Native Life in South Africa / Before and Since the European War and the Boer Rebellion

by Sol. T. Plaatje

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 hardship, 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 hardship 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. Moreover the Magistrate acts purely as an official, and the Native who is wandering about the country helpless does not get the immediate sympathy and attention which his case deserves and demands. In many cases the individuals I sent on are under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that nothing is being done for their relief.

If I might make a suggestion, it would be that some independent gentleman should be appointed to investigate these cases — some gentleman who would have sufficient time to devote to the investigation of the various instances of hardship that would come before him, and who would be empowered to do what was necessary to relieve the deserving.

I may say further that since the introduction of the Squatters Bill during the 1912 session of Parliament eviction by farmers has been much increased, possibly in view of the impression that prevailed generally among the farming community that the Squatters Bill or some similar measure was to be re-introduced by the Government, the result being that those Natives who had been evicted by farmers now the Natives' Land Bill has become law, are prevented from entering into agreements with land owners as rent-paying tenants, and only under servile conditions, with the result that in many cases they become wandering and helpless vagrants.

Another form of hardship which prevails very generally as the result of the Natives' Land Act is this: The younger Natives do not receive the wage from farmers as can be easily earned, say, on the Rand mines, with the result that the younger men leave their homes and their fathers and proceed to the mines; the father is unable to supply the labour demanded by the landlord owing to the absence of his sons, and as a result he is evicted — many cases of this sort can be cited.

I may here cite two cases within my personal knowledge: (1) Bhulose was living on Mr. R. Miller's farm, "Dalmeny", near Phoenix. He was evicted with his wife and family in June last. He is seeking a place now to reside on, but cannot obtain one. (2) A native woman Vatplank, a widow with a family, was evicted from the property of a farmer, Mr. Adendorff, near Newcastle; this woman with all her household goods and her family had to camp out on the veld. She was barred by the Act from going to neighbouring farmers for a residence.

I have done my utmost to give you concrete examples and names of persons suffering hardship. If I can supplement the information contained in this letter and in the accompanying list I shall only be too happy to do so.

Might I suggest further that you should ask the Chief Native Commissioner to forward to you all my correspondence with him on this matter? This will show you and the Government that the statements contained in my open letter are not mere fabrications, but are based upon solid facts.

John L. Dube. ==

Mr. Dube's list includes evictions from the districts of Greytown, New Hanover, Ekukanyeni, Homeless (a very appropriate name in the circumstances), Howick, Estcourt, and Mid-Illovu.

Here is a specimen of notice: —

== I hereby give you Mandwasi notice to leave my farm Blinkwater by the end of July, 1913.

(Sgd.)
July 20, 1913. Freestone Ridge.
==

"The wheels of administration moved slowly" (to borrow an official phrase) between the Native Affairs Department and the other departments of State. Thus, while the authorities were temporizing with this and similar representations, the Natives' Land Act was scattering the Natives about the country, creating alarm and panic in different places. The high officials of State, instead of relieving the distress thus caused, were interviewing Natives and urging them not to send a deputation to Europe. The Natives received this advice hopefully. They believed it was an indication that the Government was about to amend the law, in which case, of course, the deputation would be unnecessary; but, besides this advice, the officials in each instance promised no relief.

The Natal Native Commissioner held a similar meeting with a number of Zulus. The meeting asked for some relief for the evicted tenants who were roaming about the country, but the official significantly evaded the point. The disappointment of the meeting, created by his evasive replies, having overcome the proverbial native timidity when in the presence of authority, resulted in one petty chief saying to the Commissioner: "Local authorities levy a tax every year on each of our dogs. We don't know what they do with the money. You have never complained against that waste, so why should you complain if our money is spent in sending a deputation to the King?" The answer, if there was one, is not reported.

General Botha, until then, never met native tax-payers to discuss their grievances with them. But in the latter part of 1913, he actually met some Natives in the Eastern Transvaal, who desired to inform him of the ravages of the Act. But instead of holding out any hope that an asylum would be found for the wanderers, he proceeded to advise them against sending a deputation to England. The Natives having given specific instances of the plight of certain evicted tenants in the neighbourhood, asked for an abode for them, but on that point the Premier would not be drawn. The Government's indifference to native sufferings being thus revealed, the Natives of Vryheid became more eager to help to organize the proposed deputation.

General Botha's efforts against the deputation, without offering any homes to the evicted Natives, was probably the best stimulus towards the deputation fund. The Premier visited a northern tribe some time after and was said to have warned the chief and his people against the pretensions of the Native Congress. When Mr. Dube called there a few days later, they handed him 200 Pounds towards the deputation fund, which they had collected since General Botha's visit. Mr. Saul Msane similarly raised 360 Pounds for the fund in the Eastern Transvaal where the Premier first warned the Natives against the deputation without offering them any relief.

Those Natives who were not immediately affected by the Act were rather lukewarm regarding the proposed deputation. But when the officials warned them against wasting their money on a deputation and told them in the next breath that it was a breach of the law to find an abode for the evicted wanderers, these Natives, perceiving the hollowness of the Government's advice, determined that as a last resort a deputation should be sent to England.