The Black Sash, Vol. 16, No. 7

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Alternative title The Black SashThe Black Sash

Author/Creator The Black Sash (Johannesburg)

Contributor Duncan, Sheena

Publisher The Black Sash (Johannesburg)

Date 1973-11

Resource type Journals (Periodicals)

Language English

Subject

Coverage (spatial) South Africa

Coverage (temporal) 1973

Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA)

Relation The Black Sash (1956-1969); continued by Sash(1969-1994)

Rights By kind permission of Black Sash.

Format extent(length/size)

39 page(s)

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SASHVol. 16. No. 7Nov. 1973Price: 40cThe Black Sash magazine

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BLACK SASH OFFICE BEARERSIlEADQUARTERSNational President: Mrs. J. Sinclair,4a-2nd Avenue, ParktownNorth,Johannesburg. Tel. 42-4649.National Vice-Presidents: Mrs. R. M.Johnson, 86-9th Avenue, High-lands North,Jhb. Tel. 40-1973.NATAL COASTALMrs. J. Harris, 29-5th Street,Lower Houghton. Tel. 728-2712.Hon. NationalSecretaries: Mrs. S.Trathen, Mrs. A. van der Riet, 37Harvard Buildings, Joubert Street,Jhb. Tel. 23-1032.NationalTreasurer: Mrs. Beinashowitz,37 Harvard Buildings, Joubert St.,Johannesburg,Magazine Editors: Mrs. S. Duncan,45-22nd Street, Parkhurst, Johannes-burg. Tel.: 42-9713.Mrs. P. cker, 36-5th Avenue,Parktowr~orth.Office: 37,Harvard Buildings, JoubertStreet, Johannesburg. Tel. 23-1032.BORDENChairman: Mrs. D'. Streek, 22, Turn-berryAvenue, East London. Tel.87852.Treasurer: Mrs. B. Sparg, 33 ElizabethCourt, Inverleith Terrace, EastLondon. Tel.25879.Secretary : Mrs. V. Sullivan, 3, WarwickRoad, Vincent, East London.CAPE EASTERNTreasurer : Mrs. A.Bolton, 19, Liptonroad, Mill Park, Port E1_zabeth.T'~J. 36064.ALBANY:Chairma7z : Mrs. C. Pridmore, P.O. Bux103,Grahamstown. Tel. 2577.Secretary: Mrs. R. V W. Smith, P.O.BI alj~ "O~, Grah _lo,n. T,l. 8076.ox s R. Va I"Tre-urer:Mr . .,ha P.O. Box103, Grahamstown.Chairman : Mrs. G. Ventress, 9, DanPienaar Road, Kloof. Tel.779203.Secretary: Mrs. M. Muil, 10, Lynton Rd.,Kloof. Tel. 777422.Treaszzrer: Mrs. S. Burns, P.O. Box 171,Gillitts.Tel. 777669.CAPE WESTERNChairmen: Mrs. S. Turner, 21, CroftRoad, l'os- Tel. 68391.Mrs. R. N. Robb. Silverhurst,Alex-andra Road, Wynberg. Tel. 774185.Mrs. M. Henderson, Cranbourne,Robinson Road, Kenilworth.Tel.773788.Secretary : Mrs. M. Barker, 11, Twicken-ham Road, Mowbray. Tel. 694401.Treasmrer : Mrs. M. Burton,75, SandownRoad, Rondebosch. Tel. 64381.Office for Correspondence: Open Morn-ings Only, 310, RoBuildings,105, Main Road, Claremont, C.P.NATAL MIDLANDSSecretary : Mrs. M. Gorrigall, 71, DerekHall, 172, LoopStreet, Pieter-maritzburg. Telephone 2-3749.Treasurer: Mrs. Phoebe Brown, P.O. Box71, Hilton,Natal.TNANSVAALChairman: Mrs. G. Dyzenhaus, 108 Hyde-gate, Hyde Park, Sandton. Tel.42-3372.Hon. Secretary :Mrs. A. van der Riet,`>7 Harvard Buildings, Joubert St.,Johannesburg. Tel. Office 23-1032.crer: Mrs. L. Brand.Office:37 Harvard Buildings, JoubertStreet, Johannesburg. Telephone23-1032.SA ISSN 0036-4843This Magazine, as theofficial organ of the Black Sash, carriesauthoritative articles on the activitiesof the Black Sash. The leading articlesadhere broadly to the policies ofthe organisation, which doesnot, however, necessarily endorse the opinionsexpressed by thecontributors.AI p _m in his"uI olEtical ent t is , ~e , except when otherwise stated, by S. Duncan, of37HarvardBuildings, Joubert Street, Johannesburg.Published by the Black Sash, 37 Harvard Buildings, JoubertStreet,Johannesburg, and printed byMessrs. Pacific Press (Pty.) Ltd., 302 Fox Street, Johannesburg.The Black Sash,November, 197:>Ilie Swart Serp, November 1-

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Dedication ...IN pride and humbleness we declare ourdevotion to the land of South Africa,we dedicate ourselves tothe service ofour country. We pledge ourselves to up-hold the ideals of mutual trust and for-bearance, of sanctity ofword, of couragefor the future, and of peace and justicefor all persons and peoples. We pledgeourselves to resist anydiminishment ofthese, confident that this duty is requiredof us, and that history and our childrenwill defend us.So helpus God, in Whose strength wetrust.Toewydingsrede . . .MET trots en nederigheid verklaar onson s gehegtheid aandie land vanSuid-Afrika, ons wy ons aan die then s vanons land. Ons belowe plegtig die ideateto handhaaf vanonderlinge vertroue enverdraagsaamheid, van die onskendbaar-heid van beloftes, van moed vir die toe-koms, vanvrede en regverdigheid teen-oor all e persona en rasse. Ons beloofplegtig om ons to verset teen enige ver-minderinghiervan, oortuig dat hierdie pligons opgele is en dat die geskiedenis enons kinders ons sat regverdig.Mag God onshelp, op Wie se krag onsons veriaat.

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CONTENTS1NOVEMBER, 19731 P.g,-,CONF ERENCE EDITION CELEBRATE WHAT? . ..... ...... ...... ...... ......1Jean SinclairBANNED ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 7IN THE LAND OF A BANNED MAN ...... ...... ......8ll-il R-AlTIME TO GET DOWN TO BUSINESS ...... ...... ...... 11Babette KabakHOMES FOR THE HOMELESS ............ ...... ...... 14Joyce HarrisAREN^T THEY AFRAID? ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 15Eleanor AndersonAFRICAN'S DOPAY TAX ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 16Gita DyzenhausPEOPLE ARE LIVING HERE ...... ...... ...... ...... 18FINGO VILLAGEMUST GO ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 20Mercia WilsworthAND STILL THE REMOVALS GO ON ... AND ON... 25BarbaraWaiteFEDERATION - YES OR NO? ...... ...... ...... ...... 27AROUND THE REGIONS ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 29ADVICEOFFICES ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... 33WILL THERE BE NO MORE LEARNING? ...... ...... 35Sheena DuncanTheBl-k SaA, November, 1973 Die Swart Ser, November 1973

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The banned are legally innocent citizens in-carcerated in an inhuman twilight existence.It is no exaggeration to saythat banning is aform of violence - violence to justice, vio-lence to family, violence to persons.At the stroke of avindictive, all-powerfulpen, any innocent citizen can be banned allhis life. He has no means of appeal or re-course to ajust hearing at all. If he has ameal with friends, he can be dragged beforethe courts and smeared as a commoncriminal.He can be found guilty and sentenced to im-prisonment for anything up to three years.This is our SouthAfrica. This is nothingless than a subtle form of state-controlled in-timidation and anyone who tries to argueotherwiseis surely deceiving himself.Steven Biko was banned as a result of hisemergence as one of the prime articulators oftheprocess of selfawareness - almost a re-birth - which is surging through the Blacksof South Africa. This phenomenon islikesome great groundswell of history. The vio-lence of bannings will not stem this new factof life. (The latter-dayCanutes who ruletoday, will not stem this thrust for human dig-nity).Christ died to set man free at every level.Stevewas claiming that freedom when he wassilenced and confined under a banning order.His claim lives on and I amconvinced thatwe have not heard the last of Steven Lo.We are grateful to the Cape Times for per-mission to reprintthis article.WHEN MEN can freely communicate their thoughts and their sufferings, realor imagin-ary, their passionsspend themselves in air, like gunpowder scattered uponthe surface; 1- pentup by terrors, they work unseen, burstforth in a moment, and destroyeverything in their course.THOMAS ERSKINE,3792-II.II.II.II.II.II.II.II.II.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII111II.II.II.II.II.II.II.II.II.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.II.IIIII.III11.11.111II.II.IIII.III11.11.1II111II.II.II.II.II.II.II.II.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.II11111111iilzSASH - The Black Sash magazineGIVE SASH FOR CHRISTMASYou may not win friends but you might influencepeople.Published quarterly: Annual subscription 81,60Individual copies 40 centsOrder from: The Black Sash,37Harvard Buildings,Joubert Street,Johannesburg.?1111111111111111111111111111111IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.III111II.II.II.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1111111TheBlack Sash, November, 1973 10Die Swcvrt Serp, November 19?.;

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Time to get down to businessThis paper was researched by a working group in the Transvaal Regionand written byBABETTE KABAK.The sub-committee carrying out this surveyhoped to obtain a sound statistical back-ground.Against such a background we feltthat we could better assess both the presentstate of housing and education andalso allcomment by officials and private individuals.The gathering of statistics proved to bevery difficult. For example,at the time ofthe 1970 Census the Coloured community inJohannesburg area was 82 000 people. 0inor ent officialfigure was available to 1.e reSenior officials of both the GovernmentAdministration of Coloured Relations andRe-hoboth Affairs and the municipal Departmentof Coloured and Asiatic Affairs now estimatethe community atbetween 80 000 and 120 000people. In this survey therefore the com-munity is estimated to be about 90 000people.A GROUP from the Transvaal Region did apreliminary survey of living conditions ofColoured people. Wevisited many areas, in-terviewed officials and Coloured people andread reports on their situation.The average familyconsists of nearly sixpeople, not including old dependents andnewly-wedded couples living with parents.The averagewoman bears 6.6 babies; thebirth rate among Coloured people being thehighest of any population group. Theaver-age family has more young people than anyother group - 27,2 per cent between 5 and15 years old.AmongWhites only 20,9 per cent are inthis age group. This means the average fa-mily is under severe financial strain -hasmore mouths to feed, more young ones toclothe and school. It means that hatY.Touredpeople have a lowersavings ratio than Whitepeople and a lower rate of capital growth.Whatever they earn they need for currentex-penses, rent, food, clothing. For the publicsector it means a larger expenditure on essen-tial long-term socialservices, schools, nurs-ery schools, creches, recreational facilitiesthan has been planned till now.The Black Sash,November, 1973In South Africa three-quarters of a millionColoured people are economically active.Nearly a third ofthese do artisan work, cleri-cal, managerial, police, transport and profes-sional. One third earn from R80 to8160monthly. Some earn more and most earnless.The living conditions of Coloured people inJohannesburg differwidely. In one or twosuburbs a small proportion enjoy as good alife as most of us in fine middle class homes.Nearlyhalf the city's Coloured population livein very simple, but acceptably adequate cir-cumstances.But for the other halfthe scene is markedlydifferent. Twelve thousand live in what onecity official recently described as "criticalconditions" -in tents, shacks, makeshift gar-ages. Another 20 000 survive in what is of-ficially termed "slum housing". Heestimatesthat between 30 and 40 000 people nced re-housing. At roughly six per family this rep.resents 5 500houses. Another senior officialputs the number of new units needed as highas 8 000. This means that officialdomisaware that nearly 50 000 people require re-housing urgently.Western Township, Newclare and Kliptownare theworst slums we saw. Responsibilityfor them is divided between the City Counciland the Department of CommunityDevelop-ment.What we saw last month is what was offi-cially described 32 years ago in a report by ahighly placedhealth official as follows: "Klip-town consists mostly of the old area in whichhouses have been condemned but still alargeportion of the population both Coloured andBantu are living in unbelievably filthy, unhy-gienic conditions andsurroundings; the housesor rooms are beyond repair; there is no drain.age system and a thick black sludge runsinrivers over the streets, clogged with all thefilth and litter imaginable.11 Die Swart Sorp, November 1973

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"Latrines are bucket system . . . and usuallythe buckets are emptied in the heat of the day,when the stench of the cartis unbearable. Itis a common sight to see children squattingopenly in the street. Rubbish and filth col-lected over 20years is piled up and litters allthe streets; roads are shocking and often im-passable. Every house, shack or roomisgrossly overcrowded, these are usually rented. . . for anything from 75 cents per month toR10. Rats, flies, bugs andscabies abound."". . . On the other hand in the Nancefieldarea where the new houses are under construc-tion by theCommunity Development Board,there is more order and hygiene though some-times stilt overcrowding. There issewerage toeach house and water laid on. At present thereis no electricity in Kliptown or Nancefield."The number ofnew houses occupied todate is 1 100, they aim at 5 000 house, andestimate they can build 1 000 houses per year,butthey are far behind the schedule and atpresent the rate of houses ready for occupa-tion is 10 per week.". . .FamiliUses rom outside areas are oftenallocated these . At this rate old Klip-town may continue for another 10 yearsormore.Families referred to in the above report areoften those removed from adequate residencesunder the GroupAreas Act. The slum dwell-ers whose need could not be more desperateare left to languish in the squalor.It isastonishing to us that diseases of epi-demic proportions have not broken out inthese Coloured areas and spread toothersuburbs.Although conditions have been brought tothe notice of the central authorities by num-erous city officialsboth White and Coloured,in our recent visit to the areas we saw evidencethat not enough has been done to remedythesituation.A reply from a very high official in theAdministration of Coloured and RehobothAffairs indicated at the timethat the Govern-ment believes it is uneconomical to clear therubbish which has accumulated through theyearsbecause the area is scheduled to be de-veloped.In the meantime - and that time may ex-tend to 10 years or more - tohave to survivein that environment; to wake in the morning,to face a day in those slums - or to returnthere at the endof a working day debasesThe BI-k Sash, November, 1973 12these forsaken people. Many are physically,mentallydeadened and unable to pull them-selves together - to clean up after themselves.It's an Aug ean stable.A leadingColoured elected representativesuggested that rehabilitation centres be estab-lished where social workers could livewiththem and teach them the simple fundamentalsof how to keep clean and take care of them-selves.According to asenior health official thepopulation in Kliptown contains an excessproportion of unassimilables - people unableto payrent and unable to occupy new hous-ing without rapid deterioration of the premisesensuing.His remedy is toeffectively reduce the den-sity of population that produces such A-conditions . He suggests a "site andservice"scheme. One family could be placed on eachsite with proper provision of water, sanitationand refuse removal.His view is that peopleadapt more gradually and successfully tomakeshift accommodation they put up them-selves.Inour opinion a study should be made ofthe portion of our 50 000 Coloured people whofall into this unfortunate categoryand themethods, feasibility and cost of rehabilitatingthem.Thirteen years ago the Johannesburg CityCouncil conceiveda residential scheme forColoured people at Riverlea, consisting of un-developed land for home building; homesforsale, and economic and sub-economic housesto rent.Because of its siting and clearly not be-cause of itsinhabitants the sub-economic sec-tion of 719 units is already developins into aslum. There was no more undesirableorbleaker spot to erect a model township. Builtbelow a mine dump the houses are practicallyset in a sand pit. To keepa place clean is apromethean and repetitive job. A combing.tion of outside elements and inferior construc-tion isliterally blowing these pititful dwell.ings into the ground. The wind is so power-ful it drills holes through steel doors.Ahuge empty space is being used as a free-for-all refuse dump - not by thetenants asmuch as by construction firms.Who is res-ponsible for removing this rubbish? Streetlighting? - Non-existant. Transport? - A halfhour walk away ondusty, wind-swept orsloppy, muddy roads to reach the nearest rail-way connection to a job in Johannesburg. TheDieSwcurt Serp, November 1973

