Documents: The Minister thanked the Conference and withdrew

DOCUMENT 45. Report on proceedings and resolutions of the Non-European Conference, in The Cape Times,  January 4 and 6,  !930 [Extracts].

There was a stormy scene at the Non-European Conference in Cape Town yesterday following the chairman's decision to jettison a proposal for passive resistance to Mr. Pirow's Riotous Assemblies Amendment Bill, should it become law.

Out of two motions from the I. and C. Workers' Federation and the Coloured and Bantu People's Organisation at De Aar was compounded a resolution condemning the proposed legislation on the ground that it was repressive, perpetuated racial antagonism and differentiated between races industrially, politically and socially.

To this Mr. Brown (Cape Town) moved as a rider that there should be a demonstration at the opening of Parliament, and that a day should be set aside for mass protest meetings.
Moving the resolution, Mr. Schuba (I. and C. Federation) described the proposed legisla­tion as "shameful."
"Foul Play."

"What is Pirow that he tries to muzzle the mouths of   non-Europeans," asked Mr. Samuels (Cape Town), seconding. "It is not fair play. It is foul play.

"It only proves they lack the supremacy they boast about. If they do not fear non-Europeans why do they bring in this Bill?"

"If this Bill becomes law my organisation will disobey it," declared Mr. Raynard (Cape Town). "It is an attempt to crush the I.C.U. and the other native unions. The African National Congress have decided not to take any orders from Mr. Pirow or any police officer or magistrate if we wish to hold meetings to express our views.

"These men who are trying to crush us are the people who played the traitor and prayed to God to crush England. The time has come to ignore the Union Cabinet and carry on our own campaign."

In a similar vein Mr. Nolobe (Cape Town) described Mr. Pirow as "nothing more or less than a Minister of machine guns."

"If any man is afraid to go to gaol for his fellows," he said, "his place is outside this Conference."
Passive Resistance.

The Rev. Mtimkulu warned delegates that the proposal meant the beginning of the end;
and thereafter non-Europeans would be voiceless.
Professor Theale (Cape Town) pleaded for some practical form of action to be taken.

Mr. de Norman advocated passive resistance to the Bill if it became law, and moved accordingly.
"Too long have we played with resolutions," he said. "The time has come for action. If we resisted they could not force us to pay the poll tax, for instance."

Mr. Rahim, an Indian delegate, was also doubtful of the value of resolutions.
A campaign of passive resistance was opposed by the Rev. C. B. Lipkuko (Kimberley).

"There is not a single man in South Africa who could make a success of passive resist­ance," said Dr. A. Abdurahman, "You must have a leader who is prepared to make sacrifices, such as Gandhi in India. We have not such a man.

"Passive resistance is a weapon that should be properly organised and prepared so that if and when the time comes we shall be ready and could then use it. It is quite possible this Bill will never come before Parliament at all.'

"We have waited too long," declared Mr. de Norman. "We have been good boys too long, tools of political parties too long and passed resolutions too long. It is time to act."

There was a chorus of indignation when the Chairman, to whom the question whether the proposal for passive resistance was in order had been referred, announced that it would be held in abeyance. With uproar going on all the time, Mr. Brown withdrew his rider, and the original motion was put and agreed to.
The Chairman later intimated that to satisfy the Conference he was prepared to put the amendments again.

The result of this course was that an amendment requesting delegates to impress on their conventions the advisability of adopting passive resistance to the Bill, if passed, was agreed to.
Mr. de Norman's motion pledging delegates to a campaign of passive resistance was then defeated. The proposals for a demonstration at the opening of Parliament and for mass meetings were also lost, and the original motion was then agreed to.

