YUSUF MOHAMED DADOO
I. The South African Indian Congress has on many occasions brought
to the attention of the United Nations and its Member States the
condition of the people of Indian origin in South Africa and the
impact of the policies of apartheid on them. We have done so, however,
in the knowledge that there can be no redress for the Indian community
in isolation.
II. The South African Indian Congress is a member of the Congress
Alliance which is led by the African National Congress. The policy
of the Movement is to eliminate discrimination and racialism in our
country and to establish a free and democratic South Africa for all
our people.
III. The South African Indian Congress therefore wishes to address
itself to the Special Committee as an integral part of the Liberation
Movement in South Africa. We draw the Committee's attention to the
particular impact of the policies of apartheid on the people of Indian
origin, but we seek support for action against the policy of apartheid
itself and as it affects all the people of South Africa.
IV. Since members of the Liberation Movement last addressed the
Special Committee, the South African Government has further intensified
its oppressive policies and it is seeking actively to divide and
isolate the various racial groups within the country.
V. The Committee
is aware of the policies that claim to establish "Bantu
homelands" for the African people, and of the special system
of education that has been devised to create a subservient people.
These policies are now being extended to the Coloured and Indian
people.
VI. With reference to the people of Indian origin, the Government
has for example:
1. Intensified the implementation of the Group Areas Acts to cover
almost the entire country and the overwhelming majority of the Indian
people. Figures published by the South African Institute of Race
Relations in 1966 revealed that in the Transvaal alone 87.62 per
cent of the total Indian population had already been moved, or were
in the process of being moved, from their homes.
The self-professed aim of the Group Areas Act is to divide the
entire country into racially exclusive areas. In its implementation,
however, the authorities are aware always of the basic aim of Government
policy, namely, to organise all institutions and development for
the maximum benefit of the white minority in South Africa.
Thus it is the non-white people who inevitably have to move whilst
the white communities remain settled. It is the non-white schools,
cemeteries, mosques, hospitals, temples and homes that are forcibly
evacuated, and the people moved like pawns into a bare wilderness.
Our people, after over 100 years of living in South Africa, are
still basically insecure. This insecurity arises from the fact that
we are restricted in our choice of occupation, employment, education,
trade and association. Added to the massive restrictions have been
the recent clamp-down on professional people wanting to live and
work abroad. The ruthless and systematic implementation of the Group
Areas Act has resulted in the increase of suicides in Durban and
Pietermaritzburg. There are ten known cases of suicide which can
be directly attributed to the Group Areas Act. Social life has rapidly
deteriorated and has resulted in an increase in delinquency, gang
warfare and imprisonment for petty and large-scale crimes.
For an Indian, the right to travel from province to province for
the purposes of employment, study or holiday is seriously curtailed
by the requirement of obtaining a permit. A permit for a limited
stay which can be refused, curtailed or extended is at the behest
of a petty clerk with the result that thousands of unemployed Indians
in Natal are prevented from seeking jobs in other provinces.
2. The South
African Indian Congress rejects totally any doctrine which claims
that
there should be a distinct education for each racial
group. The experience of the introduction of "Bantu education" has
given rise to justified fears amongst our people that this is merely
the first step in introducing a system of indoctrination for our
children and isolating them within South Africa whilst denying them
opportunities for fulfilment and development.
3. Established a South African Indian Council (formerly the Indian
National Council) which, it is claimed, speaks for the Indian people.
The South African Indian Congress categorically rejects this claim.
The Council is a puppet body established by the South African Government
to lend semblance of democracy to its apartheid structure. Its members
have been chosen not by the people but by the Minister for Indian
Affairs. Its functions are merely advisory and, even as envisaged
in the future, its powers will be limited and subject to the veto
of a central government in whose choice the people have had no voice.
Not only is the Council unrepresentative of the Indian people,
but it is based on the principle of separate representation, a principle
which has been repeatedly rejected by the Indian community since
1946, and which has been universally recognised as being contrary
to democratic practice.
