannot be blamed for suspecting that when General Lemmer asked his question,
the return was "cut and dried" and available to be laid on the table
as soon as it was called for.
--
* It does not appear to have occurred to any one to call for a return
showing transfers of land from blacks to whites.
--
Another significant point is that the questioner did not want to know
the extent of land bought by Natives, but of the land
"registered in their names" during the period; and Mr. Schreiner
was able to show later in the session by an analysis of the return
that it mainly comprised land awarded to Native tribes
by the Republican Government, some of it when they conquered the country.
They include farms bought or awarded to Natives as long ago
as the early 60's and 70's, but the owners were not able to obtain titles
as the late Republican Government did not allow Natives to register land
in their own names. They had been held in trust for them
by European friends or missionaries, and it was only during
the last three years that the owners claimed direct titles,
which right was restored to them since the British occupation.
But the Lemmer Return did its fell work. It scared every white man
in the country. They got alarmed to hear that Natives had
during the past three (!) years "bought" land to the extent of 50,000 morgen
per annum.
Thanks to Mr. Schreiner's questions, however, the misleading features
of the statistical scarecrow were revealed -- but, unfortunately too late.
Origin of the Trouble
On February 28, 1913, Mr. J. G. Keyter (a "Free" State member) moved:
That the Government be requested to submit to the House
DURING THE PRESENT SESSION a general Pass and Squatters Bill
to prohibit coloured people (1) from WANDERING ABOUT WITHOUT A PROPER PASS;
(2) from SQUATTING ON FARMS; and (3) from SOWING ON THE SHARE SYSTEM.
Mr. T. P. Brain,* another "Free" Stater, seconded the motion.
--
* This gentleman died during 1913.
--
Mr. P. G. W. Grobler,* a Transvaaler, moved (as an amendment)
to add at the end of the motion: "and further TO TAKE EFFECTIVE MEASURES
TO RESTRICT THE PURCHASE AND LEASE OF LAND BY NATIVES."
--
* Mr. Grobler forfeited his seat when he was convicted of complicity
in the recent rebellion.
--
Mr. Schreiner strongly protested against both the motion and the amendment.
The Minister for Native Affairs* spoke somewhat against Mr. Keyter's motion
but promised to comply with Mr. Grobler's amendment, which promise he redeemed
by introducing a Natives' Land Bill.
--
* Hon. J. W. Sauer, Minister of Native Affairs, died a month after the Bill
became law.
--
Before the Bill was introduced, the Minister made the unprecedented
announcement that the Governor-General had given his assurance
that the Royal Assent would not be withheld from the Natives' Land Bill.
Section 65 of the South African Constitution provides that the King
may disallow an Act of Parliament within twelve months
after the Governor-General signed it. And the abrogation of the Constitution,
as far as this Bill is concerned, literally gave licence
to the political libertines of South Africa; as, being thus freed
from all legislative restraint, they wasted no further time
listening to such trifles as reason and argument.
The following are extracts from the debates on the Natives' Land Bill
as reported in the Union Hansard of 1913.
==
The adjourned debate on the motion for the second reading
of the Natives Land Bill was resumed by
MR. J. X. MERRIMAN (Victoria West). It was with very great reluctance
(the right hon. gentleman said) that he rose to speak on this measure.
It would have been more convenient to have given a silent vote,
but he felt, and he was afraid, that after many years of devoted attention
to this question of the native policy of South Africa, he would not
be doing his duty if he did not give this House -- for what it was worth --
the result of his experience through these years.
He should like to emphasize a brighter side of the question,
and that was to point out that the Natives, if they were well managed,
were an invaluable asset to the people of this country. (Hear, hear.)
Let them take our trade figures and compare them with
the trade figures of the other large British Dominions.
Our figures were surprising when measured by the white population,
but if they took the richest Dominion that there was under the British Crown
outside South Africa, and took the trade value of those figures
per head of the white population, and multiply those figures
by our European population, then they might very well apply
any balance they had to our native population, and then they would see,
strangely enough, that upon that basis it worked out that
the actual trade of three Natives was worth about that of one white man.
That, of course, was a very imperfect way of looking at
the value of these people, because the trade value of some of these Natives
was far greater than the trade value of some of our white people.
He had merely indicated these trade figures to show what an enormous asset
we had in the Natives in that respect. Let them think
what the industry of the Natives had done for us. Who had built our railways,
who had dug our mines, and developed this country as far as it was developed?
Who had been the actual manual worker who had done that? The Native:
the coloured races of this country. We must never forget
that we owed them a debt in that respect -- a debt not often acknowledged
by what we did for them. Proceeding, he said that they ought to think
what they owed to the docility of the Natives, and the wonderfully easy way
in which they had been governed when treated properly. He also paid a tribute
to the honesty of the Natives.
What must strike any one was the fact that though this Bill was really,
to a certain extent, a beginning, or was thought to be in certain quarters,
of a revolution in their dealing with the native races,
it was not even mentioned in the speech of the Governor-General.
It fell upon them like a bolt from the blue. He remembered the afternoon.
They had heard a very impassioned and very heated speech
from the hon. member for Ficksburg on the enormous danger of squatting
in the Free State, and that was the occasion for introducing
a general statement of the policy of the Government towards the Natives
and the introduction of this Bill. He did not think that that was the way
they liked to see a thing of this magnitude approached.
They often heard demands for what was called a general declaration of policy
with regard to native affairs -- a policy which should be applied
to the highest civilized Native, the owner of a farm, and the naked barbarian.
They could not do it. People who demanded a general declaration of that kind
had not had the experience which some of them had had.
The hon. member who spoke before him said that he was in favour
of the underlying principle of the Bill. What was the underlying principle?
The underlying principle was what one read into the Bill.
One hon. member read into it that it was the separation of the two races.
That might have been done when the two races first came in contact
at the Fish River, but it could not be done now. Since then
they had been developing the country with the labour of these people.
They had been advancing by our aid. They had mixed themselves up
with these people in an inextricable fashion and then some said
"Haul your native policy out of the drawer and begin with
a policy of separation." He was sure that the hon. member
who had brought in the Bill had no idea of that sort in his mind.
Another person had the idea that they were going to set up a sort of pale --
a sort of kraal in which they were going to drive these people.
Then another gentleman sneered at the policy hitherto adopted,
and he said that one side said that the policy towards the Natives
should be firm and just, while the other side said that it should be
just and firm.
It seemed to him that they had not got sufficient information.
Beyond the bald statistics which were given by the Minister
in the course of his interesting and moderate speech, they had nothing.
They were going into a thing that would stir South Africa from end to end,
and which affected hundreds of thousands of both races.
They had no information as to what were the ideas of the Natives.
It was unfortunate that, owing to this lack of information,
wrong ideas had got about with regard to this Bill. It was difficult
to find out what the Native thought about these things; he doubted
whether anybody could say that he had got at the mind of the Native.
