WHAT WILL WE SWALLOW NEXT?

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-., J JULY 1956

WHAT WILL WE SWALLOW NEXT?

O

N June 15th the Governor-General gave his assent to the Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act. Three

days

later he assented to the Natives (Urban Areas) Amend·

ment Act. So these two PieceS of Nationalist le~slation-it would be an insult to the word 10 call "laws" what are, in fact, a complete nep.tion of the law as we have known it-

weIIt to join their unsavoury predecessor, the Native Administration Amendment Act, on the Union's Statute Book. Two darker blots were added to pages already well-smudged with discriminatory enactments.

The Acts themselves arc important but quite as important has been the reaction 10 them. So much restrictive legislation has been turned out by Parliament since Union, par- ticularly during the last eight years, that to-day South Africans of all sorts seem to have come dangerously dose to being inured to it. A few years ago many people could not only

sec

what was happening in this country, they also felt the need to do somethin~about it. The Defiance Campaign and the Torch Commando bore witness to that. As time has passed people may have continued to

see

what was happenin~ but many of them seem to have lost the will to do anything about it. Slowly, a paralySIS has overtaken them. Whether this paralysis is due to indifference, to hopelessness or t0l.·ust plain fear is a question for def?ate.

What is profoundly disturbing is that so many peop e either cannot or will not

see

what is going on. Is paralysis being (ollowed by total blindness? The lack of a rousing Union-wide protest and campaign against these Acts, whether they were passed in the last days of the session or not, makes one wonder if the will to oppose is not evaporating under the regular hammer-blows directed at civil liberties in South Africa.

The fundamentals which support a modern, democratic state have received some cruel knocks at the hands of successive South African governments. These last two blows have been aimed at such vital and sensitive spots in the body of our legal system that it becomes questionable whether much of normal, civilised community life can survive long under their impact.

The Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act is short-six sections, amounting in all to less than a page of print. The Urban Areas Amendment Act is only slightly longer-two sections, filling a page and a half. Short they are, but to the point. They demolish the rule of

law. They condemn the African population of the country, and particularly the urban popu- lation, to perpetual and mute acceptance of their lot or to exposure to the most serious consequences. It is difficult ^to decIde which is the more obnoxious of the two. The one enables acts of doubtful legality to be perpetrated only on A/ricans, without their having immediate recourse to the Courts. Ifacts of doubtful legality later prove to have had

no

basis in law the African concerned can claim compensation. A pretty concession this! What possible compensation can there be for a man illegally removed from his borne and deposited, family, livestOCk, household goods and all at some spot heaven knows how far away? What if Dr. Verwoerd's bulldozers have been busy in the meantime?

The Urban Areas Amendment Act does not place powers ofJife and death.in the hands of petty local officials. ^It does not place in the hands of local authorities the power to order heads to fall. Itstops short of that. But it does not stop short of placing in the hands of local authorities (who, no doubt, will act on the advice of their officials) the power to remove a man from his home, to separate him from his family, to put him out of reach of his work. There will be

no

supervision of the local authority in its use of these vast powers. There is

no

ri~t

of appeal for the African concerned. There is ^nQ onus on anyone 10 provide an alternative home, or employment or compensation.

What African dare critiCise the management of his location now? What African dare campaign against poor housing. bad buses, excessive rents? ^It will indeed ^be a brave man who will risk speaking out for his legitimate rights. Heaven help anyone who gets under a vindic- tive location superintendent's skin.

These acts must be got rid of as soon as possible. While they remain no pains must be spared to ensure that local authorities do not use the vast powers with which they are now

armed under the Urban Areas Amendment Act. The utmost vigilanoe must be exercisod to malee certain that abuses licensed by the Interdicts Act are exposed and Icepllo the absolute minimum. Ifthe campaign against these and other Acts pasSed this session has not been

impressive

¹⁰

far

^it

is up to us to maintain a ceaseless watChfulness wlUch

will

keep the

evils

they embody before the public eye and guar8ntee thai, as soon as possible.

they

are consigned

to where

they

belong.

-There's Been a Party Next Door. _.

T

HE people next door, in Nyasaland Court. had. wonderful

party

^earlier lhis month.

ISO _~lS attended.

Of

all coJoun. They came from the RhOdesI&s. from Kenya and from Tanganyika. They came from Nyasaland. No one from our own house, Union Court. WU invited. The name "Union Court" often makes us lau~, but

we

have

got

used

to

iL It

was chosen

by

the people on

the

ground and

first

ROOfS

^In

1910, when our house wu

builL The peoyle in the basement

were

nOI consulted about the name at the

time,

nor

has aDyone lhOWD Interest in their views about it since.

The Party in Nyasaland Court lutcd for three days. They discussed ~ for a common 1OCicty, the "conlract" (as it is caUod) cooceived by the Capricorn Africa ·ety.

