From the July 1943 issue of the Socialist Standard
Pages from South African History
A corner stone in the British Empire is the Dominion of South Africa,
the Prime Minister of which. General Smuts was made a Field-Marshal of
the British Army on his 71st birthday two years ago. The approval
accorded to him in the British Press contrasts rather forcibly with the
rather nasty epithets bestowed upon the politicians of other countries
who have accepted office under their conquerors, during the past year or
so.
While still in his twenties Smuts became State Attorney of the Transvaal
Republic under Kruger, whose administration (according to most British
accounts) was one of the most corrupt on earth. After the war of
1899—1902 the Boer politicians were out of the limelight, their
territory being annexed and administered by a High Commissioner of the
Crown. The grant of responsible government a few years later, however,
gave them their chance once more. General Louis Botha (who had succeeded
Joubert as commander during the war) formed Het Volk and secured a
majority in the first elections 1907. From that time onwards Smuts was
in close association with Botha, until the latter's death in 1919,
occupying ministerial positions under him and eventually succeeding him
as Premier of the Union. He held this office till 1924, when he gave way
to General Hertzog and the National Party, triumphant at the polls with
the aid of the Labourites. Some eight or nine years later, however,
when the economic blizzard had affected the popularity of Hertzog's
ministry, we find Smuts again in office as Minister of Justice in a
Coalition with his late rival. Since then Smuts has reaped the reward of
his pertinacity and occupied the supremacy so dear to him.
Smuts cannot be accused of neglecting his opportunities, a fact which can be appreciated best against the background of history.
His countrymen fought the war of 1899-1902 in the desperate attempt to
preserve their political independence. This had been in a precarious
state ever since the British occupied the Cape; and some three-quarters
of a century earlier the Boers in large numbers had trekked northwards
to avoid British control. Their primitive mode of life was gradually
complicated by the discovery of minerals and the arrival in the country
of prospectors and their hangers-on, and this led to a clamour for
annexation. One attempt in 1877 lasted over three years. The Boers
tolerated the position while the British were engaged in their struggles
with the natives (chiefly the Zulus) and then revolted successfully,
resuming' the status of a Republic in 1881. A few years later the
discovery of gold on the Rand laid the foundations of the economic
“fifth column," which led to its final downfall.
A description of some of the gentry the Boers were expected to tolerate
is contained in a small volume, "South Africa" by J. I. A.
Agar-Hamilton, lecturer in modern history at Pretoria University.
("South Africa" Modern States Series: Arrowsmith.)
Pioneers are always pleasanter in retrospect than in close
proximity in the flesh, and many of the earliest inhabitants of
Barberton and Johannesburg were drunken rowdies and ne'er-do-wells, who
were a pest to any law-abiding citizen. In the second wave came
international crooks, swindlers and bullies, criminals of every sort who
needed a respite from the attentions of the European police. (P. 36.)
More formidable were the large financiers such as Rhodes, who became
Prime Minister of Cape Colony in 1890 with the support of Hofmeyr, the
leader of the Cape Dutch. The Rand magnates backed the demand for the
enfranchisement of the alien element in the Transvaal. .The answer of
the Kruger Government was to raise the residential qualification to
fourteen years (1890), and any prospect of a more moderate attitude was
killed by Dr. Jameson (Rhodes' friend and Administrator of Rhodesia),
who "invaded" the Transvaal in 1895 in the vain hope of bringing to a
head a much talked of rising on the Rand. The Boers rounded him up with
his 500 men and handed the captives over to the British High
Commissioner. This magnanimity, however, did not indicate any weakening
of their purpose. In October, 1899, the Transvaal and Orange Free State,
making common cause, demanded the withdrawal of British troops and the
war was on. The Boers could not maintain their initial success. In June,
1900, their capital, Pretoria, was in British hands and Kruger was in
flight. None the less, the conflict dragged on, guerrilla fashion, for
another two years. To bring it to a conclusion. Kitchener had to
evacuate the rural population; concentrate them in camps, and supply
them with rations.