The only way, and he must say that he did not take it as a real indication,
was what they wrote in their newspapers. He was alarmed, but not surprised,
at some of the articles in their newspapers, because they took their views
from the heated speeches and writings in party newspapers
all over the country, and they were very much alarmed. He thought
that before a Bill of this sort was passed, there should be some attempt made
to get their views. As far as one section was concerned,
the Bill was going to set up a sort of pale -- that there was going to be
a sort of kraal in which all the Natives were to be driven,
and they were to be left to develop on their own lines. To allow them
to go on their own lines was merely to drive them back into barbarism;
their own lines meant barbarous lines; their own lines were cruel lines.
All along they had been bringing them away from their own lines.
It reminded him of what an English writer said about a similar policy
in Ireland, because when the English went to Ireland
they regarded the Native Irish in the way some extreme people here
regarded the Natives of South Africa. They thought they would root them out.
They treated them as dogs, and thought that they were dogs.
They set up a pale. They set the Irish within that pale,
to develop upon their own lines, but there were always Englishmen
living in that pale, just as in the same way they found Europeans
living among Natives. Sir George Davis in describing this policy wrote
that it was the intention of the Government to set up a separation
between English and Irish, intending in time that the English should
root out the Irish. If they changed the Irish for Natives they would see
how the illustration would apply. A policy more foredoomed to failure
in South Africa could not be initiated. It was a policy that
would keep South Africa back, perhaps for ever. (Hear, hear.)
What would be the effect of driving these civilized Natives
back into reserves? At the present time, every civilized man
-- if they treated him properly -- every civilized man
was becoming an owner of land outside native reserve, and therefore
he was an asset of strength to the country. He was a loyalist.
He was not going to risk losing his property. He was on
the side of the European. If they drove these people back into reserve
they became our bitterest enemies. Therefore, he viewed anything
that tended that way with the gravest suspicion. Again, in this Bill
there was not sufficient distinction between those Natives
who tried to educate themselves and the ordinary raw barbarian.
They were all classed under the word "Native".
He came now to what was the main object of the Bill, and that was:
to do away with the squatting evil. Why was there a squatting evil?
Was it the fault of the Native? (An hon. member: No.)
Was it the fault of the law? (No.) They had got the most stringent
laws concerning Natives of all the laws in the whole country,
in the Province of which his hon. friend (Mr. Keyter) was a member.
He did not think anything was more surprising than when they came to look
at the increases in the native population in the Orange Free State.
They had a huge native population in the Cape, and the increase
during the census periods from 1904 to 1911 -- he wanted hon. members
to pay some attention to this, because it showed the value of legislation --
the increase in the Cape Province during that period was 8.33 per cent.
In Natal, which had a huge -- in fact, an overwhelming -- native population,
curiously enough, the increase was the same, even to the actual
decimal figure, viz., 8.33 per cent.: but some allowance must be made,
because a large number of Natives were out at work in the mines.
Now, in the Transvaal -- and in taking the Transvaal figures
these did not apply as regarded squatting, because the increase was mainly due
to the number of Natives employed in the mines. In the Transvaal
the Natives increased by 30.1 per cent. Now, when they came
to his friend's little State, where the most stringent laws were made
to keep out the Natives, how much did they suppose the Natives increased
in the Free State? By no less than 44 per cent. (Opposition cheers.)
Was that the fault of the Natives? No, it was because
-- having the most stringent laws -- the people found it best
to evade those laws. (Hear, hear.) He hoped his hon. friend
would be a little tolerant. Do let him pick the mote out of his own eye
before he tried to pick the beam out of other people's. (Hear, hear.)
In the Free State these laws were very severe; for instance,
punishments -- amazing punishments -- were given, and yet the result
was the increase in five years by 44 per cent. of their native population.
This was something that they should take a warning by. They were going
to do away with the squatter in appearance, but he would still survive
as a labour tenant. They might do away with the labour tenant,
and he would still be surviving as a labour servant. How was the Government
to distinguish between these? They had in the Cape a law which stated
how many labour tenants a man should have upon his farm.
What they wanted in this country was administration and not more legislation,
and if they were to put the laws which they had into force in the Free State
at the present time he had no doubt that there would be a rebellion.
(Hear, hear.) They would have platforms swarming with people
who would say that they could not grow one bag of mealies without the Natives.
But they had the laws to do it. Now they went and tried in this Bill
to make a uniform law. Turning towards the Minister, Mr. Merriman said:
"My poor friend! that after all the years we had laboured together
he of all people should be the author of a uniform law on native matters!
(Laughter.) I say this more in sorrow than in anger -- (laughter) --
because the conditions were totally different in the four Provinces."
In the Free State, proceeded Mr. Merriman, the people had most excellent laws
from their point of view for keeping out the Natives --
stringent, Draconian, and violent laws, but they were not carried out,
and the Natives had flooded the country. All they wanted to do
was to turn the Native from a tenant to a labour tenant, and then salvation
would be at hand. He could not see very much difference between the two,
except that one was a contented advancing man and the other a discontented man
approaching very closely to the Russian serf -- he was a soul.
Shortly we should hear of a farm being up for sale with so many souls.
In the Transvaal the problem had been complicated by
the decisions of the Court and the curious way in which some ground
had been given out in the Zoutpansberg district, where, he was told,
farms had been given out on which the Natives had been living for years,
and these farms -- with the Natives on them -- had come into
the possession of companies and individuals, and now it was proposed
to turn the Natives off. That would not be an agreeable thing,
but he would not offer an opinion now as to the justice of it.
He would like to revert to the state of things which had grown up
under the Draconian laws of the Free State. According to
a very interesting Blue-book containing reports of magistrates,
one magistrate had reported that "the pernicious system of squatting
was detrimental to the working farmer, the Native reaping
the whole of the benefit." The man who worked generally reaped
the whole benefit in the long run. In the Harrismith district
there were some 40,000 Natives against some 8,000 Europeans.
How did they get there? Having been a Free State burgher
he knew that the Natives had not forced their way in.
These Natives ploughed on the half-shares, and he would like to know
whether they were labour tenants or squatters. If they were squatters
it would require very little dexterous management to convert them
into labour tenants. The Magistrate of Hoopstad, went on Mr. Merriman,
had referred to the pernicious system of native squatters.
But why did not the Free State magistrates do something and put the law
in force? That was the principal reason why the House was forced
to pass that Bill without information, and without giving
any opportunity to people who had the deepest interest in this matter
to have their views heard, or to let them know what the House was going to do
because the magistrates in the Free State would not enforce the law.
He did think that was rather hard. In conclusion Mr. Merriman said:
I dare say I may have said a great many things which may be distasteful
to my hon. friends, but I do claim their attention because at a time
when they were not in such a dominant position as they are now,
I pleaded for right and justice for them. Therefore, they should not
take it amiss from me, because now they are in a dominant position,
I plead also for justice, toleration, moderation, and delay in this matter.
MR. H. MENTZ (Zoutpansberg) said the right hon. gentleman
had earned their gratitude for the high tone in which he had carried
the debate. The speech which he had delivered was a most instructive one,
and although the speaker was not in entire agreement with him on all points,
he was in agreement on the point that the matter was one to be handled
with prudence, but it was to be regretted that under the Bill
a Commission was to be appointed. The Minister should not listen
to the request for a postponement of the question, by referring it
to a Select Committee. If they were to refer the Bill to a Select Committee,
it would never be passed this year.