There was an attempt to move a vote of no confidence in the Chairman, but the mal­content element was shouted down.
The Conference then discussed a resolution on the Native Bills, moved by Dr. A. Abdurahman and seconded by the Rev. Mahabane, to the effect that the Prime Minister should be asked to consider arranging a convention or round-table conference of the European and non-European leaders.
"This conference," added the resolution, "is convinced that the attempt to solve questions of race relationship by means of Select Committees has proved to be wholly unsatisfactory."
Mr. Gamiet denounced the Native Bills, and moved; "This conference strongly con­demns any legislation based on colour or race, and requests the Government to scrap the Bills."
A further amendment, by Mr. Calvert, provided that, failing Government action, the non-European communities should convene a round-table conference themselves.
Dr. I. Abdurahman thought the Bills might be modified to some extent.
"But the natives and coloured people will be sold once again just as they were in 1909," he added. "Do not let them invite you behind closed doors."

Dr. A. Abdurahman, replying to the de­bate, said the amendments merely expressed what they had already affirmed, that they were totally opposed to the four Native Bills.

"Non-Europeans, alone cannot settle these problems," he said. "We have not all the brains or integrity amongst ourselves. There are just as idealistic and honourable men among the white people.
"It is only by co-operation with these men, by showing them at a conference where they are wrong, where they have been influenced by emotional prejudice to see the facts in wrong perspective, that you can show them they have founded their opinions not on facts, but on emotion, prejudice and sentiment. It is the only way.

"The Indians said, 'We want a round-table conference, because you misunderstand the position.' You will never attain your proper place by standing away and refusing to co-operate with the white man. The very best men, from the Prime Minister down, need education in our social and political questions."
The motion, with the amendments moved as addenda, was carried.

A motion dealing with the poll tax described the tax as "cruel and indefensible" and a source of grievous hardship to natives, and appealed for its abolition.

"The only remedy is to tell the Government that we refused to pay the tax," declared Mr. Ndobe (Cape Town). "Then Pirow can send out his machine guns."

Urging the same course of action, Dr. I. Abdurahman   said innumerable abortive attempts had been made for the removal of the tax.

"The only way is by passive resistance," he said. "The duty of every delegate when he returns is to impress that upon his people. If you refuse to pay the poll tax what can the Government do? Can they put 7,000,000 men in prison?"
The motion was agreed to.

The view that the present economic posi­tion of non-Europeans would within a genera­tion produce a "poor black menace" was expressed in a resolution dealing with industrial grievances. This pointed to racial differentiation on the railways and alleged that coloured and native workers were removed from employment to create political votes by giving jobs to "poor whites."

Industrialised and landless non-Europeans, urged the motion, were largely employed at a poverty rate of wages which, allied to repres­sive legislation, were destroying the non-European physically, spiritually and morally.
Mr. W. G. Ballinger, speaking, he said, at the wish of the I.C.U., said that in the Transvaal and the Free State conditions were 10 times worse than in the Cape.

"The majority of native workers in Johannesburg get less than .£3 10s. a month," he said. "Out of that they have to pay £1 5s. for rent. A man with a wife and, say, three children, has only 17s. 6d. with which to carry on through the month. That is the poor black menace which is developing in South Africa."

The Conference adjourned until this morn­ing, after passing a resolution urging the need for immediate legislation to provide for free education for all non-European children in the Union and compulsory education up to Stan­dard VI. in all urban areas, extension of educational facilities to all non-European child­ren in rural areas; sound professional training for non-European teachers and an increased and adequate Government subsidy for non-European education.

The non-European Conference, which meets again at the City Hall this morning, is to be asked to make a "declaration of war against the Dutch Reformed Church," the following motion having been tabled by the Western Province African National Congress: "Seeing that the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa is instigating and abetting and conniving at the persecution of the non-European, this conference now calls for an emphatic 'declaration of war' against this church--it declares every predicant and missionary to be the mortal enemy of our people;
calls upon every non-European to leave this unchristian church within a period of three months, instruct every non-European to boycott and ostracise any of their people who still remain in this Church after the aforesaid period; and will get into communication with chiefs and headmen in the Sudan, Nyasaland and all African territories where this church is carrying on missionary work, calling upon them to expel all missionaries and emissaries of this Church who are in their midst not to enlighten and evangelise them, but to enslave them."