VII. The South African Indian Congress is a federal union of the
following organisations:
The Natal Indian Congress (founded in 1894 by the late Mahatma Gandhi);
The Transvaal Indian Congress (founded in 1903);
The Cape Indian Assembly (founded in 1949).
These member organisations have consistently represented the aspirations
of the Indian people. We are committed to the full equality of all
the people of South Africa, as enunciated in the Freedom Charter
adopted at the Congress of the People in 1955.
The disciplined and persistent opposition of the South African
Indian Congress and its member organisations has led to many of its
officials and members being banned, restricted, placed under house
arrest or forced into exile. Many others are serving various terms
of imprisonment.
Thus, though the South African Indian Congress is nominally still
a legal organisation, it has, due to the restrictions placed upon
it, to all intents and purposes been compelled to operate illegally.
VIII. Nonetheless, the Indian community has expressed its opposition
to the Government's policies.
1. No recognised figure among the Indian people has accepted nomination
to the South African Indian Council and the Minister for Indian Affairs
has had to admit that he had been unable to obtain the support of
the representative leaders of the Indian community (Speech opening
discussion on establishment of INC).
2. In spite of the intensive propaganda efforts of the Government
listing the alleged benefits to the community of its apartheid policies,
the people have refused their cooperation.
At every step they have resisted the establishment of a separate
Department for Indian Affairs, and it is able to function at present
only in so far as the people are forced to resort to its services.
3. Individuals have taken courageous stands and repeatedly resisted
the application of the Group Areas Act. Special mention must be made
of Nana Sita who has served three jail sentences since 1962 for refusing
to move from his home in Hercules, Pretoria, which he has occupied
for over forty years.
4. Despite police intimidation the schools have been a focus of
political activity - with repeated demonstrations in support of arrested
teachers and political prisoners, and against government-organised
functions and policies.
5. Individual members of the community have joined with the African
people in armed resistance, under the banner of Umkhonto We Sizwe.
Some of these are today serving sentences on Robben Island alongside
our national leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and
Govan Mbeki. One of the leading
members of the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress, Sulaiman "Babla" Saloojee, "committed
suicide" while being interrogated by the Special Branch.
6. Last month a leaflet issued by Dr. Yusuf Dadoo was printed and
distributed widely within South Africa. A copy of the leaflet is
attached as Appendix 1.
IX. The SAIC firmly believes that the problems of South Africa will be resolved
by the people of South Africa themselves, under the leadership of the African
National Congress. We believe, however, that the positive support of peoples
and organisations outside South Africa can contribute to the liberation of
our country, and we actively seek such support.
X. We have noted with appreciation the many resolutions adopted
by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council referring
to the situation in South Africa, and more particularly: the resolution
demanding the release of South African political prisoners; the resolution
calling for an arms embargo; and the resolution calling for sanctions
against South Africa.
XI. It is our view that a primary prerequisite for the development
and expansion of the role of the United Nations in the deteriorating
situation in southern Africa is the rapid and complete implementation
of the resolutions already adopted.
We are particularly appreciative of the concern and activities
of the Special Committee and its aim of intensifying its efforts
to promote an international campaign against apartheid.
The South African Indian Congress holds that this campaign can
most usefully be intensified in the field of seeking methods to implement
the existing resolutions and ensuring the adequate supervision of
the compliance of member States with such resolutions.
XII. The need to implement the United Nations resolutions becomes
more urgent in the light of the militarily expansionist policies
of the South African Government. The threat to world peace is manifest
in that Government's disproportionate expenditure on armaments, in
the presence of its armed forces in Rhodesia, its close military
and economic ties with Portugal, and its threats of aggression against
the independent State of Zambia.
XIII. The South African Indian Congress associates itself with
the submissions made by the African National Congress on the situation
in southern Africa, and the urgent need for the United Nations to
prevent the flouting of its resolutions by South Africa and by member
States who continue their overt support of apartheid in defiance
of the world community.
(Signed) Dr. Y. M. DADOO
South African Indian Congress