MR. G. L. STEYTLER (Rouxville) expressed his thanks to the Government
for bringing forward the Bill. He said he felt that it was not
a complete solution of the whole question, but it was certainly
a step in the right direction.
MR. A. FAWCUS (Umlazi) said that as the representative of 70,000 Natives
in Natal, not one of whom so far as he knew had a vote, he should like,
on their behalf, to thank the right hon. member for Victoria West
for the manner in which he had handled this question.
In the course of his speech the right hon. gentleman asked,
what did the Natives think about this Bill before the House?
His (Mr. Fawcus') opinion was that the Natives did not think anything at all
about it. He should not think there was one Native in a thousand
in South Africa who was aware that this matter, so vitally affecting
their future, was at present at issue. The hon. member for Middelburg
had referred to the Natives as "schepsels".* He believed
the day was rapidly passing away when we should refer to Natives
as "schepsels". They were an easy-going folk, and they thought little
about title deeds and land laws. So great was the Native's attachment
to the land on which he lived, in many instances, that they could not
rackrent him off it. These were the people that the Bill wished
to dispossess and drive off the land. The figures placed before them
showed that THE LAND HELD BY EUROPEANS PER HEAD WAS FIFTY TIMES THE AMOUNT
HELD PER HEAD BY THE NATIVES. Surely there was no need at the present time
for legislation which would prevent Natives getting a little more land
than they now had. He did not think it could be put down
to the fault of the Native if he was willing to buy and live on land
rather than pay rent. The figures given in this connexion
were very instructive. EIGHT ACRES PER HEAD WERE HELD BY THE NATIVES
IN THE CAPE, SIX ACRES IN NATAL, ABOUT 1 1/2 ACRES in the Transvaal,
and about one-third of an acre in the Free State. He thought this Bill
was perhaps coming on a little before there was any necessity for it.
--
* Creatures.
--
MR. C. G. FICHARDT (Ladybrand) said he felt very much
that the Bill that was before the House did not carry out
all that should be carried out, and that was equality of justice.
IF THEY WERE TO DEAL FAIRLY WITH THE NATIVES OF THIS COUNTRY,
THEN ACCORDING TO POPULATION THEY SHOULD GIVE THEM FOUR-FIFTHS OF THE COUNTRY,
OR AT LEAST A HALF. How were they going to do that? As he said
in the earlier part of his remarks, he was prepared to accept the Bill
as something to go on with, but he hoped that in the future
it would not constitute a stumbling-block. He would much rather have seen
that the matter had been gone into more fully, and that some scheme
had been laid before them so that they might have more readily been able
to judge how the Bill would work. It was because of all these difficulties
that he felt that they could only accept the Bill if it laid down
that there was no intention of taking the country from the white people
and handing it over to the blacks.
MR. J. G. KEYTER (Ficksburg) said he wished to openly denounce, and most
emphatically so, that the people or the Government of the Orange Free State
had treated the coloured people unreasonably or unjustly,
or in any way oppressively. On the contrary, the O.F.S. had always treated
the coloured people with the greatest consideration and the utmost justice.
The O.F.S. had made what Mr. Merriman called stringent laws.
He (Mr. Keyter) called them just laws. They TOLD THE COLOURED PEOPLE PLAINLY
THAT THE O.F.S. WAS A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY, AND THAT THEY INTENDED
TO KEEP IT SO. (Hear, hear.) THEY TOLD THE COLOURED PEOPLE
THAT THEY WERE NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO BUY OR HIRE LAND,
and that they were not going to tolerate an equality of whites and blacks;
and he said that they were not going to tolerate that in the future,
and if an attempt were made to force that on them, they would resist it
at any cost to the last,* for if they did tolerate it,
they would very soon find that they would be a bastard nation.
His experience was that the Native should be treated firmly,
kept in his place and treated honestly. They should not give him
a gun one day and fight him for it the next day. They should tell him,
as the Free State told him, that IT WAS A WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY,
THAT HE WAS NOT GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO BUY LAND THERE OR TO HIRE LAND THERE,
AND THAT IF HE WANTED TO BE THERE HE MUST BE IN SERVICE.
--
* By passing the Bill, the Government conceded all the extravagant demands
of the "Free" Staters; yet, a year later they took up arms
against the Government.
--
MR. J. A. P. VAN DER MERWE (Vredefort) deprecated sending the Bill
to a Select Committee, arguing that the House itself should decide it.
He referred to the difficulties experienced by farmers in the Free State.
If a farmer refused to allow a Native to farm on the share system
he simply refused to work. There were thousands of Natives on the farms there
who hired ground and did little work. The farmers had to keep their children
at home to do the work. Some of the Natives hired ground, did some sowing,
then went to work in Johannesburg, and paid the owner of the farm
half what he reaped from the harvest. That was not satisfactory.
He was pleased to see the provisions the Minister proposed to make
in this regard, and expressed the hope that the Native
would only be tolerated among the whites as a labourer. The Bill would meet
what he considered a great want, and, as it was an urgent matter,
he hoped the proposal for a Select Committee would not be agreed to.
Third Reading Debate.
SIR LIONEL PHILLIPS (Yeoville): But why should a Bill of this sort
be brought before them now? The Government in the past had not been bashful
in the appointing of Commissions, and one question he would ask was why,
in this important matter, the Government had not appointed a Commission
to take all the evidence and then come to the House with a measure which
the House would have to approve of. Instead of that, they were cancelling
the rights the Natives had in South Africa, and creating a very awkward hiatus
between the time the Commission would be appointed and the time the Commission
could define the areas which would be regarded as white areas and the areas
which would be regarded as native areas. That was the one serious blot
upon this measure.
He could see no justification, except that the hon. Minister,
yielding to pressure from a certain section on that side of the House,
had hastily brought on this measure. He thought from the speeches
made in the House it was the consensus of opinion that Natives
should not have farms in areas that were essentially white,
just as it was desirable that white men should not be found in areas
essentially native. And especially when they told the native population
that they were taking away from them a right they had to-day,
and they were going to substitute that right by appointing a Commission,
they were giving them very little justification for being satisfied
with this measure. He did not think they were going to gain anything
by putting the cart before the horse. He did not know
if Mr. Schreiner was accurate, but he told them that, roughly,
in the Transvaal, where the matter was most acute, the Native population
had bought something like 12,000 or 15,000 morgen of land in twelve years.
That, he thought, showed there was no extreme urgency for the measure.
To that extent he agreed entirely with the hon. member, and he believed
the Minister would be well advised to send the Bill to a Select Committee,
so that many of the details, which were extremely complicated and difficult,
might be thrashed out in that atmosphere, rather than on
the floor of the House. (Opposition cheers.)
MR. E. N. GROBLER (Edenburg) said: The present was one of the best measures
that the Government had so far brought forward, and it appeared clear
that they had a Government which truly represented the wishes of the public.
It was impossible to delay the solution of the Native problem,
and legislation on the subject had for a long time past been asked for.*
At the same time, he did not entirely agree with the methods,
proposed to be applied, and he did not like the system of allocating reserves
for Natives. When once those reserves had been allocated, would it not result
in injury to agriculture and cattle breeding? The farmers would suffer
from lack of labour, and that deficiency would be a growing one.
