Hertzogs' New Bill

The All African Convention has issued a statement explaining why
they must not compromise. They see the new plan of separate register
for Native voters as a "atrophied form of the Cape Native franchise." They
stand for full political equality of black and white as citizens
of the Union. They say that they are convinced that the fundamental
principle offull political equality, till now entrenched in the Cape
Native franchise, will be wilfully and unjustly violated "by
the passing of such a measure." They maintain that "the
policy ofcommon citizenship is the only one that would ensure harmony
between the races."

The Convention has correctly interpreted the Bill, even the amended
Bill, as an attack upon the principle of equal citizenship for black
and white in the Union of South Africa. It is not to the point to
argue, as many do, that the principle of full equal citizenship never
has been upheld in the Union; that the Cape Native franchise is useless;
that as the Natives in the other Provinces have no vote therefore
the Natives in the Cape should lose their vote. All these arguments
are put forward to confuse the issue and to mislead the people. It
is true that the Natives of the Transvaal, Free State and Natal have
never been allowed to vote. But that is not a good reason why the
Natives should surrender their rights of citizenship in the Cape
Province! The remedy would be to give the vote to all the Natives
in the Union, on an equal basis with the whites! It is not true that
the vote of the Cape Natives has done them no good in that Province.
On the contrary it is the fact that the Natives are better off in
the Cape Province than anywhere else in the Union. For example they
do not have to carry passes!

FIGHT THE NEW BILL

The position is that the first Bill and the new Bill in its altered
form are equally unacceptable to the Bantu citizens of the Union.
Both are an attack on the fundamental principle of full citizenship
in the Union for both black and white. A special register for Native
voters is of no use to Natives. What we demand is inclusion of all
Natives in the Union on the ordinary voters' roll on an equal basis
with the whites.

Now that agitation and resentment have accomplished so much in having
made the Prime Minister change the Bill a little, we must continue
the fight still more strongly. We must agitate for full voting rights,
equal to those of the white man. We must not rest till we have made
the Cape Native franchise safe! And we must fight on till we have
won the vote for all the Natives throughout the Union. When we have
won all these demands there is another thing to fight for: the right
to elect Natives to sit in the House of Assembly. Only when this
is won can we say that the Natives have real citizenship in the Union
of South Africa.

EFFECT OF NEW BILL

Speaking on the new form of the Native Representation Bill which
was introduced by Hertzog on Wednesday, Mr Rheinallt Jones of the
Institute of Race Relations said:

" Whether the Natives get three representatives or thirty in the House
it does not matter. The issue is that the Natives consider that their
political standing can only be protected by a comrnon citizenship
expressed through a common franchise. A separate roll would mean
dividing the country into two or more racial groups. It would crystallise
racial divisions into racial antagonism."

This is very clearly put. Let us add a commcnt. It is clear that
the interests of the white and black man in this country are so
entangled and linked together that they cannot possibly be separated.
What hurts the whilc also hurts the black and what hurts the black
is also, sooner or later, dangerous to the white. The workers of
both races are oppressed by the capitalist rulers of this country.
To pretend that their interests are somehow different, so that
they must be placed on separate voters' roll and have separate
representatives, is a dangerously unsound plan. Those who have
conceived this plan have done so in the belief that they can succeed
in persuading the black workers of this country that their interests
are different from those of the white workers. When they manage
to do this they think that they will he able to oppress both sections
much more easily than if the two sections see clearly that they
are united in a common struggle against oppression in all forms.
The whole scheme is a vicious device of the capitalist rulers of
this country. They hope to deceive the workers. But in this they
have not succeeded. From all over the country resolutions of protest
are pouring in. The first effect of this storm of opposition has
been to force Hertzog to modify somewhat and to present in a disguised
form the main item of the Bill the destruction of the Cape Native
franchise.