THE BUS BOYCOTT
RUTH FIRST
Editor oj '''Fighting Talk"
Now undergoing Preparatory Examination on a charge oj High Treason.
* ' T H E tiger has f a l l e n , " the people c h e e r e d . The streets w e r e strangely quiet. First the great lumbering green buses of the largest transport organization for Africans in the country travelled e m p t y along the r o u t e ; later they w e r e w i t h d r a w n altogether.
But for five and six hours every day endless streams of walkers filled the pavements. O v e r t h e rise that obscures Alexandra Township from the main road came the eruption of w o r k e r s in t h e dawn hours when mists and brazier fires mingle indistinguish- ably t o g e t h e r . End to end t h e road was filled with shadowy,
hurrying figures. Then the forms thinned out as the younger men with the firmest, sprightly step d r e w away from the older p e o p l e , the w o m e n , the lame.
in the late afternoons and early evenings, the same c r o w d s t u r n e d their backs on the city and again took to the roads.
D o w n the hill the footsloggers found it easier (though by the t e n t h and eleventh weeks of the boycott manv shoes w e r e worn to pitiful remnants), the spindly-legged youngsters t r o t t e d now and then to keep up, the progress of the weary women was slower still, here a large Monday washing bundle carried on the head, t h e r e a paraffin tin, or the baby tied securely to the back.
In t h e pelting rain, t h r o u g h t h e sudden I v fierce storms of the Johannesburg s u m m e r , running the gauntlet of police patrols, t h e boy cotters walked on.
They gave the cities of the boycott a new air. Here was no protest by Africans hidden among the dusty squares of the segre- gated locations, but an army of p r o t e s t e r s , voting with their feet, it has b e e n said, before the eyes of W h i t e Johannesburg and the Reef.
T h e year 19C7 will be r e m e m b e r e d as t h e Year of t h e Great Bus Boycott, and the cry " A z i k h w e l w a " ( " W e Shall n o t Ride) has left its stamp on c o n t e m p o r a r y events.
" A z i k h w e l w a " is one of those terse, succinct, " m a g i c " catch- words that epitomizes a w h o l e legion of African demands, a c o n c e p t of struggle, an e n t i r e campaign. T h e r e has been, and still is, " M a y i b u y e " (May Africa C o m e Back), w h i c h dates from t h e thirties. T w i n to " A z i k h w e l w a " is " A s i n a m a l i "
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( W e Have no Money), said not self-pityingly, but defiantly, the slogan first used widely in the post-war squatters' m o v e m e n t that swept the Reef as a protest against t h e chronic housing shortage, and which is again on t h e lips of Africans in the cities.
For m o n t h s this year the country h u m m e d with these t w o cries. F r o m the week t h e bus company, t h e Public Utility Transport C o r p o r a t i o n , jumped its fares twenty-five p e r c e n t . , like a single shot fired, the people refused to board t h e buses.
T h r o u g h o u t the long weeks of t h e boycott, t h e political initiative in South Africa passed out of the hands of t h e Govern- m e n t and t h e Cabinet and into t h e hands of the African p e o p l e . N o t since t h e days of the Defiance Campaign had Africans held so strategic a position. Political controversy moved away from the sterile debates in the House of Assembly, w h e r e the Flag Bill receded into petty obscurity, and nation-wide attention was focussed on this demonstration by a voteless, voiceless people.
First beginnings of the boycott w e r e in Alexandra Township, nine miles out of Johannesburg on t h e Pretoria road, w h e r e t h r e e previous boycotts have been conducted in the last i 3 years.
Simultaneously, Sophiatown and W e s t e r n Native Township joined the boycott, and Lady Selborne in Pretoria. Eastwood joined in, and G e r m i s t o n and Edenvale. Some twelve days later a sympathy boycott was declared in M o r o k o and Jabavu, and though t h e fares on these routes w e r e n o t affected, these townships m a r c h e d in solidarity to t h e end. O n e thousand miles away, in P o r t Elizabeth, a sympathy boycott was also declared. Soon 60,000 people w e r e walking anything up to
20 miles a day to w o r k and h o m e again.