Neither could he agree to the principle of expropriation of land
belonging to whites in order to increase the size of the native reserves.
He considered the Bill was a complicated one. The matter should be settled
by way of taxation, in the following way. All Natives who
were in the service of whites should be exempted from taxation,
and treated as well as possible, and other Natives should be encouraged
to take similar service. There were enormous reserves where the Natives
could go and live,** and if they refused to go there they should be required
to pay a stiff tax. Then they would go and work for white people.
The hon. member for Tembuland had offered many objections to the Bill.
They should make that hon. member king of Tembuland.
In a country of the blind a man with one eye would be king.
--
* By a "solution of the Native problem", "Free" State farmers generally mean
the re-establishment of slavery.
** It will be observed that these and similar mythological disquisitions
subsequently formed General Botha's assurances to Mr. Harcourt.
See Chapter XVI. But some light is thrown on the subject
of these visionary Native Reserves by Mr. Fawcus' speech
based on official statistics (page 36 [above -- last Fawcus quote]).
--
MR. P. DUNCAN (Fordsburg) said he hoped the Minister would not take
the view of the last speaker. Under the Bill it would be possible
for farmers to accumulate on their land as many Natives as they could get,
so long as they could use them as servants. (Labour cheers.)
So far as he could see, even if it were carried out to the extent
that it was proposed to go, it would not very much reduce the social contact
which at present existed between whites and natives.
SIR W. B. BERRY (Queenstown) said he would like to know why the Minister
had run away from the Bill that had passed the second reading,
and now tabled another Bill in the shape of many amendments.
One would naturally complain that, seeing that they had in that House
a Native Affairs Committee, a non-party committee, specially chosen
to consider all matters relating to native affairs, that Bill,
which was a most important matter and dealt with native affairs from A to Z,
should have been referred to that committee. The same thing
happened last session in reference to a Bill the Minister of Native Affairs
kept on the paper until nearly the end of the session, and the House
had to take the very unusual step almost on the last day of moving
that committee proceedings on that Bill be taken that day six months.
He (Sir W. B. Berry) proposed to move a similar amendment
to the motion now before the House. In the remarks he addressed
when the Bill came up for second reading he had ventured to say
that there was no call for a bill of that nature at all;
there was no need for a Bill revolutionizing the attitude of the Union
with respect to the natives generally. The only clue they could get
to the reason why the Bill was introduced was that a few die-hards
on the other side of the House had given the Minister to understand that
unless he brought in a Bill of that kind, or of a similarly drastic nature,
the position of the Government was in danger. He hoped
some of these die-hards would come forward that evening
and tell them plainly and bluntly why they wanted that Bill,
why they were going to thrust it on the country without any notice,
and why they were calling on the House to revolutionize
the whole tenour and the whole order of things in regard to land matters
as far as the Natives were concerned. Proceeding, the hon. member said
the only justification that had been offered for this Bill was that
a large amount of land had been transferred from Europeans to Natives.
An analysis of the return, however, showed that only sixteen farms
in the Transvaal had been so transferred during the last three years.
Surely that was not any justification why the European people of the Union
should get into a panic and why the administration of the day
were seeking to place on the Statute Book this most drastic legislation.
Another reason why he objected to this Bill was that it purported to appoint
a Commission to investigate to what extent and in what parts and in what time
land should be selected by the Commission for the purpose of being reserved
as additional native areas within the Union. They were not given
any guarantee that the Commission was going to be appointed
nor any guarantee that it would ever report, but at the same time
whilst these indefinite assurances were attempted to be given to the House
there was no getting over this fact, that there was no time limit in the Bill
by which the real enacting clause in the Bill was to have any cessation.
When he spoke on this Bill before he supported it only on the understanding
that a time limit was to be put in, or that it should be an annual Bill.
He said unhesitatingly that the whole tendency of the Bill,
as it stood at the second reading, and more especially as it stood
with the amendments by the Minister on the notice paper,
was to drive the Native peasant off the land. The only refuge
that that Native had was the town.
The country had not been prepared in any way for a Bill of this kind.
A cry had been heard throughout the land against the iniquities
proposed in the Bill. If it had been found absolutely necessary
that legislation of this kind should be introduced, the least
that could be expected was that ample time should be given to the Natives
to thoroughly acquire a knowledge of the contents of the measure.
That opportunity had not been given them, and in this respect
there was a very serious grievance. For the good order and peace of the Union
there was a very great danger ahead. He had understood from those
well versed in native affairs that one of the greatest dangers
that could threaten us was to give the Natives anything
in the shape of a common grievance. Divide and rule had been
a wise precaution in the government of the Natives. When a common grievance
was found by four or five million people one could understand how great
that grievance must be. One amendment the Minister had put on the paper
must give serious pause. The late Minister of Native Affairs
issued to members last session a Squatters Bill. The greatest objection
to that measure, and one which he thought led to its withdrawal,
was that it proposed to remove thousands upon thousands of natives
from land which they had been in the occupation of for scores of years.
It was in consequence of the disturbance which that Bill caused
throughout the Union that it was withdrawn. In one of the amendments
on the paper the present Minister of Native Affairs brought back
in a somewhat clandestine manner the most objectionable feature of the Bill
that was withdrawn.
Mr. Speaker: The amendment is not yet before the House.
SIR W. B. BERRY: What Bill is it then that is to go into Committee?
(Hear, hear.) Is it the Bill which was read a second time
or the Bill comprised in the Minister's amendments? He moved that the House
go into committee on the Bill this day six months.
MR. T. L. SCHREINER (Tembuland), in seconding the amendment,
said that sufficient notice had not been given of the provisions of the Bill,
although the Natives, thanks to the time which had elapsed
since the second reading, were better acquainted with the measure
than they were a little while ago.
Mr. Schreiner proceeded to quote opinions from native newspapers on the Bill.
The `Tsala ea Batho', of Kimberley, said: "We are standing on the brink
of the precipice. We appealed to certain members of Parliament against
the suspension clause in Mr. Sauer's Land Bill, and the result of our appeal
has been an agreement between Sir Thomas Smartt and the Minister
to the effect that the first part of the Bill only be proceeded with.
The effect of this agreement is infinitely worse than the whole Bill.
In its entirety, there were certain saving clauses, one of them
practically excluding the Cape Province from the operation of the Bill.
Under the present agreement, all these clauses are dropped,
and section 1 of the Bill, which prohibits the sale of land
between Europeans and Natives (pending the report of a future Commission)
is applicable to all parts of the Union, including the Cape Province.
Now, then, if this suspension clause becomes law, what is going to happen?
It is simply this: That the whole land policy of the Union of South Africa
is the land policy of the Orange Free State, and it will be as difficult
to abrogate that suspension as it is difficult to recall a bullet,
once fired through some one's head, and resuscitate the victim.
Our object then should be to prevent the pistol being fired off,
as prevention is infinitely better than cure." One paper
that he was quoting from was (Mr. Schreiner went on to say) pleased,
because it believed that this Bill was going to Select Committee.