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bus service is inadequate. Why not a stationto serve Riverlea's 8 000 people? Because theyare voteless and theirneeds can be ignoredsafely.Eldorado Park, which is a project of theDepartment of Community Development is afineexample of middle and lower middle classliving but construction is regrettably slow.And only 10 per cent of theallocation is foreslum dwellers desperatly in need of decenthousing. According to a prominent official intheadministration 90 per cent is for peopleremoved from areas proclaimed White. Atthis rate the solution to slum clearingandrehousing is not years but decades away, inour opinion.Another problem is the rising cost of rent.A wage earner isexpected to budget one fifthof his earnings for rent. According to a cityofficial teachers and others paid similarsala-ries have refused to move from cheap slums tonew and better homes because they felt theycould not afford tofeed their families and paytripled rents.Rent on an economic and sub-economicbasis is worked out on a graduatedrate de-pendent on many factors including total in-come of all inhabitants of a house and thepercentage returnranging from one to nineper cent on the capital building cost.Tenants must not earn more than R80monthly to rent asub-economic house. Thesehouses at rents of between R4 and R23 are builtof cement, have no ceilings or innerdoors,no internal washing or cooking facilities, noelectricity.Tenants earning not more than 8221 and8320 monthlyqualify for an economic housaconsisting of two bedrooms, living room, kit-chen, bath and toilet, water, electricityandfencing, renting at up to R36. In 1962 suchhouses cost from 8700 to 8900 to build. To-day costs have risen to R3400 to R4 400.Rents rise accordingly.Some Coloured people indicate a willing-ness to buy or build their own homes.Theyclaim there is not enough land in the arearestricted to them under the Group Areas Act.Stands of an eighth of anacre that were ori-ginally bought by the City Council for 8400to 8500 are now valued at R3 000. Thismeans an acre ofland allocated for a Colour-ed dwelling is worth R24 000.It appears to us as lay people and not ex-perienced realtorsthat these values seem arti-ficially inflated. The cause appears to be dis-The Black Sash, November, 197313criminatory legislation that limits the supplyfor Coloured occupancy where there is greatdemand. It is to the credit ofthe Johannes-burg City Council that they sell these standsat their original prices. They also sell housesfor R4 000 toR5 000 with a 8200 depositand 30 years to pay at 8 per cent. In ouropinion this interest seems high for low in-comefamilies who need Government help.Coloured people run up against many ob-stacles we Whites don't experience.They fearthat under the Group Areas Act their suburbsmay be deproclaimed. They hesitate to im-prove their propertyfor fear of being remov-ean 'n 'r'y compensated - he Go,-d 'd 'h' p'ernment should inak, clear to 12 wherethey maysettle permanently or better stillscrap discriminatory legislation altogether.Coloured folk find it hard to obtainsmall,low-interest loans from the Government andfrom building societies. Although their wagesare still on the low sidenearly a third of Col-oured people are in steady skilled jobs orhigher positions. It seems to us that low-interest facilitiesshould be extended to them.If more land was available we feel that a fairportion of the 8 000 families needinghousingin Johannesburg would build for themselves.Private enterprise should also be encourag-ed to help break thisconstruction backlog bybuilding for Coloured people at decent econo-mic interest rates. This way the Governmentandthe City Council is left to tackle what isalready a mammoth responsibility - econo-mic and sub-economic units toreplace slums.The length of time between the initiationof a housing plan and its completion is de-plorable. TheDepartment of CommunityDevelopment must proclaim the land. TheCity Council must apply to the National Hous-ingCommission for a loan. They then submitplans to the Department of Community De-velopment which must pass themor returnthem for revision. The City Council thencalls for tenders. Finally the houses are con-structed. This processcan take years, bywhich time costs have risen enormously. Onecity official said the only remedy is a crashprogrammeof 3 000 houses built in one yearto break the back of the problem. It is ex-pected that 1 000 to 2 000 will be builtthisyear. It is hoped by 1975 the housing posi-tion will be improved and by 1980 it will besolved. If the past is a guideto the futurethese forecasts are hopelessly optimistic. It'stime that bureaucracy got down to .business.Die S-t Sere,November 1973

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Homes for the homelessJOYCE HARRISLack of home ownership and the right tofreehold tenure, while not being byanymeans the most severe deprivation suffered byBlack people, is nevertheless an important ag-gravating factor intheir rootlessness and utterlack of security.It is very difficult to uncover the exact de-gree of availability to Blacks ofland for free-hold tenure, but it is quite obvious that it isvery small.It is not available at all in the common areasor in theWhite urban areas. Such freeholdrights as did exist for Africans have been abo-lished by this Government.When allthe trust land for the Bantustanshas finally been acquired for them, they willown 13,7 per cent of the total land areaofthe country, that is 154 million ha in a total,land mas of 427 359 square miles.Transvaal Region is presently trying toas-certain, through the chief ministers of the Ban-tustans, how much of this land is availablefor individual freeholdtenure and how muchis tribally held. A recent statement by ChiefMatanzima said that Transkeians would beable tobuy freehold tenure in 25 of the Trans-kei towns, but this is not yet a fait accompli,nor does it present anything like atotal pic-ture for the Transkei.The Government is spending money in theBantustans on the building ofresettlementtownships and closer settlements, but thereis no indication how many of these propertieswill becomeavailable for purchase with free-hold tenure, even assuming that any of theinhabitants could find the necessarymoney.Modern townships close to employment arealso being built, but a great deal of money isbeing spent onhousing for key White person-nel. For instance it has come to our noticethat Giyani, the brand-new town which isthecapital of Gazankulu, is largely inhabited byWhite personnel, while the Africans are con.The Black Sash,November, 1973 14fined to a location outside the town - andthis in a "homeland"!There are apparently residentialareas withgrazing rights in the Bann" but to whatextent we do not know, nor do we know theconditions under whichthey are made avail-able.Everywhere there are indications of the de-nial of home ownership to the vast majorityofBlack people, yet every human beingknows, and surely acknowledges the sense ofsec rity derived from owning theroof over0nc~head, knowing that one's home is one'sown and cannot be invaded, enjoying the pri-vacy of one's ownfour walls.Throughout the Blash Sash conference,papers and reports from all regions demon-strated that the lack ofhousing in both ruraland urban areas for Black people has nowreached critical proportions.People are being movedout of houses wherethey may hold freehold title to be settled inother places where characterless corrugatediron orcement block houses are built forthem or where they are sometimes expectedto build for themselves on a site allottedtothem.Money and resources are being used to buildhouses for those who already have them inpursuit of theGovernment's ideological masterplan while many people remain entirely home-less or are living in criticallyovercrowdedconditions or in shacks because they have noalternative.The proper provision of towns andsuburbsoffering freehold title would mean that sameat least of South Africa's Black populationwould provide their ownhouses. A completeembargo on the removal of families from exist-ing houses would allow the authorities to setaboutproviding accommodation for the home-less with the urgency which the situation war-rants.Die Swart Serp, November1973

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Aren't they afraid?ELEANOR ANDERSON"Aren't you afraid of being arrested?" joked the man I had justbeenintroduced to.He was middle-aged, White, kindly and due to his steady efforts in therunning of asmall machinetool factory, long since unacquainted with poverty or withthe problems of peoplehe rarely saw. He made his little jokewhen I told him I was going to aBlack Sash meetingand had been one of the delegates at the recent conference inDurban.Well now, what about this business of being arrested? Black people are whenthey arefound not to be carryinga pass. Priests and students and lecturers arehouse arrested or ban-ned for reasons which are not clear becausethey are not brought to trial.So we're left guess-ing. Have they been got at because they spoke unflatteringly aboutpoverty,or inadequate edu-cation, or lousy housing, or migrant labour, or the Government's jollylittle habit of sendingaman off in one direction and his wife in another? These are things theBlack Sash womenare constantly making afuss about. So perhaps they should fear arrest.Perhaps theydh.None of this apprehension showed, however, at theconference where womenfom te Cape,Natal and the Transvaal gathered together to share their thoughts, reportontheir activities, andlisten to addresses by experts in their several fields. A doctor from ahospital in Zululand gaveabrilliant speech on the tragic, often mortal difficulties suffered bywomen and children separ-ated by law from ill-paidhusbands and fathers who could not afford to sendhone more thanR10 a month.ere were addresses by social workersand health educators, Black and White,and all told,J" same story of families in "homelands'" struggling to copewithsituations where pretty wellall the amenities of life were not to be had.The cost of transport to clinics wasrepeatedly stressed, and the shortageof water, of food,of fuel, of employment.An Indian woman, a sociologist at theUniversity of Natal, gave a talk. Bywhat weirdalchemy, she wanted to know, do Black and Brown people suffer lessthanWhites would sufferwhen faced with such fundamental dilemmas as poverty, illness, crowdedaccommodation,thehigh cost of living? All this too, while trammelled by job reservation andthe group areasrestrictions.Someone read apaper about the taxes paid by Africans. Poll tax, but tax, atribal levyand income tax if their annual earnings are over8360. Neither are thereany alleviations, as forW bites, in such matters as illness, unemployment, or the need to careforchildren or elderlydependants.Someone else talked about the plight of the 6 000 Fingo villagers who areto bemoved``voluntarily" from Grahamstown to desolate Committees Drift 50 km away.Again the sameagonizing questionsarose. What about jobs, a clinic, transport (if the menwere lucky enoughto have a Grahamstown job to be transportedto), schools? Would life not beinsupportably harsh?A delegate, the wife of a priest, remarked that she had been inCommitteesDrift the pre-vious summer and found the temperature to be 150F. on the stoep of a houseshe hadvisited.She added quietly, ``the Government will not have to pay old age pensionsto the ailing forvery long".Theconference rejoiced when something goodly cropped up -increased wages,for instance,the success of literacy classeslong a feature of mine life but now beingoffered all over thePla e~Iack Sash women lead double lives. During the shorttea intervals theyrattle on about sew-ing and gardening and recipes, about grandchildren and little blue-eyedsons anddaughters.They're nice, and rather intelligent too, though some hard-pressed husbandsin moments of mari-talexasperation might substitute the word "illogical" for "intelligent".Teacups drained, back to the meeting, the subjectnow being the sorry stateof the Colouredpeople of the land.In view of the no-reason-given why so many spokesmenare bannned ordetained, are thesewomen not afraid of voicing their concern about what they regard associalinjustice? Possibly.But are they going to pass by silently on the other side of the road? Notbloody likely.TheBlack Sash, November, 1973 15Die Swart Serp, November 197$

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Africans DO pay- taxIn South Africa, Whites, Coloureds andAsians pay income tax graded on thesamestructure.African people have a separate tax struc-ture including a type of income tax introducedin 1969.Before Idiscuss this structure I would liketo quote the figures as at April 1973 pu blish-ed by the Institute of Planning Researchofthe University of Port Elizabeth of the secon-dary poverty datum line - that which in-cludes rent and transport.Thesefigures for the major urban centresof South African are:Cape Town ...... ...... ......Port Elizabeth ......East London ............Kimberley ......Durban ...... ...... ...... ......Pretoria ...... ...... ...... ......Johannesburg ...... ......Bloemfontein ............Ladysmith ...... ......Kin b illiamstown ......Uitenhage ...... ............881,80878,58876,63878,48878,13875,44874,68874,55874,66868,96876,44Before any- tax is levied on income,Afri-n.a , are obliged to pay the following taxesAll African men 18 years and older pay anannual tax of 82,50 proof ofpayment ofwhich must be affixed in the reference book.In the year 1970-1971 there were 105576prosecutions forinfringements of this law.Then there is Homeland Tax.For occupation of land under communaltenure R1 for eachwife's group of buts up toa maximum of 84,00. This tax is also ap-plied to widows holding allotments in thename of adeceased spouse.Quitrent is paid for land held under indi-vidual title.If a tribe or community decides and, withtheapproval of the authorities who must besatisfied that the majority of taxpayers arein favour. a further amount varyingbetweenR1 and R2 may be levied.The.Blaek Sash, Nove-tnber, 1973 16A general levy imposed by severallegislativeassemblies has been imposed varying from82,50 to 83,00 a year.Urban taxation is imposed under the1954regulations by the local authorities as a schoollevy to build primary and lower secondaryschools. This levy is 20cper head of familyper month. In Soweto at the request of thecitizens the levy stands at 38c per head of fam-ily permonth.Indirect taxation is subject to the usual ex-cise and sales taxes as paid by all citizens ofthe country. The valueof the African. con-tribution to the 8970 326 000 raised in this=a, anti' pated to finance the 1973 re.c,ra __ ,ian.ot beestablished.Whites, Coloureds and Asians begin to payincome tax at 8676 for an an.unmarried per-son, R1 151 for amarried person, R1 601 fora couple with one child and R2 601 for acouple with three children.An amount notexceeding 8500 is deduct-ible from the earnings of a married woman orall her earnings if these are less than8500.Expenses incurred in earning income in-cluding travelling and entertainments ex-penses are deductible.1Compulsory contributions to pension fundsare deductible.Donations to certain educational institu-tions and funds arealso deductible.Abatements vary with age and circum-stances but in 1972 they stood at RI 000 formarried couplesand 8600 for single peopleunder the age of 60. Older people are entitledto additional abatements.8450 for each of thefirst two ehildrea amd8550 for the third and successive children.An additional abatement of 8100 i achild is bornduring the year.Other dependants.Insurance premiums and contributions tomedical aid funds, benefit and providentfundspaid during the year.Medical and dental abatement according toDi,- 9wairt Sean. November 1975