The farmhouses were then systematically destroyed and blockhouses
and barbed wire sought to restrict the movement of the commandos.
("South Africa," p. 44.)
So great a havoc was wrought that no indemnity from the vanquished was
possible. On the contrary, the victors had to advance considerable sums
to restore agricultural production.
Although the Boers could hardly be suspected of aiming at world
domination, the workers in Britain were fed the customary pap about
their "enemies" being skulking cowards who hid behind rocks to snipe the
manly British Tommy, who, as often as not, had to beg his bread in
British streets when the war was over. The bioscope shows of the day
depicted the ruthless Dutch farmers attacking the hospitals (plainly
marked with red crosses) and molesting the helpless and attractive
nurses. A large percentage of the wounds were supposed to be due to
"dum-dum" bullets. Then of course the Boers were brutal to the niggers;
but this did not prevent them being allowed to retain their rifles, when
peace was signed, "for their protection" against these same niggers,
and they were "secured against a native franchise." (South Africa, p.
44.)
From the Orange to the Limpopo the countryside lay waste, without
house or inhabitant, and its simplest agricultural needs were imported
from elsewhere— Swiss milk, Australian butter and Irish eggs. The whole
rural population had to be repatriated, the economic machinery of the
country must be set going once more, and a new civil service and
administration recreated. (p. 48.)
Under these circumstances it is hardly surprising that Botha and Smuts
felt their dependence on their conquerors, and that their policy of
conciliation received the support of the majority of their countrymen
for a period of several years. In the Orange River Colony which had no
large English-speaking population like the mining towns in the
Transvaal, this policy was by no means so popular. Nevertheless the
Union of the two ex-republics with the British colonies of the Cape and
Natal was eventually effected in 1910.
Botha became the first premier. He expanded Het Volk into the South
African National Party aiming to include British as well as Boer
supporters. The mining interests of the Transvaal, however, combined
with British elements in the Cape to form the Unionist Party, which
retained its independent existence for ten years. The Labour Party,
though strong in the Transvaal towns, was naturally weak in an
agricultural country run on unenfranchised native labour, and "direct
action" has, on more than one occasion, led to considerable violence on
the Rand.
It was not long before the Government found itself in conflict with this
element of the working-class. In July, 1913, a miners' strike brought
out the whole Imperial garrison to restore order. Six months later an
attempt at a general strike, including the State railwaymen, "was
countered by the Proclamation of Martial Law. . . . Nine trade union
leaders were summarily deported without trial" (South Africa, p. 58.)
A few months earlier, Hertzog (one of Botha's ministers who was dropped
on account of his open hostility to the British elements) formed a new
National Party. When the European War broke out in 1914, he advocated
neutrality. The Botha Government, however, proceeded to send an
expedition to invade German South-West Africa. A 'rebellion led, among
others, by De Wet, gave them some trouble, but the leaders of the
Nationalist Party had little confidence in its success and Botha kept
control of the situation; his party lost ground, however, as the
followers of Hertzog increased in number. Smuts held a place in the
Imperial War Cabinet in 1917 along with Lord Milner, the High
Commissioner of Boer War days.
Botha died "execrated among his own people" but "the hero of the
Imperialists" (South Africa, pp. 62-3) and " Smuts inherited a peck of
troubles. The elections (1920) returned the Nationalists as the biggest
single party, while the Unionists lost heavily to the advantage of
Labour in the towns" (p. 65). Smuts had only one course in order to
retain office. He secured support from the Unionists who sank their
identity in his party and allowed three of their members to join the
Cabinet. Botha's dream of conciliation was realised—a Dominion of the
British Empire in South Africa had been established.
March, 1922, saw a revival of the Rand trouble. Strikers drilled openly
on the Reef, the defence commandos were called out and aeroplanes and
field artillery were finally required to quell the rising.