There was another native paper, published in Natal, which acknowledged
the efforts which the missionaries had made on behalf of the Natives
in regard to this Bill. There was a native paper, published at Dundee,
which said that, if the Bill were in the interests of the Natives,
and the Government were actuated by a sincere regard for them,
they would not have hesitated to publish it broadcast, instead of being
in such haste to push the matter through the House.*
--
* All efforts to induce the South African Government to circulate
translations of the Natives' Land Act among the Natives of the Union
have proved fruitless. -- Author.
--
Mr. Schreiner (continuing) referred to the resolution passed
by the Natal Missionary Conference, and the views expressed
by the Chairman of the Transvaal Missionary Conference in opposition
to the Bill. He mentioned that it had been decided in Johannesburg
to call a meeting of missionary societies throughout the Union,
to determine what action could be taken in case clause 1 was proceeded with.
He had also received a telegram from the Witwatersrand Church Council,
stating that a telegram had been sent to the Minister strongly protesting
against section 1 being enacted before the proposed Commission
had thoroughly investigated the whole question of alternative areas.
Mr. Schreiner urged that, if they proceeded with this Bill,
and passed clause 1 of the old Bill, and appointed a Commission,
these restrictions with regard to purchase and sale, which the Natives
had feared, and which the missionaries, on behalf of the Natives,
feared and protested against, would become a fact. For that reason,
he said they should rather put off the Bill.
Every one was feeling the pressure of their legislative duties. Was this
the time, therefore, for passing a measure of such a far-reaching character,
and where every clause demanded the most careful consideration and scrutiny?
Was it the right thing because he had a majority at his back
for the Minister to say that they must get this Bill through this session?
He held that this was not right. It was not fair to those who had
the solution of the question at heart. (Cheers.)
SIR E. H. WALTON (Port Elizabeth, Central) said he entirely supported
the amendment of the hon. member for Queen's Town. He had a telegram
from a mass meeting of Natives held in Port Elizabeth, in which they hoped
that the House would postpone decision on this question until the Commission
had sat and reported. That seemed to him an entirely reasonable request,
and it seemed all the more necessary that this should be done
on account of the very large alterations that it had been found necessary
to make in the Bill.
They had native protests from all parts of South Africa against this measure,
and when one saw what was proposed in this Act, they could not wonder
at these protests. (Hear, hear.) Therefore he put it that these protests
should receive fair consideration from members on all sides of the House.
Legislation of this kind was unfortunate from the point of view
of the Natives. The more intelligent of the Natives in this country
were asking for time. They said: "You are putting this thing upon us,
give us time to consider it. Allow this Commission to get to work,
allow this Commission to put before us the provisions you are going to make
for us, and when this is done we will submit to anything that is fair."
No man, and the Native was just a man like the rest of us,
liked the old arrangements to be disturbed, because it upset him,
and the Native might oppose it, because he was frightened.
They must admit that they had not given the native leaders and chiefs
an opportunity to come down to Cape Town and give their views.
It was unfortunate that this measure had been more or less rushed.
There was no mention of it in the Governor-General's speech, and therefore
the Natives were not prepared for the consideration of the question.
MR. M. ALEXANDER (Cape Town, Castle) said he was still of opinion
that a very dangerous principle was introduced in the Bill,
especially so far as the Cape was concerned. In the speech
delivered by the Governor-General at the opening of the session
there was not the slightest reference to the present measure,
which apparently had been brought in as an afterthought, and something
must have occurred after the Governor-General's speech was delivered,
otherwise one could not conceive of such an important Bill being omitted
from the speech. As it was the Bill would simply hang things up
until the Commission reported, and now the House would be legislating
in the dark. The vast majority of Natives had declared themselves
to be against the Bill. He had had no desire whatever that party capital
should be made out of the measure -- (hear, hear) -- but he desired
to see a measure which would bear the mark of statesmanship,
and not of panic and hurry. Their Commission could report
before next session, and then in the early stages of the session
a Bill could be introduced and be adopted on its merits.
In the interests of South Africa, in the interests of the Natives,
and in the interests of just legislation let the Government withdraw the Bill,
and appoint a Commission, and then justice and not injustice would be done.
(Hear, hear.)
DR. A. H. WATKINS (Barkly) said that there was a tacit understanding
that the Minister would refer this Bill, if he were not prepared
to accept a purely temporary measure, to a Select Committee.
During the three years of the Union Parliament every matter
practically dealing with Natives had been brought before
the Select Committee on Native Affairs and their opinion had been asked.
For some reason, which it was difficult for him to understand,
the Minister had not seen fit to carry out that course.
Sixteen days had elapsed since the second reading of this Bill was taken
on which the Select Committee could have sat morning after morning
and dealt with the Bill.
The necessity of passing only a temporary measure instead of appearing
to pass a measure which would permanently deal with this question,
was more evident to-night than when they took the second reading.
MR. H. M. MEYLER (Weenen) said that he would support
the motion of Sir Bisset Berry. He thought it would be
a great injustice to the Natives, and especially the Natives of Natal,
who really knew nothing of this measure, to force it through now.
Since the second reading, his attention had been drawn to certain provisions
in this Bill, which made it more dangerous still to hurry legislation,
because he found that, although there was an exemption in the Bill as regarded
agreements lawfully entered into, the vast majority of the agreements
at present in force amongst the Natives of Natal were not strictly lawful,
according to their Statute law. As they had no less than 380,000 Natives
squatting on private lands in Natal, according to the Minister's own figures,
it would be a fatal mistake to do anything to upset these people,
until they had something ready to provide for them instead.
The difficulty was that under the Natal law no oral contract was binding
for more than twelve months, and many of those squatters
had not got oral contracts, but were more or less on sufferance on the farms.
It would be a great danger to pass legislation which would lead to
the moving of a large portion of these people before they got an inch of land
provided for their use. He objected to legislation being brought forward
too hurriedly, and when they had got 4 1/2 millions of Natives, only an
infinitesimal portion of whom could possibly know the nature of the Bill,
and seeing that it affected them as well as the white population,
they had a perfect right to have it explained to them
by the Government officials and let their members of Parliament
for the divisions in which they lived give their opinions on the question.
That would take months, and it was impossible to get a proper
opinion of the Natives until hon. members had been away from the House
for some time. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister admitted
they should stand as the guardians of the Natives, and admitted
that they should go slowly, and he hoped the hon. Minister would be willing
to reconsider the Bill and allow it to be put off, and let them have
an interim report, at any rate, from the Commission, before they were asked
to pass legislation in that matter.
==
The Bill was contested at every stage and numerous divisions were challenged.
In each instance, the Speaker would put the Question, and the "steam-roller"
would go to work with the inevitable result. The division lists ranged
from 17 against 71 to 32 against 60, the majority in each case
being in favour of repression. It would be just as well
to give at least one of these division lists. The English names
in the majority are those of some Natal members (Ministerialists)
or representatives of purely Dutch constituencies: --
DIVISION
Dr. A. H. Watkins (Barkly) called for a division, which was taken
with the following result.
AYES -- 32.