T h e cry " A z i k h w e l w a " and t h e boycott song banned by the S.A. Broadcasting Corporation rippled along the highways.
For w e e k s t h e wires h u m m e d w i t h t h e latest boycott n e w s . T h e press was filled w i t h letters expressing the unanswerable case of the b o y c o t t e r s . T h e boycott n o t only held the head- lines, it pre-occupied Cabinet Ministers, industrialists, municipal councils and political parties. Hundreds of W h i t e motorists responded by giving free lifts to the boycotters and in so doing achieved m o r e for race harmony and amity than scores of public meetings and political tracts.
Everywhere it was c o m m o n cause that the p e o p l e ' s refusal to ride the buses was an instantaneous reaction to the fare increases. Everywhere, that is, but in the ranks of the National-
ist G o v e r n m e n t . T h e day he r e t u r n e d from a visit to Europe and as he alighted from his 'plane, the Minister of Transport, M r . B. J. Schoemah, delivered his G o v e r n m e n t ' s ultimatum in sharp staccato t e r m s . As yet no investigation had been u n d e r t a k e n , the facts w e r e brushed aside. T h e G o v e r n m e n t would n o t be intimidated, said t h e Minister. It was not p r e - pared to intervene. Employers should help to end the boycott by refusing to pay w o r k e r s for any time n o t w o r k e d , and should penalize t h e m for late-coming or reduced productivity due to fatigue. T h e public ( " m i s g u i d e d " ) should n o t give lifts to boycotters. "If they w a n t a show-down they will get it.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t will n o t give way, no m a t t e r w h e t h e r t h e boycott lasts a m o n t h or six m o n t h s . "
W h a t are t h e facts? It was t h e Manager of P r e t o r i a ' s N o n - European Affairs D e p a r t m e n t who stated publicly that most w o r k e r s could n o t pay the increased fares. O v e r t w o - t h i r d s of the Pretoria boycotters, he said, earned n o t m o r e than £9 a m o n t h . They w e r e unskilled pick-and-shovel w o r k e r s , and the last wage award affecting t h e m had been made in 1942.
T h e old fares represented £10 a year, o r m o r e than one m o n t h ' s wages. T h e increased fares w o u l d raise that to £12 a year.
Except that t h e figures have altered in the last twelve years to underline the poverty of t h e African people m o r e starkly, a G o v e r n m e n t commission appointed at t h e t i m e of t h e previous Alexandra T o w n s h i p bus b o y c o t t has t h e definitive say on the ability of t h e people to pay increased fares.
In 1944, after an exhaustive investigation, t h e Commission of Inquiry into the operation of bus services for non-Europeans concluded that Africans could not only n o t afford to pay in- creased fares, but ' ' i t may be said that they cannot afford to pay a n y t h i n g " (for t r a n s p o r t ) . " T h e y certainly cannot afford to pay anything m o r e in any direction, except by reducing still further their hunger d i e t . "
T h e Commission found t h a t : " t h e vast bulk of African workers . . . w e r e in 1940 unable . . . to m e e t even the m i n i m u m r e q u i r e m e n t s for subsistence, health and decency. . . . N o t - withstanding i m p r o v e m e n t s in m i n i m u m wage rates and t h e introduction of cost of living allowances, since 1940 the gap between family i n c o m e and the cost of m e e t i n g the essential needs of the family has widened considerably, owing to higher prices. . . . Rent, transport and tax make the most rigid and urgent demands on the African w o r k e r . They cannot be
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escaped. T h e w o r k e r is compelled to live far from his place of w o r k and must pay for his transport. T h e tax must be paid o r he may find himself in gaol. O w i n g to t h e compulsion im- posed upon Africans by State policy and housing r e q u i r e m e n t s , r e n t and transport should always be considered t o g e t h e r and these together take too high a p r o p o r t i o n of the family in- c o m e . . . " (in 1944 rent and transport averaged 18 and 6 per cent, respectively of family i n c o m e ) . T h e Commission found that the average monthly deficit in family incomes was £3 os. $d.
Since 1944 the gulf b e t w e e n income and bare subsistence needs has widened. In 19^0 the monthly average family deficit was estimated to have risen to £4 17s. i o d . , and by 19C4 to
£7 l i s . ^d.
