Part 19 (1/2)
Dr. Rubusana gave a report on the deputation to Capetown. They had four interviews with the Minister of Native Affairs, and several interviews with members of Parliament, urging the setting aside of some Government farms, to which evicted native tenants might go, as the effect of the Bill, then under discussion, would inevitably be to make numbers of them homeless.
The Minister, he said, never denied the possible hards.h.i.+p that would follow the enforcement of such a law, but he seemed to be driven by a mysterious force in the face of which the native interest did not count.
What that force was, he said, could only be surmised. General Hertzog, who had always advocated some such measure (though he had never been able to carry it out), had just been excluded from the Botha Cabinet; to placate his supporters, who were very angry over his dismissal, the Government carried out this alleged policy of his, so that while General Hertzog in office was not able to bring about the enslavement of the blacks, General Hertzog out of office succeeded in getting the Government to sacrifice their principles of right and justice and to force the Act through Parliament, in order to retain the support of the ”Free” State malcontents.
When every effort with the Ministry failed, the delegates asked for a postponement of the Bill pending the report of the Commission.
This also was refused by the Government. Finally he wrote a letter to Lord Gladstone, asking him to withhold his a.s.sent to the Bill until he had heard the native view. To this His Excellency replied that such a course was ”not within his const.i.tutional functions”.
All this took place in May, 1913.
In July, Mr. Dube, the president of the Congress, wrote to Lord Gladstone asking for an interview to lay before him the nature of the damage that the Act was causing among the native population. Again His Excellency replied that it was ”not within his const.i.tutional functions”.
The Natives' Land Act, which was then law, was read to the a.s.sembled Natives, most of whom narrated their experiences and the result of their observations of the effect of the Act during the six weeks that it had been in force.
Congress considered these, and as a result of their deliberations it was resolved to appeal to His Majesty's Government; and also to take steps to apprise the British public of the mode of government carried on in British South Africa under the Union Jack, and to invoke their a.s.sistance to abrogate the obnoxious law that had brought the Congress together.
The Congress considered at length how His Majesty the King and the British public could best help the Natives in these matters; and it was concluded that if South Africa were really British, then any suffering taking place in that country must be of concern to His Majesty the King and the British public. The next point for inquiry by the Congress was the journey of a deputation to be chosen to proceed on this mission, a journey consisting of six thousand miles by sea and a thousand miles by rail. When the Europeans of South Africa went to England to ask the Imperial Government for a Const.i.tution, their delegates were easily sent, because the native taxpayers, although with hardly any hope of benefiting by the gift -- which amounted to a curtailment of their rights -- were compelled to contribute to the travelling and other expenses of these envoys; but in the Natives' own case no such funds are at his disposal, even though he goes to the Imperial Government to point out that his taxes had been used by a Parliament in which he is unrepresented as a rod for his back. In order to meet this necessary demand for ways and means, Mr. Msane was deputed to tour the country and ask for funds from the Natives. A Johannesburg committee was appointed to superintend this effort and take charge of the funds which he might raise.
The members of the said committee were: Messrs. W. F. Jemsana (chairman), Elka M. Cele (treasurer), D. S. Letanka, R. W. Msimang, H. D. Mkize, B. G. Phooko, D. D. Tywakadi, D. Moeletsi, M. D. Ndabezita, H. Selby Msimang (hon. sec.), S. Msane (organizer). Finally a deputation was appointed to proceed to Pretoria to lay before the Union Government three resolutions that the Congress pa.s.sed. The first, condoling with the Government on the death of Hon. J. W. Sauer, late Minister of Justice and Native Affairs, who died just as the Congress was about to meet; the second resolution, that the Natives dissociated themselves entirely from the industrial struggles on the Wit.w.a.tersrand and elsewhere, and preferred to seek redress for their grievances through const.i.tutional rather than by violent means.
