SA’s early black struggle
PROMISE AND DESPAIR: THE FIRST STRUGGLE FOR A NON-RACIAL SOUTH AFRICA Author: Publisher: Review:
IN 1910, the Union of South Africa was established. The negotiations preceding Union had been heated, but eventually a compromise was reached at the 1909 National Convention. For black and coloured citizens, the compromise meant that they would be denied the franchise in the two former Boer republics, the Transvaal and Orange Free State. As Jan Smuts observed, the National Convention had faced two issues – relations between English and Afrikaners, and relations between blacks and whites. “We solved the one and left the other” for later.
Since 1853, the Cape’s non-racial franchise had allowed men of all races who had sufficient income or property to vote. Black leaders were outraged that the Cape franchise would not be extended to the rest of South Africa in 1910. (Natal had so many obstacles that few blacks ever gained the vote.) Afrikaner leaders, like Smuts, refused to extend the Cape’s qualified franchise as it would have disenfranchised about 10 000 poor white bywoners – his own electorate.
Black leaders resolved to appeal directly to the British government to reverse this decision. It is their struggle – ultimately unsuccessful – that forms the most substantial part of Plaut’s book. He has drawn on archives from Edinburgh to Cape Town and from Grahamstown to Washington to piece together their appeal in a readable, engrossing account of their struggle for justice and British fair play.
Their delegation included Dr Abdurahman (who represented District Six on the Cape Town council for 40 years), the editor John Jabavu, the Reverend Rubusana and Sol Plaatje. Needing a man of stature to lead them, they chose the outspoken lawyer and former Prime Minister of the Cape, William Schreiner, whose sister, Olive Schreiner, was equally as outspoken.
They sailed to England “to get the blots removed from the Act of Union”.
Although the delegation won some important supporters to their cause, the political ramifications of the time created insurmountable odds. The British government could ill-afford to alienate the Afrikaner leaders who were in the ascendancy. They had made up their minds: it was a case of like it or lump it.
One supporter of the black delegates accused the British parliament of acting like Pontius Pilate, washing its hands of its responsibilities for its black subjects.
Mohandas Gandhi, who was also in London, remarked that the days when something could be gained by making speeches was over. His strategy was civil disobedience. When he failed to persuade the British government to force the Transvaal to repeal the 1908 Asiatic Act, he returned to South Africa and used his preferred strategy to devastating effect.
After 1910, black South Africans were increasingly on the back foot, one consequence of which was the formation, in 1912, of what became the ANC.
Gandhi, however, took on Smuts, determined to abolish the restrictions on Indian immigration to the Transvaal and the repeal of the £3 tax on former indentured labourers.
Initially, it appeared that Gandhi could not succeed, but this supreme tactician and publicist eventually gained the upper hand. By November 1913, 20 000 Indians were on strike, paralysing key sectors of the economy, provoking The Natal Mercury to call for the £3 tax to be abolished. While Gandhi did not achieve all his demands, he won enough to claim victory. Soon after, he sailed for India, prompting Smuts to write that “the saint has left our shores – I sincerely hope for ever”.
The main thrust of this book is the 1909 draft Act of Union. While the chapters on Gandhi’s last years in South Africa seem to be a rather awkward addendum, they do offer an insight into the contrasting tactics adopted by Gandhi as opposed to the moderation and deference of the black leadership. Nevertheless, the determination of their resolve should not be forgotten.