Petition to King Edward VII, from the Native United Political Associations of the Transvaal Colony, April 25, 1905
Petition to King Edward VII, from the Native United Political Associations of the Transvaal Colony, April 25, 1905
TO HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY EDWARD THE SEVENTH, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.
THE PETITION of the Members of the Native United Political Associations of the Transvaal Colony, and of the Natives of that Colony humbly sheweth:
1. That your petitioners are loyal subjects of Your Most Excellent Majesty, residing in the Transvaal Colony.
2. That your petitioners have noticed with apprehension during the past two years the tendency towards class legislation in the Transvaal Colony to the detriment of the status and position of the Natives of the Transvaal.
3. That your petitioners humbly beg leave to refer to the following instances of such legislation:
(a) The Morality Law, inasmuch as it does not protect Native women.
(b) The infliction of the lash in all cases of Assault by Natives on Whites.
(c) The infliction of the Death Penalty in all cases of Outrage or Attempted Outrage by Natives on White women, while comparatively brief terms of imprisonment are provided for similar offences by White men on Native women.
(d) The prohibition of Natives from walking on the Footpaths of any street, except in the case of respectable and well conducted Coloured persons, not being Aboriginal Natives.
(e) The exclusion of respectable Natives from First and Second Class Compartments on the Central South African Railways.
(f) The prohibition of Natives from purchasing Landed Property in the Transvaal Colony.
(g) The prohibition of Natives from holding Public Meetings in the Transvaal Colony.
4. That your petitioners are informed and verily believe that in terms of the Vereeniging Peace Conditions, the Constitution of Representative Government for the Transvaal Colony is now engaging the attention of Your Majesty's Imperial Government.
5. That under Article 8 of the said Conditions the question of granting the Franchise to Natives of the Transvaal Colony will not be decided until after the introduction of Self-Government, the effect whereof is that Natives are not allowed to vote at Municipal Elections and their interests in Municipal matters are at present unrepresentative.
6. That for the reasons above mentioned Your Petitioners fear that when Your Majesty's Imperial Government grants Representative Government to the Transvaal Colony it will be the object of the majority of Your Majesty's white subjects in that Colony to exclude Natives from enjoying the liberty, freedom and equality to which as British subjects they claim to be entitled.
7. That in proof thereof Your Petitioners would refer to the anti-Native utterances on the part of the Rand Pioneers at Johannesburg in their many attempts to legislate against colour and especially to the recent discussions in the Johannesburg Municipal Council on the subject of Native Cyclists, showing that it is the intention of the speakers to base their arguments entirely on the question of colour.
8. That your petitioners for the above reasons fear that unless the interests of the Natives in the Transvaal Colony are in some way protected by Your Majesty's Imperial Government in framing the Transvaal Constitution, the position of Natives in that Colony, under Representative Government, will be a degrading and humiliating one, and one on which your petitioners look with considerable alarm.
WHEREFORE your petitioners humbly pray that it may please Your Most Excellency Majesty, taking the above facts into consideration, to safeguard, when framing the Constitution for the Transvaal Colony, the interests of the Natives of that Colony, either by reserving to Your Majesty's Imperial Government through Your Majesty's High Commissioner the entire control of Natives and of legislative enactments regarding Natives in the Transvaal Colony, or by reserving to Your Majesty's Imperial Government a vetoing power as regards such legislative enactments, until such time as it shall be deemed expedient to accord to the Natives of the Transvaal Colony a franchise similar to that enjoyed by Your Majesty's Native subjects in the Cape Colony and Rhodesia or in such other way as to Your Majesty and to Your Majesty's Imperial Government may seem fit and proper.
AND YOUR PETITIONERS as in duty bound will ever pray.
Source:
Karis, T & Carter G. M. (1972). From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882-1964, Volume 1: Protest and Hope, 1882-1934. Stanford University: Hanover Press.