They

made up their minds about the road toward. land refonn, inter·raQaJ education, the franchise and many other matten which we ouradves would dearly have loved to discuss right here in Union Court.

Unfortunately, the caretakers do not encourage convenation between the people on the ground and first floors and those who live in the basement of Union Court. Thi. is a ^{great .} pit

Y

'

The bucment is terribly ^{crowded. The} people who live there pay rcntjust like tbe

peo~

upstairs, but they have no say in the management of Union Court. In Nyasaland Court, at the grand party the other day, it was agreed that everybody living in that house, everybody who pa~ rtnt there, should have a .hare

in

the responsibility of running the place. It

seems

a goOd Idea.

It was a very orderly

party.

No noise. no rou$h house, no horseplay. We

very much

wanted to

be there

ourselves, but we

were not

mvited. It is known in Nyasaland Court-and elsewhere that the caretakers in our

own

building would DOt have approved

such

an invitation. We mipt not bave

been

allowed to

go.

Now thiJ i. reaJly

very curious.

when you come tn think a60ut iL We do think about it, all the time. ' Tbe caretakers in Union Court---a.nd many of the tenants on the ground and first floors -have a fixed idea that if you once allow anyone of the people in the ba.sement to ait on a management committee, that would at once

spell

the doom of Union Court. Anything else

-yes,

withio reason, within the available means; the c:aretakcrs in Union Court take their work

very

lCriously and it is oolr fair to uy lhat in manySpbeies of life is the building

theY

do what ihey

can

for the

people

In the buemenL They could no doubt do a

good

deal

mcm for

them, if

they really

wanted to-but no one

can say

that they do

nolhin,. .

It is just this question ofresponsibility that they will not discusI. That ^I1 why the peopk in the basement

TeeI

resentful and frustrated. They cannot understand tbe caretakers' attitude.

The caretakers keep telling the people in the basement of Union Court that they mustn't

worry.

They mustn't reach for something that

can

^DCYei' be lhein:. "Never" is one of the caretaken' favourite words.

TIley

U5C it 10 often that

we

sometimes wonder whether the caretaken believe in this word "never" themselves. Perhaps they think that by repeating it whenever they speak to the people in the basement they can make that word a true word.

Now that word "never" was not used at the party next door, in Nyasaland Court.

They used words and expressions like "soon", "eventually", "until such time as" and "we believe".

The trouble with the caretakers in Union Court is, of course, tbat they do tH)t believe.

They speak and declare, they lay down rules of conduct, they proclaim distant aims and immediate steps towards this and towards that. But they do not believe in any of it themselves.

Not really. Not in their heart of hearts.

In their heart of hearts they know quite well that Union Court is not a happy house.

They know that their way of runnina the aWairs of the building is onesided and lopsided.

They know it cannot last, not indefinitely. They

go

about tbe job lICriously, but there is

no

joy In it. This, too, is a great pi~.

Most oftbe people

who

live In Union Court know that the caretakeB-for reasons known only to themselves are afraid of the people in the basement Perh3ps they art afraid of them

because they feel-more and more-Ihat their conduct towards these people is· Dot what it should bc. Perhaps they are afraid of them also because, as it happens, many more people live ill the basement of Union Court than live in the upstairs apartments.

No onc

was

afraid of anybody else at the party next door, in N~land Court. The caretakers there saw nothing wrong in the tenants and the tenants' fncnds getting together for three

days

of civilised, constructive discuss.ion and planning.

DiSCUSSIon banishes fear.

Discussion enriches all parties 10 it.

Discussion helps people to know onc another better.

Discussion coUld do a great deal for the caretakers in Union Coun.

Unhappily, discussion-and all that flows so easily from it-is the onc thing that the caretakers in Union Court dislike more than any other thing. And there are many things

!.bey dislike.

This fear of having to listen to another viewpoint, this dread of what an exchange of ideas might lead to, has affected not only the caretakers' relations with the pe<lple in the basement of Union Court. It has affected, and corroded, their relations with many of the people upstairs as well. It has even affected the relations between the upstairs tenants.

While this does not, perhaps, make things any worse-or any better-for the pe<lple in the basement, it does show quite clearly what an unfortunate thing FEAR is and how

much damage it can cause. .

Perhaps one day "soon" or "eventually" the caretakers in Union Court will themselves feel tbe need to have a party such as they had next door the other day.

Perhaps the upstairs tenants in Union Court will demand one. .

*With acknowledgements to "Indian Views".

