Speech/message to the people

A Message to Every Voter from the African National Congress, April 1958

This message was published early in April 1958, before the general elections.

Sir or Madam,

You may be surprised to receive this message from the African National Congress:
surprised because this is something unusual and because you have no connexion
with the African National Congress. The African National Congress is
the oldest and the biggest and most representative organization of Africans.
For many years we have addressed protest, petitions, memoranda, deputations
and other memoranda to the Government. These appeals have fallen upon
deaf ears. Today we are addressing ourselves directly to you, to voters,
who in the last resort are responsible for the Government.

On April 16 you are going to exercise your right to vote for your representative
in Parliament. You may perhaps ask what this has to do with us, who have no
votes. It has a great deal to with us. Parliament makes laws which govern non-whites
as well as whites. We have to obey those laws - which always bear more severely
upon us than upon anyone else - though we have never been consulted about them,
or given any say in choosing those who make them.

Frankly, we are by no means satisfied with this state of affairs. We consider
it neither fair nor just, and we shall never rest content until the democratic
principle which is conceded for Europeans is extended to include the entire
population.

But so long as this unfair position continues, and our people are excluded
from the franchise, have we not at least the right to state our views? And
have not you, the voter, a solemn duty to consider those views carefully
and without prejudice? We are sure that we have that right, and that
you have that
duty: a duty to remember that you vote not only for yourself but also on
behalf of many fellow-South Africans who are denied the franchise.

Neither the Nationalist Party nor the United Party represent or are supported
by the African National Congress. They both stand for a narrow policy of racialism
and racial domination. We who stand for a broad and true South Africanism extending
to all in our country, irrespective of race or colour, can never accept or
support the policy of either party.

But we must say that never since Union have our people suffered such hardships,
humiliations, and sheer brutality as we have had to undergo during the past
ten years of Government by the Nationalist Party. Both in the towns and in
the rural areas we have known no peace; people have been removed in their thousands
and in their tens of thousands, their homes and their families broken up. While
prices have gone up, our wages have been pegged down and our poverty has become
desperate.

Every door through which we might have sought advancement, culture and
a higher civilization has been slammed in our faces. Our schools are
being turned into
schools for ignorance, tribalism and servitude. The universities are being
closed to us. Any sphere of employment other than ill-paid unskilled labour
is being closed to us. Every means of legitimate national expression and
protest is being closed to us. Our leaders and spokesmen are arrested
banned, deported
and silenced.

Where can this road lead our country, South Africa? We see the crime rate
rising day by day. Savage punishments, whippings and floggings will not stop
it rising - for the crime has its roots in the slums and the poverty, the hopelessness
and frustration in which the people are living.

We see unrest and disturbances occurring more
and more widely and frequently. It is not the African National Congress or
the "agitators" which are responsible for these things, nor will
more repressions, bannings and police terror prevent them. They are signs
of deep discontent, of something profoundly wrong in the way in which our
people are treated.

You may have been led to believe that our Congress is anti-white, that
it is a reckless organization out to stir up racialism. Nothing could be further
from the truth. We are a serious and responsible minded body of men and women,
and our aim, as we have stated many times, is neither White supremacy nor Black
supremacy, but a common South African multi-racial society, based upon friendship,
equality of rights and mutual respect.

The Nationalist Party, with its policy of blatant oppression and racialism,
is however, creating a legacy of bitterness and hatred which, if it is allowed
to continue, we shall all of us live to regret. And it is not only as Africans,
but also as fellow-South Africans, deeply concerned with the future of our
country and all who live in it, that we speak to you on the eve of this crucial
election. We trust most earnestly that you will heed our message.

Yours, in the service of South Africa.

A.J. LUTULI
President-General
African National Congress

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