The S.A. Government is responding to the crisis in South Africa with a vigorous intensification of its repressive policies and of the wider policies of apartheid, in a desperate attempt to deal with a situation it cannot at present control.
The Government is pressing ahead with its 'separate development', attacking particularly the African population not resident in the Bantustans.
The Government is continuing the removal of squatter camps in the Western Cape (with the destruction of Unibel), with its overall policy of forced "resettlement" of urban Africans supposedly in "white" areas, and it is continuing with the breaking up of family life (as in the forced removal of married men from Alexandra township to the compounds of City Deep). It is continuing with the setting up of Community Councils as successors to the Urban Bantu Councils in spite of their spectacular failure in the recent "elections" in Soweto. And it appears to be allowing (if not actually encouraging) the growth of the Makgotla tribal courts.
It has removed South African citizenship from the 3 million people who do not live in the Bantustans of the Transkei and BophuthaTswana and yet are considered citizens of these regions and from 3 million who do live there. Its latest actions have been the introduction to parliament of a Bill to remove further section 10 rights from urban Africans, to declare as "idle Bantu" any urban Africans who are unemployed for any 122 days in a year and to detain them in rural labour camps. Another Bill is designed to hasten the day when "no black will have South African citizenship" as the new Minister of Plural Relations and Development (formerly Bantu Administration and Development), Dr. Connie Mulder, told Parliament would be the case when Nationalist party policy was carried through to its full consequences.
Alongside these developments, rent and bus fare rises are being brought in for urban Africans, when attempts to introduce these rises in mid-1977 had failed. Also, far from encouraging the growth of an urban middle class, in an apparent change of policy the Government is allowing in Soweto the development of a large white-owned shopping complex and business centre. There is also the resolute refusal of the Government to remove (or even change) the Bantu Education system and the reported beatings of students by police in an attempt to break their boycott of schools.
NEW LAWS Two Bills before parliament at present show how serious the Government is in its offensive. The first, the Bantu Laws Amendment Bill, amending the Bantu (Urban Areas) Act 1945, replaces the definition of an "idle Bantu" as an African who is normally unemployed to one in which any African who is unemployed for any four months or 122 days in a single year, can be declared "idle". The new amendment has unleashed a storm of protest both inside and outside parliament. Estimates of African unemployment vary from the official 634,000 to 2,000,000. (The official estimate of 634,000 means 12.4% of economically active Africans). Mrs. Helen Suzman, M.P., commented that the Bill would make unemployed Africans into statutory criminals.
In the debate in parliament, the Nationalist M.P. for Lydenburg, Mr. P. T. du Plessis, gave an indication of Government thinking on the subject when he said the "idle and work-shy" in black townships were the "shock troops of the youth uprising".
In terms of the Bill, "idle" Africans are liable for various penalties including: * detention in a rehabilitation centre or farm colony or "similar institution established or approved under the Prisons Act", * performance of prescribed labour at any rural village, settlement or rehabilitation scheme within a "Bantu area".
The second proposed amendment makes it less likely that first "offenders" will get suspended sentences as in the past but will now be liable to sentencing after a first conviction by the Bantu Affairs Commissioners.
The other Bill is the Bantu Citizenship Amendment Bill, which if passed will mean, as Dr. Connie Mulder put it, that there will eventually be no African South Africans.
The amendment proposes to change the definition of those who qualify for Section 10 rights of permanent residence in urban areas. Formerly these rights were denied to foreign Africans or those not born in "the Republic or South West Africa". However, the new definition will deny these rights to any African who is "not a South African citizen", and "not a former South African citizen who is a citizen of a state.... which formerly formed part of South Africa." This means that 'foreign' Africans will now include citizens of "independent" Bantustans. This new definition also disqualifies the urban-born children of Transkei or BophuthaTswana citizens from these rights - it makes them foreigners too. In terms of the Status of Transkei and Status of BophuthaTswana Acts, children born to citizens of these "states" automatically become citizens of these Bantustans. The same laws make all Africans of Transkei or Tswana descent citizens of the Bantustans, even if they live permanently outside their borders.