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marital status and age (under 60 years 8150for married and R75 for single people). Thisis reducible as taxableincome goes up.Widows in these population groups pay taxas if they were a married man.All African people startpaying tax if theirincomes are over 8360 a year. R30 a monthis less than half and often not much more thanone thirdof the secondary poverty datum line.Income for husband and wife is taxed separ-ately.The only deductions allowedfrom the grossincome are the compulsory contributions toUnemployment Insurance Fund and contribu-tions topension or provident funds if mem-bership of such funds is a condition of em.ployment.No abatements are allowed fordependent childrenfor dependant relativesfor medical contributions or for medicalexpensesfor age0 for expensesincurred in earning income.Taxation levels8360 to 8480 p.a. ......8480 to 8600 P.aR0, ~9600 to R749......8750 to8779,99 ......8780 to 8809,99 ......and so on as remuneration increases.I am quite sure that no Black man wouldobjectto paying income tax at the same levelsas other groups if he earned enough to do so.It is a violent injustice to allowdeductionsand abatements for other citizens of a country81,2082,7684,3284,9285.52and to penalise the poorestsection of the com-munity already subject to a fixed tax for adultmen and tribal levies, homeland taxes and ur-banlevies.One further point from the Bantu TaxationA of Sct 1969, Section 7 e 2:All lump sum pavements received fromapension, provident, retirement or annuityfund exceeding the following must be referredS,"rto th,~ , la' the local BantuAffairsCmmissio=ryrva tax directive. These are'. foamounts exceedingRetirement Annuity Fund and PensionFundretirement R 600death R5 000Provident Fund retirement R2 000death R5 000This excludes lump sum paymentsreceiv-ed from Government Railway or Provincialpension funds or provident funds establishedby law or otherwise forthe benefit of anylocal authority's employees.It should be noted that if an African failsto pay his tax by the due date, hemay be sen-tenced to a fine of 8100 or three months im-prisonment by criminal law.If other race groups fail to pay,civil actionis taken, i.e. the amount owing is taken bydeclaring the person bankrupt, removal ofassets, ( property )ete.The total amount of tax collected for 1971-1972 according to an IRR survey in 1972 was:WhitesColoured: ............Asians: ...... ...... ......Africans: Basic tax ...... ....8452 millionR 5 millionR 6 million.. ...... R8 millionAdditional tax ......R6 millionTribal tax ......Local taxR2 million.. ...... RI millionTOTAL 817 millionObituariesTHE BLACK SASH recordswith deep regret the deaths of Mrs. E. Orpenand Mrs. Retha Steuart.The Bltrek S- h.; 1V`ovrmtbv,, r973 >v 11 17DieS'iv(iirt:Serp. fVoi-ber 1.9.y:3.

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PEOPLE ARE LIVING HEREThe Black Saeh, Noven6lr,1d7d 18 Die Swart Serp, November 1971 The BlaekSash,Novemba,182dPHOTOGRAPHS BY COURTESY OF THE DAILY DESPATCH. EAST LOND(19 Die S-,vt Sap,Nowm6eo la9i

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Fingo Village must goMERCIA WILSWORTHThis fact sheet was prepared from. materialand resources o f the FingoVillage ActionGroup.Fingo Village location in Grahamstown wasthe last area in "White" South Africa inwhich land andproperty could be owned byAfricans under freehold title.The Mfengu have been residents of Gra-hamstown for over ahundred years. A pro-of the social and political turmoil causedby Zulu imperialism in the early 19th cen-tury, they.forced into Xhosa territory inthe 1820 's, a fragmented and refugee people.In about 1885 some were grantedfreeholdtitle by the Governor of the Cape, Sir GeorgeGrey, to 320 erven set aside in a `'location forFingos" inGrahamstown, then a major centreon the Eastern Cape frontier. There is astrong oral tradition that the land grantswerein recognition of their services on the side ofthe Whites in some of the colonial warsfought in that period.As earlyas 1941 a proposal by the townclerk of Grahamstown that all Fin go Villageproperties be expropriated was contestedandquashed by local residents. The village firstcame to the notice of the Group Areas Boardin 1956. Again, there waswidespread localopposition to expropriation. Further investi-gations by the board occurred in 1959 and1963, eachtime with opposition from Gra-hamstown. But in 1970 the axe finally fe11,with the proclamation of Fingo Village asaColoured group area.In a visit to Grahamstown the followingyear, Dr. Piet Koornhof, then deputy ministerof BantuAdministration and Development,announced that the Fingo Villagers togetherwith thousands of other, Africans in theEast.ern Cape were :.to- be moved to CommitteesDrift, a desolate spot 50 km from Grahams-town, where what hecalled a "model city" ofbetween 100 000 and 200 000 people would beestablished.Since the proclamation,representations,knave been :made, by .the. ay Council,. -Rate-payers' Association, the Urban Bantu Counciland theFingo Village Action Group (mem-bers of Black Sash, the Institute of Race Re-lations, Grahamstown and DistrictsReliefAssociation, academics and others) for theplans to be reconsidered and revised, but theGovernment will not bepersuaded.The uncertainty of the past 15 years hasleft its mark. The village's physical and en-vironmental conditionshave deteriorated, al-though it cannot be described as a slum. Des-pite the hardship of living with an unknownfuture itis still a community with consider-able pride. Overcrowding and backyarddwellings in the township are at leastsome-what due to the fact that the Government hasprohibited the building of any additionalnou,,es for Africans in themunicipal area for10 years.There have been assurances that the moveto Committees Drift is to be voluntary. ButDr.Koornhof in a letter to the Chairman ofthe Grahamstown Urban Bantu Council wasexplicit regarding the paradox"NoBantu who qualifies in terms of Sec-tion 10 1 (a) and (b) of the Bantu Urban-a As Consolidation Act of 1945 willberemoved from a prescribed area against theirwill, but the Fingo location has howeverbeen proclaimed as aColoured group areaad t , a re.n h B ntu who side in this area atpresent will have to leave when CommitteesDrift isready."But in fact it is not only 6 000 Fingo Vil-lagers, rendered homeless in their rightfulhomeplace by a group areasproclamation to.gether with a ban on building alternativehouses, who are to be removed against theirwill.The irony ofthe situation is compounded:in 1969 the City Council was pleased to an-nounce its success in having achievedborderTh-B3a,Ok,,Sa4h,. ,N-etnbW:1;#7'8 20 Die S.art Seep,

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industry, status for. Grahamstown. Negotia-tions leading to this had been undertaken pre-cisely because of the city'sexisting problemregarding underindustrialisation and unem-ployment, particularly among its African po-pulation. Theinitial excitement has beenreplaced by the recognition that such conces-sions mean very little.In the first place theGovernment has grant-ed similar concessions to several Eastern CapeTowns and the results are consistentlyunspec-tacular. Secondly, the area as a whole is onewith few natural advantages and several dis-advantages forattracting industry. But themost tragic fact is that is now transpires thata condition of granting border area status isthatthe families of Black workers must behoused in the nearest Black homeland. Ac-cording to Dr. Koornhof "It thereforefollowsthat Bantu families other than those in FingoVillage will eventually be removed to Com-mittees Drift" whichimplies every Black per-son in Grahamstown.It has been said that in no previous removalhave so many near-utopianpromises and as-surances so repeatedly been given both inpublic and private by Governmentspokesmen.Committees Drift (which will have a po-pulation of up to four times that of the entirepopulation ofGrahamstown) is to be the fin-est Black city in Africa, according to Dr.Koornhof. Subsidised bulk transport willbeprovided and ". . . travelling costs to and fromwork should therefore have a negligible im-pact on the cost of livingstructure and itshould not be necessary to increase wages oreven shorten working hours."A bus service, whichshould be an "excel-lent opportunity" (``for a Bantu entrepre-neur" ) will be instituted and may afterwards``as thedemand arises'" be supplemented bya train service. Low housing costs and 31 per cent intereston building bonds inthe homelands should"more than offset the cost of transportingfood, clothing, household requirements, etc."Welfarework: ". . . various factors con-tributing towards the necessity for welfare=wk will be eliminated once these familiesoveto Committees Drift. In 1967 therewere already 5 862 pensioners and widows andit was estimated that almost everyBantu fa-mily had one illegitimate child. Bantu andColoured intermarry, serious crimes, especiallyThe Black Sash,November, 1973knifing. assaults, are an .almost daily occur-rence and can mainly be attributed to over-crowding andunemployment. Due to lacko control, many unemployed Bantu of sur-rounding farms, ente,the townships illegallyandin 1969 there were about, 1, 300 unauthor-ised buildings."During 1969, it was estimated that theamount spent onliquor was in the vicinity of8200 000 and on Bantu beer R26 000, whichis a further cause of the social decay ofthecommunity."Once these unproductives, pensioners,etc. are settled in the homelands, there shouldbe little need forwelfare work as rentfreehouses will be available . . . for deservingcases and pensioners shall continuedrawingpension. Furthermore, there is nothing pre-venting welfare organisations from continu-ing with their work evenin the homelands."In a further communication Dr. Koornhofwrites: "As in the case of other Bantu town-ships, welfarework will be undertaken. Re-settled Bantu with large families and no in-come will be provided by the CiskeianAuth-ority with a free house and if necessary, freefuel and food according to a fixed scale."(Will this be the scaleapplied in $ada, Ilingeand Dimbaza? )"Schoolgoing children will also be issuedwith daily soup rations and adequatesup-plies of milk and soup powders will be avail-able."Regarding clinics, hospitals, etc., Dr.Koornhof writes thatclinics, doctors' consult-ing rooms and other amenities will be provid-ed before the people are moved, but regionaliseospitals will be built as the homelands b -c,on,e more densely populated and in the mean-time Grahamstownhospitals ". . . would bequite accessible from Committees Drift."Until such time as facilities for specialisedtreatmentcan be provided, all such cases aswell as those requiring follow-up treatmentwill have to be referred to Grahamstown.Anambulance service ". . in due course will nodoubt be provided by the Ciskeian Govern-ment but at this stage it isnot possible tosay to what extent provision will be made fora free service . . ."The action group was assured by Dr.Koorn-hof that many Black people, who.. by experi-ence realised the sincerity of the .GovernmentDie, Swart Sere,

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in matters concerning their welfare had assur-ed the Government of their support and ex-pressed their appreciation,and that the future"will no doubt prove that the Bantu will behappier living in the area of their own govern-ment andthus enjoying rights not provided forthem in the White area."In terms of normal urban African familystructures, theFingo Village Action Groupcalculated that 2 000 classrooms, 200 teach-ers, 40 doctors and nearly 7 000 hospitalbedswould be the rightful requirements for thesepeople ( a proposed population of 200 000 ).Regarding employmentfor this commun-ity, there is a welter of ambiguous statementsout of which only one clear fact emerges -that theGovernment has been able to give noevidence whatsoever that jobs will be createdon the scale required to support apopulationof the size envisaged.Not only Dr. Koornhof but also many Gra-hamstonians, place much emphasis onthequestion of industrial development in thisarea. It may not be fair to go so far as tosuggest that the border areaconcession whichGrahamstown so deeply coveted - and forwhich it has paid a heavy price in humanterms - are quitemeaningless.But in realistic economic terms, even withborder area status, furthermore, even withgrowthpoint status(and a very generous in-terpretation of the criteria laid down in therecent White Paper on Decentralisation wouldbenecessary if Grahamstown were to obtainsuch status), to radically change the existingindustrial face of Grahamstownwill be a verylime-consuming and costly business.Some of the statements which have beenmade by Dr. Koornhofare"The European population increasedfrom 10 600 to only 11 000 over the pastnine years, whilst that of the Bantuincreas-ed from 16 100 to 26 000. In view of thefact that Grahamstown has no very largeindustries - in 1969 only apottery and abrickyard - it must be abundantly clearthat the employment market has reached asaturation point.During= there were1 400 (registered only ) unemployed andthis figure can be expected to rise sharplyin the nearfuture if corrective measuresare not taken.The BLaak Saah, November, 1973 22" . .. . (those) at present working intheprescribed area of Grahamstown' will beallowed to continue working there and com-muting daily to CommitteesDrift. All otherunemployed Bantu will have to register asworkseekcrs . . . and will also be allowed totake upemployment in Grahamstown orthe Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage industrialcomplex on a contract basis."These contractemployees will be hous-ed in single quarters and will be enabledto visit their families over the weekends . . ."Banturemoving to Committees Driftwill, therefore, be in a better position thanbefore as far as labour opportunitiesareconcerned . . ."All Bantu i.e. adults and minors who atpresent have residential rights . . . insofaras the prescribedarea of Grahamstown isconcerned, will automatically lose theserights by virtue of their removal from thearea . . . It willthus not he necessary toestablish which Bantu have these rights . . ."The granting of border industrial con-cessionsshould be an incentive to indus-trialists . . . many more jobs will becomeavailable . . . it is sincerely hope thattheestablishment of industry in the area willgreatly improve the position . . . the prior-ity for filling such jobs (will be)givenfirstly to residents of Committees Drift . . ."To develop and maintain a township thesize of Committees Drift willalso require asubstantial labour force and it is interest-ing to note that since the Ciskeian Govern.ment departmentswere set up in 1968, thenumber of posts held by Bantu have increas-ed by 50 per cent in the DepartmentofAgriculture, 63 per cent in the apartmentof Works and 30 per cent in the Departmentof Community Affairs . . .". . .The homelands offer many busi-ness opportunities to Bantu showing someenterprise . . . It must be rememberedthatan industrial area is also planned at Com-mittees Drift."The assumption contained in your me-morandum thatFingo Villagers resettled. . , will have to compete with the existingBantu population in the Peddie area aswell as othersresettled there is quite cor-rect, but this is no doubt a big improve-ment on present conditions where, due tolack ofsufficient employment opportuni.Die Swart Sere, November 1973