O v e r the years the real value of wages has decreased, and the immediate shock effect of the boycott was to impress on in- dustrialists and the general public alike the full impact of the below-the-breadline existence of the vast majority of urban Africans. T h e Africans could clearly not afford to pay t h e bus fare increases.
P U T C O , the bus company, on its side, made out a good case for its inability to carry on w i t h o u t further subsidv o r a fare increase. Formed after the 1944 Alexandra Township boycott, t h e company was placed under judicial management in
19C1 and began to climb out of its financial difficulties and to start paying a six p e r cent, dividend to its shareholders only w h e n a G o v e r n m e n t subsidy was granted from 19^2 o n w a r d s . Year by vear the subsidy on fares on sub-economic routes was increased until by 19^6 the G o v e r n m e n t was paying to the t u n e of £207,475;. (The G o v e r n m e n t fills t w o of t h e five director- ships of the Company and approves the chairman of t h e Board.) Despite t h e subsidy, P U T C O ' S 19^6 year-end Company R e p o r t presses either for a higher subsidy o r for Transportation Board permission to increase fares. " T h e Company's financial posi- tion will b e c o m e acute by January, 1957. . . . Unfortunately a solution is not so simple, because t h e Company is n o t only delicately poised financially, but also in its relations w i t h t h e Bantu w o r l d . " So it was w i t h some trepidation that t h e Company applied to t h e Transportation Board for a fare increase.
Earlier p r o t r a c t e d disputes c e n t r e d in Alexandra T o w n s h i p w e r e still fresh in the Company's m i n d , and history was to c o m e full circle in 195:7.
5? •{• 1» •!•
It was in O c t o b e r , 1939, that the bus companies then operating to Alexandra proposed a rise in t h e week-day fare from 4d. to gd. A c o m m i t t e e of residents was formed, campaigned for eight months against the fare increase, presented its case to t h e Road Transportation Board, and negotiated w i t h the bus companies. T h e Board turned down the bus company applica- tion.
In 1943, h o w e v e r , the Board p e r m i t t e d an increase of t h e fare to cd. O n the first day of the new fare scale a huge p r o - cession of i c , o o o people walked the nine and a half miles to Johannesburg. T h e march continued for nine days, and t h e n t h e bus companies gave in and the fares w e r e once m o r e reduced to 4 d .
T h e G o v e r n m e n t ' s Commission into non-European bus ser- vices that was appointed in January, 1944, made its findings k n o w n in N o v e m b e r , concluding that the people could n o t afford higher fares; b u t before these findings w e r e made public, t h e bus o w n e r s w e r e p u t t i n g forward claims for increased fares.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t promulgated emergency regulations requiring employers to pay any increase in transport fares over and above those existing at S e p t e m b e r 1st, and the new ^d. fares w e r e then fixed.
T h e U n i t e d Party G o v e r n m e n t proposed that the w o r k e r s collect these increased fares from their employers, but this was rejected in almost t h e identical t e r m s in which the p e o p l e of t h e township this year rejected t h e first proposed s e t t l e m e n t t o t h e c u r r e n t dispute, namely, that employers pay o n e shilling a w e e k to their employees as a transport allowance. T h e people objected that t h e allowance w o u l d n o t cover casual w o r k e r s , w a s h e r w o m e n , t h e u n e m p l o y e d , children. It placed t h e b u r d e n of collecting t h e extra 2d. a day on t h e w o r k e r s ; and many felt that employers w o u l d discriminate against Alexandra Township residents in favour of those living n e a r e r the city.
At a r e s i d e n t s ' m e e t i n g in N o v e m b e r , 1944, to consider t h e
$d. fares, a police ban on all gatherings of m o r e than t w e n t y persons was read, b u t by t h e m o r n i n g after that meeting, the people had declared their b o y c o t t .