The latest West Rand Administration Board (WRAB) population survey shows that more than a quarter of Soweto's legal residents have already lost their South African citizenship, and now are "foreign" Transkeians or Tswanas.
Both these Bills have aroused widespread protest from the Black community.
SOWETO ELECTIONS One of the other major developments in urban African politics, has been the community council elections fiasco in Soweto.
Fewer than 460 people voted in Soweto in the elections for the first Government-sponsored Community Council. Only two of the 30 wards were contested. Nine candidates were returned unopposed and 19 wards drew no candidates at all. The percentage poll was about 5% in the two contested wards. Although 29 candidates were originally nominated for the councils, 16 were disqualified for technical reasons.
Black leaders in Soweto, including the now detained members of the Committee of Ten, have consistently opposed the formation of the council, which they regard as a dummy institution, another version of the discredited Urban Bantu Councils.
A political columnist in the Rand Daily Mail commented that the polls reflected in extreme form the lack of interest for the old Soweto Urban Bantu Council. Three elections were held for the UBC during its nine-year existence. The percentage polls for the elections were 32% 21% and 14%.
After the elections, Dr. Connie Mulder, Minister of Plural Relations and Development emphasised that the Government was determined to press ahead with the system. "These people are the democratically elected representatives of Soweto, and the ones I will talk to", he said.
In order to understand the question of the Community Councils (and the Makgotlas) some understanding of events in Soweto last year is needed.
COMMITTEE OF 10 Since the collapse of the Urban Bantu Councils in Soweto in June following student ultimatums, there has been an administrative vacuum in Soweto. Since then several groups have claimed a voice in the representation of Soweto. The most widely-publicised group were the ten elected at a meeting of leading citizens at the World newspaper offices as an interim committee to prepare a blueprint for a future administration of Soweto. Present at the meeting were members of the BPA, the BPC, BCP, Black Unity Front, SSRC, Nicro, SASO, SA Council of Churches, trade unions, the former UBC's and Makgotla. The official name of this 'Committee of Ten' was the Soweto Legislative Assembly Interim Committee. They recommended that the giant township should be given municipal status and envisaged R5,000 million being spent over a five year period to create a modern city. Everyone over 18 would have the vote for a city council elected on a non-ethnic basis.
The Committee's proposals gained the outspoken support of the World newspaper, the Soweto Students Representative Council, and almost all public groups in Soweto. They were however in direct conflict with the Government's proposals. With the banning of the World and detention of seven of the members of the Committee of Ten in October, the government cleared the way for the establishment of the Community Councils and for the legalisation of Makgotla, with the latter acting as the strong-arm guard to give the community councils strength.
COMMUNITY COUNCILS In terms of the Community Councils Act, gazetted on 19 July 1977, community councils will be established for urban Africans. Also certain Africans in the urban areas may be appointed by the Minister to the position of chief or headman with judicial powers, allowing for sentencing to fines up to R40 and public floggings for males under 30. Community 'guards' may also be established. These groups would apparently be independent of the community councils.
The Community Councils are similar to the defunct Urban Bantu Councils, in that unlike ordinary municipal authorities, they are not allowed to make bye-laws or even to frame regulations. That would be done directly by the Bantu Affairs Department. Income for the councils will come from Bantu Administration Board grants and fines levied in the chief's court. Last year Soweto leaders almost universally condemned the proposed Community Councils Bill.
The only group which accepted community councils initially was the Makgotla. In May 1977 Mr. Letsatsi Radebe, former UBC member and Secretary-in-Chief of the Makgotla, welcomed the Bill. He said that Makgotla forces would do their utmost to gain complete control of the councils. He continued: "At our recent meeting with the Minister of Police and Justice, Mr. Jimmy Kruger, we agreed on the question of modernising the organisation to suit the present social set up in urban areas."
