2b.1:
Pre-1948:
- 4 racial groups: whites, Africans, coloured people, Indians
o Africans = largest, 8.5 million in 1951, Zulu = largest African kingdom
o Whites = Afrikaners/of British Descent
- WW2, 180,000 white men in armed forces, opportunities for blacks increased
o After war, blacks + whites competed for jobs
o ‘poor white problem’ appealed to by Nationalists
- Black migrants sent to townships outside cities (largest later became Soweto)
- Whites owned over 80% of land
o Black people worked as labourers on white-owned farms or reserves
- 1899-1902, Britain fought Anglo-Boer war
- Hertzog founded ANC 1913, won 1924 election
o 1934, Hertzog & Smuts founded United Party
1948 Election:
- 1939, Parliament voted to support British war effort, Hertzog resigned
- Growing Afrikaner nationalism
o Broederbond encouraged Christian, Republican, Nationalist outlook
o Calvinist Dutch reformed Churches supported idea of autonomous ‘volk’
o Ossewabrandwag – Afrikaner anti-war movement, 300,000 members at peak
o 1938 centenary of the Great Trek
- Smuts = pragmatist, understood need for black workers
- Henry Gluckman (Minister of Health), advocated healthcare expansion (but segregated)
- Malan won 38% of vote, Smuts won 49% -but Westminster electoral System
Implementing Apartheid, 1948-59:
- Strengthening the NP
o 1949, 6 members of parliament added for whites in Namibia
o 1951 Separate Representation of Voters Act
Removed coloured vote with simple majority
o 1953, NP increased vote from 400,000 to nearly 600,000 – narrowly outpolled UP
o 1950s, state employment increased: 482,000 to 799,000 – majority new employees = Afrikaners
- Hendrik Verwoerd:
o Minister of Native Affairs (1950-58), prime minister (1958-66)
- Apartheid Laws
o 1951 Bantu Authorities Act
o 1959 Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act
Envisaged self-governing African units based around traditional authorities
o 1949 Mixed Marriage Act (prohibited marriage across racial boundaries)
o 1950 Immortality Act (prohibited sex across racial boundaries)
o 1950 Population Registration Act (assigned all to one of 4 racial groups)
- Group Areas Acts
o Sophiatown
Racially mixed by predominantly African, housed 60,000
Unusually, Africans able to hold private land
, Removal planning began 1950, bulldozed into rubble within 6 years
o Durban
Third largest city, housed 450,000 1951 – 1/3 Indian, 1/3 African, 1/3 White
1949, Africans attacked Indians who they felt exploited them as landlords/storekeepers
142 died, over 1,000 injured in riots & police suppression
1950s, Group Areas enforced
By 1965, shacks largely removed from Cato Manor, tens of thousands of
Africans moved to townships, 41,000 Indians moved from central areas
Private property ownership allowed in Indian suburbs (unlike African townships)
o District Six
Multi-racial, largely Coloured, near Cape Town city centre
Group areas enforced from 1966, 60,000 forcible removed, buildings bulldozed
Pass Laws:
- 1953 Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (separate facilities, ‘petty apartheid’)
- 1952 Natives Abolition of Passes Act (reference books introduced) 1956, extended to women
- 1952 Urban Areas Act (gave urban rights to minority of Africans who were born in town, worked there for
10 years or lived there for 15 years)
- Pass law convictions increased from 164,324 in 1952 to 384,497 in 1962
- However, failed to keep Africans out of cities
o SA African urban population rose from 1.8mil 1946 to 3.5mil 1960 (over whole white population)
Education:
- Only 24% blacks literate in 1951 census
- 1953 Bantu Education Act (segregated education, extended education to African children)
- Fear of tsotsis (street youths) & need for skilled workers = drivers behind expansion of education
- Fort Hare university became centre of black student opposition
o 1959 Extension of University Education Act
brought Fort Hare under gov. control, planned for full segregation of largely white
English-language universities, planned for new universities for other races
The Tomlinson Report:
- 1955 commission report under Professor F.R. Tomlinson
- Believed economic development of former reserves had to be at heart of apartheid
- Believed Bantustans could be transformed with massive state investment of £100mil (£7bil in 2015)
- Recommended: pushing families off the land to create bigger ‘economic units’ for farming, major funding
for rural industries, private enterprises to invest in these areas
- Verwoerd rejected suggestions, believed ‘Bantu’ should develop ‘at their own pace’
o Whites wouldn’t support the spending, didn’t want subsidized industries to compete with urban
white businesses, if Africans lost land they would move to cities (‘oorstrooming’)
The Bantustans:
- ‘Betterment’ and ‘Rehabilitation’
o Strategy to stop environmental degradation by dividing pastures into paddocks
Animals moved from paddock to paddock to avoid over-grazing
o Rural families moved from scattered settlements to compact villages (over 1mil)
o Africans forced to sell livestock to ease pressure on pastures
o Culling of livestock so unpopular, gov had to abandon it in 1960s
, - NP not prepared to divide SA equally, Africans didn’t associate with historic chieftaincies
The Treason Trial:
- Congress Alliance = coalition of anti-apartheid movts (ANC, Indian Congress, trade unionists, etc.)
- 1956, 156 members of Congress Alliance arrested in raids, accused of treason
- All accused acquitted in 1961
- Demonstrated multi-racial nature of anti-apartheid struggle, ANC leaders tied up in proceedings for years
1948 Political Opposition:
- No single group or ideology, divided by NP, geographic zone, race, class & interest
- strikes, boycotts, protests, rallies
o not always at NP: e.g. 1949 Durban riots, Zulu people attacked Indians
o illegal occupations of private land (e.g. James Mpanza = leader in Johannesburg)
o 1946 miners strike, Smuts called army to assist police in breaking strike
o 1944 & 1949 bus boycotts
The ANC:
- ANC established 1912
o initially spurred by creation of Union of South Africa 1910 (blacks excluded from rights)
o opposed 1913 Natives Land Act
- The ANC Youth League
o ANC youth league founded 1944 – more radical, Africanist ideology, self-determination
o Initially led by Anton Lembede, included: A.P. Mda, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela
o 1949 Programme of Action, adopted by ANC December 1949
Moved from concession-seeking to militant liberation
ANC mostly adhered to non-racialism
o Helped to oust moderate ANC president, Dr Xuma 1952 Albert Luthuli became president
- Links with other organisations
o NP banned Communist Party 1950, alliance between Communist Party and ANC
o Whites, Indians & Coloured people not accepted into ANC
SA Indian Congress, whites coloured formed parallel Congress organisations
o Liberal Party formed 1953
Attracted black support but didn’t work with ANC or communists
The Defiance Campaign:
- 1952, influenced by Ghandi’s non-violent civil disobedience, aimed to break restrictions & risk arrest
- Most arrests, (6,000 of 8,000) made in Eastern Cape cities of Port Elizabeth and East London
- ANC membership increased from 4,000 to 100,000
- Case Study: East London
o East Bank in East London, 35,000 people, people lived in shacks, high infant mortality (37%
babies died in first year), high poverty
o ANC branch there led by Alcott Gwentshe & C.J. Fazzie
o Defiance Campaign began in June 1952 with rally of 1,500: hymns, ANC slogans, many arrested
o October, campaign split into moderate Gwentshe & radial Fazzie, riots in Port Elizabeth
o Early November, Minister of Justice banned public gatherings for a month, sent reinforcements
o 9th November 1952, meeting of 800, threw stones at police, police fired, buildings burnt