Another resolution from the same source reads: "Seeing that both Nationalist and South African Parties are unreliable, and not to be trusted any further, as in the past they have co-operated and declared themselves willing further to co-operate to rob non-Europeans of their inherent and just rights as British subjects. This conference declares that the time has now arrived when non-Europeans should cease to vote to place Europeans in Parliament, and to instruct non-Europeans to refrain from voting or taking part in any general or by-election for the House of Assembly till such time as the Constitution is amended, so as to allow representation in Parliament by non-Europeans."

Another resolution seeks to have "a distinct policy laid down to be adopted towards all Europeans"; and the attention of the conference is drawn to "the ques­tion of wholesale drunkenness amongst non-Europeans" with a view to checking the evil.

Other motions strenuously oppose Mr. Pirow's "slavery" Bill and demand better housing and educational facilities.

The non-European Conference, which concluded its sittings in Cape Town on Saturday, carried a resolution re-affirming its determination to strive for equal political franchise for all people of the Union, irrespective of colour, creed or sex, and calling on affiliated organisa- tions to oppose by all constitutional means any movement designed to rob any section of the population of rights they at present enjoy, such as the Cape Native franchise, conferred when the Cape of Good Hope became a self-governing Colony.
"There is nothing to show how the franchise is to be extended to our brothers in the northern Provinces," said Mr. Brown, during the discussion.

Proceeding, after interruption, Mr. Brown observed that the Chairman "steam-rollered" everything.
"Chairman Insulted."

Dr. A. Abdurahman, intervening on a point of order, said: "This is the second time the chairman has been insulted. I call upon the speaker to withdraw those words or leave the conference."
After vainly trying to make himself heard amid cries of "Withdraw!" and general uproar, Mr. Brown withdrew the expression used.

The Chairman having invited him to make some suggestion as to what should be done in regard to equal political franchise, Mr. Brown said: "We should adopt the principles of the Communist Party." Cries of dissent prevented him from proceeding.

Mr. Champion said that some people evidently regarded the conference as an opportu­nity of demonstrating their ability to talk, but its object was mutual understanding of principles of co-operation.
As representative of the people of Natal, he said that they would not be prepared to assist the Government at the expense of their brethren in the Cape.
Sympathy With India.

Stating that India was divided on the question of absolute independence and Dominion status, the Rev. Z. R. Mahabane moved:

"That this conference desires to express its sincere sympathy with the people of India in their noble struggle for the application in their country of the democratic principle of self-determination, and to express the earnest hope that an amicable settlement of the grave crisis which faces that country may be arrived at."

Professor Theale, seconding the motion, which was carried, said they admired the noble efforts which had been made in India, by virtue of which her people were on the eve of real independence and the attainment of their aspirations.

The Rev.J. S. Likhing (Kimberley) referred to the shooting incident at Potchefstroom, and said that had the Europeans abstained from attendance nothing would have happened.

A motion was carried sympathising with the widow and family of Mr. Hermanns, who died from wounds as a result of the shooting.

It   was   not   the   first time that Potchefstroom had been the scene of activities of the "white hooligan," said Mr. Ismail (Cape British Indian Council). It was there that Mr. Sastri had suffered indignities at the hands of this class of whites. White hooligans with revolvers in their pockets were always ready to shoot down the non-Europeans.

The matter must be brought to the notice of the Government and the hooliganism stopped, or dire results would follow.

Forced Labour.

Attention was drawn by Mr. Ballinger to the fact that the representatives of the League of Nations, so far as South Africa was concerned, were there to represent merely the South African point of view, not the non-European point of view "You ought to be represented at the conference on forced labour," Mr. Ballinger continued.

It has been stated that there is no forced labour in South Africa. This may be relatively true if a comparison is made with conditions in the Congo. Nevertheless, there is forced labour, for instance, the Labour service con­tract. The diamond industry in Kimberley is supported by forced labour, 1,200 convicts taking diamonds from the ground.

