Chapter 11

African National Congress

Now it is not so difficult to recognise the first two obstacles to progress because the link between them and the government is clearly perceptible. The chiefs and the members of these dummy councils receive payment for their services and this the people know. It is a very different matter, however, with the third obstacle, the African National Congress. The people find it difficult to recognise the function of this body. It is the senti­mental attachment to the past. They still think of the African National Congress as it used to be when it was first created. In 1912 it really was an organisation of the people. It was representative of a people who had emerged from tribalism and it was under its auspices that many took part in the struggle for liberation and sacrificed their lives. It is because of this past that the people still cling to the A.N.C. They fail to recognise that the Congress their fathers knew, died some twenty years ago, and that what masquerades as this old organisation of the people is actually a corpse deliberately propped up by all the agents of the Government in our midst.

An organisation grows as long as it keeps in step with the times and nourishes itself with current ideas, i.e. keeps itself vital and alive with progressive trends of thought. The moment it ceases to do so, it ceases to be healthy, sickens and dies. But the people are not aware of the precise moment when death takes place, and this is where the danger comes in. It is only in retrospect, long afterwards, that they can tell when it died. Even in the case of the human body it is indeed not easy to recognise the state of death. It carries within it the seeds of decay long before its final dissolution, but only when the rate of growth of the living cells is exceeded by the rate of decay, can it be said that death has begun. A man may continue to exist many years before life is completely extinct. With the human body, however, there is this advantage, that when the heart stops, people recognise that life is extinguished. Nothing more can be done and the corpse is buried. No matter how much the person was loved or valued, the corpse must be buried. In self-preservation society buries its dead, for it knows that other­wise disease and pestilence may fall upon the people.

With a political body, how much harder is it to ascertain the advent of death. Here there is no stoppage of the heart to signal the precise moment of death. And even when the organisation is at last recognised to be dead the people continue to cling to it for sentimental reasons and refuse to bury the corpse. The result is that it continues to pollute the atmosphere and infect the body politic with all manner of diseases known in politics. Self-preservation demanded that the corpse should have been buried. The African people to-day are paying very dearly for their failure to bury the African National Congress 20 years ago.

Already at the time of the I.C.U. it had been obvious that the A.N.C. had ceased to play a progressive role and was blocking the way to further development. While it itself could no longer grow it fought any attempt to form a new organisation that would be more in keeping with the times. But this reactionary role of Congress was not clearly observable until the late thirties and particularly the early forties. In the crisis of 1935 at the time of the Hertzog "Native"Bills, the people broke through the resistance of the Congress leadership and spontaneously created a new organisation, the All African Convention, which was to speak for the African people. Now by its very nature the All African Convention did not replace the African National Congress;as a federal organisation it gathered under its wing all the existing organisations, political, civic, trade union, church bodies, etc. In this way, the A.N.C., too, found a place for itself in this all embracing body. That same clique of Congress leadership which had been propping up the corpse and using it as an instrument in the service of the Herrenvolk, now found a niche within the new organisation.

It was from this vantage point that they proceeded to spread their infection. From the very beginning they made an attempt to kill the Convention. Being in the majority on the Executive of the A.A.C. they embodied in the Constitution a clause to the effect that Convention shall meet only every three years. They knew quite well that an organisation which meets only once in three years must surely die. They also incorporated another clause to the effect that Convention shall not permit individuals to join it, nor form branches, but only affiliate to existing organi­sations. In this way they sought to leave a clear field for Congress to gather into itself the unorganised masses while robbing the Convention of the possibility of a direct contact with the people. Thus they hoped to cash in on the political upsurge, and, having received a new lease of life, break away from the Convention. It was this same Executive, with the clique of Congress leadership in the majority, which went to Cape Town and negotiated with Hertzog in 1936. Its disastrous effects are all too well known;the disruption amongst the people, shatter­ing the newly-acquired unity and leading them into a political desert for the next seven years.

When the Congress die-hards thought they had sufficiently strangled the Convention they withdrew from it, leaving it, as they thought, to die. And it is true that at this time the once brave Convention was like an animal which has received a mortal wound. But its enemies had reckoned without its potentialities and its latent resources, which were to emerge with the in­creasing pressure of events.