T h e b o y c o t t continued for six weeks. T h e G o v e r n m e n t rejected a Johannesburg City Council proposal for the subsidizing of t h e service. An a t t e m p t by t h e Council to buy the buses and r u n t h e service to t h e municipal boundary was t u r n e d d o w n by t h e Road Transportation Board. In t h e sixth w e e k of t h e
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boycott t h e r e was talk of the people of Alexandra staging a stay-away from w o r k p r o t e s t , b u t in t h e seventh w e e k a sub- sidized coupon scheme was improvised, w h e r e b y passengers bought cd. coupons for 4d. A n u m b e r of i n d e p e n d e n t bus companies operating on the r o u t e w e r e later taken over by the newly formed P U T C O , and the fares t h e n r e v e r t e d to 4 d . , with promises that in t i m e they would be l o w e r still. This boycott had been victorious. -
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The parallels b e t w e e n t h e 1944 and the 19C6 boycotts are striking. So, t o o , are the differences.
In b o t h boycotts t h e central G o v e r n m e n t had disowned any responsibility for the dispute and stood aloof from any solution.
In b o t h t h e initiative for a s e t t l e m e n t had to c o m e n o t from the obvious official q u a r t e r s , b u t from industrialists, enlightened Citv Councillors, and African and democratic European bodies.
In b o t h cases t h e boycotts w e r e settled despite the Govern- m e n t , n o t because of it.
And yet the differences b e t w e e n South Africa's G o v e r n m e n t s in 1944 and 19C6 are still the most telling factors in the total situation. T h e United Party G o v e r n m e n t in 1944 was still to some e x t e n t sensitive to public opinion, to public pressures.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t of M r . Strijdom is intransigent, intractable, unyielding. And nine years u n d e r this G o v e r n m e n t has changed African opinion t o o . It is not only m o r e united, but also m o r e demanding, m o r e angry, increasingly suspicious because of promises never fulfilled, of undertakings that w e r e never realized. These changes m u s t be b o r n e in mind in an a t t e m p t t o "explain and estimate t h e course of this year's t h r e e - m o n t h - long b o y c o t t and t h e thorny path t r o d d e n to a s e t t l e m e n t .
It is t h e national policy of segregation, or apartheid, which has led to siting African townships at the outskirts of the cities w h e r e land is cheapest and furthest from t h e W h i t e areas.
Apartheid and t h e colour bar in industry d e c r e e also that Africans shall do the lowest-paid, unskilled jobs and at rates of pay o u t s t r i p p e d many times by W h i t e earnings. So heavy transport costs fall on that section of t h e population least able to b e a r t h e m . Africans are n o t only t h e victims of segregation b u t they are forced to pay its heavy cost t o o .
Far from this o r any previous G o v e r n m e n t ' s recognizing t h e State's responsibility to provide cheap and heavily subsidized public transport for t h e p o o r e s t groups in t h e c o m m u n i t y ,
South Africa has t u r n e d n o r m a l , t w e n t i e t h century principles of public finance on their heads. ' 'Africans m u s t pay for their o w n s e r v i c e s " is t h e constantly r e c u r r i n g Nationalist Govern- m e n t t h e m e , and so Africans face a sharp increase in their poll tax, now have to pay an additional levy for the building of schools in their locations, get the lowest school feeding grant for their children, and in many urban areas have just faced a r e n t increase amounting to 2d. a day.
A n u m b e r of technical solutions to the boycott w e r e suggested in its early stages and any one of these could have resulted in a s e t t l e m e n t .
An increased G o v e r n m e n t subsidy to P U T C O rather than an increase in fares was an obvious solution, but the G o v e r n m e n t was adamant that it w o u l d n o t pay o u t a penny m o r e . Instead, rather than see the boycott end in victory for the boy c o t t e r s , the G o v e r n m e n t b o r e the weekly losses of the Company to stop its compromising o r settling.
An increase in the Native Services Levy, through which em- ployers would have subsidized the bus company, was another obvious solution, but again the G o v e r n m e n t would have nothing of this, and employers w h o recognized their obligation to help subsidize transport w e r e driven to try to improvise o t h e r volun- tary and much m o r e clumsy schemes.
At t h e outset employers w e r e hopeful of an i n t e r i m transport fund, but t h e G o v e r n m e n t would not lend itself to this type of s e t t l e m e n t e i t h e r .