"In the Pirow Bill," continued Mr. Ballinger, "we have the suggestion that con­vict labour should be put on farms. No convict labour should be employed where there is an unemployed black problem, as in Kimberley."
"Even if you do not get a representative of non-Europeans," Mr. Ballinger urged, "you are entitled to a number of advisers to be sent at Government expense."

Referring to a resolution introduced by Dr. I. Abdurahman at the previous sitting of the conference, Dr. A. A. Abdurahman moved:

"That this conference condemns Mr. Pirow's proposed legislation to amend the Transvaal and Natal law relating to Masters and Servants to amplify the Native Land Act of 1913 and to impose a tax on certain natives in the Transvaal and Natal who are not under contract service.

"We have no right to assume," said Dr. Abdurahman, "that this proposed legislation is merely an electioneering dodge. When responsible Ministers give to the world a draft of what they intend to introduce in Parlia­ment, we must take their intimation in good faith. If they do it merely for electioneering purposes, they are doing incalculable harm.
"Nothing Less Than Slavery."

"If a native, in Natal or the Transvaal enters into a contract for longer than one month, it forces him to remain on a farm for three years at least. During that three years, he must give three months service to his master, and more if necessary. It may be he will be required to give six months of the year just at the season when he wants to plough the small portion of the land set apart for his own use. Then when he is free, the ploughing season is over, and he can get nothing from his own land.

"When that native breaks the law, he can be given five lashes. When a master breaks the law, he may be fined £10, but that is the maximum fine, and it would probably be only 10s. When the farm is sold, the native is sold with the farm and the cattle. He must obey the new master. Before he leaves that farm, he must produce a clearance certificate to show that he has served three years for which he was originally indentured.

"This is nothing less than slavery," con­tinued Dr. Abdurahman.
"If a native elects to go somewhere else, he may go to a location, but if he is found outside the location, he may be fined £5 in addition to having to pay poll tax. In the Free State, according to Mr. Ghandi, if a native did not pay the poll tax because he had not the money, then he could be fined £5. If he did not pay the £5--and presumably if he could not pay £l he could not pay £5-- he could then be indentured at the rate of 5s. a month to a fanner until he had worked off the sum of £5.

"And here we have a similar thing," said Dr. Abdurahman, "because Mr. Pirow has said that the farmers want native labour, and convicts are going to be supplied. A native who does not want voluntary slavery, and does not want to go to the location, hires himself out to somebody else, and has to pay £5. If he cannot pay £5, Mr. Pirow fines him and lets him out to the people of the Transvaal for perhaps Is. a day.
"Since we have had democratic institutions in the Cape Province, this is the most disgrace­ful thing that was ever proposed to be placed on the statute book. It is a great pity that those who want to go in for passive resistance are not natives; then they could be sent to the Free State."
"Manufacture Of Criminals."
The resolution was supported by the Rev. Mtimkulu, who quoted the opinion of one of his young men that "the Government, in the Masters and Servants Act, has given to the farmer a right that God had never given to any man, the right to hand over a man's soul to the keeping of someone else." The proposed legislation could only have the effect of manufacturing criminals.
"I have heard it said," said Mr. Mtimkulu, "that Magistrates sometimes ask: 'Do you think the white man can tell a lie?' Every white man, it seems, must be an angel in the eyes of the law. If the white man says the native is a bad man, that man must be a bad man for all time."
"Even the native's cattle would belong to the farmer," said Mr. Mtimkulu; "he can milk them; he can work them; his children and his wife belong to the white man. I myself have seen women with children on their backs taking bags of mealies and putting them into the trucks.
"This Masters and Servants Act would make natives into slaves without souls of their own."
An amendment was proposed by Mr. Brown:
"That, should the Government succeed in carrying this measure, we pledge ourselves to compromise with the resolutions as passed by the Communist Party's Conference recently held."
The amendment was not carried.
Dr. A. Abdurahman said they were faced with the alternative of slavery or indentured labour, a choice between two evils.
Mr. McLeod (Kimberley) said that passive resistance was all nonsense. When the father went to gaol, the wife and children starved. "We cannot support passive resistance."
An interruption was followed by shouts of "Order!"
"When the time comes for action, we must oppose this tooth and nail."