When the Convention didn't die, the Congress clique re­doubled their efforts from without in an attempt to bring about its final extinction. In a letter, dated 15.11.40, from Professor Jabavu (then President of the A.A.C.) to the Rev. Z. R. Mahabane (then President of the A.N.C.) the following statement appears:

"The last few issues of 'Umteteli' revealed a subversive move by unknown parties (a) to unseat you in the Presidential position of the A.N.C. and substitute Dr. Xuma, and (b) to abolish the A.A.C. in order to put the African National Congress in its place."

From this we see that the manoeuverings had taken definite shape and the line of attack was clearly discernible. For as long as the Rev. Z. R. Mahabane, who was also Vice-President of the Convention, remained the head of Congress, he was an obstacle to their disruptive plans. There was always the possi­bility that he would go over the heads of the clique of Congress die-hards and, with considerable prospect of success, appeal directly to the rank and file, urging all the branches of Congress to return to the Convention. They had to get rid of him at all costs. And this they did, installing in his place as President-General of Congress, Dr.A. B. Xuma, who from now on leads the Congress for nine years of its chequered history-or shall we say, career?

In December, 1940, the Natal African National Congress presented to the annual Conference of Congress the following Resolution:

"That the African National Congress is highly indebted to the All African Convention for its labours in seeking redress and justice for the Africans in connection with the 'Native Acts' and also in assisting to awaken the spirit of union among the African people.

"That emergency having been passed, however, the A.N.C. feels that the A.A.C. has now fulfilled its useful purpose and now in order to obviate overlapping and misunderstanding, naturally attendant upon running two national bodies with identical aims and objects, the All African Convention should now cease to function and merge in the African National Congress."

The enemies of unity now felt in a sufficiently strong position to come out into the open. They were so sanguine that they could actually visualise the Convention signing its own death warrant by voting itself out of existence. The more wily ones amongst them, however, were well aware of the futility-in fact, naivete-of such wishful thinking and they adopted another tactic, a more dangerous one because more subtle. They started a long drawn out controversy between Congress and Convention. The purpose of this protracted affair was to hold up and paralyse the work of Convention, to stop it from working out its ideas, framing its policy and going to the people with a constructive line of action. All the energy of the Conference of the A.A.C. was to be consumed in these time-wasting efforts. They professed, then, a great desire to unite the African people by bringing Congress and Convention together. On the face of it this sounded plausible enough. But, as time was to reveal, this was only another ruse for the undermining of Convention.

It must be admitted that this clever move did not spontane­ously arise out of the fertile brains of the Congress clique. Actually there was a strong desire for unity throughout the country and the rank and file of Congress also expressed this genuine desire. To them it seemed ridiculous that Congress should be holding conference in one hall while at the same time the other African organisations were discussing the same problems in another hall.

They forced their leaders to approach the Convention with a view to uniting the two bodies. As the leaders could not refuse these demands without exposing their hand, they gave the appearance of complying. But they proceeded to turn necessity to inglorious gain. This is what happened. As a result of pressure from the rank and file of Congress the Rev. J. A. Calata, Sec-General of the A.N.C., sent the following letter to the Conference of the All African Convention sitting in Bloemfontein, Dec. 18, 1940. "Dear Sir,

"At the annual conference of the African National Congress held at Bloemfontein on the 16th December, 1940, it was resolved to ask the All African Convention to elect a Committee of three representatives to meet in joint committee three representatives from the African National Congress to consider how the two bodies could co-operate to bring about a united effort in the political struggle of the race. The Committee should be required to report to the All African Convention during this session."(A.A.C. Minutes, 1940).

After some discussion the Convention elected the following three members to represent it on the sub-committee: Prof. Z. K. Matthews, Messrs. J. A. Nhlapo and L. T. Mtimkulu. The leader of the delegation was Prof. Z. K. Matthews, a delegate representing the South African Teachers' Federation and an official on the AA.C. Executive, namely, Secretary for Protectorates Contacts. After joint deliberation the A.A.C. delegates brought back their report, as follows:

"Recommendations of the Joint Committee of the A.A.C. -and A.N.C. "Whereas it would appear that there exists some overlapping of activi­ties and misunderstanding as to the status and position of the two bodies, the A.A.C. and the A.N.C., in the organisational life and activities of the African race, bottle of which claim to be the co-ordinating body of the different organisations in the country.

