The Golden Limb

From STANLEY UYS

CAPE TOWN

HE Verwoerd Government's next international I fight is to save South-West Africa from seizure by the United Nations.

This former German colony was placed in South Africa's care after the First World War. Now Liberia and Ethiopia have lodged a com- plaint with the International Court that South Africa has violated its duties as the mandatory power. The judgment of the court is expected this year or next year. It has already ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the case and now it is examining the merits of the complaint. To counteract the situation that confronts it, the Verwoerd Government is hurriedly preparing a development plan for South-West Africa which is linked with the establishment of Bantustans for the indigenous inhabitants. Modelled on the Transkei Bantustan, the South-West Africa Bantustans will be designed to show that apar- theid has its moral side. A world-wide publicity campaign will be mounted to sell the idea.

The blueprint for this idea is now being drawn up by the Odendaal Commission, appointed by Dr. Verwoerd to frame a. five-year economic de- velopment plan for the territory and to submit proposals 'for the best form of participation by the Natives in the administration and manage- ment of their own interests.' The commission's report, overdue, is expected in January. Informed sources suggest that it will recommend the allo- cation of land in the north of South-West Africa to the 380,000 Africans (the remainder of the 450,000 non-white inhabitants are Bushmen, Hottentots, Basters, etc.) for four Bantustans, starting with one large Bantustan for the 230,000 Ovambos.

The report of the five-mart Odendaal Commis- sion is highly detailed and runs to several thousand pages. Its proposals (this is speculation, but apparently reliable speculation) involve the removal of Africans from 'black spots' in the south and the expropriation of white farmers in the north. The purchase of hundreds, even thousands, of white-owned farms may be in- volved. This new partition of the territory is different from the east-west division, just north of Windhoek, which was rejected by the UN. Already, about 60 per cent of South-West Africa's non-whites are settled in the two established re- serves of Ovamboland and Okavango. There are twenty-one non-white areas in South-West Africa, and the consolidation of their non-white inhabi- tants into a few large blocks will involve the elimination of some of these areas. Of the smaller reserves, only the Basters at Rehoboth are ex-

pected to remain patiently where they are.

The first and major Bantustan will be Ovambo- land, a remote, 16,220-square-mile reserve, sandwiched between the Kakaoveld and the Oka- vango, against the Angolan border. The Odendaal Commission is likely to recommend the creation of a 'Territorial Authority' there—a 'Territorial Authority' is one rung lower than the limited form of self-rule which has just been conferred on the Transkei. There are no traders or other settled whites in Ovamboland. The other existing African reserve, next to Ovamboland, is Oka- vango, while one of the two new reserves will probably be in the north-west, stretching from the Okavango area southwards along the Bechu- analand border to point south of Gobabis, and including the Aminius Reserve, the other in the north-west, stretching from the Cunene River southwards to a point about one hundred miles north of Swakopmund, and including the Otji- warongo and Okombahe Reserves.

The five-year development plan involves the utilisation of the waters of the Okavango and Cunene Rivers for irrigation and the production of power. The existing canal system will be ex- panded and a large-scale road-building pro- gramme started.

The establishment of Bantustans in South-West Africa must be viewed in its apartheid context. The Verwoerd Government proposes to estab- lish eight Bantustans in the Republic itself, starting with the Transkei. The foundation on which the Bantustan theory rests is that whites and Africans are incompatible and that they must each be given exclusive political rights in their own areas. Unfortunately, the eight pro- posed Bantustans in South Africa cover less than 13 per cent of the surface area of the country, and it seems manifestly unfair to allo- cate this area as the 'homelands' of eleven million Afficans, while three million whites (plus one and a half million coloureds and half a million Asians) enjoy the rest of the country and practically all its wealth. Dr. Verwoerd's desire to embrace the three British territories of Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Swaziland in the Bantustan pattern stems from arithmetical motives: the proportion of land available for the Africans would then be raised to nearly 50 per cent. It is an optical illusion, but it could be exploited for propaganda purposes. Simi- larly, the establishment of Bantustans in South- West Africa would not only impress on the world that South Africa is fulfilling its duties as the mandatory power (this, at least, is how the Ver-

woerd Government appraises the situation), but it would also add to the general picture of a fair and honest government partitioning out the land on a just and equitable basis.

Whether Bantustans in South Africa, in fact, would placate the world is highly doubtful. If they fail, the only alternative for the whites in the territory would be to surrender to the UN, or to fight on the beaches. A Windhoek resident told a visiting journalist recently: 'When the UN troops set foot on our coast I will reach for my rifle. I don't care whether they are French- men, Ethiopians or Americans.' This is probably bravado. South-West Africa's own white popu- lation numbers only 73,000, and unless Dr. Ver- woerd decided to swim or sink with them, which he is certainly not going to do, they will have to fight on the beaches on their own. Few people seriously believe that it will come to fighting. If the International Court's verdict goes against South Africa, and if the UN decide to move in and take South-West Africa away from Dr. Verwoerd, then the struggle will be decided politically, not militarily. Even if Dr. Verwoerd engages in a show of strength, and threatens to fight to the bitter end, it will be mainly with the intention of calling what he hopes to be the UN's bluff.

It is understandable that the 73,000 whites in South-West Africa should want to fight for what they believe to be their rights, because they have a lot to lose. They are divided politically-60 per cent are pro-Verwoerd and the rest anti- Verwoerd—but on the question of South-West Africa's future they share much the same out- look. They occupy one of the richest territories in Africa. A recent visitor gave this description : 'Looking at South-West Africa's mining industry is like lifting the lid of a pirate's treasure chest. It dazzles and astonishes. It is a blaze of diamonds, shot with the red glow of copper, and here and there a faint sparkle of gold, amethyst, tantalite and a host of other fascinating minerals.' Not to mention karakul flocks and cattle herds.

The South-Westers will surrender reluctantly. Today, in Windhoek, the capital with a popu- lation of 37,000 whites, there is anxious talk about the future. In spite of its apartheid signs, Windhoek has a distinctly continental flavour, with German cuisine (the culturally-intact Ger- man community, comprising 23 per cent of the white population of South-West Africa, has made a major contribution to the economic develop- ment of the territory), bars for women and an occasional abandoned festival. It is a way of life which will not be given up easily.

But can it be preserved by offering the world Bantustans? The flaw in the Bantustan pro- gramme is that it puts a brake on the process of detribalisation, urbanisation and westernisa- tion of the indigenous Africans—a process which has been the condition of man's advance in civilisation. By congregating Africans in the re- serves, instead of absorbing them into' the modern exchange economy, with its advantages of education, welfare services and skilled jobs, it seeks to ossify the whole system of tribalism.

A cardinal feature of the Bantustans is that Dr. Verwoerd rigidly prohibits the entry into them of private white capital. They are neces- sarily dependent, therefore, on Government aid and self-help. Their development is thus retarded, not accelerated, and it is difficult to see the whole Bantustan scheme as anything more than a systematisation of the migratory labour system. In the Bantustans the Africans will have their homelands and their political title-deeds. But they will have to look outside these under- developed reserves for their livelihood.