In Chapter One I reminded my professional and epistemic community that practitioner action research is grounded in evidence-based professional practice. I also made reference to colonial segregation orchestrated by the Dutch and the British settlers and perpetuated by the former Nationalist South African government. (Bundy, 1979; Kallaway, 1988; Samuel, et al., 2016;
van den Berghe, 1970). Pierre van den Berghe defines three main levels of segregation and discrimination in South Africa: First, micro-segregation-refers to restriction on use of certain
public places such as bathrooms. Second, mezzo-segregation refers to access to neighbourhoods and to urban areas. Third, macro-segregation refers to territorial segregation such as homelands or self-governing states. Curriculum management and delivery became the tool to entrench apartheid idealism, conception, and practices in the South African education landscape (Samuel, et al., 2016). Black people of South Africa, who form the vast majority of the population, have been systematically marginalised by mean of various legislations.
Increasingly, they were coerced, through lack of educational opportunities, into mining and agricultural industries (Zakwe 1995:16).
Colonial segregation that entrenched the ‘colour bar’.
• Land Act of 1913. This legislation gave colonial administration power to engage in land dispossession. About 13 per cent of the total area was allocated to the Black population while the remaining 87 per cent was left in the hands of the minority Whites.
• Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. This released certain patches of barren and rugged land to be used by Blacks for agriculture and residence.
• Native Urban Areas Act of 1923. This law was intended to control migration of Black people from rural areas to urban areas. Taken a step further, it implied that migrant labourers did not stay permanently in the cities. That is to say, rural black people were effectively made ‘temporal sojourners whose permanent place was in the countryside’
(Bundy 1979).
• Civilised Labour. The Rand Revolt of 1922 is associated with the phenomenon called the ‘Poor White Problem’, whereby whites, particularly Afrikaners, rebelled against the government due to acute levels of poverty and unemployment. The colonial government responded by declaring that all jobs in the mines, railways, harbours, postal services, Sasol, Iscor, etc. were to be reserved for the white population. In other words, the aim was to rescue rural Afrikaners from poverty and misery on the one hand, and, on other hand, to prevent all black workers from attaining an equal footing with whites.
This phenomenon, ironically, became known as ‘civilised jobs’ (Industrial Conciliation
Act No 11 of 1924, Wage Act No 27 of 1925, and Mines and Works Amendments Act No 25 of 1926).
APARTHEID POLICY OF SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT (1948-1994)
When the National Party won the election and came to power on 26 May 1948, it then appointed the Eiselen Commission of Inquiry (Chaired by Dr. W M Eiselen). It is argued that the declared aim of the commission was to explore and recommend feasible education policy appropriate for indigenous people of South Africa at one end of the spectrum, and on the other, the intended aim was promote policy of discrimination on basis of race.
Bantu Education Act of 1953. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Eiselen Commission, the then Minister of Native Affairs, Dr H.F. Verwoerd, passed the above- cited legislation in order to perpetuate policy of apartheid that divided the South African population into Whites, Coloured, Indians, and Africans. Bantu (Black African) Education was in tandem with the national grand policy of separate development: an ideological framework grounded on racial discrimination in terms of agriculture, education, economy, and politics (Kallaway 1988: 173). The aim was to produce a class of cheap labourers that would serve the interests of the white population in a broader South African context:
“Indigenous people must be seen as ‘the hewers of wood and drawers of water. This meant cultural domination and socio-political subservience to the needs of whites”, (Ibid. 1988:162)
Taken a step further, Kallaway (1988:176) notes that
“We must not give the Natives an academic education, as some people are prone to do so. If we do so, who then is going to do the manual labour in this country?”
Extension of Universities Act of 1959. This legislation effectively closed the doors of white universities to black students so as to propagate the grand policy of separate development. As the name suggests, the National party-led government desired to extend state control over those black students who had acquired tertiary education and co-opt them into ‘cultural values and norms’ of whites. Thus ultimately promoting a class of black élite (Ibid: 172). It is little wonder, therefore, that three ‘tribal
universities’ for blacks were established namely, Fort Hare (Xhosa), Ongeye (Zulu), and the University of the North (Suthu). Subsequently, other tribal universities were established in the Bantustans of the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, and QwaQwa.
Group Areas Act of 1950. This legislation entrenched territorial segregation of population groups in South Africa. Stated simply, this prevented mixed residential areas between blacks and whites.
Promotion of Bantu –Self Government Act of 1959. Ostensibly, the legislation provided a vehicle for the granting of geographically fragmented patches of land to blacks. Importantly, the so-called Bantustans or Homelands (KwaZulu, Kwandebele, Qwaqwa, Venda, Bophuthatswana, Gazankulu, Transkei, Ciskei, etc.) were barren and largely rugged, rural and undeveloped land. Bundy (1979: 97)points out that
“Bantustans served as a reservoir of migrant labour- a sponge that absorbs and returns when required, the reserve army of African labour”.
Needless to say that migrant labour system as a selective process tended to stimulate the ‘Brain-drain’ from countryside to the cities. In other words, young, dynamic, able- bodied, educated men migrated from rural areas to urban areas due to pull and push factors, namely, professors, doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, lawyers, and the like.
It is worth noting that these professionals were raised and educated by their rural parents through migrant labour remittances, pension, welfare grants, and other disparate petty commodities produced in rural areas (Wilson 1993; Zakwe 1995). The hinterland remained, however, as the catchment area for cheap labour supply needed in the mines, plantations and crop farming on farms owned by whites.
Prevention of Illegal Squatting and Labour Tenancy of 1951. This law was intended to remove all farm labour tenants who stayed on white farmers land. Consequently, overpopulation in the Bantustans surfaced.
Tomlinson Commission of 1955. To consolidate the policy of Separate Development, the Nationalist Government set up the Tomlinson Commission of Inquiry in order to conduct a survey on socio-economic factors underpinning the Bantustans areas of South
Africa. The commission recommended the establishment of a National Integrated Development Plan. However, the Nationalist Party-led government rejected that recommendation as it was against the policy of separate development.
Resettlement and Relocation: ‘Betterment scheme’. This legislation ensured the removal of black people from areas perceived as ‘back spots’. The point made here is that forced removal of rural people from their ancestral land dealt them a crucial blow.