At the next election in 1924 the Labour Party formed a pact with the
party of Hertzog to avoid splitting the anti-Government vote. As a piece
of tactics it was an immediate success. The Nationalist-cum-Labour
coalition had a substantial majority and two Labour leaders entered the
Ministry.
In order to secure the support of the Labour Party the Nationalists
dropped the Republican clause from their constitution. Nevertheless
General Hertzog spent some years trying to clarify the status of the
Union. He wanted the right to secede recognised and it took two Imperial
Conferences to satisfy him. In economic matters his government pursued a
policy of Protection coupled with Factories Acts, Wages Boards and
Industrial Conciliation.
In native affairs Hertzog stood for white supremacy and repressive
legislation (such as the Colour Bar Bill, 1926, which limited natives in
mines to unskilled labour, the Riotous Assemblies Act, 1930, and the
Native Service Contract Act, 1932) found its way on to the Statute Book.
As Mr. Agar Hamilton points out, he "could always rely on the support
of ultra-British Natal for the more repressive side of his policy"
(South Africa, p. 122). And, we may add, that of the more short-sighted
white members of the working-class who fail to realise the necessity for
organising irrespective of race or colour.
In 1929 the Labour Party split over the Question of continuing their
pact with Hertzog. In the elections of that year the Coalition lost
ground but the Government retained its majority. The following year the
world depression made itself felt throughout the Union where the number
of mortgaged farms is abnormally high. "Long established landowners were
ruined and those small farmers and "bywoners" who normally lived dose
to the poverty line suffered appalling privations" (South Africa, p.
80),
The diamond mines were closed as the price of their product collapsed
and thousands of diggers in the Western Transvaal found themselves
destitute. Relief works became the order of the day.
After a vain struggle to remain on the gold standard the Government
finally abandoned it in December, 1932. During the following year
negotiations were opened between the Nationalists and the South African
Parties. The two Labour Ministers were dropped while Smuts and five of
his supporters joined the Government. "Parliament was dissolved, but an
adroit system of parcelling out the seats ensured the return of the two
big parties very nearly as before " (South Africa, P. 84).
Thus the intrigues and trickery with which we are familiar in the case
of the Mother of Parliaments, are very closely reflected in her youngest
daughter. Those workers who believe that the British Empire is
democratic in principle might reflect on these facts; and, further, ask
themselves what is the lot of the workers in the latest addition to the
Commonwealth of Nations. According to Mr. Agar Hamilton, "two major
problems commonly exercise the minds of the people of South Africa, the
Poor White and the Native" (p. 105).
The Carnegie Commission reckoned that in 1929-30, before the effects of
the depression were felt, 17.5 per cent, of the white population were
"very poor." After 1930 the position became more serious, i.e., 20 per
cent. Poverty among white workers in Africa has its peculiar features
due to local conditions yet Professor Macmillan says: "The poor whites
are little more than the 'reservoir' of unemployed to be found wherever
Western industrialism has dislocated the old agrarian system." (Complex
South Africa, p. 16.)
The native population of five and a half million may be divided broadly
into three groups. First some two and a half million have their homes in
"Reserves," i.e., "the last vestiges of the land once occupied by
independent tribes" (South Africa, p. 111). They are little more than a
breeding ground; for the majority of the able-bodied males are away
working in the mines or on farms for the greater part of the year. The
Reserves are not capable of feeding their inhabitants and the shortage
of production has to be made good by imports paid for largely by
remittance from the absent wage-earners.
The second group of two million (the so-called "squatters") reside on
the farms of the white invaders who annexed and divided up the land.
They pay for the accommodation either in labour or produce according to
the requirements of the owners. The remaining group work in the towns.
All alike suffer poverty. In the words of Professor Macmillan: "There is
little room left for doubt that the natives of the Union as a whole are
a community dragging along at the very lowest level of bare
subsistence." (Complete South Africa, p. 221.)
From all of which it would appear that the Commonwealth of Nations is not incompatible with the poverty of its people.
Eric Boden