A w a r measure which requires employers to pay directly to w o r k e r s w h o use the buses t h e difference b e t w e e n original and increased fares could have been revived, but this, said one Johannesburg daily w i t h grim unconscious h u m o u r , could n o t be entertained by t h e G o v e r n m e n t for fear it would be accused of " u s i n g authoritarian m e a s u r e s ! "
O n almost every side t h e r e was deep concern that a speedy settlement should be reached. Employers, after all t h e chief beneficiaries of t h e system of cheap non-European labour, w e r e convinced that Africans could n o t afford the fare increases and they w e r e the first to try to devise ways whereby they could foot t h e extra bill. T h e Johannesburg City Council, w h i c h , in t h e 1944 b o y c o t t , had played the major role in launching t h e coupon system that led to t h e final s e t t l e m e n t , was willing to c o n t r i b u t e towards t h e subsidy. T h e public was on the side of t h e b o y c o t t e r s . T h e boycotters and their c o m m i t t e e s
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repeatedly announced their willingness to negotiate a settle- m e n t . After the first few weeks of the boycott P U T C O , had it b e e n a free agent independent of G o v e r n m e n t pressure, would have returned to the old scale of fares. Only t h e G o v e r n m e n t blocked the way to a s e t t l e m e n t . It did m o r e than that. It t h r e w the might of t h e State machinery against the 6 0 , 0 0 0 walkers in a desperate bid to smash t h e b o y c o t t .
Despite the denials by the Police Commissioner that the police force was being used to crush the boycott, every day brought fresh police acts of intimidation against b o t h boycotters and sympathetic m o t o r i s t s . In a few weeks of mass raids,
14,000 people w e r e arrested on petty offences, most of the raids being conducted on the routes travelled by the b o y c o t t e r s o r in the chief boycott areas. Thousands of summonses w e r e issued u n d e r the Road Transportation Act. Men w e r e arrested and detained in the cells overnight for crossing roads against t h e traffic lights. Policemen a r m e d with tape measures and guns measured car seats to ensure that no b o y c o t t e r sat on less than 1 $ inches of seat, scrutinized passes and driving licences, and made haphazard arrests.
And as the boycott continued as strong as ever and these bludgeon tactics of the police and t h e G o v e r n m e n t failed abysmally, Minister Schoeman prevailed on P U T C O to issue an ultimatum that if the boycott was n o t ended by t h e end of February, the buses would be w i t h d r a w n and the routes aban- d o n e d . And in case any o t h e r company had the n o t i o n that it could operate at lower costs, the Minister announced a n e w Bill prohibiting any company from operating on t h e routes from which P U T C O was withdrawing. It had b e c o m e a m a t t e r of G o v e r n m e n t prestige that Africans should be compelled to pay the higher fare, even if t h e r e could be a lower o n e .
W h y this attitude of the G o v e r n m e n t on t h e b o y c o t t issue?
Sheer perversity, pique and blockheadedness? Another example to add to the already too n u m e r o u s instances of the callousness and brutalitv shown to Africans?
T h e r e was m o r e to the G o v e r n m e n t attitude than all this.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t alarm at the bus boycott sprang from its p a t h o - logical fear of allowing the African giant to feel—and use—
his strength.
Nine years of Nationalist rule have been spent trying to bind t h e limbs of this giant, to halter and cripple him, to blindfold and muzzle h i m . T h e only answer to African demands that
the Nationalists know is the threat, the restriction, the prohibi- tion, t h e ban, t h e deportation o r d e r , the baton and t h e bullet.
Deputations are turned away; political leaders dubbed agitators;
trade unions outlawed. T h e G o v e r n m e n t has taken to itself the p o w e r to declare martial law (the Public Safety A c t ) ; may impose floggings for political offences (the Criminal Laws Amend- m e n t A c t ) ; may prevent an African seeking redress in the Courts (the Prohibition of Interdicts Act). T h e strike weapon is illegal, and the avowed intention of the Minister of Labour is to " b l e e d African unions to d e a t h " .
T h e African enjoys no vote, no representation on municipal o r local bodies, no genuine m e t h o d of consultation w i t h any authority. His free m o v e m e n t is harassed at every t u r n by t h e pass laws, tightened up every few sessions by a new amending Bill. His right of free assembly is limited by a n e t w o r k of prohibitions in municipal bye-laws and statutes.
