The Freedom struggle in Johannesburg

The ANC and other Forces of Resistance after Union

Even before the emergence of the ANC, several congresses existed in the various colonies to represent African interests and oppose laws that curtailed the freedoms of the black population (1900 saw the formation of the Natal Native Congress). In 1903 and 1904, newspaper editor and clergyman Sol Plaatjie (1876-1932) gained some experience trying to reconcile differences between different regional groupings during his involvement in the SA Native Press Association. Plaatje also participated in the Native Convention of 1909 in Bloemfontein, and prepared the ground for the emergence of the ANC by persuading the Transvaal Native Congress and the Transvaal Native Political Organisation to set aside their differences and merge.

African National Congress founding members. Source: unknown.

These moves preceded the establishment of the Union of South Africa, which left no room for the representation of African interests, and when Union came in 1910, Africans began mobilising against the new dispensation.

By the end of 1911, lawyer Pixley ka Isaka Seme, who had studied at Columbia and Oxford universities, made a widely heard call for unity that initiated the birth of a national congress.

The South African Native National Congress (SANNC) was established at a conference in Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912, two years after Union. It is distinct from earlier regional movements in that it was the first national organisation, and began to forge inter-ethnic unity and agitate for a non-racial franchise. John Dube (1871-1946), an educationist, was elected President. Sol Plaatjie was made Secretary-General, and Seme became Treasurer-General.

The passing of discriminatory labour legislation in 1911, and the 1913 Natives Land Act, which set aside a mere 7% of the country’s land for Blacks, became the first major challenge for the ANC, and formed the basis for the expulsion of African tenant farmers from White farms, especially in the Orange Free State.

An ANC delegation to Britain in 1913 to petition the British government to intervene on behalf of Africans was one of the first of many such deputations.

More aggressive tactics were used by women, who under Charlotte Maxeke formed the Bantu Women’s League of the SANNC in 1918. Even before the formation of the league, the women mounted campaigns against residential passesin the Orange Free State municipality in 1913-14, which forced the municipality to rescind its measures, but also resulted in many women being jailed. Another anti-pass campaign in 1918 ended in triumph when the government suspended renewed efforts to enforce pass laws on women.

The liberal orientation of SANNC forms of protest, appealing on the basis of middle class aspirations, was abandoned in 1919, after it became apparent that their efforts had no effect in reversing the discriminatory effects of the labour and land Acts.

The First World War was the catalyst for Congress’s reorientation. A brief economic boom stimulated by the war ended with a prolonged depression from 1920 onwards, and the increasingly systematic policies of segregation had a disastrous effect on the African population as well as other groups. Segregation was largely an attempt to control African urbanisation, which accelerated as the mining industry drew labour to the cities, especially Kimberly and Johannesburg.

A surge in industrial action saw Blacks go on strike for the first time.In 1919, Congress’s Transvaal section mounted a passive resistance campaign against the pass laws. But events elsewhere made Congress look tame. In Cape Town the ICU was formed in the Cape docklands, and by the early 1920s the ICU began mobilising agricultural workers in Natal and the Transvaal. It achieved a membership of 100 000 by 1927, before it began to decline. (see box later titled: Key episodes in the Development of the Union Movement)

African mine workers on the Witwatersrand embarked on a major strike in 1919, with more than half the workforce taking part. A brutal reaction from the state followed, with troops and armed Whites breaking up barricades. Eleven strikers were killed and 120 wounded.

In 1921, more than 180 Israelites, who occupied land in the Eastern Cape, were killed by police. A millenarian movement led by Wellington Butelezi, who was influenced by Marcus Garvey, called on Africans to stop paying taxes and cease cattle dipping. The incident is better known as the Bulhoek Massacre.

The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), formed in 1921, was divided over the question of which force to back to lead the revolution, with one side choosing Whites and the other Blacks.

The 1922 Rand revolt saw Whites go on strike against the erosion of the colour bar, a protest viciously put down by Smuts’ government. This gave Hertzog’s National Party – a coalition between the NP and English Labour Party – the edge in 1924 elections, resulting in White labour being incorporated into the state.

Josiah Gumede became president of the ANC in 1927

In 1927, James la Guma and ANC president Josiah Gumede went on trip to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), beginning the long-lasting alliance between the CPSA and the ANC, and in 1928 the CPSA adopted as its central objective the establishment of a 'native republic'. But many within the CP were unhappy with the dilution of the class war in favour of the national struggle, decreed by Moscow, and the CP became ineffective by the 1930s.

The SANNC was being left behind as other forces took initiatives that the Congress was too timid to undertake.As part of a reorientation, it was renamed the African National Congress in 1923. The radical stirrings of the 1920s gave way to a long period of virtual inactivity, seeing the ANC overtaken by other organisations and more spontaneous forms of resistance.

The closing of the ANC’s newspaper, Abantu-Batho, in 1931, reflected the general demise of the ANC in this period. Unable to compete with the White-owned Bantu World, the newspaper fell victim to a drop in membership. In 1943, an ANC official put the number of members at a mere 253.

When the militant leadership of Gumede was ousted from the ANC, moderate and aging leaders took over, with Pixley ka Seme as President General. Relations with the divided CPSA were at a low, and both organisations entered into a period of inactivity. But the ANC’s silver jubilee in 1937 was followed by a rapprochement between the two organisations, and the rising tide of fascism united liberal and progressive forces.

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