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ties, many of these people do not stand achance of ever finding lucrative employ-ment in Grahamstown or elsewhere. . ."Industrialists are constantly being en-couraged to establish industries in the Gra-hamst0wn/Committees Drift areabut it isimpossible to say when the requisite scaleof economic and industrial development willbe reached."Without areal economic base no humansettlement can be viable. For the new "modelcity" to offer realistic employmentpossibili-ties about 50 000 jobs would have to be avail-able. For commuting to be a reality, on thebasis of 60 workersto a bus. a fleet of 900buses are needed.As Mr. jesmond Blumenfeld put it at apublic symposium to discuss the futureof theFingo Villagers (to which the Fingo Villagerswere prevented from coming) " . . we havefound little to reassure usand much to disturbus . . - In fact, it has become abundantlyclear to us that for all (the) bland assurances. . . theforeseeable future will not even brinDsufficient industrial development to solveGrahamstown's unemployment prablF0the n)r all ice-sounding cliches, Ze`truthis that Committees Drift is to be nothing morethan a vast labour pool and adumping groundfor the aged, the infirm and the very young.Perhaps a few thousand will find work in andaroundCommittees Drift. For the rest thefuture is bleak.In the case of Fingo Village the alternativeto Committees Drift isobviously to leave thepeople where they have been in peace, if notactually in prosperity, for over a hundredyears andspend the money earmarked forCommittees Drift on removing the unsatisfac-tory features of their existence inGrahams-town. If the Village must be redeveloped,let it be redeveloped for those who live there.Recognising theGovernment's firm resolveon the question of land ownership ; conced-ing that the present condition of theFingolocation is not the most satisfactory and hencethat redevelopment in one form or another maybe necessary andaccepting that modernisationand urbanisation in the African reserves couldconfer significant advantages on thepeoplein these territories, the Fingo Village ActionGroup evolved a set of alternative proposalswhich would meet theabove-mentioned three-The Black Sash, November, 1973 23fold objectives of removing the "objection-able" aspect offreehold tenure outside the re-serves, of redeveloping the village, and of pro-moting urban development in thehomelands,while at the same time mitigating the effectsof the present proposals.The five main features of thealternativeproposals were1 that the Government begin the develop-ment of a new town in the Ciskei by re-settlingsome of the present inhabitants ofovercrowded rural areas inside the home-land ;that a start be made now on theindustrialdevelopment necessary to provide an eco-nomic base for the new town;that all the privately owned land inFingoVillage be expropriated ( with adequatecompensation) for comprehensive redeve-lopment to modern standardsand to higherdensities;that present owners of freehold propertyin Fingo Village be offered the choice ofeither a longterm lease ( say 30 years) ona suitable dwelling unit in the redevelopedFingo Village (or if practical reasonsne-cessitate it. elsewhere in the Grahamstownlocation) or freehold title to property atthe established urban nucleus inthe Cis-kei : andthat the present tenants in Fingo Villagebe offered the choice o monthly orother short-term tenancy inthe Grahams-town location or long-term leasehold titlein the new settlement, with an option topurchase after aperiod.In addition to achieving the Government'sthreefold objectives, it was felt that thisscheme would have theadvantage of facilitat-ing the establishment and development of anew town inside the homelands by urbanisinga ruralpopulation rather than by uprootingand ruralising a stable, established urban po-pulation. It would relieve the pressureofpopulation on the land inside the Ciskei re-ducing the loss of security to Fingo Villageproperty owners; provide alldisplaced per-sons with a choice which would eliminate theelement of compulsion from the present plan;Die SwartSere, November 1973

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and above all, it would mean that the flow ofpeople back to the Bantustan would dependupon the ability of the Ciskeito attract peopleon the basis of its intrinsic and observablemerits and advantages. This would in turnensure that thehigh standards of developmentpromised by the Government in relation toplaces such as Committees Drift would infactbe realised.The group did not delude itself that thisproposal in any way represented a perfectsolution but it didseem to provide a possiblestarting point for serious discussion. How-ever, the alternative proposals were notac-cepted and the group was informed that ``Asfar as the propris ... are concerned ' '11Ho..urabl, the I -r 'a. only statethattc , of Inih plannin the Bantu township at Com-mittees Drift has already reached an advancedstage . . ."A requestfor clarification on the timingof the removals subsequently drew the follow-ing response from the new DeputyMinister,Mr. T. N. H. Janson"The position regarding the planning ofthe . . .site is that the paper work will becompletedduring 1973. The area will thenhave to be surveyed and the erven pegged.The provision of services such as roads,wa-ter, sewerage disposal works, clinics, schoolsetc will then receive priority attention. Onlywhen these essentialservices have been pro-vided can Bantu be settled."In the last communication it was statedthat "it must beemphasised that the decisionto establish a township at Committees Driftwas not taken lightly and a large amountofoyne has already been expended on the plan.ning of Committees Drift . . . the Bantu ofFingo Village will be givenadequate noticeof the date on which their removal . . , willtake place."This paper has been critical of Governmentplansto remove Black residents of G=t and elsewhere against their will to aplace from which some "lucky" few willhaveforced on them two or more extra hours awayfrom their family each day as well as the addi-tional expenditure oftransport costs (81 percent of Pingo Villagers at present walk towork), and from which the majority will goThe BlackSash, November, 1973 24as contract labourers, leaving a city of pen-sioners, women and children.But a word mustalso be said about the exist-ing plight of these people vis-a-vis the Whitecommunity of Grahamstown.In its firstmemorandum to Dr. Koornhofthe action group pointed out that working mo-thers would be particularly affected andthatan estimated 47 per cent of all employedBlacks in the location were women. (Theaverage wage for womendomestic workers inGrahamstown is just over R8 a month.)In its second memorandum it stated that"even if bus faresto Committees are keptdown to this (Mdantsane) level, this outlaymuse seen in relation to the fact that . . .one ttb hirdof all employed persons (earn)less than R10 per month."To which the Minister replied`'The fact that one third of allBantu em-played in Grahamstown are earning lessthan R10 a month is very much to be re-gretted and is a cause ofconcern. It wouldappear that your group could concentraateon this aspect to improve the image of yourtown andalleviate matters for the em.ployees."The Fingo Village Action Group will ofcourse continue to concentrate on thepro-posed removals. But as the WitwatersrandUnivtrsity students recently put it: the blamefor the shooting atCarletonville did not lieentirely with the police but also with an ex-ploitative labour structure, and the Fingo Vil-lagetragedy cannot be seen only in terms ofthe present threat.White Grahamstown is predominantly Eng-lish-speakingand with a singularly large pro-fessional population of university staff, teach-ers, lawyers etc. In the past the BlackSashin its role of protest organisation has concen-trated mainly on protesting against the erosionof human rights byGovernment policies. TheBlack Sash is (regrettably) a largely English-speaking organisation. Might it not be thatweshould also attempt to put our own lan-guage group's house in order.Die Swcvrt Serp, November 1973

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And still the removals go on......and onBARBARA WAITEFew will deny the Government's skill in theuse ofeuphemisms to cover hideous aridhorrifying truths with a veneer of respectabil-ity. For example, the forced uprootingsandupheavals of people from their ancestral homesand dumping them in distant labour reservoirsis euphemisticallytranslated as "the volun-tary resettlement of people from Black Spotsto their homelands".hre re i , at the moment astirring amongstmoderately human beings about the evils ofpetty apartheid. This is how gross apartheidmanifestsitself ; where it is at its most obvi-The.BZack Sash, November, 1973 25o-us and disgusting petty apartheid ismerelythe symptom of gross apartheid.As the suppurating sores of smallpox arehsy de ye mptom of a foul and dedisease, so ispetty apartheid the symptom of one of themost evil doctrines ever conceived by the hu-man race.Racism must surely be the ultimatesin against the Holy Spirit.The White man acknowledges that he wasmade in theimage of God but denies the HolySpirit in his (Black) brother.He ignores the fact that "the earth is theLord's and allthat therein is" and promul-Die Swart Serp, November 1973

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gates the 1936 Land Act as if it were scrip-ture, refusing to alter or amend it.He carves up and portions out 13 percentof the land to 16 million Blacks and keeps87 per cent of the land, including all the eco-nomically developed areas,for 4 millionWhites.He decides ,to label himself Christian anduphold the sanctity of his own marriage butof hisbrother's marriage he is not the keeper.The fact that 1400 married men occapy"single" accommodation in theAlexandraHostels does not offend his Sunday-sensitiveconscience. In fact, he thinks it is such agood idea that he isbuilding hostels at De-lareyville, Lichtenburg, Carletonville, Coligny,Fochville, Hartebeesfontein,Klerksdorp,Leeuwdoringstad, Orkney, Ottosdal, Potchef-stroom, Sannieshof, Stilfontein, Tongaat, Ven-tersdorp,Wolmaransstad, Potgietersms, Nel-spruit, Louis Triehardt, Pretoria, Boksburg,Volksrust, Grahamstown, Roodepoort -toname but a few, and is removing the wives andchildren of the working men to the Bantu-stan$-Does it not matter toWhite South Afri-cans that Black children die of disease andstarvation, are uneducated, beco'ne corrup-ted? Thathearts are torn out with hopelcss-ness, helplessness and grief; that young mindscrackdc~ the burd n of despair anddis-" , e'illusionment and turn to violence and brutal-ity; that young men must sit rotting awaytheir lives in the hot sunbecause they are notallowed to seek work or to test their God-given skills? They are not permitted to growanddevelop and become fulfilled and joy-fill-ed beings. There are 300 000 unemployedBlack in South Africa and yet 32776 immi-grants were permitted to enter South Africain 1972 alone.The Government knows that 85 000 jobsmust becreated annually in underdevelopedareas. It has taken since 1962, that is overten years, to produce just that number.Yetin the face of these figures it blindly perse-veres with its policy of territorial separation.In March this year theMinister of BantuAdministration and Development said that175 788 Africans had been removed fromBlack Spotssince 1948 and about 69 000remain to be moved.By the end of 1972, 44 885 Coloured fami-lies, 27 694 Indianfamilies, 71 Chinese fami-lies and 1513 White families bad been re-?'he Black Sash, November, 1973 26settled interms of the Group Areas Act.By the time it has completed its consoli-dation programme about two million, almost10per cent of the total population will havebeen removed.The population density in the Bantustansis 46 per squarekilometre compared to 13 persquare kilometre in the rest of the Republic.The Minister of Bantu AdministrationandDevelopment, Mr. M. C. Botha, and his deputyminister said in April this year that an esti-mated 364 000 Africanswill have to be movedand resettled in the process of consolidatingthe homelands.About 33 000 Zulus would beinvolved inmoved in the consolidation process of theSwazi, Lebowa, Venda, and Gazankulu Ban-tustans in theTransvaal.This involves excising 422 000 ha of Afri-7lands and the purchase of 650 000 ha ofhite-owned land.About33 000 Zulus would be involved inNatal, which includes the entire African po-pulation in the Tugela catchmentarea.ja= Bay, Empangeni, Eshowe, Mton-janeni and Baba nango wi11 remain White.Recently the Lebowa LandCommission wastold that more than 200 000 ha would haveto be vacated to make room for Whites andfor the"resettlement" of the Gazankulu andSouth Ndebele homelands. This officially in-volves the moving of25 930 familiesfrom the Matoks-Ramago-pa area;18 400 families from the Pala area of Sele-ka-Shongwane;29 050 families from theDenilton-Elands-dorn area;1500 families from Seloane in Phalabor-wa ; and more than6 000 families from theMapulaleng area ofBushbuckridge.These areas do not include the areas ofChieftainess Victoria Dinkoyane and ofChiefSemenya and other small areas, nor do theyinclude those at present living in White-ownedfarms."In the EasternTransvaal alone the esti-mated unofficial figure is more than 8 000families", according to the Rand Daily MailofSeptember 26.Die Swart Serp, November 1973

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Federation-yes or no?The Black Sash was founded to defend the constitution. There is very littleleft worthdefending.A new federal constitution might offer one of the ways in whichtheRepublic might hope to escape stagnation andprevent collision. Discussionof federal structures is being undertaken in different parts of the country.The followingselection of ideas from Dr. Leo Marquard's book "A Federationof South-ern Africa" was prepared by a working groupin the Cape Western Region ofthe BlackSash.What is a federation?It is a system of government where powerto makeand administer laws is divided be-tween a central authority and individual states.(In a union, parliament is sovereignand canveto provincial decisions. In a federation,there is strictly speaking, no sovereignty ex-cept that which residesin the constitution).It is assumed that each state will be govern-ed on a democratic basis. A democracy acceptstheprinciples of constitutional replacement ofgovernment, the rule of law and the indepen-dence of the judiciary.d! 'id'way people of different regionsdecide to federate, cases are bound to arisewhere the constitutional rights of theregionconflict with those of the central authority. Itis therefore essential to have a legal means ofsettling such disputes.This is the functionof the supreme court. In a federation thesupreme court has the special function of in-terpreting theconstitution and thus decidingthe issues of conflict.Whatever constitution a unitary state mayhave, written orunwritten, parliament remainssovereign and the supreme court cannot ques-tion an act of parliament. When anumberof regions federate, an act of parliament can-not change the constitution. Each region hasits "sovereign"parliament, no one of whichcan, by itself, alter the constitution. To meetthe need for altering the constitutionwhenchanged circumstances demand it, federal con-stitutions provide that, say, a majority of twoThe Black Sash,November, 197. 27thirds of the votes in three quarters of the re-gions are necessary for an amendment.To sum up,these are the main differencesthat distinguish a federal from a unitary form.of constitution: a division of powers; thespe-cial function of the supreme court; the mach-inery for constitutional amendment.There is one further proviso of afederalconstitution. It must embody a bill of rights,constitutionally entrenched, and guarded byan independentjudiciary, the supreme court.Herein lies the greatest security for indivi-dual liberty in a modern state.Is federationdesirable?It is not desirable if it aims to secure thesupremacy of one group over another.1 It is not necessary forachieving politicaland civil freedom. But there are politicalgoals that can be attained only through fed-eration.1 It isdesirable in that it is pragmatic. . Itallows compromise and accommodation. Itallows for integrative anddifferentiatingforces. It provides a practical method of se-curing peaceful co-existence.1 It is a way that will neitherdestroy norendanger those human values that we associatewith smaller, rather than larger geographicalareas.1 It is away of combining economic plan-ning and development with local cultural au.Die Swart Sere, November 1973