"This committee recommends:-

1. That the two bodies be requested so to amend their constitution that they will clearly define their respective spheres of labour.

2. That the definitions of their scope should as far as possible be on the following lines:-

(a) The A.N.C. should confine itself to the political aspirations and constitutional rights of the Africans and to other cognate matters.

(b) The A.A.C. shall be the co-ordinating and consultative committee of African National organisations dealing with social, educational, economic, political and industrial matters.

(c) Wherever possible the representatives of affiliated national organisations on the consultative committee shall be president, chairman and secretary of such organisation.

3. Except in special circumstances organisations of a mainly local character shall not be eligible for direct affiliation to the A.A.C."

Conference perceived that these recommendations would have serious and far-reaching consequences on the life of the All African Convention itself. It would not be proper, therefore, to allow the delegates present to take a decision on the Recommendations there and then. The country as a whole must be given a chance to make up its mind on the issue. Conference accordingly decided that the delegates should take the Recommendations back to their respective organisations and all other African organisations affiliated to the A.A.C. and discuss them thoroughly. The following year they would bring their verdict to the Conference of the A.A.C. What stands out clearly in these Recommendations is that those who framed them had one purpose in mind-to kill the A.A.C. as it was constituted in 1936 - 7 and reduce it to the status of a mere committee. For consider what the Recommendation' involved. First, the Convention was to be removed from the political arena and concern itself primarily with social, educational and economic matters. Secondly, hundreds of organisations were to be excluded from affiliating to Convention on the ground that they were local bodies, and not national in their scope. Thus at the most only about a half-dozen organisations would qualify for affiliation to the A.A.C. And even those could not send their ordinary rank and life members as delegates to the Conference. Only presidents, chairmen and secretaries could represent them. In this way. the All African Convention, which had been conceived by the people in 1936-7 as an organisation to gather the Africans together, unite them on a scale hitherto unknown for a concerted and sustained struggle, a body which was to unify the struggle of the people in every walk of life, was now to be reduced to a "consultative committee"of a dozen or so heads of "national organisations. "

If this piece of machination had succeeded. Well might the people have cried:

"0, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then you and I and all of us fell down, While bloody treason flourished over us."But the people were not to allow it to succeed. Those who have not understood the tortuous mentality of the agents of the herrenvolk operating in the midst of the oppressed might have been staggered at this apparently, senseless stab in the back of a people's organisation. But it was not at all aimlessly conceived. It was a deliberate plan to emasculate the Convention and render it impotent while leaving the political field clear for the A.N.C. It was part of the old plan of the Congress die-hards who would not brook the rise of any organi­sation, any development among the people, that constituted a threat to the policy of collaboration with the herrenvolk on the basis of inferiority.

The following year, December, 1941, the Conference of Con­vention again met. It must be explained here that although the Constitution still stipulated that it should meet every three years, the progressives circumvented this clause by demanding emer­gency conferences, pointing out that the Africans were faced with a crisis. As had been agreed, delegates reported the decisions of their respective organisations on the question of the Recommendations of the Joint Committee of the A.N.C. and the A.A.C. By an overwhelming majority they were rejected. Thus the A.A.C. was to remain as the federal body federating all the African organisations and constituting the mouthpiece of the African people.

This decision the Congress leadership quietly ignored. They continued to keep Congress isolated, refusing to come in with the other organisations. It is not to be supposed, however, that they left the matter there. In order to cover up their tracks and divert attention away from their betrayal of unity, they strove to represent themselves as actually the champions of unity. From now on we hear them again and again taking up the cry for unity, while rejecting unity in fact. Nothing could have been more calculated to sow confusion than such a tactic.

In December, 1942, Dr. Xuma, President-General of the A.N.C., came out with a grand new scheme. A new Convention was to be called for the purpose of bringing out a new document described with various imposing titles: "An African Charter, ""Bill of Rights "or "Reconstruction Programme."In a letter to Prof. Jabavu, President of the A.A.C., (16.8.43) Dr. Xuma explained that it was an ad hoc Convention.