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS

T

HE important measures upon which the Liberal case was put during the closing weeks of the session were the following: (I) The Workmen's Compensation Act Amendment Bill, the Native Affairs and Ban~u Education Votes in Committee of Supply, and the closing stages of the Natives (Prohibition ofInterdicts) BiU. The absence of Mr. Slanford ovefSCfU on oocessnry business again pointed the moral that under the constitution as it stands inadequate provision is made for the representation of African interests, particularly when highly con- troversiallegislation directly affecting them appears so frequently on the order paper. Mrs.

Ballinger received some useful support from Opposition speakers sucb as Dr. Smlt, Mr. L.

LovcU

and others, but with tbe exception of her case on Workmen's Compensation, little cognizance

was

taken by the Government of the arguments which sbe put. ' .

NatlTeI (ProlIJbItIoa of llItenlic:ts) Bill: When Mrs. Ballinger moved aD amendmcilt.in Committee to give the Minister only those powers which he had said wen; Decessary, namely to limit the power of removins ArricaDS from Municipalities to cases where a court order had been granted, this was fCJected by tile Minister, who continued to claim the "blanket powers" against which Mrs. Baltingcr protcsted. She charged the Minister with asking for powers to deal with contingencies which had not arisen. She was not alone in contending that thc Minister, who has nad no legal training, was not aware of the scope of the measure he was introducing, and she objected vigorously to the activity of this and previous govern- ments in moving Africans around the country at will, wilhout adequate concern for their employment and property rights-activity likely to be greatly stimulated if this Bill became

law. It did.

Bum Educadoa Vote: Mrs. Ballinger sou$bt information. first, ^OD the closing down of the school Itereleng in Germiston. ACCOrdlD~ to her information, this was a school established before the Bantu Education Act, authonsed in August, 1955, continually in opera- tion since then, with 380 pupils and a staff of 6 qualified teachers. It had been regularly visited by departmental inspectors. This school had since its authorisation been twice visited by the police, and finally closed

b1

order of thc Department "without even 24 hours' notice".

The Minister, in his reply, said that the school had been authorised by himself in a spirit of good will, but turned out to be registered under false pretences and staffed by members of the A.N.C., with a member of the Community of the Resurrection active behind the scenes.

There had been no impartial enquiry, observed Mrs. Ballinger. "From all that the Minister has told us . . . wc are cntitled to assumed that tbis school was closed as a result of a 101 of gossip from irresponsible sources", she said. How, and why did the police manage to find time to descend on schools, anyway? Is this what we are paying them for?

Mrs. Ballinger also drew attention to a form sent 10 the managers of Bantu scbools of all types, rcquinn$. among other personal details, a declaration that "I . . . . subscribe to the Ranlu EducatIon Act No. 47 of 1953", and undertake "to notify the Department if I change my views", The Minister would not acknowledge the unWlsdom of this type of

interrogatIOn, which Mrs. _Ballin~er characterised as likely to introduce political issues into education where they had not eXisted before, and as likely to create an "atmosphere of sus-

picion, of distrust and inevitable disloyalty within lhe service",

Workmen's Compensation Act Amendment Bill: Mrs. Ballinger in a long speech recognised the real improvement which had been made b,Y this Bill in the conditions of African industrial workers. and welcomed the repeated affinnatlOns of the Minister of Labour that gelykstel/irg between Europeans and Africans in the field of Workmen's Compensation was the policy of the Labour Department, though this would take time to bring into effect. She tben enumerated a series of points on wbich discrimination still existed, and hoped that the Minister would set in motion an inquiry with a view to removing these long-standing instances of inequality:

(a) compensation for Africans suffering from permanent total disablement is still a lump sum payment amounting to less than 3 years' wages; while compensation for Africans suffering from temporary total disablement is relatively less than that for Europeans;

(b) whereas European workers have to wait 3 days for compensation, Africans must wait 7, or 14 if fed and housed by their employer, involving hardsbip for their families. "The very fact that this is now law ^IS derived from the idea • . . . that every Native has a land bolding . . . ., that these workers are really migrant workers with subsidized livelihoods. They are not . . . "

(c) there are totally inadequate facilities for African workers to communicate their needs to the Minister, and a lack of will ^OD the part of the Ministers to make use of what means do exist. A Labour Advisory Committee should be set up.

(d) African industrial workers are the responsibility of the Native Affairs Department, which administers the law but does not initiate labour policy. The Labour Depart- ment, which does initiate policy, is correspondingly not fully responsible for African workers.

'-PARTY NEWS

TRANSVAAL

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"CONTACT" .. the wODthl,. Ne..lltette, of t.he Liberal Part,. of Soutb AIIi_ Io"d 11 edited b,.

P. M. B",..", lOlll Proyjd~Dt Bui1diDa:, Church Street, Pietenoeritzburs.

Prlot.-d b,. The Nlotal Wlto_ IPt,.) Lt<!., et 2U LoDRwcrk.t SW-I., P'-tenDlorit.b\l.rt.