Why General Smuts won on 4 September 1939 - F. D. Tothill

Even now, almost half a century after it collapsed, any conclusions about the working of Fusion and its chances of long-term success if the Second World War had not cut short its life must necessarily be tentative. Nevertheless, it is difficult to disagree with the contemporary National Party supporters who saw it as a "deurmekaarspul van allerlei uiteenlopende elemente" which, "in uiterlike vorm eenheid probeer wys, maar wat innerlik vinnig aan [die] gis is". It was "kunsmatig" ... Read more

The taxation of Africans: Transvaal 1902-1907* - David Burton

The importance of taxation in the study of history has long been recognized and in such topics as the constitutional crisis in Seventeenth Century England, the American struggle for independence, and the outbreak of revolution in France in 1789, the subject has received considerable treatment and prominence. However, taxation remains a rather neglected aspect of South African history 1 despite the importance attached to the taxation of Africans by John Hobson in his Imperialism: a study;2 the warnings, criticisms and allegations of its abuse by the London-based Aborigines' Protection Society; as well as the criticisms voiced in South Africa by the South African Native Congress (Cape) and the Transvaal Native Congress ... Read more

The Chinese in South Africa: a preliminary overview to 1910 - Karen L Harris

To date, no comprehensive history of the Chinese community in South Africa has been written, and even in the more recent historiographical publications the subject has been entirely ignored.1 There are numerous reasons for this, one of which is obviously the numerically small size of the community as well as the scattered nature and paucity of research material. The South African Chinese community is, and has almost always been, one of the country's smallest minorities. Since the first official census in the Cape of Good Hope in 1865, the Chinese have only ever been listed as a separate 'ethnic group' once ... Read more

John Nauright: Alexandra Township removal debate - John Nauright

In the 1930s in South Africa, municipalities, provincial and national levels of government increasingly turned their attention to the problem of African urbanisation which to that point had not been tightly controlled. Slum clearance legislation was passed enabling municipalities to set about clearing slum areas and relocating urban Africans in townships, often well away from white settlement. In Johannesburg officials were additionally concerned with several freehold townships situated to the west and north of the city, where Africans had the legal right to own property ... Read more

Glenelg and the dispatch of 1835 - Randolph Vigne

It is nearly 60 years since W M Macmillan's Bantu, Boer and Briton (1929) examined the frontier settlement of 1835 ordained by the Governor of the Cape, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, and the British Colonial Secretary, Lord Glenelg's, reversal of it. Nearly 50 years have passed too since the Huisgenoot's unequivocal headline 'Die man wat die Groot Trek veroorsaak het' typified the 'guilty' verdict on Glenelg for causing the Great Trek. The 11 years that had followed Macmillan's exculpation of Glenelg had done nothing to convert the public to his view. Perhaps it is a view still ignored ... Read more