Andrews, William Henry
Baxter, William Duncan
Berry, William Bisset
Blaine, George
Boydell, Thomas
Brown, Daniel Maclaren
Creswell, Frederic Hugh Page
Duncan, Patrick
Fawcus, Alfred
Fitzpatrick, James Percy
Henderson, James
Henwood, Charlie
Hunter, David
Jagger, John William
King, John Gavin
Long, Basil Kellett
Macaulay, Donald
Madeley, Walter Bayley
Meyler, Hugh Mowbray
Nathan, Emile
Oliver, Henry Alfred
Quinn, John William
Rockey, Willie
Runciman, William
Sampson, Henry William
Schreiner, Theophilus Lyndall
Searle, James
Smartt, Thomas William
Walton, Edgar Harris
Watkins, Arnold Hirst
Morris Alexander and J. Hewat tellers.
NOES -- 57.
Alberts, Johannes Joachim
Becker, Heinrich Christian
Bosman, Hendrik Johannes
Botha, Louis
Brain, Thomas Phillip
Burton, Henry
Clayton, Walter Frederick
Cronje, Frederik Reinhardt
Currey, Henry Latham
De Beer, Michiel Johannes
De Jager, Andries Lourens
De Waal, Hendrik
Du Toit, Gert Johan Wilhelm
Geldenhuys, Lourens
Graaff, David Pieter de Villiers
Griffin, William Henry
Grobler, Evert Nicolaas
Grobler, Pieter Gert Wessel
Joubert, Christiaan Johannes Jacobus
Joubert, Jozua Adriaan
Keyter, Jan Garhard
Kuhn, Pieter Gysbert
Lemmer, Lodewyk Arnoldus Slabbert
Maasdorp, Gysbert Henry
Malan, Francois Stephanus
Marais, Johannes Henoch
Marais, Pieter Gerhardus
Merriman, John Xavier
Meyer, Izaak Johannes
Myburgh, Marthinus Wilhelmus
Neethling, Andrew Murray
Neser, Johannes Adriaan
Nicholson, Richard Granville
Oothuisen, Ockert Almero
Orr, Thomas
Rademeyer, Jacobus Michael
Sauer, Jacobus Wilhelmus
Serfontein, Hendrik Philippus
Smuts, Jan Christiaan
Smuts, Tobias
Steyl, Johannes Petrus Gerhardus
Steytler, George Louis
Theron, Hendrik Schalk
Theron, Petrus Jacobus George
Van der Merwe, Johannes Adolph P.
Van der Walt, Jacobus
Van Eeden, Jacobus Willem
Van Heerden, Hercules Christian
Venter, Jan Abraham
Vermaas, Hendrik Cornelius Wilhelmus
Vintcent, Alwyn Ignatius
Vosloo, Johannes Arnoldus
Watt, Thomas
Wilcocks, Carl Theodorus Muller
Wiltshire, Henry
H. Mentz and G. A. Louw, tellers.
Chapter III The Natives' Land Act
I blush to think that His Majesty's representative signed a law like this,
and signed it in such circumstances.
Rev. Amos Burnet
(Chairman and General Superintendent of
the Transvaal and Swazieland District,
Wesleyan Methodist Church).
Up to now we have dealt with the history of the Land Act
from its commencement, and all the speeches and official documents
we have mentioned hitherto say nothing about restricting Europeans
in their ownership of land. And no matter what other principles
one might read into the Act, it would be found that the principles
underlying it were those of extending the "Free" State land laws
throughout the Union -- an extension by which Natives would be prohibited
from investing their earnings in land whereon they could end their days
in peace.
There seems to be good reason for believing that the Government were advised,
by the legal advisers of the Crown, that the Natives' Land Bill
would be class legislation of a kind that would never be allowed
by His Majesty's Government. The originators of the Bill, however,
were determined so to circumvent the constitutional quibble
raised by the legal advisers as to seal our doom; and by adroitly manipulating
its legal phrases, it seems that it was recasted in such a manner
as to give it a semblance of a paper restriction on European encroachment
on native rights. But class legislation the Act is, for whereas
in his travels about South Africa, since the passing of this Act,
the author has met many a native family with their stock,
turned out by the Act upon the roads, he never met one white man so hounded
by the same Act, and debarred from living where he pleased.
The squatters form a particular section of the community specifically affected
by the Land Act; and there is no such person in South Africa
as a white squatter. Although it is insistently affirmed that the law applies
both to Europeans and Natives, the conclusion cannot be avoided that
it is directed exclusively against the Native. This is the naked truth that
turns all other explanations of the fact into mere shuffling and juggling.
And the reader will find that in Section 11, at the end of the statute
which is here reproduced (whether the omission of Europeans
was a mistake of the Parliamentary draftsmen, or the printers, we know not),
it is expressly stated that "this Act may be cited for all purposes
as the NATIVES' Land Act, 1913." Who, then, will continue to argue
that it was intended for Europeans as well?
==
No. 27, 1913.]
ACT
TO
Make further provision as to the purchase and leasing of Land
by Natives and other Persons in the several parts of the Union and for
other purposes in connection with the ownership and occupation of Land
by Natives and other Persons.
Be it enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa,
as follows: --
1. (1) From and after the commencement of this Act,
land outside the scheduled native areas shall, until Parliament,
acting upon the report of the commission appointed under this Act,
shall have made other provision, be subjected to the following provisions,
that is to say: --
Except with the approval of the Governor-General --
(a) a native shall not enter into any agreement or transaction
for the purchase, hire, or other acquisition from a person
other than a native, of any such land or of any right thereto,
interest therein, or servitude thereover; and
(b) a person other than a native shall not enter into
any agreement or transaction for the purchase, hire,
or other acquisition from a native of any such land
or of any right thereto, interest therein, or servitude thereover.
(2) From and after the commencement of this Act, no person other than
a native shall purchase, hire or in any other manner whatever acquire any land
in a scheduled native area or enter into any agreement or transaction for
the purchase, hire or other acquisition, direct or indirect, of any such land
or of any right thereto or interest therein or servitude thereover,
except with the approval of the Governor-General.
(3) A statement showing the number of approvals granted
by the Governor-General under sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section
and giving the names and addresses of the persons to whom
such approvals were granted, the reasons for granting the same,
and the situation of the lands in respect of which they were granted,
shall, within six weeks after the commencement of each ordinary session
of Parliament, be laid upon the Tables of both Houses of Parliament.
(4) Every agreement or any other transaction whatever entered into
in contravention of this section shall be null and void ab initio.
2. (1) As soon as may be after the commencement of this Act
the Governor-General shall appoint a commission whose functions shall be
to inquire and report --
(a) what areas should be set apart as areas within which natives
shall not be permitted to acquire or hire land or interests in land;
(b) what areas should be set apart as areas within which
persons other than natives shall not be permitted to acquire or hire
land or interests in land.
The commission shall submit with any such report --
(i) descriptions of the boundaries of any area which it proposes
should be so set apart; and
(ii) a map or maps showing every such area.
(2) The commission shall proceed with and complete its inquiry
and present its reports and recommendations to the Minister
within two years after the commencement of this Act, and may present
INTERIM reports and recommendations: Provided that Parliament
may by resolution extend (if necessary) the time for the completion
of the commission's inquiry. All such reports and recommendations
shall be laid by the Minister, as soon as possible after the receipt thereof,
upon the Tables of both Houses of Parliament.
3. (1) The commission shall consist of not less than five persons,
and if any member of the commission die or resign or, owing to
absence or any other reason, is unable to act, his place shall be filled
by the Governor-General.