T h e boycott asserted the right of Africans to p r o t e s t . Despite all t h e prohibitions and the mountain of laws curbing African political action, Africans in Johannesburg, Pretoria and t h e Reef had found a method of struggle which could n o t easily be stamped o u t by law. It might c o m e to that, but t h e r e is not yet a law on the Union statute book imposing penalties on Africans for walking to w o r k and h o m e again by way of p r o - test against a bus company.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t denunciation of the boycott as " p o l i t i c a l ' ' was o n e of t h e sticks it hoped to use to beat the boycott, to ruin all chances of s e t t l e m e n t , to frighten employers and the Chamber of C o m m e r c e and W h i t e South Africa as a whole w i t h this spectacle of a menacing black force, using a fare rise merely as a p r e t e x t for engaging the G o v e r n m e n t in political battle t o test its strength. For the bus boycott did, undoubtedly, develop into a political campaign. T h e e c o n o m i c facts, the poverty of a people that reckons its i n c o m e in pennies, sparked off t h e boycott, and those w h o argue the e c o n o m i c basis for this p r o t e s t could n o t be on firmer g r o u n d . But those w h o would separate the e c o n o m i c background from t h e political, who would see t h e African protesting only against a penny rise in fares, u n m o v e d and unaffected by Minister Schoeman's " b r e a k t h e b o y c o t t "
threats, by t h e daily police intimidation, by t h e pin-pricks, t h e humiliations and t h e abject miseries of apartheid, e r e c t distinctions w h i c h must be b l o w n over in the first gusts of any African p r o t e s t o r campaign.
T h e G o v e r n m e n t , h o w e v e r , had its o w n reasons for character- izing the boycott a political m a n o e u v r e . It was thus insinuating that the fare increase was merely a p r e t e x t for the b o y c o t t , whereas a p r o m p t return to the 4 d . fare could have been the most obvious disclaimer. T h e G o v e r n m e n t branded the boycott leaders trouble-makers and " w o r k l e s s township t h u g s " . But it is a G o v e r n m e n t deluded by the notion that it is only ' ' a g i t a t o r s " who are dissatisfied, that only " C o m m u n i s t s and left-wing e x t r e m i s t s " express the demand for political rights of the African p e o p l e ; that only " r e d t e r m i t e s " organize protest
m o v e m e n t s .
This is the fantasy world of t h e Native Affairs D e p a r t m e n t e m p i r e . It is the golden edict of these Native administrators that the Africans are satisfied with their lot and only those w h o fall u n d e r alien and left-wing influences try to revolt, against Dr. V e r w o e r d ' s paternal authority. Any expression of African aspirations, h o w e v e r mild, is " a g i t a t i o n " .
But Africans are no longer b e w i l d e r e d , m u t e , raw tribal c r e a t u r e s . T h e boycott showed that t h e African in t h e t o w n s is an industrialized, settled, politically aware individual, organized, articulate, purposeful. His organizations are m a t u r e and re- sourceful. His resolve and his courage are n o t easily b r o k e n .
Raw to criticism, enraged by opposition, and, above all, apprehensive of the bitter harvest w h i c h they know their treat- m e n t of t h e African people must inevitably reap for t h e m , the Nationalists w e r e forced to recognize in this boycott that apart- heid has not succeeded in breaking African opposition and its backbone is stronger than ever.
It needs to be. T h e negotiated s e t t l e m e n t by which bus users would buy $xl. coupons for 4 d . and which finally d r e w the people of Alexandra Township back into t h e buses is only to last t h r e e m o n t h s . In the absence of a m o r e p e r m a n e n t solution, n e w struggles clearly loom ahead. T h e r e is also the cry from all sides for increases in African wages. T h e boycott must be seen as a prelude to many related campaigns.
Above all, the bus boycott highlights o t h e r lessons for South Africans. It often takes such dramatic episodes to convince complacent W h i t e South Africa that Africans feel their denial of rights so keenly. And it showed Africans what they had suspected and n o w k n o w for c e r t a i n : that in active campaigning for basic human and economic demands, their unity holds t h e key to success.