"To make the move national, "he wrote, "we have established a Com­mittee including all members of the N.R.C., heads of Teachers' Associations, representatives of Trade Unions and others who are not specially members of Congress, but are prominent leaders in the country. "

He wrote also that the All African Convention "should participate by sending delegates to the ad hoc Convention."

The cynical attitude of Dr. Xuma towards the people's orga­nisations could not be better demonstrated than in the way he set up this ad hoc Committee. Only the previous year, the decision of the majority had been that all African organisations should be united under the A.A.C. But now, going over the heads of these same organisations, he coolly invited the federal body, the A.A.C. itself to send delegates. This might have seemed sheer madness, but when viewed from his angle there was method in it. His move, while it had the appearance of striving for unity, in fact hit at the roots of unity. Anything and everything was legitimate so long as it undermined Convention and disrupted real unity.

The reason for the obsession to destroy Convention began to reveal itself in certain incidents about this time. Dr. Xuma and the rest of the Congress die-hards were following a line of behaviour which could only flow from a political position diametrically opposed to that of the All African Convention and its policy of Non-collaboration with the oppressor. One example will suffice at the moment. In February, 1943, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Soldiers' Pay invited both Congress and Convention to give evidence on behalf of the African people. The leaders of the Coloured and Indian organisations were also giving evidence. When Dr. Xuma arrived in Cape Town, the Convention Committee (Western Province) suggested to him that the two African bodies, the A.A.C. and the A.N.C., should present a single memorandum calling for equal pay for all soldiers according to rank irrespective of colour. But he preferred to present a separate memorandum on behalf of Congress. The leaders of the other Non-European sections, however, received from him a promise that he too would ask for equal pay for all soldiers of the same rank irrespective of colour. But on arriving at the Parliamentary chambers he changed his tune. After he had presented his prepared memorandum, the members of the select committee cross-questioned him as to its full import. Let us quote the verbatim report.

Mrs. Ballinger : "You are not asking that they should receive the same of pay you are asking for the African volunteers. Are you asking that the African volunteers should be paid exactly the same rate of pay as European volunteers? "

Dr. Xuma answered;"I say the same as every other Non-European, "

Mrs. Ballinger : "You are not asking that they should receive the same rate as Europeans? "

Dr. Xuma : "Not at this time. Not for the African volunteers who attested for service in Africa, "

And again. Mrs. Ballinger : "So your emphasis is on the European rate? "

Dr. Xuma : "No. "

This testimony is explicit. It reveals Dr. Xuma's fundamental political position-the acceptance of inferiority. This is what separates him and his Congress clique from the All African Convention.

When the A.A.C. met in December, 1943, it again found itself faced with the same delaying tactics, with yet another resolution from Congress calling for a joint committee of twenty to discuss unity of the two organisations. A very long discussion ensued in which delegates differed as to the usefulness of continuing this already protracted dispute. One speaker, in opposing the adoption of the resolution, said:

"there were a number of very urgent matters requiring the attention of Convention. A great deal of time would be wasted in a discussion that would yield no fruit. "

He pointed out that after discussions at two previous con­ferences a final decision had been taken in 1941: "to the effect that Convention shall be the mouthpiece of the African people. The Congress leadership had not abided by that decision. There was no guarantee that they would now, after wasting valuable time, abide by the decision which the proposed committee would come to . . . Dr. Xuma, now President-General of the Congress, was himself responsible for drafting the Convention Constitution , . . The leadership of Congress was responsible for this division and it was a waste of precious time to go over the same ground with them. The Convention should devote the short time at its disposal to urgent problems crying out to be solved. Let the Convention give a lead, then the people would brush aside all these artificially created divisions and follow Convention. "(A.A.C. Minutes, 1943).