Scenes Of Disorder.

Amid scenes of excitement and disorder, Mr. Richards moved the closure, the chairman reminding the meeting that "this place is not a Chinaman's shop." The motion was carried.
The following was put as an unopposed motion by the Rev. Mtimkulu:
"That this Conference solemnly protests against the militaristic raid by a large police force made on a defenceless community at Durban in the early hours of the morning of November 14 at the command of the Minister of Justice (for the purpose of collecting poll tax) armed with tear gas bombs, fixed bayonets and a squadron of aeroplanes, as high­handed, cowardly and reprehensible, and unworthy of a civilised Government that poses as the guardian of a people not repre­sented in the Parliament of the country.
"Nothing has undermined the prestige of white government in the eyes of non-Europeans more than this savage and brutal action of the Government of this country," he said.

Mr. Brown suggested the addition of a "rider": "That, should such action recur, delegates pledge themselves to call upon organised labour to support a general strike." It, however, obtained no supporters.

Mr. Reagon proposed "that the Govern­ment be requested to suspend the operation of the Wage Act to permit of non-European skilled labourers building their own houses and that on farms where housing forms part of the wages, Government action be taken to ensure that decent accommodations be provided."

Mr. Reagon said housing for non-Euro­peans was of a low standard and rentals were excessive. The City Council had put up wood and iron houses for the very poor, but on account of the Wage Act £1 4s. a day had to be paid to the carpenters who were building houses for people who got 4s. a day to live on. A new utility company was going to build houses but, though the company was to receive a subsidy, it would be unable to provide houses for the very people who were most in need of them. What was needed was a subsidy in favour of houses, for the very poor. The country received the benefit of labour at a low rate which these people provided. They should be allowed to build houses for themselves from their earnings. That was the only way they could achieve an economic rent with wages so low.

"Government Action Needed."

"On farms the cattle are far better housed than the natives," said Mr. Reagon. "Govern­ment action is necessary."

The following resolution was adopted: This conference deplores the differentiation made in granting old age pensions. It requests the executive to petition the Government to include within the scope of the Old Age Pensions Act all non-Europeans over 65 years of age.

It was resolved to direct the attention of the Minister of Railways to the excessive overcrowding and the inadequate and inferior accommodation provided for non-European passengers in the railway coaches and in waiting rooms on railway stations.

It also protested against the "inadequate transport facilities provided by municipalities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria," and asked that an inquiry be held into the method of administering native affairs in many towns in the Union.

Equal Rights

Another motion submitted was: That this conference instructs its executive to circu­larise all party headquarters and Ms.L.A., asking them for definite replies to question­naire which shall embody an undertaking on the part of political party candidates to support legislation granting to non-Europeans the rights embodied in the old Cape Constitu­tion of Equal Rights. In the event of unsatis­factory replies, the conference instructs its executive to collaborate with suitable repre­sentatives in constituencies where there is a non-European vote, with a view to instituting a campaign of educational propaganda to refuse to support candidates who despise the call of the non-European and the general policy of this conference.
As an amendment it was moved that, failing to get favourable replies, the confer­ence in conjunction with other organisations, put up candidates in certain constituencies;
also in Provincial and Municipal elections;
further, that at the next Provincial election as many non-Europeans as possible be nomi­nated to contest, and in the event of more than one candidate being nominated, a non-European meeting be called to elect a nominee.

The amendment was carried, and the resolution, modified, adopted.

<<MENU / DOCUMENT 44 / DOCUMENT 45 / DOCUMENT 46>>