MAKGOTLA Mr. Radebe said the Makgotla was formed in 1973 to fight crime in Soweto. He claimed that it had a membership of 6,000 and claimed "mass support" for its system of tribal discipline. Makgotla has three main strongholds in Soweto – Naledi, Mapetla extension and Phiri – all predominantly Sotho-speaking areas on the western fringe of Soweto. A report in the Weekend World claimed that the membership was only 1,600.
Members of the Nationalist Party have shown warm support for Makgotla. Dr. G. de V. Morrison, Nationalist M.P. for Cradock, said in a debate during the second reading of the Community Councils Bill that there was a great need in Black areas today to punish non-conforming juveniles. Parents who were unable to discipline their children took them to the Makgotla courts where uncontrollable young men were given hiddings.
Surveys conducted last year by the now banned World newspaper showed widespread antagonism to the Makgotla by Soweto residents. Anger was particularly directed against their public floggings, and the activities of the vigilantes, some of whom were alleged to bring witnesses to court hardly able to walk from being beaten en route. Other people interviewed said that organisations which had been formed to fight crime in the past had become notorious criminal gangs.
Former UBC member Richard Maponya told the World: "Makgotla means nothing but chaos. They have always failed in the past and were infiltrated by thugs in a sort of Mafia way. This is how the Msomi gang in Alexandra was born, and the Lethoba gang in old Sophiatown." This was after a UBC delegation met with Justice Minister Kruger to try to prevent the legalisation of Makgotla.
At the moment it is unclear to what extent Makgotla supporters have been elected to the community councils. However, in Soweto, they have been appearing in the news again. Makgotla said that they would sjambok (whip) all girls under the age of 18 in the townships not indoors by 8 p.m. In response to this the Assistant Commissioner of Police for Soweto, Colonel J. P. Visser, said that police would not "unduly interfere" with Makgotla plans. Mr. Siegfried Manthata, leader of Makgotla also said that boys who "force" girls to sleep at their homes would be punished, together with their parents.
REMOVALS All over the country removals in pursuit of apartheid are continuing. An article in the Financial Mail, entitled "Apartheid is Working", shows that in terms of reducing the number of Africans in white areas, the Government is achieving its aims. They quote authorities, who assert that between 1960 and 1970, the African population of white towns was actually reduced.
In late November removals and evictions from Johannesburg's Alexandra township began, in a plan to move men to single-sex hostels in City Deep mining compound. Many families are being broken up in these removals. By early December 680 men had been moved.
Also in December Bantu Administration Development (BAD) officials told 1,600 families on a privately-owned property in Steincoalspruit, 35 km. outside Ladysmith in Natal that they were to be resettled in the KwaZulu township of Ekukwukeni because their homes fall within a "black spot".
Estimates by the SAIRR put the figure for the number of Africans moved to the Bantustans between 1960 and 1970 (including families of rural squatters and labour tenants, "black spot" removals, township relocation schemes and persons endorsed out of urban areas) at 1.8 million.
According to official figures, a further 175,000 families (more than 1 million people) are still to be moved in terms of the 1975 Bantustan consolidation proposals.
SQUATTERS In January the Government continued the destruction of the squatter camps in the Western Cape. Last year Modderdam Road and Werkgenot camps were demolished.
By 20 January, the destruction of Unitel was completed, and 10,000 more people had been rendered homeless. Most of the evicted inhabitants are believed to have decamped and moved into the bush or to other shanty areas. A relatively small percentage took the government's offer of free rail tickets to the Transkei and Ciskei Bantustans.
RENT RISES Since the October bannings, the Government has also put through rent rises in Soweto, something it could not do earlier in 1977. Rent and service charges have now been increased. The Putco bus company also increased fares in Soweto by an average of 13%.
