Extract from The Peasants’ Revolt, Chapter 9 by Govan Mbeki (1964)

Commission on inquiry

Recognizing that police massacres could not break the people’s resistance, the government announced that a Commission of Inquiry, composed of Bantu Administration officials, would be appointed to hear popular grievances.

The demands of the people were: the withdrawal of the Bantu Authorities and Bantu Education Acts; representation in the Republic’s Parliament; relief from the increased taxes and passes which hampered free movement; and the removal of Paramount Chief Botha Sigcau.

The findings of the Commission were announced at a public meeting near Bizana on October 11 and it is significant that on this occasion the government was forced to by-pass its much vaunted Bantu Authorities machinery in order to convey its findings to the people, and negotiate with the Mountain Committee which had become the generally accepted tribal representative.

The Commission ignored or brushed aside the popular demands and gave irrelevant replies to selected grievances. For instance, to the request that Africans should receive the same education as Whites, the Commission replied: ‘Bantu Education is not inferior.’ On the hardships of reference or pass-books, the Commission’s comment was that ‘the hardships were due to non-compliance with the law.’ (Cape Times, 12 October 1960)

The Pondos were far from satisfied with the Commission’s findings. At a meeting on 25 October, they formally announced their rejection of the report, and expressed their determination to continue the struggle against Bantu Authorities. They decided to stop paying taxes.

This momentous decision taken by thousands of Pondos, many of them delegates from distant locations, was a sharp reminder that the Pondos were in a desperate frame of mind.

White officials report to Pondo tribesmen on the government's Committee's findings on the recent Pondoland disturbances. This is a peaceful demontration on their way to the meeting place at the air field near Bizana. (Photo: Drum Photographer © Baileys African History Archives)

At the same time, five top leaders of the Pondoland National Committee surrendered to the police as they had lost their appeal to the Supreme Court and had been refused bail. They had been sentenced to over a year in prison for attending an illegal meeting!

As a mark of their anger at the jailing of their leaders, and in protest at the attitude adopted by most of the Whites in Bizana, the people decided to boycott the town. The Pondos felt that the traders in Bizana had shown partiality towards the government instead of sympathizing with the people from whom they made a living. One Pondo explained: ‘We boycott the traders because they helped the government in trying to break us. When we boycott them, we are boycotting the government.’

References

• Mbeki, G. (1964). The Peasants’ Revolt, extracts from Chapter 9, London: IDAF, - the full text of which is available at: http://www.anc.org.za
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