(2) The commission may delegate to any of its members
the carrying out of any part of an inquiry which under this Act
it is appointed to hold and may appoint persons to assist it or to act
as assessors thereto or with any members thereof delegated as aforesaid,
and may regulate its own procedure.
(3) The reports and recommendations of the majority of the commission
shall be deemed to be the reports and recommendations of the commission:
Provided that any recommendations of any member who dissents
from the majority of the commission shall, if signed by him,
be included in any such report aforesaid.
(4) The commission or any member thereof or any person acting
as assistant, or assessor, or secretary thereto may enter upon any land
for the purposes of its inquiries and obtain thereon the information necessary
to prosecute the inquiries. The commission shall without fee or other charge
have access to the records and registers relating to land in any public office
or in the office of any divisional council or other local authority.
4. (1) For the purposes of establishing any such area as is described
in section TWO, the Governor-General may, out of moneys which Parliament
may vote for the purpose, acquire any land or interest in land.
(2) In default of agreement with the owners of the land
or the holders of interests therein the provisions of the law in force
in the Province in which such land or interest in land is situate
relating to the expropriation of land for public purposes
shall apply and, if in any Province there be no such law,
the provisions of Proclamation No. 5 of 1902 of the Transvaal
and any amendment thereof shall mutatis mutandis apply.
5. (1) Any person who is a party to any attempted purchase,
sale, hire or lease, or to any agreement or transaction which
is in contravention of this Act or any regulation made thereunder
shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine
not exceeding one hundred pounds or, in default of payment, to imprisonment
with or without hard labour for a period not exceeding six months,
and if the act constituting the offence be a continuing one,
the offender shall be liable to a further fine not exceeding five pounds
for every day which that act continues.
(2) In the event of such an offence being committed by a company,
corporation, or other body of persons (not being a firm or partnership),
every director, secretary, or manager of such company, corporation, or body
who is within the Union shall be liable to prosecution and punishment and,
in the event of any such offence being committed by a firm or partnership,
every member of the firm or partnership who is within the Union
shall be liable to prosecution and punishment.
6. In so far as the occupation by natives of land outside
the scheduled native areas may be affected by this Act, the provisions thereof
shall be construed as being in addition to and not in substitution for any law
in force at the commencement thereof relating to such occupation;
but in the event of a conflict between the provisions of this Act
and the provisions of any such law, the provisions of this Act shall,
save as is specially provided therein, prevail:
Provided that --
(a) nothing in any such law or in this Act shall be construed
as restricting the number of natives who, as farm labourers,
may reside on any farm in the Transvaal;
(b) in any proceedings for a contravention of this Act
the burden of proving that a native is a farm labourer
shall be upon the accused;
(c) until Parliament, acting upon the report of the said commission,
has made other provision, no native resident on any farm
in the Transvaal or Natal shall be liable to penalties
or to be removed from such farm under any law,
if at the commencement of this Act he or the head of his family
is registered for taxation or other purposes
in the department of Native Affairs as being resident on such farm,
nor shall the owner of any such farm be liable to the penalties
imposed by section FIVE in respect of the occupation of the land
by such native; but nothing herein contained shall affect any right
possessed by law by an owner or lessee of a farm to remove
any native therefrom.
7. (1) Chapter XXXIV of the Orange Free State Law Book and Law No. 4 of 1895
of the Orange Free State shall remain of full force and effect,
subject to the modifications and interpretations in this section provided,
and sub-section (1) (a) of the next succeeding section shall not apply
to the Orange Free State.
(2) Those heads of families, with their families, who are described
in article TWENTY of Law No. 4 of 1895 of the Orange Free State
shall in the circumstances described in that article be deemed to fall under
the provisions of Ordinance No. 7 of 1904 of that Province or of any other law
hereafter enacted amending or substituted for that Ordinance.
(3) Whenever in Chapter XXXIV of the Orange Free State Law Book
the expressions "lease" and "leasing" are used, those expressions
shall be construed as including or referring to an agreement or arrangement
whereby a person, in consideration of his being permitted to occupy land,
renders or promises to render to any person a share of the produce thereof,
or any valuable consideration of any kind whatever other than
his own labour or services or the labour or services of any of his family.
8. (1) Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as, --
(a) preventing the continuation or renewal (until Parliament
acting upon the report of the said commission has made
other provision) of any agreement or arrangement lawfully
entered into and in existence at the commencement of this Act
which is a hiring or leasing of land as defined in this Act; or
(b) invalidating or affecting in any manner whatever
any agreement or any other transaction for the purchase of land
lawfully entered into prior to the commencement of this Act,
or as prohibiting any person from purchasing at any sale
held by order of a competent court any land which was hypothecated
by a mortgage bond passed before the commencement of this Act; or
(c) prohibiting the acquisition at any time of land or interests in land
by devolution or succession on death, whether under
a will or on intestacy; or
(d) preventing the due registration in the proper deeds office
(whenever registration is necessary) of documents giving effect
to any such agreement, transaction, devolution or succession
as is in this section mentioned; or
(e) prohibiting any person from claiming, acquiring,
or holding any such servitude as under Chapter VII,
of the Irrigation and Conservation of Waters Act, 1912,
he is specially entitled to claim, acquire, or hold; or
(f) in any way altering the law in force at the commencement of this Act
relating to the acquisition of rights to minerals,
precious or base metals or precious stones; or
(g) applying to land within the limits in which a municipal council,
town council, town board, village management board,
or health committee or other local authority
exercises jurisdiction; or
(h) applying to land held at the commencement of the Act by any society
carrying on, with the approval of the Governor-General,
educational or missionary work amongst natives; or
(i) prohibiting the acquisition by natives from any person whatever
of land or interests in land in any township lawfully established
prior to the commencement of this Act, provided it is
a condition of the acquisition that no land or interest in land
in such township has at any time been or shall in future be,
transferred except to a native or coloured person; or
(j) permitting the alienation of land or its diversion from
the purposes for which it was set apart if, under section
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN of the South African Act, 1909,
or any other law, such land could not be alienated or so diverted
except under the authority of an Act of Parliament; or
(k) in any way modifying the provisions of any law whereby
mortgages of or charges over land may be created
to secure advances out of public moneys for specific purposes
mentioned in such law and the interest of such advances,
or whereunder the mortgagee or person having the charge
may enter and take possession of the land so mortgaged or charged
except that in any sale of such land in accordance with such law
the provisions of this Act shall be observed.
(2) Nothing in this Act contained which imposes restrictions
upon the acquisition by any person of land or right thereto,
interests therein, or servitudes thereover, shall be in force
in the Province of the Cape of Good Hope, if and for so long
as such person would, by such restrictions, be prevented from
acquiring or holding a qualification whereunder he is or may become
entitled to be registered as a voter at parliamentary elections
in any electoral division in the said Province.
9. The Governor-General may make regulations for preventing
the overcrowding of huts and other dwellings in the stadts,
native villages and settlements and other places in which natives
are congregated in areas not under the jurisdiction of any local authority,
the sanitation of such places and for the maintenance of the health
of the inhabitants thereof.