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tonomy. The release of economic energy thatmight well be brought about would enable usto tackle a major root ofprejudice - econo-mic want - with greater hope of success.It is a way that might reduce the pres-sure of fear thatkeeps social prejudice in allits forms active - the fears that Blacks haveof hunger, of White domination; and thatWhiteshave of Black domination. Both setsof fears are real and almost identical.What are the problems?Perhaps the mostdelicate practical prob-lem that arises is that of financial arrange-ments between the central and regionalauth-orities.Each authority, central and regional., musthave unconditional authority over its finances.Therefore eachauthority must have the powerto tax. If there are to be grants to poorerregions, these must be set up so that theydonot depend on the goodwill of the wealthierregions. They must be laid down as part ofthe constitutional agreement,so that each re-gion receives its share of the national cake asof right and not as an act of charity.There must be nodelay in reconsideringour constitutional arrangements. The prob-lem is to retain our sense of perspective. Ap-parentlyinsuperable difficulties may be easyto solve in 10 years. These considerations willtake time to mature.Problems willarise when such matters associal habits, social, religious and languagedifferences are distorted and givenexaggeratedvalues which they do not possess. It is unwiseto accept or reject federation solely on thegrounds thatthese aspects are immutable.What about a Southern Africafederation? Is it possible?An affirmative answer isconditional andbased on a number of assumptions.That the Whites have become aware thatthe present racial policiescannot succeed andthat alternative policies have a better chanceof doing so under a federal constitution.The BlackSash, November, 1973 280 That Whites have made the distinction be-tween their desires and their interests inre-lation to the rest of the population.That the Whites have made the distinc-tion between the surrendering andsharing ofpower. They have calculated the risks andgains and they would have weighed the priceof federation againstthe price of apartheid.That the Blacks have been effectively con-sulted and that their positive consent hasbeengiven.That no Black leaders would welcome racewar for revenge.Federation would be possible if thesecon-ditions were largely fulfilled and if these pre-sumptions were for the most part valid.Its form?What the authorenvisages is a federationof some 15 regions. The present boun-daries of the Republic would be redrawn andreplacedby aproximately 11 autonomousregions. The size and population of each re-gion would be roughly comparable tothoseof our three black neighbours, who may findus more attractive in smaller groups.The partitioning and federating,of the Re-public with il regions, would be followedby federation between these regions and Le-sotho, Botsw_ ana,Swaziland and Namibia.Each region would have its own parliamentand all citizens would have equal rights, pro-tectedby a bill of rights written into a federalconstitution with a federal supreme courtsafeguarding it.How?Before federationcan become a reality itwill have to have the approval of all SouthAfricans. Since many of the factors are com-plex,political leadership must obviously playa dominant part in helping individuals under-,and these problems andconvincing the ma-jority that federation is desirable and practical.It will take skill and much time to arrive attheconference table. It will involve politicalparties, leaders of every community and pres-sure groups.Die Swart Serp,November 1973

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Around the regionsspace does not permit us to publish reports from all regions in full. In allareas a great deal ofvaluable work has been done in the field of dis-semination of information to the public. Dozens of articles haveappeared inthe Press and letters have been written to the appropriate authorities onvariousmatters. Meetings ofmembers and their visitors have been addressed by in-formed speakers. Most regions have projects which they havebeen workingon steadily and with perseverence. The following extracts from regionalreportspresented at conferenceare illustrative of the kind of work undertaken bytheBlack Sash.National HeadquartersTHERE IS little doubt thatknowledge of thepaign an African women has been the mount-slowly.The main project for the year in the cam-paignon African women has been the mount-ing of a photographic exhibition to expose theplight of African women - theterms of re-ference being the Charter for Women. Ifthis exhibition is a success we will considermounting it in othervenues - though theyare not easy to find - and it may also be pos-sible for other regions to use the pictures.It is allvery well to decide to mount a cam-paign on a particular issue but, as with thecampaign on African women, we foundour-selves faced, in the campaign on migrant la-bour, with what we could actually do - whateffective steps we couldtake to disseminatethe facts about migrant labour and build upsufficient pressure to bring about its aboli-tion.Mrs.Sinclair visited Mossel Bay to demon-strate the support of the Black Sash for thepilgrims who were at that timemarching inprotest against the migrant labour system. Shespoke at a service in the Anglican Church atMosseI Bayand the next morning walked fora short distance with the pilgrims. We in-tend to publish information on the effectsofthe system early in 1974.The information-packed booklet on thepass laws has been one of our most successfulandsought-after publications and we are nowdown to our last few copies. It will now bereprinted. This is a project of whichwe canbe justly proud.The Black Sash, November, 1973 29Mrs. Duncan was invited to attend as anobserver theConference I Legal Aid heldat the University of Natal m July 2 to 6.The conference was organised byProfessorMatthews and subsidised by the Ford Founda-tioA n.memorandum was sent to the DeputyMinister of BantuAffairs and Education inresponse to his invitation to present sugges-tions to him for the easing of the burdenplaced bylegislation on African people livingand working in urban areas.A large number of overseas visitors havecome to theoffice during the year and it is aconstant source of surprise to find we are sowell-known. These visits offer avaluableopportunity for the interchange of ideas, andare most interesting.TransvaalJOYCE HARRISWENDYDELORM, Joseelyne Bloomfield andnow Janet Kempster have undertaken the ar-duous task of tracing from theGovernmentGazette numbers of people to whom work-men's compensation money is owing. Wehope that recentpublicity in the Star and theFinancial Mail will make employers moreaware of their responsibilities to their work-ingpeople. I cannot see that to note an em-ployee's home address would be a very diffi-cult administrative task for anyfirm.Four study group began work at the be-ginning of the year. Thus far the Sproeaspublications "Towards SocialChange" and"Power. Privilege and Poverty" have beenstudied in depth. New ideas have emergedfrom these groupswhich are interesting andDie Swa~rt Serp, November 18Ts

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rewarding. Women who are not Sash mem-bers are encouraged to participate.The quality of educationsub-committee isa new committee recently formed and chairedby a new young member, Jill Skow~no. Thefirstprojects undertaken are a study of highschool teaching and teacher training and astudy of in-job training possibilitiesand liter-acy training. A fact paper is being presentedto this conference on the mine training pro-gramme as a resultboth of the study groupwork and the interest of the education sub-committee.The map committee is a committee ofone,Barbara Waite. She is presenting an updatedpaper on removals to conference. Our thanksgo to Natal Coastal fortheir aid in obtaininginformation from the Department of ~eogra.phy and the Natal Agricultural Union on theirviews onthe viability of the proposed so-call-ed consolidation of KwaZulu. We have writ-ten to the Department of BantuAdministra-tion for permission to visit BophutaTswanain November. We have written to a numberof Bantustan primeministers for informationabout land usage and unemployment andhope in this way to give Barbara more help.TheColoured Affairs committee came intobeing because of mid-winter evictions of anumber of families. The Colouredpopula-tion of Johannesburg is growing daily and itsproblems are very complex. Frequent visitsto Coloured areas andcontact established withmany people have led to the fact paper to bepresented to this conference.The Saturday Clubheld a "workshop" atthe beginning of this year. in order to sortout its priorities and to plan the year's activi-ties. MissJose Emery, a trained group leader,led the discussions. Most members felt thatthe Junior Club was absorbing toomuch oftheir time and their energies and that theSenior Club was suffering as a result. Thedilemma was that theJunior Saturday Clubwas undoubtedly an important part of our ac-tivities and one which attracted some welcomeandunexpected publicity for the Sash.Because of the time factor a decision wastaken to curtail junior activities to onceeverythree months and to revert to the old patternof monthly meetings of the Senior Club.Miss Emery's guidance inhelping the club ordertowards a sharing of responsibility in the plan-ning and execution of activities has contri-butedenormously towards its cohesiveness.The children complain at the lack of juniorThe Black Sash, November, 197330meetings. We had doubts as to the quality ofcontact that was being established between thechildren and theinter-family visiting does notseem to fill the gap. We hope to review theJunior Club activities at the first meetingin1974.Natal CoastalGITA DYZENHAUSAFTER THE banning of Nusas and Sasooffice-bearers, monthlydemonstrations werearranged. These were discontinued after threemonths. Feeling is sharply divided in theRegion asto the real value and impact ofthese stands.After the Durban strikes in February, theMayor of Durban called a meetingof employ-ers and businessmen to discuss the causes ofthe strikes. As the composition of the meet-ing seemedone-sided, with no representationfrom either the workers or the trade unions,the Black Sash asked to have arepresentativeat the meeting. This was refused in a vague,unsatisfactory manner.In February, Mrs. C. Lamb and Ivisited adiscussion group formed by several youngmarried women who wished to know moreabout the Black Sashand its aims. We spenta very interesting morning with the group andgained one enthusiastic young member.Feelingthat Durban authorities shouldknow more about the Black Sash we askedthe Mayor of Durban if he would meetthreeof our members. The delegation led by Mrs.Piper, accompanied by Mrs. Chase and Mrs.Grice spent a pleasant15 minutes with theMayor.Letters were also written to Nusas and Sasoo ' the banning of student lead-; to thehamberof Commerce asking whether theincrease in unemployment was the result ofthe higher wages paid or lack of work -theChamber replied that they did not have thenecessary statistics to answer the question ; tothe Mayor of Durbanthanking and congra-tulating him on his efforts to abolish "pettyapartheid" wherever possible.Discussion groups havebeen organised forhigh school children and attended by child-ren from six schools.K. M. GAYNORSEVENTY-SIXPoverty Datum Line book.lets by the Research Department of the Uni-versity of Port Elizabeth were sent to lead-DieSwart Seri, November 197

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ing East London businessmen. Fifty otherswere distributed by members; One thousand"You and Your Pass"Xhosa/English book-lets from Nusas were distributed to Africans."This is Our City - East London 1973"- membershave researched the facilities forWhites and compared them with those forBlacks. A 21-page booklet has resulted -anupdated and enlarged version of a similarbooklet produced five years ago. One thou-sand copies are currently beingprinted to bedistributed free to the public.Letters were written to the Press on Gov-ernment restriction of open-airprotest and onGov-=t Mrs. Streek was invited to talk to the Angli-can clergy on the work of the Black Sash.up areasfilm was borrowed from CapeWIL and shown to about 100 people.An average of 15 Sash members and no'Sashersmeet on one morning a month. SomeSprocas publications have been read and dis-cussed. Talks have been given ondifferentcountries. The Sash tape on migrant labourwas played.Our Committee has been enlarged from fourto six toeight. For the first time in at least 13years we had more nominations than we need-ed - a healthy experience. Avice-chairmanwill be appointed shortly.We are proud to announce that after eightyears we re-opened the AdviceOffice on Sep-tember 8, and operate once a week on Satur-days from 9.00-12.00 in the Race Relationsoffices. Afterfour sessions we have seeneight clients, with one completed successfulcase so far.DEENA STREEKCapeWesternMIGRANT Labour was the subject of ouropening-of-Parliament stands, when we stoodat the bottom ofGovernment Avenue duringthe lunch hour on the four Mondays in Feb-ruary. We had 18 different posters whichwevaried each week. As with our otherstands we issued explanatory statements to thePress, and we distributed about1000 factsheets on migrant labour to the public.The Gatherings and Demonstrations Billmarked the end of our 18years of protest out-side the Houses of Parliament and -at the bot-tom of Government Avenue and restrictedopen-airprotest over a large area of the cityof Cape Town. The Black Sash issued Pressstatements during the third reading oftheThe Black Sash, November, 197 31Bill, and held a four-hour stand at the bottomof Government Avenue. Therewere at least12 members present throughout, and at itspeak, about 40.Representatives of the Citizens'ProtestCommittee held a simultaneous stand on thesteps of the Cathedral nearby. Mrs. Sinclair,our guest at the time,represented the BlackSash at this stand. The police took thenames of all those standing on the Cathedralsteps on thebasis that the stand was illegal.Summonses were issued but subsequently allcharges were withdrawn.We havEcontinued to protest against ban-nings each time a banning is brought to ournotice. We have held six such standsthisyear. Our posters depict how many peopleare under banning orders and draw attentionto the most recent addition.This often issomeone not in the public eye and whose ban-ning consequently is likely to go unnoticedby the generalpublic. We notify the Pressand state why and on whose behalf we areprotesting. Our banning stands have takenplacein the suburbs, along busy traffic routesduring rush hours, and we usually have be-twV, 30 and 40 people present.ththe banning of eight Nusas leaderswe regrettably lost the services of two newmembers. blrs. Sheila Lapinsky andMissPaula Ensor. 1~' a made Press statements andwrote letters on the subject of these and theSaso bannings. Wewrote individual lettersto those banned and have tried to keep our-selves informed of their welfare anddiffi-culties.About 20 people attend a study group onmigrant labour every second week. Thisgroup met for the firsttime on June 18 underthe leadership of Mrs. Robb and with FrancisWilson's book as the basis for readinganddiscussion. These meetings will continue andMrs. Henderson will start a second group. Itis hoped that throughthese groups memberswill learn to speak publicly an this and othertopics.Mrs. Versveld addressed the CatholicWo-men's League and Mrs. Robb has talked onmigrant labour on three occasions in localchurches, two of these aspart of the FamilyDay services.We have arranged as many visits as possibleto the townships, concentrating on thehos-tels for migrant workers. Our own members,as well as members from other organisationshave been included inthese tours. Our Ad-Die Swart Sere, November 1973