Other delegates felt that Congress must be given yet another chance and Conference finally decided in favour of the motion, appointing ten delegates to meet the ten Congress representatives. Next day Prof. Jabavu (President of the A.A.C.) reported that after a lengthy discussion the Joint Committee of Congress and Convention had decided by majority vote "that the All African Convention shall be the recognised political mouthpiece of the African people. "The A.A.C. accepted the Report and accordingly passed the following Resolution:

"In view of the decision made at the meeting of the joint delegates of the A.N.C. and the A.A.C. . . . that the A.A.C. shall henceforth be regarded as the official mouthpiece and the co-ordinating body of the African people;and in order to give effect to this decision so that unity may be achieved in practice and not merely in resolutions, this session of the A.A.C. sitting at Bloemfontein on December 17th, 1943,

(1) Invites all the branches of the A.N.C. which were affiliated from the inception of Convention up to 1941, to re-affiliate to the A.A.C.

(2) Invites the A.N.C. to affiliate to the A.A.C.

(3) Urges the A.N.C. in the name of unity to come back to the A.A.C. so that the unity that was demonstrated in 1935 and continued to 1941 should be recovered and improved upon."(A.A.C. Minutes, 1943).

This Resolution was moved by Dr. J. S. Moroka, the same Dr. Moroka who was to become President-General of Congress in December, 1949.

Having closed a long chapter of time-consuming controversy, the All African Convention forged ahead with its tasks. Having, as it believed, at last effected internal unity, i.e. within the African section, it now turned all its energies to problems long overdue. It was imperative to tackle vital matters of re-organisation and political orientation. First of all it amended the old constitution so that Convention should meet at least once a year and in emer­gency more than once. Then a new clause (e) was added, as follows:

"The aim of Convention being to represent all the African people, to bring together and organise those Africans who are not members and/or are unwilling to become members of any of the existing organisations affiliated to the Convention, with tins in view, to open branches of the Convention, especially in rural districts where such Africans can join the Convention in the capacity of individual membership."

The first amendment removed the stranglehold that had been placed on Convention since its inception-to meet only once in three years. Now it could act promptly and directly in the prob­lems of the people as they arose. The second amendment catered for the mass of unorganised people who were unable otherwise to join Convention because there were no organisations in their district or were willing to join existing ones. It also created direct contact between the people and the Convention.

In this same Conference, 1943, and in the following one, 1944, Convention devoted its entire attention to crystallising its ideas and formulating its policy and programme so as to meet the needs of the people under conditions of ever-deepening crisis, disillusionment and discontent. It was a period which, as we said, marked a turning point in the struggles of the Non-Europeans. The Convention, basing its approach on the rejection of inferiority and trusteeship, evolved the policy of non-collaboration with the oppressor, and laid down the basis and the "broad general lines of the struggle. Realising the community of interests of all Non-Europeans oppressed, it looked to a wider unity and at the 1943 Conference called the other sections of the Non-Europeans to a preliminary Unity Conference with a view to broadening the base of the struggle and co-ordinating the efforts of the different sections.

Here we see the rapid development in the field of ideas and the outlook of the people. There has been a development, too, on the organizational level-a development in fact engendered by the new ideas. The keynote was unity. Like the ever-widen­ing circles caused by a stone in a vast pool, the idea of unity was spreading throughout the mass of the people, transcending the artificial barriers of colour and struggling to reach out even to the most politically backward sections amongst them. It is against this background of political upsurge that we must view the machinations of the African National Congress in the ensuing period and the treacherous political role it played.

It will be recalled that in December, 1943, Congress brought a resolution to the Convention requesting a Joint Committee to discuss ways and means of uniting the two bodies. This Committee, composed of equal numbers from the A.N.C. and the A.A.C., had decided by majority vote that the A.A.C. should remain the political mouthpiece of the Africans. This meant that Congress should re-affiliate to the Convention. The decision was regarded by many as a great achievement marking the end of the organizational stagnation and opening up great possibilities for real unity amongst the Africans.