10. In this Act, unless inconsistent with the context, --
"scheduled native area" shall mean any area described in the Schedule
to this Act;
"native" shall mean any person, male or female, who is a member of
an aboriginal race or tribe of Africa; and shall further include
any company or other body of persons, corporate or unincorporate,
if the persons who have a controlling interest therein are natives;
"interest in land" shall include, in addition to other interest in land,
the interest which a mortgagee of, or person having charge over, land acquires
under a mortgage bond or charge;
"Minister" shall mean the Minister of Native Affairs;
"farm labourer" shall mean a native who resides on a farm and is bona fide,
but not necessarily continuously employed by the owner or lessee thereof
in domestic service or in farming operations:
Provided that --
(a) if such native reside on one farm and is employed
on another farm of the same owner or lessee he shall be deemed
to have resided, and to have been employed, on one and the same farm;
(b) such native shall not be deemed to be bona fide employed
unless he renders ninety days' service at least
in one calendar year on the farm occupied by the owner or lessee
or on another farm of the owner or lessee and no rent is paid
or valuable consideration of any kind, other than service,
is given by him to the owner or lessee in respect of residence
on such farm or farms.
A person shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act
to hire land if, in consideration of his being permitted
to occupy that land or any portion thereof --
(a) he pays or promises to pay to any person a rent in money; or
(b) he renders or promises to render to any person a share of the produce
of that land, or any valuable consideration of any kind whatever
other than his own labour or services or the labour or services
of his family.
11. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Natives' Land Act, 1913.
==
The foregoing result of a legislative jumble is "the law",
and this law, like Alexander the coppersmith, "hath done us much harm".
Mr. Sauer carried his Bill less by reason than by sheer force of numbers,
and partly by promises which he afterwards broke. Among these broken promises
was the definite assurance he gave Parliament that the Bill
would be referred to the Select Committee on Native Affairs,
so that the Natives, who are not represented in Parliament,
their European friends and the Missionary bodies on behalf of the Natives,
could be able at the proper time to appear before this committee and state
any objection which they might have to the Bill. But when that time came,
the Minister flatly refused to refer it to the committee.
This change of front is easily explained, because the weight of evidence
which could have been given before any Parliamentary committee
would have imperilled the passage of the Bill.
As might have been expected, the debate on the Bill created the greatest alarm
amongst the native population, for they had followed its course
with the keenest interest. Nothing short of a declaration of war against them
could have created a similar excitement, although the hope was entertained
in some quarters, that a body of men like the Ministerialists in Parliament
(a majority of whom are never happier than when attesting
the Christian character of their race) would in course of days
attend the Holy Communion, remember the 11th Commandment,
and do unto others as they would that men should do unto them.
Our people, in fact a number of them, said amongst themselves
that even Dutchmen sing Psalms -- all the Psalms, including the 24th;
and, believing as they did that Dutchmen could have no other religion
besides the one recommended in the New Testament and preached by
the predikants of the Dutch Reformed Church, were prepared
to commend their safety to the influence of that sweet and peaceable religion.
However, some other Natives, remembering what took place before
the South African war, took a different view of these religious incidents.
Those Natives, especially of the old Republics, knew that
the only dividing fence between the Transvaal Natives and complete slavery
was the London Convention; they, therefore, now that the London Convention
in fact had ceased to exist, had evil forebodings regarding
the average Republican's treatment of the Natives, which was seldom influenced
by religious scruples, and they did not hesitate to express their fears.
Personally we must say that if any one had told us at the beginning of 1913,
that a majority of members of the Union Parliament were capable of passing
a law like the Natives' Land Act, whose object is to prevent the Natives
from ever rising above the position of servants to the whites,
we would have regarded that person as a fit subject for the lunatic asylum.
But the passing of that Act and its operation have rudely
forced the fact upon us that the Union Parliament is capable of producing
any measure that is subversive of native interests; and that
the complete arrest of native progress is the object aimed at
in their efforts to include the Protectorates in their Union.
Thus we think that their sole reason for seeking to incorporate Basutoland,
Swaziland and Bechuanaland is that, when they have definitely eliminated
the Imperial factor from South Africa, as they are unmistakably trying to do,
they may have a million more slaves than if the Protectorates were excluded.
In this connexion, the realization of the prophecy of an old Basuto
became increasingly believable to us. It was to this effect, namely:
"That the Imperial Government, after conquering the Boers,
handed back to them their old Republics, and a nice little present
in the shape of the Cape Colony and Natal -- the two English Colonies.
That the Boers are now ousting the Englishmen from the public service,
and when they have finished with them, they will make a law
declaring it a crime for a Native to live in South Africa,
unless he is a servant in the employ of a Boer, and that from this
it will be just one step to complete slavery." This is being realized,
for to-day we have, extended throughout the Union of South Africa,
a "Free" State law which makes it illegal for Natives
to live on farms except as servants in the employ of Europeans.
There is another "Free" State law, under which no Native
may live in a municipal area or own property in urban localities.
He can only live in town as a servant in the employ of a European.
And if the followers of General Hertzog are permitted
to dragoon the Union Government into enforcing "Free" State ideals
against the Natives of the Union, as they have successfully done
under the Natives' Land Act, it will only be a matter of time
before we have a Natives' Urban Act enforced throughout South Africa.
Then we will have the banner of slavery fully unfurled (of course,
under another name) throughout the length and breadth of the land.
When the Natives' Land Bill was before Parliament, meetings were held
in many villages and locations in protest against the Ministerial surrender
to the Republicans, of which the Bill was the outcome.
At the end of March, 1913, the Native National Congress met in Johannesburg,
and there a deputation was appointed to go to Capetown
and point out to the Government some, at least, of the harm
that would follow legislation of the character mapped out in Parliament
on February 28 when the Land Act was first announced. They were to urge
that such a measure would be exploitation of the cruelest kind, that it
would not only interfere with the economic independence of the Natives,
but would reduce them for ever to a state of serfdom, and degrade them
as nothing has done since slavery was abolished at the Cape.
Missionaries also, and European friends of the Natives, did not sit still.
Resolution after resolution, telegraphic and other representations,
were made to Mr. Sauer, from meetings in various parts of the country,
counselling prudence. Even such societies as the Transvaal Landowners,
who had long been crying for a measure to separate whites from blacks,
and vice versa, urged that the Bill should not be passed during
the same session in which it was introduced, that the country should be given
an opportunity to digest it, in order, if necessary, to suggest amendments.
The Missionary bodies, too, represent a following of Natives
numbering hundreds of thousands of souls, on whose behalf
they pleaded for justice. These bodies urged that before passing a law,
prohibiting the sale and lease of land to Natives, and expelling squatters
from their homes, the Government should provide locations
to which the evicted Natives could go. But all these representations
made no impression upon the Government, who, instead, preferred to act
upon the recommendation of thirteen diminutive petitions
(signed in all by 304 Dutchmen in favour of the Bill)* than to be guided
by the overwhelming weight of public opinion that was against its passage.
Thus it became clear that the Native's position in his own country
was not an enviable one, for once a law was made prohibiting
the sale of landed property to Natives, it would be almost impossible
to get a South African Parliament to amend it.
--
* One of these thirteen petitions had only four signatures,
which was but one better than that of the Tooley Street tailors.
--