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vice Offices offer other means of shockingpeople into awareness of suffering. We havetried to encourage all ourmembers to visit theAthlone Advice Office this year and to bringothers with them. It also has been suggestedthatAdvice Office reports be studied at branchmeetings by working through specific casesstep by step, and so learning tounderstandthe morass of laws that govern the lives ofour African people.More and more our work involves andde-mands co-operation with other bodies and org-anisations working towards the same ends.This often allows forgreater impact, greaterco-ordination of resources and for less over-lapping, even if it does mean that the BlackSashas such is not seen to be involved. ForFamily Day the Black Sash undertook theresponsibility of publicising theEcumenicalService held in the Cathedral. The themefor this service and for Family Day generallywas migrantlabour.The Rondebosch Branch developed thequestionnaire on domestic workers, initiallyto Rondebosch members,and then to the en-tire Region. The questions put were challeng-ing and, whatever one's response, they callfor anincreased sensitivity to one's domesticworkers' needs.Rondebosch Branch looked at the subjectof wages in general,and by concentrating oncertain facts members produced a short studyin depth.Mrs. Henderson represented theRegion onthe UCT Wages Commission.The Claremont Branch and other members Albanyare involving themselves inan ecumenicalproject to provide eating and other facilitiesfor shoppers and workers in Claremont.Picnics round thePeninsula and other in-vestigations have resulted in valuable infor-mation being gathered on comparable beachandswimming facilities in the area. Inquirieshave been made into which local hotels andrestaurants are able and preparedto accom-modate Black and Brown people and whatrest-room and other facilities are available fopeople in the largerstores of Cape Town.Some of this information together with in-formation on housing, transport, the Nico Ma.IanTheatre will be used in a memorandum onthe Coloured people at present being prepar-ed for the TheronCommission.The Black Sash, November, 1978 32Natal MidlandsMRS. PAMELA WELLINGTON took overasorganiser of demonstrations at the annualgeneral meeting in March.On October 20, student members stood inprotestagainst African wages while membersof the University Council assembled for ameeting; March 7 saw a protest standagainstthe Nusas and Saso bannings; on June 9 therewas another protest against bannings; a standabout FamilyDay was held on July 7 and onAugust 31 we held a protest against the manyrefusals of passports and visas.Aninvestigation was held into what toiletfacilities are provided for Black shoppers inthe city centre. The City Council is toin-vestigate the possibility of providing more ofthese amenities. We hope the ,Sash's approachto the City Council hadsomething to do withthis decision.In the study group Francis Wilson's "Mig-rant Labour" was read and discussed.Allmembers were sent notices of this. Ten res-ponded. Those who attended found the meet-ings interesting andhelpful.Mrs. Wellington and Mrs. Park Ross areprepared to talk on the Women's Charter towomen's groups if they areapproached to doso. There is a feeling among some membersthat it is African women who should fightfor Africanwomen's rights. Perhaps some-thing can be done in this direction.MARY CORRIGALLWE HAVE tended to see therole of theBlack Sash in Albany more and more as apressure group encouraging action where need-ed. For examplethere have been no develop-ments on the removal of the people fromFingo Village to Committees Drift sinceourreport to conference last year, but we havekept the issue alive through articles in thePress and being wellrepresented on the FingoVillage Action Committee.We held a protest stand on the Saturdayafter Family Day drawingattention to theevils of migrant labour and were interruptedby the police on a minor technical matter. Welodged acomplaint to the Town Council aboutthis and held another stand on the same themeDie Swcvrt Serp, November 1975

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a month later. In Grahamstown we have toapply for permission to have a stand 31 daysin advance.Our A.G.M. washeld in March and a filmon multi-racialism in the Diocese of Zululand was shown. Shortly after this we weredelightedto have a visit from Jean weand we held a joint cheese and wine partyin her honour with Nusas and theSRCmembers from Rhodes University. This wasfollowed by a meeting at Rhodes where Mrs.Sinclair spoke onmigratory labour.ADVICE OFFICESNatal CoastalTHE PRESENT Natal Coastal Advice Officeopened on February 20following a requestby the Garment Worker's Union in the JamesBolton Hall for our assistance in dealing withThemany problems peculiar to Africans,which arose when they started a Benefit Fundfor African people. Since Februarywe havedealt with 727 cases 569 of which concernedpeople seeking permits to work.Most of the people coming to theofficewant permission to work in the Durban area.Only people qualifying under Section 10 (1)( a) or (b) have thisprivilege or those whohave permanent and lawful accommodation inthe area.No one can get a work permit withoutproofof legal accommodation and no one can getregistered as a lodger or in a hostel withoutproof of employment, soit is a vicious circleand the result is that there are probably thou-sands of illegal residents in Durban and anequalnumber either unemployed or workingillegally.What alternative has the Black man? Asa migrant worker he must goback to his Ban-tustan when he becomes unemployed. Thereany means of earning a living is non-existent.In Nqutualone there are 85 000 people un-employed, in conditions to overcrowded thatindividual farming is impossible. Whenaman returns to his Bantustan he must registerwith the local tribal labour bureau and waitThe Black Sash, November,1973 33In May we had a discussion evening entitled"protest through action", and various smallgroups were formed tolook into and drawattention to a variety of local issues such asinadequate lunch hour facilities for Blacks, aliteracycampaign and a cottage industry. Wealso started at this time the Advice Officewhich is currently being run onSaturdaymornings by Black Sash members, Race Rela-tions members, and law and social work stu-dents.C.PRIDMOREfor the recruiting officer to come and requi-sition for his services. He can wait for any-thing up to fiveyears, in fact except for min-ing recruitment available in some areas, noother form of recruiting seems to take placeinmany districts.In an article which appeared in the NatalMercury in March this year, Mr. M. C. Botha,Minister of BantuAdministration and Devel-opment, was quoted as stating that there arenearly 20 000 Africans unemployed orregis-tered as work seekers in the Transkei and90 000 in other parts of the country.Africans from the Transkei,especiallyfrom the areas which are right on Natal'sborders seem to find it absolutely impossibleto get work permits forany form of work.Many come to the Advice Office not knowingwhat to do or how to go about earning somesort ofliving and we find that we just cannothelp them.The housing situation in Durban for Afri.cans is absolutely critical as itis far Colouredpeople and Indians. Accommodation is at apremium and the waiting lists are anything upto four yearsand more. Only people quali-fin u-der Section 10 ( 1) ( a) or (b ) mayy' gapply and then only married men.The newBantu Administration Boards forNatal came into effect on August 1. Natalis divided into three main areas viz.NorthernNatal, the Drakensberg and Port Natal whichis the area that concerns us. Port Natal stret-Die S-t Serp,November 1973

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ches from Port Alfred in the south to the lowerTugela in the north and inland as far as Cam-perdown but excludesthose parts of KwaZuluwhich lie between. We do not visualise anychanges under these Boards although all sortsofpromises have been made by the chairmanand his deputy.SOLYEIG PIPERGrahamstownTHE GRAHAMSTOWNAdvice Office, see upby the Grahamstown Branch of the South Af-rican Institute of Race Relations. is staffed bytheInstitute, the Slack Sash and students ofthe Faculty of Social Science at Rhodes.The office opened on May 12, at thesametime as the new legal aid office which operatesat the same address and is run by Rhodes lawstudents under thesupervision of the locallaw society.The Advice Office keeps a close liaison withthe Legal Aid Office, referring legalprob-lems to the law students. The law students,in turn, can call on a roster of qualified legalpeople when problemsare beyond their com-petence.The co-operating groups established the of-fice partly to help with existing problemsandparty in anticipation of the legal and socialproblems which will come up when the Gov-ernment implements itsplan to deprive blackFingo Villagers of their right to own propertyin Grahamstown and to send thousandsofGrahamstown residents to Committees Drift,22 miles away.In the four months since we opened in anold church hallwhich is used as an office bythe local distress relief organisation duringthe week, we have handled 17 cases, 10ofwhich have required legal help as well. Theoffice is now open for two hours every Satur-day morning.One of ourmain concerns now is to try tohelp the victims of a bus accident which hap-The Black Sash, November, 1973 34penedhere last year. It appears that, due tothe intervention o an agent between the vic-tims and the insurance company,some of thevictims received as little as 15 per cent of themoney which the insurance company paid outfor them.Weare now working to a deadline as Feb-ruary is the latest date when these matters canbe brought up in court. So far,six bus acci-dent cases have come to us and they will seethe magistrate on September 20 to make surethey qualifyfor state legal aid.SHIRLEY MCLENNANEast LondonTHIS Advice Office opened in the offices ofthe Institute of RaceRelations on September8. At the moment it is open only on Satur-day mornings. Thirteen cases were dealt within thefirst weeks, three families wantedhouses, two people wanted help in obtainingdisability pensions, and there was onecom-plaint about an employer.This office expects to receive many queriesfrom released political prisoners who arecon-fined to Mdantsane, some with banning ord-ers. They find it very difficult to find, em-ployment especially if theirbanning orderforbids them to enter factory premises.There is a serious unemployment problemin East London. It isestimated that thereare 160 000 adults in Mdantsane (a large re-settlement town ), 46 000 adults in DuncanVillageplus 100 000 people who are illegallyliving in the East London area. Only about30 000 people are employed in thecity.DEENA STREEKReports of the Athlone and Johan-nesburg Advice Offices will appearnext year.Die Swarrt Serp,November 1973

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Will there be no more learning ?With the report of the Van Wyk de Vries commissioninto the universities almostcertain to be tabledat the next session of Parliament it seems likelythat the next year will see still further inroadsintouniversity autonomy and academic freedom. AtNational Conference, the Black Sash reiterated itsstand onacademic freedom. Here SHEENADUNCAN takes a brief look at just what that free-dom means.What is academicfreedom and why is it soimportant? An understanding of thevalue of free universities in any society is es-sential forSouth Africans at a time when theGovernment has already imposed serious re-strictions on our universities; whenseverepenalties without any kind of judicial proce-dures are being imposed on lecturers and stu-dents who effectivelyexpress their oppositionto this Government's policies and when it ispossible that the next session of Parliamentwillproduce legislation which will completely=roy what is left of academic freedom in ourry.It is necessary to decide whatuniversitiesare for. Is their function merely to producetechnocrats in sufficient quantity to fulfil therequirements ofgovernment and big businessor should they be primarily concerned with thesearch for and the safeguarding anddisse-mination of the truth as far as it is discover-able.Academic detachment and objectivity arevery valuable andindeed essential componentsof any rational judgment of policies or actions.A democratic society cannot functionwithoutcontinual questioning and readjustment; with-out continual tempering of policy to the needsof the people. If thesearch for truth bringsuniversities into conflict with any governmentthen that government must accept this fact asoneof the necessary limitations on the powerof politicians in a democracy.This control over and balance to the actionsof apolitical party in power is as necessary asthe limitations which are imposed by inde-pendent =e.tw.uld of law and afree Pprss. With-out it gcease entirely to beresponsive to the needs of those governed andwould be able to actexclusively in the inter-ests of a tiny handful of those in whom poweris vested.Good government can be defined as thesuc-cessful, just reconciliation of the interests ofall groups in a society and this cannot beachieve without independentacademic institu-tions to research, evaluate and propagate truevalues and principles.The average person readilyunderstandsthat the scientific disciplines must be allowedto function in research, teaching and the prac-ticalapplication of knowledge without inter-ference by those who are not qualified tomake scientific judgments. Obviouslyphysi-cal disasters would occur were this not so.No one seriously suggests that limitationsbe placed on the freedomof scientists to seekand disseminate knowledge. Scientists mayhave to accept that projects soundly based inscientifictheory may not necessarily be in thebest interests of the society and are thereforeundesirable or impractical but it isacknow-ledged that they must always be free to pro-pagate their theories.Why then is it so difficult for the man inthestreet to accept the necessity for the samefreedom to be accorded to those whose worklies in the philosophies, thehumanities andthe arts?Some of their findings may be untrue ornot in the best interests of a community butfreedom todiscuss and teach their honestthought is essential if humankind is to sur-vive at all in a technological age. Thosewhowork in these disciplines are more likely tofind themselves in direct conflict with poli-tical ideologies but their workwould be com-pletely sterile were it not to be tested againstthe ideas prevailing in the society outsidetheuniversity.The Black,Sash, November, 1973 35 Die Svaxt,Serp, November 1973

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In a modern society money to keep univer-sities going must inevitably come from thestate but it is essential that thismoney is givenwith no strings attached. It is not in the in-terests of a society that money be given con.ditionally or thatthe threat of witholdingmoney should be used to control the thoughtor free expression of universityadministrators,teachers or students. To do so immediatelydestroys the very idea of a university andmakes worthlessthe work which can be donein such circumstances. Conformity is thevery antithesis of academic values.Forgovernment to control the appointmentof academic staff or the actions of students isto create yet an 'ser-vts arep~thcrmultitude of civilan who eluded from expressing poli-tical dissent or acting against a political partyinGpower.overnment must realise that no money be-longs to it to use at will. The money it spendsit merely uses onbehalf of those to whom itbelongs. All citizens contribute through vari-ous taxes to the general revenue and whenthemoney is spent on academic institutions thetaxpayer's return comes from the increase ofknowledge placed at thedisposal of the soci-ety for its spiritual, mental, physical and eco-nomic welfare.~he 1Vationalist Government in SouthAf-richas already destroyed academic freedomby taking away the right of universities to de-cide whom they will admitas students. Ifthe next step is to be control over who will beallowed to teach and how it may be taught,as well as overthe free expression of academicopinions, then control over what may betaught will be accomplished.Those of theworld's best intellects who arestill prepared to work here in our universitieswill no longer do so, our degrees will nolongerbe accepted anywhere else, our isolation fromcontemporary thought will be complete andwe will become anation of zombies withoutan independent idea among us.There will be no more learning, only: sys-tem ofindoctrination to fit us for the halflives we will be allowed to lead.THOUGHTS ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM4IF there isnot freedom in the universities it will not flourish anywhereelse. It is not enoughthat universities should be free, but it isessential. Freedom to academiclife has the same re-lations as courage to an army. It is a sine qua non to itsefficientfunctioning, for withoutfreedom universities cannot explore and cannot discover.The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Thorpe,M.P.4WE should define the ingredients of academic freedom to be the right todecide what may betaught, how it maybe taught, who may teach and who may study. These areinterdependent.A limitation on any one of these rightshampers the search for truth.The Rt. Hon. R. A. Butler4THE members of a university should therefore have the right,so long as itoccurs on strictlyscientific lines, to think freely, to seek the truth without restraint, andto give freeexpressionto their thoughts and findings, even if these should be erroneous. The onlyway to show thata view iswrong, is to answer it by refutation and not to stifle it byauthority imposed fromabove.1The Holloway Commission`IF auniversity, committed to the pursuit. of truth in the light ofreason, is compelled toadopt a practice based, in one of itsactivites, on non-academic criteria,there must arise thefear that advances in knowledge may also be judged byequally irrelevantconsiderations. Acountry where such fear is created will neither retain its own bestscholars norsucceed in at-tracting distinguished scholars from abroad."The Open Universities in South Africa"The Black Sash,November, 1973 36Die Swart Serp, November 1979

