Call Me Not Fool
By KENNETH MACKENZIE
R. VERWOERD has a primitive's belief in the magic of words. A few years ago he decided to remove all the ill-feeling about passes by the simple expedient of renaming them `reference books.' He even 'abolished' the Passes Act—merely extending the pass system to women in the process. Then he put on his misunderstood expression as things degenerated to Sharpeville.
Now he has found a new word to play with: `self-government.' He is granting self-government to the Coloured people, he announced the other day. This precious boon is also to be given to the Xhosas of the Transkei. 'A Parliament and a Cabinet of Ministers based on the principles of Western democracy,' says the South Africa House handout enthusiastically, . . this great step on the road to independence.'
When it comes to the actual powers of this new Parliament and Cabinet, the voice falters a little. 'Presumably control over agriculture education, and welfare services, lands, roads, local affairs, etc., will be placed under Bantu jurisdiction forthwith. External affairs, defence and certain aspects of the administration of justice inter alia will presumably for the time being remain the responsibility of the Republic.' I am fond of that last sentence. It does not say the big brutal police will still be there to demand passes: it says, 'Certain aspects of the adminis- tration of justice inter alia Interrupting this pipe-dream seems churlish, like explaining to a child that there is no Father Christmas, but I think it is necessary to point out that all this does not add up to 'self- government' as the unintoxicated understand that word. The Transkei is not a State: it is an overcrowded, eroded rural reserve, in which a population, mostly of women, old people and children, struggle to sustain themselves while the able-bodied men are away in the 'white' cities.
A typical young Xhosa is forced by economics to seek work in Johannesburg, or Port Eliza- beth, or Cape Town. He is forbidden to take his wife and children with him. He is barred from skilled employment, paid less than a living wage, not allowed to form a trade union or strike, forced to live in a segregated township miles from his' work, insulted daily by the 'Europeans Only' notices on the buses, post offices, the station and the park benches and by the 'Yes, boy' and 'Wait, Jim' contempt of shop girls, excluded from theatres, libraries, tea-rooms and hotels, and continually harried by the police.
The self-government Dr. Verwoerd is dis- pensing will touch on not one of these aspects of his life. His lonely wife will, however, be able to elect a representative who might be able to improve the roads in the reserve.
Of course, African participation in this sort of local administration, if it could be separated from Dr. Verwoerd and his apocalyptic lan- guage, would be something 'to be welcomed— irrelevant to the main problem, but a good thing. And it is possible to welcome unreservedly the £57 million—a surprisingly high sum—that Dr. Verwoerd is to spend in the next five years on developing the reserves: this is something that would have to be done whoever was govern- ing. But self-government cannot be separated from Dr. Verwoerd, and that means an addi- tional drawback: it simply will not work.
The near civil war in Pondoland (which is part of the Transkei), Sekhukuneland and Zeerust recently demonstrated the hopeless con- tradiction at the heart of this sort of 'Bantu administration.' The Africans, not unnaturally, expect their representatives, whether tribal or elected, to consult them and speak for them. Dr. Verwoerd expects the local authorities to co-operate with the Government, and has shown himself absolutely intolerant of any opposition: discontented Africans are axiomatically Com- munist agitators who must be banished or locked up.
The introduction of passes for women was the crucial issue in Sekhukuneland and Zeerust. The chiefs had the choice of co-operating with the Government and losing the support and respect of their tribe or opposing the Govern- ment and being deposed. Either way lay blood- shed and disorder. The Xhosa Parliament will inevitably and soon find itself in the same kind of dilemma. At its best, Dr. Verwoerd's plan will create a number of colonial dependencies the eye. But if he is sincere about this self- and a 'guardian' government. It is a naïve man government talk, then he is a fool. 1 do pot who in 1962 can think that such a system think he is .a fool. means peace, contentment and happiness ever after.
The Coloured self-government is the more laughable in that the Coloured community is completely integrated into the white community and there is no separate territory to be ad- ministered, apart from a few townships. The Government recently brought into existence a Coloured Advisory Council, which is theoreti- cally elected. As no self-respecting Coloured would have anything to do with it, the stooges arranged things so that there were exactly the same number of nominations as seats vacant, thus allowing everyone to be declared elected without revealing the extent of the boycott. Up to now the council has, been simply a talking shop, without any powers, and the talking has been done behind closed doors, for fear, pre- sumably, that the Coloured public should dis- cover the quality of their 'representatives.'
Anyway, this farcical body is now being trans- formed into a Parliament, with a Cabinet that will have power to look after the segregated drains of Walmer Estate and one or two other things. it is seriously suggested that the politi- cally aflame Coloured schoolteachers and in- tellectuals of Cape Town are to satisfy their whole political libidos in this.
We still keep on hearing, both from the Nationalists and from the neutral observers in South Africa, talk of the sincerity of Dr. Ver- woerd. No one can deny that he has a sweetly reasonable smile and looks people straight in will create a number of colonial dependencies the eye. But if he is sincere about this self- and a 'guardian' government. It is a naïve man government talk, then he is a fool. 1 do pot who in 1962 can think that such a system think he is .a fool.
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