Congress and the Non-European Unity Movement

Alas, these hopes were to be dashed to the ground. Once again the Congress leadership ignored these decisions. By this time it was becoming obvious that they never had any intention of uniting the people, and their role as disrupters of unity was taking shape;Not only did they keep Congress out of the unity in the African section, but also out of the wider unity of the Non-Europeans. Their activities as disrupters was transferred to a wider arena. A perusal of the Minutes of the first few Conferences of the Non-European Unity Movement (N.E.U.M.) reveals the unconscionable time and effort spent in vain in dis­cussing the question of bringing the Congress into the Movement. At every conference individual members of Congress (attending in some other capacity) adopted the attitude that it was the fault of the Convention that Congress was not represented at the N.E.U.M. Conference. In spite of assurances that Congress had been invited through its officials, the President-General and the General-Secretary, these members persisted in their denials of this fact. For example, Mr. Ngubeni, a well-known Congress organiser from the George district, "asserted that the A.N.C. did not receive invitations to this (the third) Conference."(Minutes). The Joint Secretaries quoted the relevant corres­pondence disproving his statement, and even this did not quell the zeal with which they pursued their insinuations. Thereupon Mr. Basson (representative from the A.P.O. and the Anti-C.A.D., Kimberley) reported as follows:

"In Kimberley the local Anti-C.A.D. Committee was invited by the A.N.C. to its Conference, December, 1944. There they asked the President, Dr. Xuma, for a clear declaration on Unity. The reply was that they could not make the statement because they were not invited to the Unity Conference. Mr. Basson had asked the Secretary to put this categorically in writing, but he refused to do so. Mr. Basson considered that this reply was an excuse. They were sabotaging unity since not a single delegate at the A.N.C. Conference had raised the question of unity. "(Minutes: 3rd N.E.U.M. Conference).

The following day the Conference of the N.E.U.M. unani­mously passed the following Resolution:

"This Conference directs the incoming committee to open negotiations personally as well as by letter with the African National Congress with a view to drawing them into the Unity Movement on the basis of the Ten-Point Programme."

The efforts made to carry out this injunction are clear from the following quotation from the Joint Secretaries Report given at the next N.E.U.M. Conference, December, 1945.

"Immediately after the conclusion of Conference, our Chairman, the Rev. Mahabane, went to Johannesburg to interview Dr. A. B. Xuma, the President-General of Congress, but the latter declined to meet our Chairman. The secretariat then sent the Resolution (see above) to Dr. Xuma by registered post on the 1st February to which we received a formal acknow­ledgment dated 1st March. We wrote again (May 17) to Dr. Xuma . . . . and pointed out the urgency of the position. We also appealed to the President to use his influence to draw Congress into the Unity Movement... We wrote in similar strain to the Secretary of Congress. No replies were received to these letters. On instructions from our Chairman we invited both the President and the Secretary to attend the Executive meeting held in Johannesburg in July, but the reply was that as they were not members of the Executive they could not attend. At the Executive meeting the whole matter was discussed and it was resolved that a further effort should be made, so a committee was appointed to seek an interview with Dr. Xuma. But once again the President refused to discuss unity with us ... We again invited Congress to attend this Conference."(Minutes: N.E.U.M. 4th Conference, December, 1945).

This was not the end of the efforts made by the N.E.U.M. to draw in the Congress. The Joint Secretaries again reported on the matter at the 1946 Conference. The following extract from the Minutes will suffice:

"Soon after the last Conference we wrote to the National Secretary of the A.N.C. We received no reply to this letter. We again invited them to the Executive meeting . . . and to this Conference. These communications were made by registered post."

Here we see the Congress leaders adopting the same technique of sabotage as they had done over several years in relation to the unity of the Africans within the All-African Convention. Operating in the wider sphere, however, the Congress clique were bolder and did not confine themselves simply to silent sabotage. They actively condemned the unity of all oppressed. The so-called Bantu press went all out to decry the Unity Movement and all the scribes belonging to the Congress fold spilled gallons of ink in an attempt to vilify it. They even had the effrontery to put forward the argument: how can we have unity with the Coloureds and Indians when we haven't got it amongst ourselves? This, from the very people who had done everything to maintain a perpetual state of disunity amongst the Africans.

Dr. Xuma, on the occasion of a violent attack on the African Democratic Party, which he regarded as a rival to Congress, took the opportunity to proclaim boastfully: "A year ago I had stood against the Non-European United Front. "In the same speech, apparently for the edification of the herrenvolk, "he declared that "the Non-European United Front had turned out to be a toothless bulldog. "(Imvo: Oct., 1943).