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Celebrate what?JEAN SINCLAIRThis is the text of Mrs. Sinclair's presidential address to NationalConference.Thisyear the Nationalist Government cele-brated its 25th year in office - 25 yearsof increasing power and increasingauthori-tarianism but what has South Africa got tocelebrate?Twenty five years of apartheid; of racialdiscrimination,injustice, inhumanity, ban-. ings, banishments, detention without trial,confiscation of passports, refusal of visas,de-portations, race classification, immoralitylaws, groups areas, enforced removals, resettle-ment villages.Migrantlabour, bachelor hostels, endorse-ments out, broken families, permits to live,permits to work, to reside.BantuEducation, tribal universities, attackson students, a Schlebusch Commission.Bantustans, poverty.A Coloured People'sRepresentative Coun-cil, an Indian Council.Separate entertainments, separate buses andtrains, separate entrances,separate lavatories,separate ambulances, separate hospitals, separ-ate blood.International isolation in sport, theatre.tra-vel, conferences and agencies.Immigrant "scum". a flag with a "scab"which will drop off, Boerehaat, CurrentAf.fairs, censorship, Marais Steyn.Ministerial threats, attacks on the English-speaking churches and the Press, threatsoffurther Press censorship.The Physical Planning Act, border indus-tries.Fear, Doubt, Tension - you name it, wehaveit.Sackcloth and ashes would be more ap-propriate tothe situation than celebration.One of the notable occurrences ofthis yearhas been the wresting of some political initia-tive from Whites by Blacks. The repercus-sions of the Bantustanpolicy are immense andfar-reaching.In 1960 Dr. Verwoerd said that the Afri-cans could develop to their limit in theBan-tustans and that these would be fully indepen-dent states. This promise has become a ma-jor plank in theGovernment's justificationof the =apartheid system and black lead-ers are successfully using this fact byrefusingindependence until they have just land con-solidations, proper boundaries, a fair shareof our national wealthand are accorded therespect and freedom due to leaders of thevarious legislative assemblies.The Chief :Ministers aredemanding moreland. They demand that the Bantustans beconsolidated into viable geographic entities.They are notsatisfied either with the con-solidation proposals or with the inequitabledistribution of land as set out in the 1936Landand Trust Act in terms of which7 250 000 morgen of land were to be acquir-ed for the then reserves. When all thislandis handed over to the Bantustans the totalamount of land owned by all the Bantustanswill be only 13,7 per cent ofthe surface areaof the Republic. It is understandable that theBlack leaders find this unequal divisionun-acceptable.Only the Transkei and the minute ~a-sotho Qwaqwa are geographic entities and eveni th k c ten ;Trat",,ei sertient7rhi towns includ-in, ort . oh , ar emain in the Re-public. All other Bantustans have scatteredblocks ofland surrounded by White areas,such as KwaZulu with 29, BophuthaTswanaand the Ciskei each with 19, the other"home-lands" varying from two to four blocks ofland.The South African Government's consoli-dation proposalsreducing the number ofblocks to a smaller number of larger, but stillscattered blocks are not acceptable. The leadersare also totally opposed to the massive en.forced removals which the consolidation pro-posals would entail.All Whiteinterests are consulted aboutconsolidation proposals but the Black peopleThe Black Sash, Noroember, 1973 ? DieSw-t S-m, November 1973

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who will suffer the major upheavals and whoare most closely affected are not given anyofficial chance to express theirviews.Bantustan governments require finance fordevelopment of industry and for an infrastructure. They are askingfor the right toaccept investment from abroad with no stringsattached.Chief ministers Buthelezi, Matanzima, Man-gopi,Phatudi and Ntsanwise are increasinglycritical of apartheid. They oppose the mig-rant labour policy. They wantfreedom ofmovement for their citizens in the Whiteareas as well as in the Black ones. They cri-ticise influx and effluxcontrol, poverty wagesand the lack of trade unions.In March this year Chief Buthelezi is re-ported to have toldbusiness men and tradeunionists that what Blacks wanted fromWhites was economic security, social stabilityand freeand compulsory education for theirchildren.Chief Buthelezi regrets the lack of dialoguebetween the South AfricanGovernment andthe Bantustan governments. He objects tocommunicating with cabinet ministers onlythrough theCommissioner General.KwaZulu's request for its own radio stationand its own defence force have been turneddown.Chief Buthelezi was not even allowedto have the private secretary of his choice.All the demands and criticisms ofSouthAfrican policy by the Bantustan leaders areobviously an embarrasment to the Republicangovernment. Separatedevelopment is notworking out in the way it was intended.Black consciousness and Black politicalawareness are nowa fact of life. Black con-sciousness is the determination of the Blackman to know himself - to realise his worthas aperson and to depend on himself to achievehis aspirations. The analogy in this countryis the growth of Afrikanernationalism whichbegan in exactly the same way as Black con-sciousness.Black consciousness is spreading bothinthe rural and the urban areas. It is producinga consolidation of opinion among all Blackgroups including theColoured people and theAsians. The Coloured Persons RepresentativeCouncil is not working. The Colouredpeople,having been deprived of the political rightswhich they once had in the Cape, do not re-gard the Council as ameaningful alternativeThe Black Sash, November; 1973 2to the vote on the common roll. The policywith regard to theColoured people and theAsians is so vague and undefined that itpleases no one.Young Black people, like the youngevery-where, are not ai,, moderate as their parents.To them no W he of any shade of politicalopinion has anycredibility and they have de-cided to go it alone.This year the baning of eight Black studentleaders and of youngpolitical leaders has leadto a hardening of attitudes. Confrontation=i h authority at the Black uiversities andesecondary schools has become endemic.Unrest flared up at Fort Hare at the beginningof August. One hundred andfifty studentswere suspended and the following week hund-reds of students walked out. Students at theFederalTheological Seminary staged a sit-in.In Damaraland students of the Martin Lu-ther High School boycotted classes insympa-thy with students of the Augustinium Collegein Windhoek who had staged a maslk outthe week before afterrefusing to co=p y withcertain of the college's regulations.Two Saso officials were banned in August.More have beenbanned since. Then there werethe disturbances at the University of theWestern Cape.The actions of the SouthAfrican Govern-ment have led to the growing solidarity offBlack people, politicians, professionals, ademics, workersand students. Ameeting heldrecently in Athlone was attended by 12 000people who came to demand theunconditionalreadmission of all the students of the Univer-sity of the Western Cape.The Black People's Convention -a newpolitical movement - is aimed at Black solidar-ity, and like Saso, it rejects the Bantustanpolicy. It feels that byaccepting office in theBantu stans the leaders have become part ofthe system.The Coloured people, having beenrejected,deprived of their rights, their dignity, insultedand assaulted, are bitter. They are bitter abouttheir education,though from next year freeand compulsory education is to be introducedfor all Coloured children. They are bitteraboutthe Group Areas policy whereby theyhave been moved from their long establishedhomes ; they are bitter about thehorrors ofrace classification, about separate entertain.ments and about the futility of the ColouredPersonsRepresentative Council.Die Suiamt Serp, November 1973

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The Asians, too, have been victims of theGroup Areas Act, have lost their homes andtheir businesses in theirenforced removal toareas of the Government's choosing. They toohave associated themselves with the call forBlacksolidarity.The unrest in South West Africa is evi-dence of the growing dissatisfaction of theOvambos. The strikesstarted in 1971. Sincethen, although a state of emergency was de-clared, there have been spasmodic outbreaksanddisturbances. In the recent election ofthe Ovambo Legislative Assembly only 2i percent of the electorate cast theirvotes - hardlya demonstration of enthusiasm for separate de-velopment. Since the election violence haserupted againin Katutura township.In the urban areas of the Republic and inSouth West Africa, the migrant labour policy,the passlaws, the lack of family housing, thepoverty wages, continue to ha-.,s the Afri-can people.In March this year the strikesin Natal caus-ecd sternatemploy ~on and even fear among Whitehe,er se strikes are significant be.spo us ancauseemploy were ntancol d unorganised.With the rising cost of living the wages mostworkers were earning were notenough to keepeither the men or their families in health ordecency. Wages were increased throughoutthe country butstill a large percentage ofworkers are earning well below the povertydatum line.The exposure in the British Press ofthepoverty wages paid by British companies oper-ating in South Africa resulted in the app~int-ment of a BritishParliamentary Commissionto enquire into the position. There has beensome heartsearching among employers asaresult of the strikes, with regard to wages,lack of communication and lack of training.It is sad but true that wageincreases forBlack workers have still not matched the in-creases given to White workers and in manycases the gaphas been increased.Sporadic strikes have broken out all overthe country and are continuing. It is impera-tive that thedisparity in the wages betweenBlack and White workers be narrowed andthat all workers be paid a living wage assoonas possible.The migrant labour policy is one of the maincauses of low wages. There are several veryimportantfactors which seem to be disregard-ed by employers.The Black Sash, November, 1973 3Firstly, it is not the fault ofthe migrantworker that he has neither education nortraining.Secondly, he is forced by law to be a mig.rant and cannever be anything but a migrant.He has to live in a bachelor hostel all hisworking life, while his wife and family ekeoutan existence in a Bantustan, frequentlyin a resettlement village. He has therefore totry to support his family on hismeagre payand pay his own rent and food in the urbanarea where he works.Thirdly, he pays income tax. Officiallyhedoes not pay income tax, but he does pay taxon his income which he must pay when hisearnings reach theshamefully low level ofNU year, far lower than the level at whiche man starts to pay income tax. Thetax increases ashis income rises and he re-ceives no rebates for being a married manwith or without children. In addition he paysageneral tax of 82,50 a year and in his Bantu-stan he has to pay but tax. He pays exactlythe same as a White personfor food, cloth-ing and household necessities and in the Blacktownships many essentials cost more than theydo inWhite towns. From this it must herealised that the rising cost of living is a muchmore serious matter for an Africanthan it isfor a White man.It is true that the migrant worker is ofteninefficient and his productivity low, but is itsurprisingwhen his service contract is for amaximum period of a year; when his livingconditions are appalling; when he has nose-curity, no family life, often poor feeding andno privacy? All these factors mitigate againstefficiency and stability.Themigrant labour policy is evil and inde-fensible and should be abandoned. It has de-humanised the worker, turned himinto a `'la-bour unit" and virtually a serf.Education and training are an urgent prior-ity. Emphasis on this comes fromallsections of the population-Black and White.The Government should abandon separateBantu education andeducate all children foran equally productive role in society. Whetheror not White skilled immigrants will continuetocome to this country, South Africa has amoral obligation to teach and train her ownpopulation. A crash programme isneededin the short term and many industrialists, Iam sure, will help.Die Swevrt Serp, November 197s

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As a first step it would help if the Govern-ment stopped endorsing out the thousands ofteenagers in the urban areasand set up emer-gency vocational schools to teach them skills.This year the Bantu Administration Boardstook overthe administration of African af-fairs from the local authorities. A statedobjective of the Boards is to give more mobil-ityto- labour. The deputy Minister of BantuAdministration and Education has announcedthat all legislation affectingAfricans is to besimplified. It certainly needs simplificationbut this will probably entail the final removalof the fewremaining loopholes.There is no suggestion of repealing any ofthe harsh provisions of influx and efflux con-trol or ofreintroducing home ownership andfreehold tenure. Neither is there any wordof allowing all African workers to livewiththeir families in the places wherethey work. There is no evidence that "en-dorsements out" are being reduced northatany of the regulations are being relaxed -quite the opposite in fact.The chief ministers of the Bantustansareequally disturbed about the "endorsementsout". In the already overcrowded Bantustansthere is large scaleunemployment and povertyand the enforced repatriation of the urbandwellers merely serves to aggravate thesitua:tion, more miscry, more broke.. fainerili relt~ougli and m hardship.I he apartheid law, a,d regulation,;ha~ notchanged much over the last year,the attitudes of the Black people have changedas I have demonstrated. They arebecomingincreasingly bitter and exasperated with theinjustices, the discrimination in every sphere;in employment,education, wages, living con-ditions and housing. The Blacks are grasp-ing the political initiative while WhiteSouthAfrica seems incapable of moving to bringshout radical change.We =turn to White politics. The mostobvioustrend appears to be the Government'sunwillingness to admit to the failure of itspolicy and to face the fact that it isfutile topersevere with a plan wich is unacceptableto the majority of the people it governs.When Dr. Verwoerdlaunched the policy ofseparate development he said the fragmenta-tion of South Africa was not what we wouldhaveliked; but it had to be done to reducethe pressures on South Africa from abroad.The Mack Sash, November, 1978 4Intheory separate development was intend-ed to present the moral justification for apart-heid. In practice, as well as theinjustices,many anomalies have been uncovered and un-expected demands have revealed the shortcom-ings of thepolicy. The Government's failureto fulfil many of the promises originally given,such as the consolidation of theboundariesand the fact that certain towns like Richard'sBay in KwaZulu and Port St. John's in theTranskei have beenexcluded from their ter-ritories has caused disillusionment and bitter-ness. Dr. Verwoerd led his party into a cul-de-sacdown which it stumbles blindly.The Government, finding itself in this un-easy situation, has three courses of actionopento it. To admit defeat and change its policy;to resign and allow another government totake over, or to rule byforce in the face ofthe increasing anger and frustration of theBlack people. The last option is what theGovernment haschosen to do, and in so doingltas adopted authoritarian methods and aban-doned the democratic principles ofgovern-ment.Early on in its administration the Govern-ment realised that it could not implementapartheid withoutlegislation designed to curbextra-parliamentary opposition. Such laws asthe Suppression of Communism Act,whichprovided for the imposition of banning orderswithout trial, were passed.In the years that followed a mass ofaPart-heid legislation and other laws which abrogatethe rule of law were put on the statute bookto restrict and silenceopposition to and cri-ticism of Government policy.During this 25th year of Nationalist rule,in the name of state security,the Governmenthas taken the most undemocratic and despoticaction against those who refuse to conform.The attackon the English-speaking stud-ents and Nusas began some years ago. Lastyear we had the police assaults onstudentspeacefully demonstrating. This year the Gov-ernment gave us the Schlebusch Commissionappointed toinvestigate four organisationsThe National Union of South African Stud-ents ; the now dcfunct UniversityChristianMovement ; the Institute of Race Relationsand the Christian Institute.All are organisations openly critical ofapart-heid; all are working for justice and recon.ciliation; all are opposed to racial discrimina-tion; all are trying toestablish contact andDie Swart Serp, November 1973