The third resolution, that humble representations to the authorities against the eviction of Natives from farms, having proved unavailing, the Natives had now decided to raise funds for the purpose and convey their appeal to His Majesty the King and to the British public. That Mr. Msane had been appointed organizer of the appeal fund and that a safe conduct was requested for him to tour the native villages. The following deputation was appointed to present these resolutions to the Union Government at Pretoria: Chief Karl Kekana and Mr. S. M. Makgatho of the Transvaal, Mr. E. Mamba of the Transkei (Cape), Mr. Saul Msane and Rev. R. Twala (Natal), Mr. S. T. Plaatje (Kimberley), and Mr. J. M. Nyokong of the Orange ”Free” State.
Mr. S. F. Malan, the Minister for Native Affairs pro tem.
received the deputation in the Government Buildings, which were the Transvaal Houses of Parliament before Union.
With the Minister of Native Affairs were Messrs. E. Barrett, a.s.sistant Secretary for Native Affairs, Mr. Pritchard, the Johannesburg Commissioner, and Mr. Cross, a Rand Magistrate.
The Minister readily received the resolutions and confessed to a feeling of relief at the moderation of their tone. Further, he listened to the story of hards.h.i.+ps already suffered by the Natives, as a result of the enforcement of the Land Act, specific instances of which were given, some being of Natives not far from Pretoria, who, after being evicted from their old homes and having found new homes, were told by the Commissioner that they could not settle therein.
The delegates submitted to the Minister that their complaint was not a sentimental grievance, but real physical suffering.
The Minister having listened to these statements, pointed out that this Act was the law of the land, which must be obeyed.
He was not so sure, he said, that the Natives could achieve anything by means of a deputation to England as the law had already been signed by His Majesty's representative on the spot without hesitation.
He could not see why the Natives should be interfered with when holding meetings and organizing a deputation to go to the King, as long as they kept within the four corners of the law. But it seemed to him that they should have waited until a commission had been appointed under Sections 2 and 3 of the Act. An appeal to the Sovereign, he added, was the inherent right of every British subject; but he expressed the desire that the appeal to England should be dropped until the commission had first made its report. The delegates explained that as the law had in six weeks done so much harm, it was alarming to think what it might do in six months, while there was nothing definite to hope for from the report of a commission not yet appointed, and whose report might conceivably take six years.
The deputation made it clear that the appeal to the King would be dropped if the Government undertook to amend the law pending the report of the commission.
THE NATIVES' LAND ACT IN NATAL
In the following months both the Minister in charge of Native Affairs and the Chief Native Commissioner of Natal asked Rev. John L. Dube, President of the S.A. Native National Congress, to furnish them with information and particulars of Natives in misery as a result of the Natives' Land Act. Mr. Dube had been collecting some concrete cases of hards.h.i.+p, including Chief Sandanazwe of Evansdale, Waschbank, who stated that he and fifty members of his tribe ”are given notice to remove, and that he has made representations to the authorities in Maritzburg asking for land without success.”
Mr. Dube sent the following letter to the Secretary for Native Affairs, with a list of evicted farm tenants, on September 12, 1913.
== Sir, --
The Chief Native Commissioner for Natal approached me shortly after the publication in the Press of my open letter*
with a request similar to that made by you, viz., that I should furnish him with particulars and information. From time to time I did so furnish those names to the Chief Commissioner, and I send you herewith a list of those names and also additional names which have come to my knowledge since my correspondence with the Chief Native Commissioner.
-- * Mr. Dube was here referring to an open letter which he sent to the 'Natal Press', explaining the hard lot of the Native victims of the Act, and appealing to the colonists to intercede with the South African Government on behalf of the sufferers.
In regard to the concluding paragraph of your letter to the effect that the only result of the Chief Native Commissioner's request was the submission of the case of a Native in the Weenen County who received notice from his landlord over a year ago, you must be misinformed. As you will see from the list, scores of names were furnished to the Native Commissioner, and furthermore, some of the individuals themselves who were suffering hards.h.i.+p were sent by me to the Chief Commissioner and were interviewed by him.
The trouble has been that the Chief Commissioner, instead of dealing with these individual cases himself, has, I am informed, in many instances, sent the individuals on to the Magistrates, and my letters also have been forwarded to the Magistrates, with the request that Magistrates would go into the matter. However anxious the Magistrates may be to help in this matter they are but human, and in many cases, I am informed, they are overweighed with other work and have been unable to give the attention to these matters that they required.