Documents: Africans Acting Alone

DOCUMENTS 50a-50b. Cape Voters

DOCUMENT 50a. Petition to the South African Parliament, from the Cape Native Voters' Convention, Janu­ary 3, 1928 (Published in Imvo Zabantsundu}

The third conference of the Cape Native Voters' Convention which met in East London on the 17th December was very largely attended by delegates from every section of the Cape Province. The following petition to Parliament was framed and unanimously passed:--

To the Hon. the Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly and the Hon. the President and Gentlemen of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

The petition of the undersigned registered native voters and acting under the authority of the Cape Native Voters' Convention assembled in congress at East London on Dec. 19, 1927, humbly sheweth-

1. That whereas the Government has found it expedient to introduce the Representation of Natives in Parliament Bill as part of its native policy which is embodied in the four native Bills published as Government Notice No. 1290 of 1926 framed by the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, your humble petitioners representing the Cape Native Voters' Convention have enjoyed the franchise privilege since 1854, having been granted by the late Queen Victoria through her representative Sir George Grey.
2. That your petitioners regard their franchise right as a charter of liberties on behalf of both themselves and all other natives of the Union as well as their posterity, viewing this as an inalienable privilege of all genuine British native citizens.
3. That no cause has been shown by any adverse critic to prove that this privilege has ever been misused or abused.
4. That such adverse criticism as has been levelled against our franchise has been fully collated and sufficiently refuted in a pamphlet "The Cape Native Franchise" (by Prof. D. D. T.Jabavu).
5. And that whereas the deprivation of the civic right of the franchise in all known historical precedents has always been inflicted as an extreme penalty for treason and rebel­lion, there is no justification for this unwar­ranted procedure in the case of your petitioners.
6. That whilst your petitioners gratefully recognise the Premier's declared intention to grant some measure of Parliamentary repre­sentation to the natives of the Northern Provinces, your petitioners humbly submit that the solid and undivided opinion of all thinking natives in the Union uncompromis­ingly opposes any tampering with the Cape Native Franchise in its existing form.
7. Further that whilst your petitioners appreciate the offers made under the Union Council Bill, your petitioners do not regard such as an equivalent, as substitute for the Cape Native Franchise.
8. Wherefore your petitioners humbly and respectfully pray that the Union Government of South Africa may be pleased to abandon the Representation of Natives in Parliament Bill as being totally undesired and not cal­culated to advance the political aspirations of the Bantu races.
9. And as in duty bound your petitioners will ever pray.

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