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goodwill among all racial groups. All the orga-nisations are respected and none of them canrightly be accused ofsubversion or of beinga threat to the security of the state.Those witnesses who, in conscience, haverefused to giveevidence before the Commis-sion, regard it as a denial of justice but wouldbe prepared to give evidence to a judicialcom-mission. The members of Schlebusch areparty politicians, some of whom have ex-pressed publicly theirone-sided opinions ofcertain or all of the organisations. The workof the Commission is carried out in secretandwitnesses are denied the right to have theirlegal advisers cross-examine. This is a travestyof justice.After thepublication of the Commission'sreport the Government banned eight studentleaders without giving any reason.Whatcowardly action to silence criticism.As I write this, Dr. Beyers Naude has hadhis passport withdrawn. An undatedorderto surrender his passport was handed to himat the airport when he was about to leave forEurope. The fact thatDr. Naude had failedto notice his passport had expired is besidethe point. The newsrooms of the world havebroadcastthis story about a man - a worldfigure, honoured and admired by all freedom-loving people.Incidents like these as wellas the abroga-tion of the rule of law, the discrimination andthe injustices have caused anxiety and criticism from manyAfrikaner intellectuals, aca-demics and businessmen.They are deeply concerned about the in-equality of opportunityand the lack of com-munication and meaningful dialogue. They.the dangers for the future of South Africaand havelaunched a new movement, VerligteAksie.Membership of the organisation is open toall South Africans regardless ofrace or shadeof political opinion. This obviously is a stepin the right direction and we wish them well.I do, however,wish to stress that the im-plementation of this Government's plan forseparate development is a sham designedtoensure that White South Africa can make useof Black labour without in any way sharingpower, prosperity orprivilege. We thereforebelieve that it is illogical to support separatedevelopment while opposing the negativeandtotally evil aspects of what is erroneously call-The Black Sash, November, 1973 5ed "petty" apartheid. It is alsoimpossible toenforce the policy without abandoning anypretence to govern within the rule of law. Forthese reasons wecannot see how it is possibleto belong to, or vote for the National Party,and at the same time to be a member ofVer-ligte Aksie. Separate development is inher-ently discriminatory.It is well known that the Black Sash is to-tallyopposed to apartheid and all that it en-tails. We oppose coercion which has beenemployed to establish theBantustans. If thepolicy is to have any moral basis at all theremust be consultation and agreement withthegovernments of these territories. It is com-mon cause that the Bantustan governmentsare unwilling to acceptindependence untiltheir territories are consolidated into a cohe.sive whole and until they are given adequateland, afair share of the country's resourcesand access to the sea. They must also be givenfull control over their ownaffairs.However we are not convinced that Blackpeople, if given a free choice, would chooseto fragment South Africa.The only alterna-tive is full citizenship for all South Africans.One of the most unfortunate aspects ofWhite politics overthe years has been thefailure of the United Party Dither to presenta positive and understandable policy totheelectorate, or to give firm and dynamic oppo-sition in vital matters of principle. Its shilly-shallying over authoritarianlegislation; itsconnivance at the erosion of the rule of law;its willingness to serve on the SehlebuschCO on and its tacitacceptance 0Tmissi fI '!d h all man -,tr- wit it' inh iction ,hasgiven the Government the green light to fillthe statute bookwith legislation which hasno place in a democratic society. Now thatthe party has been relieved of the burden ofMr.Marais Steyn it may listen to its moredynamic young leaders.The Progressive Party with its one remark-able memberof Parliament, Dr. Helen Sumsman, has provided the only real opposition inParliament. She fights alone for therightsof 16 million South Africans, most of whomare unenfranchised. In her 21 years in Par-liament she has opposedeach and every un.democratic bill. Her performance has earnedfor her the reputation of being one of thegreatestparliamentarians of the day.It is unfortunate that the White electoratehas guarded its privilege and its materialDieSwamt Serp, November 1973

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Zl1h -1 has closed its eyes to injustice andneed for meaningful change. Its unwill-ingness to make any sacrifice of itscomforthas denied the Progressive Party the supportwhich is principles deserve.A new political party is about to beform-ed. Mr. Gerdener's Democratic Party. It maybreak the present log jam in White politics.We hope it will, but onething is certain, inour present situation nothing will succeed un-less there is consultation and consensus onthe policiesto be adopted.We have become used to the Prime Minis-ter's fulmination" at National Party con-gresses, but hisrecent threat to the freedomof the Press is ominous. The Press is theonly institution which gives South Africa'simagean air of respectability. Mr. Vorster'sexcuse for threatening to impose further curbson the Press is that he says it isguilty of in-citement to racial hatred.The Government should realise that it isthanks to the English-language Press thatanyelemtn of goodwill still exists; that the Pressis an outlet for Black people to voice theirelement of goodwill stillexists; that the Pressis the one institution which practises the Gov-ernment's stated policy of dialogue. If itwere not forthe Press the lack of communi-cation would be even greater than it is.If incitement to racial hatred is thePrimeMinister's worry it would be more appropriateto censor the actions and utterances of hisCabinet and membersof his party. The useof such phrases as "superfluous appendages","labour units'", "immigrant scum" are cer-tainlyincitement to racial hatred, not to men-tion the campaign of Boerehaat, revived lastyear by the Minister of Defenceduring a by-election campaign. More importantly, thewhole apartheid policy is incitement to racialhatred.Anotherthreat hanging over our heads islegislation which will effectively silence ouruniversities. The only comment one canmakeis "those whom the gods wish to destroy. theyfirst make mad."The time has come for a change and all. ofus whofear for the future of South Africatrust stand together to oppose the forces ofdespotism.The Black Sash has for thelast 18 yearsprotested against injustice, racial discriminna-tion and the erosion of the rule of law. Itwill continuue to doso. It will continue tofight for a change of heart and a change ofpolicy. It will continue to expose the factsand theeffects of apartheid on Black people.It will continue to try to create goodwill andunderstanding among all SouthAfricans.We shall look for new ideas and ways andmeans to meet the new challenges of our day.As Chief Buthelezihas said "the hall is inWhite South Africa's court and it is up toWhite leadership to save us all from a con-frontationthat is bound to destroy all of us.and whose aftermath is too terrible toimagine".AffirmationTHE BLACK SASHreiterates its total opposition to any further encroach-ment on the freedom of the Press and promises its wholeheartedsupport tothe newspapers who have so courageously stood for justice in South Africaand integrity in theirprofession.The Black Sash, November, 1973 6Die Swart Serp, Not;ember 19;'3

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BANNEDSeventy people have been served with banning orders this year.MOST of the- are Black.MANY of them arestudents.MANY of them are committed churchmen.NEARLY all of them are young.THEY care about the future ofSouth African and ALL her people.IF this Government persists in destroying the work of all those who areworkingconstructivelyto bring about peaceful, evolutionary change and reconciliation in SouthAfrica, then the res.ponsibilityfor total chaos and irreconcilable conflict between our peoplein the future restssquarely on its shoulders.january,nyembe, vikilahle, biko, cooper, curtis,ensor, keegan, koka, lapinsky, le roux, mafuna,modisane, moodley,nengwekhulu, pityana, preto-rlus, turner, wood, ndhlovu, matlana, moodley, boo!,diko, dlngana, dlevu, hobo, mbekela,ngqondela,ngwema, stadl, yonge, moseneke, shlnners, lsaacs,naldoo, vandeyar, nanabahi, mohlangu, moetsi,nene,josie, willem, buthelezi, madibeng, moodley,arenstein, motau, ramgobin, mathe, issel, langa,baqwa, khoapa,qambela, dangor, mokoditoa,phillips, mxenge, sewpershad, nhlapo, diseko, issel,nhlapo, makatamene, rnbandla,mokoape, mattera,chetty, naidoo . . .HOW MANY MORE WILL GO BEFORE CHRISTMAS?The Black Sash,November, 1973 7 Die Swart Sere, November 1879

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Zn the landof ared manDAVID RUSSELLSteven Biko is King's banned man. ThereZe almost 400 of "them" inSouthAfri-ca, obanned citizens. In the Border areawe have 30 in our midst - all black as ithappens. They "live" mainlyat Mdantsane,Zwelitsha, Dimbaza and Ilinge. Thirty peo-ple . . . a list of names, a mere statistic tomany unless one ofthem happens to be inyour parish and you his priest and friend.Steve Biko was banned on February 26, oneof a groupfeatured in the Press as "the SasoEight." He was in fact the founder of theSouth African Students' Organisation but,ac-tually, at the time of his banning blr. Blkowas working full-time for an organisation call-ed Black CommunityProgrammes an off-shoot of Spro-cas. He is still working full-time at this.He is banned to the magisterial districtofKingwilliamstown - to his home which isin Ginsberg location. This means that forfive years, and who knows for howlong after,lie cannot travel at all. He cannot receiveguests or relatives at his home. He cannotattend any gatherings,cannot visit friends withThe Black Sash, November, 1973 8his wife. He cannot . . . the restrictions arelegion.Steven isa dedicated and committed person.He seems older than his 26 years and he sim-ply cannot be discounted as anirresponsiblehothead. He is a married man with a youngchild.His stand at rock-bottom is a fundamentallybiblical one.He longs for justice for his peo-ple - Black people, not in any narrow racistsense but as those ware by law or traditionagroup in the South African society and whoidentify themselves as a unit in the struggletowards their aspirations for ajust society.Such a definition is existential: a descrip-tion of actual experience. It is empirical -based on an objectiveanalysis of the facts ofthe South African situation. Furthermore ithas rich parallels with the Mosaic tradition;the story ofthe Jewish struggle for freedomfrom Pharaoh's yoke.Steven is a man of outstanding talent, aformidable person toencounter. He has anincisive and impressively objective and ana-lytical mind. He is also a perceptive and sen-DieSwam Serp, November 1973

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sitive human being. Such people tower abovetheir petty and bullying persecutors. Thefact that he could, by the strokeof an arbit-rary pen, be relegated to the role of a socialcripple is a living indictment of our socialsystem.However, Idetect in him no moping moodof self-pity. He is only too keenly aware ofthe lot of his brothers, confined topoverty-stricken reserves and obliged to go cap inhand to a White boss for work at a wage whichtoo often falls farbelow the poverty datumline. These serfs of South Africa are bannedin their own special and drastic way. Lifeunderbanning orders will be a lone, grim, un-natural grind. But it will not crush him, hewill come through victorious.TheBikos are one of the families in ourlocal congregation whom I have been visitingfrom time to time in the last thre_nI-years. Steven's mother has been awidowsince 1950. She has four children and Stevenis her second son. So when Iheard on the6.30 a .in. news that as.. of the family hadbeen banned, I decided to visit his mother tooffer my help andsupport as their priest.I met her coming up the hill after a wearyday's work at the hospital. She took thenews as onewho knows her would expect, withquiet strength based on a deep Christian faith.But such faith does not, of course,provide anescape from suffering and anxiety - theworry of knowing that even the slightest in.fringemet of the banningorders rnay spell jailfor her son. It is a heavy burden for anymother to bear.When Steven was brought back hometoserve his long five-year term of banning, Ibad him to my house for supper. At somestage there was a knock on thedoor. I wentto answer and found that an old friend ofmine. now a priest in another diocese, hadcome to visit me.I hadto explain that he could not come inbecause Steve was with me. My friend waskeen to greet him so I had to gooutside toenable them to have a chat. It was so utterlyabsurd and unnatural, vet if I had not goneout of my own houseo~it hat occasion Stevecould have been found lty of breaking hipban and been liable to a sentence not exceed-ingthree years.On another occasion when I was visitinghis mother at their home, her banned soncame home earlier thanexpected. I was oblig-The Black Sash, November, 1973 9to step outside the house to enable him to passthrough thelounge to his own room, beforeI could resume my conversation with his mo-ther. I was beginning to have someinklingof what it is like in the land of a banned man.Banning orders have a strong tendency toturn a person into asocial leper. Few knowhow to interpret these weird and bizarre regu-lations. Neighbours and friends and evenre-latives are liable to get the impression that itis somehow illegal to enter the home of a ban-ned person or to invitehim into one's ownhouse.This is not the case at all if a house arrestorder is not included in the banning order. Itispleasing to see that many people of the Gins-berg community realise this and have ralliedbouraround, refusing tobypass their banned neigh-.But the uncertainty in many people'sminds often makes them prefer to play safeto protecttheir friend, thus the insidious pro-cess of isolation sets in.Worse than this, ordinary people mighteasily become afraidof befriending a personwho has been set aside by Big Brother, thestate, for public disfavour and subtle punish-ment. Itis too easy for people to slide intothe false conclusion that the victim is some-how guilty.In fact, the opposite is true.What makesbanning orders so deeply unjust is the fact thatthe unfortunate victims are precisely the peoplewho havein a very real sense been provedinnocent.Criminals are by definition those who havebeen found guilty in the courts ofcertain anti-social acts. The banned have never beenbrought before the courts at all. They arepeople who havepersevered fearlessly in theirconvictions, and incurred the wrath of a re.girne whose treatment of citizens has beencon-demned by the world-wide Christian com-munity.One can he quite sure thatl the state hadone shred of evidencethat somne like Stevewere guilty they would have brought him glee-fully before the courts. But they know heisinnocent so they ban him. In spite of a legalstructure bristling with wide and tyrannicalpowers, they cannot find himguilty so theyban him.Bannings are the loudest testimony yet de-vised by the state to proclaim : "this man hasdonenothing wrong".Die Swart Serp, November 1973

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