Article

We don't want crumbs

The following statement appeared in New Age of 1 Feb.1962. In it Lutuli
unequivocally rejects the government homeland's policy. He reaffirms the ANC's
position on a democracy within a unitary state and multiracialism.

The so-called independence plan in respect of the Transkei enunciated
by Dr Verwoerd in Parliament is a shocking deception which is doomed to failure.
It is being put forward not only as a counter to the world-wide opposition
to apartheid, but to divide the African people who are unanimous in their opposition
to Nationalist policies, into separate tribal entities fighting each other.

If Dr Verwoerd hopes to stop international criticism and divide our people
by this fraudulent plan, then I am afraid that he will once again be disillusioned.
The forces of progress all over the world, and more particularly in Africa,
will accept nothing less than complete democracy for all in South Africa.

Let us see what this plan really is. What does it offer? This plan takes the
country back to the days of tribalism, which in this twentieth century is
fast breaking down. Under this plan the African people of the Transkei are
being offered even less power than that enjoyed by a provincial councillor.
Talk of a black Prime Minister; a black Cabinet and a black Parliament are
just so many meaningless words.

No black Prime Minister of any so-called independent state will be free from
arrest under the pass laws or any of the scores of discriminatory legislation
that clutter up our Statute Books. Any ordinary white voter will
have more say in the running of the Transkei than its "black
Prime Minister".

Unheard of

The suggestion of separate citizenship for Transkeian Africans is something
unheard of in modem democratic language. Once the full plan of so-called
separate development is complete, as Dr. Verwoerd hopes it would be, we will
have several separate groups of second-class citizens living in several separate
areas.

On the present land available for the African people here there is not even
a hint that more land will be allocated to the African people -- it means
that 13 % of the land will be divided into so-called independent states in
which over two-thirds of South Africa's 11 million Africans will have to
live and earn their livelihood.

The fallacy of this plan is even more evident when one knows that even before
these areas are granted this so-called independence, they would be financially
bankrupt. Despite assurances that certain monies will be available, the source
from which they will be available and the amount available, clearly indicate
that no state no matter how small or no matter how limited the scope of its
activity, could exist on such miserly income.

No surprise

It is no surprise that certain chiefs and tribesmen have already welcomed the
plan. They have, by their actions in the past, shown that they are prepared
to support the government in all its plans because of certain benefits they
receive by their support. Those chiefs and headmen who have opposed the government
in its nefarious Bantu Authorities Programme are either in gaol or have been
deported.

Significant

It is significant also that the Transkei has been chosen as the first area
for this futile experiment. Since the beginning of 1960 we have witnessed
one of the most determined and courageous struggles ever conducted in recent
times by a disfranchised and unarmed community against the government.

Even today, on the eve of achieving this so-called independence, we find that
hundreds of Pondos are in prison -- detained under a state of emergency which
is in existence since the end of 1960.

There are also several hundreds who are serving various terms of imprisonment
for having participated in the fight against Bantu Authorities. There are
hundreds more who have been banished from their homes to remote areas. The
pro-government chiefs who have been given powers to deport opponents hold
a threat over any tribesman who opposes the government.

The Transkei has been chosen precisely because of this atmosphere of tension.

From the foregoing it is easy to see what my
attitude to this latest apartheid bluff is; it is total opposition. The African
people do not want crumbs. They demand what is their rightful heritage in
the land of their birth -- Africa. Our demand is, and always will be -- "Back from tribalism; Forward to non-racial democracy".

South Africa does not belong to any one race or tribe, it belongs to all those
who live in it, black and white, and no government can justly claim authority
unless it is based on the will of all the people.

Because we stand for an undivided South Africa, the African people at their
historic Pietermaritzburg Conference held last year, demanded a National
Convention representing every section of the South African population with
sovereign rights to draw up a non-racial constitution for our country.

This is, to my mind, the only solution to the problems that face us, and anything
less is unacceptable.

We do not want tribes and ethnic grouping which is the aim of Dr Verwoerd's
plans. We demand racial harmony, and such harmony could only come about by
extending to the non-white people the right to vote and be elected to all
government bodies in South Africa. Such voting rights must be in accordance
with basic democratic privileges -- it must be on the basis of one man, one
vote!

Source: Page 146 Voices of Liberation vol.1 Albert Lutuli, by G JL Pillay

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