The Anglo-Boer War marks the turning point in the history of the mine-owners. After the war, from 1902, the needs of the mines dominated the country as a whole and changed the political and economic set-up of South Africa.
In 1899 the British went to war against the Boers. The war was fought for the control of the Transvaal. Gold was an important cause. The British believed that whoever controlled the Rand would control the rest of South Africa. They won the war, but it took them three years to defeat the Boers.
By the end of the 19th century, Britain governed countries all over the world. These British colonies made up the British Empire. The Cape and Natal were both British colonies in South Africa.
When gold was discovered in the Transvaal, the British government was worried that this small republic would draw the capital and the labour of the Cape and Natal away from the Empire.
Most of the Randlords supported Britain. They were angry with the Transvaal government because the mines were being taxed to develop the interests of the Boers. They felt they would be better off governed by a modern capitalist state like Britain. The capital for the gold mines came mostly from Britain and Europe, anyway
For these reasons the Randlords were happy to see the British win the war.
The
two Boer republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, were ruled
by white farmers.
When gold was discovered the Transvaal government was anxious to use taxes
from the gold mines to develop commercial farming and factories so that the
Transvaal would not have to rely only on gold.
They were anxious to build up their strength before the mine-owners became
powerful enough to take over the country. The Boers were also very suspicious
of the British.
The Boers had already fought the British in the Transvaal in 1881 (Die Eerste
Vryheids Oorlog). In 1895 they squashed a plot to overthrow the Transvaal government.
The plot was supported by mine-owners, including the rich and powerful Rhodes.
The Boers disagreed with the mine-owners on other matters too. They disagreed
about labour policy, for example. The Boers wanted to use the pass system to
keep labour on the farms, while the mine-owners felt that the government was
not strict enough about directing labour to the mines.
President Kruger, president of the Transvaal, was unhappy about the thousands
of foreigners who had come to the Rand in search of riches. He was afraid that
they would soon outnumber the Boers and the Transvaal would cease to be a Boer
state.
The Boers had left the Cape seventy years earlier so that they could be independent
of Britain. But now it seemed that the wealth of the Transvaal would be their
downfall.
The War was a white man’s war.
There was one thing the two sides did not disagree about -and that was the position of blacks in the Transvaal. Both sides wanted a large supply of well-controlled, cheap labour.
Officially, neither the British nor the Boers would allow blacks to join them in fighting against the other side. Yet it is believed that as many as 100 000 blacks served in the war as scouts, spies, drivers, labourers, stretcher-bearers and servants.
‘By the end of the war, nearly 10 000 Africans were serving under arms in the British forces,’ claims Thomas Pakenham in his book, The Boer War.
In Mafeking, 2 000 Africans were chased out and left to starve in the veld because of food shortage. Yet when the Boers attacked Mafeking, it was largely the Barolong who trapped them, saving the city for the British. No thanks was given to the Barolong, no compensation for their loss of lives and cattle in this ‘white man’s war.
Many black farmers suffered from loss of crops, cattle theft and burnt-down homes during the war. On the Rand, black workers were trapped when t war started and the mines closed down. They could not get home Thousands were put into concentration camps and kept there at a cost to Britain of less than a cent a day each. There were hundreds of deaths there, due to weakness and infection. In fact, there we even more deaths in the bla concentration camps than the were in the concentration cam set up for the Boers - in which more than 20 000 women a children lost their lives.
Most educated blacks supported the British in this war. They believed that if Britain won the war they would restore land to blacks and give them rights such the vote and freedom to move where they wished. After all, the w British Governor of the Transvaal, Lord Milner, told a group of blacks in 1901: ‘It is not race or colour, but civilisation which is the test for political rights.’
But they were bitterly disappointed. Even ‘civilised’ blacks failed to get the vote after the war ended. Instead, the British government in the Transvaal passed a number of discriminatory laws on labour taxes, labour contracts, segregation of housing, finger printing of mine workers, well as liquor laws and stricter pass laws. Milner even allowed the mines to use convict labour. The ‘liberal’ British therefore had even greater control over Africans than the Boers had before the war, because the new government aimed to set up a modern capitalist state in the Transvaal under British rule.
From the diary of Colon B.P. Baden-Powell, during the siege of Mafeking, April 20:
‘ Meat and meal stocks present will last till June 1. But by forcing the native away from Mafeking we ca get their share of horseflesh for whites.’
Extract of letter to Colon Baden-Powell from Boer commander, Cronjé:
‘It is understood that you have armed the Bastard Fingoes and Barolongs again. us - in this you have committed an enormous act wickedness.., reconsider the matter, even if it cost you the loss of Mafeking. . . disarm your blacks and thereby a the part of a white man in white man’s war.’
It is my desire to see the strength of the state and the strength of the mining industry renovated. . . I can only compare these two, the state and the mining industry, as twins.’ (Sir George Albu, Mine-owner.)
The
Anglo-Boer War settled the question of whose interests the mines were
to serve - the Boer farmers or the new breed of capitalists who owned
the mines. When Britain won the war, the mine-owners were given very
assistance in building up the mines again so that the Transvaal could
be transformed into a modern capitalist state. Government administration
became more efficient.
After the war, there was a boom in the economy. Trade increased, there were
higher profits in the stock exchange - and the wages of the workers dropped.
For the next quarter of a century, the interests of the mine-owners and their
backers in Britain dominated the politics and economy of South Africa. The
needs of other interest groups, the commercial farmers and the emerging factory
owners, took second place in the economy.
The mining capitalists owned newspapers and journals through which they were
able to influence people’s thinking. It came to be accepted by those
who had power that the well-being of all South Africans - including millions
of black workers and their families - depended on looking after the needs of
the mines.
For the next twenty years, successive governments passed laws and enforced
order in the service of the runes, helping to cut down labour costs and increase
mining profits.
The ‘period after the Anglo-Boer War, therefore, saw the triumph of the
mine-owners. Their interests ‘came to dominate nearly every aspect of
South African life.