Whiter And Protestant South Africa Sought

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31579, 17 January 1968, Page 6

Whiter And Protestant South Africa Sought

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) • JOHANNESBURG. South Africa’s population explosion will burst into the twentyfirst century with 20,000,000 more Africans than whites in the republic.

This widening gap between the numbers of Africans and whites—the estimated ratio will be seven non-whites to one white—has rekindled an old argument about South Africa's immigration policy. Traditionally, South Africa has preferred to take its immigrants from the Protestant nations of Europe, especially the Netherlands, Britain, Germany and Belgiumknown here as the stamlande, or mother countries. But it is the Roman Catholic countries of Italy, Portugal and Spain which have provided the biggest number of immigrants in recent years. This has caused much criticism among hard-core Afrikaners. They claim that the influx of immigrants from the Mediterranean countries could change the Protestant character of the nation.

Roman Catholics in South Africa at present constitute 6.2 per cent of the total population. But the percentage of Roman Catholics among immigrants in the last three years was 23 per cent. Afrikaners comprise about 60 per cent of the white population. But they cling fiercely to the deeply-rooted Protestantism of their forefathers, to their own customs and their own language and they are quick to combat any threat to their nationhood.

Apart from what an Afrikaner political commentator has called the “Catholic threat,” the Afrikaansspeaking community is uneasily aware of the fact that far more immigrants are absorbed into the Englishspeaking community than into their own. Differences within Afrikaner ruling circles have now broken out afresh with the claim, since denied, that the Government has quietly taken steps to limit the proportion of Roman Catholic immigrant! admitted during IM7. In a recent memorandum te the government, the Federal

council of Afrikaans coordinating committees urged the need for a change in Immigration policy to limit the threat to Afrikanerdom. It emphasised that, within 30 years, the Englishlanguage group could outnumber the Afrikaners. Suggestions have been made for “selective breeding” and for the Government to provide financial aid to Afrikaner families to encourage them to have more children. These fears are seen to be largely cultural not to say tribalistic, when it is remembered that the stamlande are predominantly Roman Catholic. The Netherlands itself has well over 4,500,000 Roman Catholics in a population of more than 12,000,000. The present Nationalist, and predominantly Afrikaner, Government has shown by its activities and policies understood. But, South Africa, with its booming economy, must rely on immigrants to keep its labour force up to strength. If the policy of separate African development is to succeed, South Africa will have to depend upon them increasingly in the future. The opposing views on the subject came to the surface

in September, when a Nationalist Party member of Parliament, Dr Petrus Koornhof, told a political gathering that immigration would never become a threat to Afrikanerdom, and that the ratio of Roman Catholics to Protestant would never be disturbed. The Government appears to be standing by a document put out in 1962 by the Broederbond, a secret society the aim of which is to promote and develop Afrikanerdom, and to which many leading Afrikaners belong. The document emphasised that even in years of intensive immigration, the position of Afrikaners would not be adversely affected. In any case, there is evidence that immigrants, regardless of whether they are North European Protestants or Latin Catholics, give overwhelming support to the Government’s domestic polities and to the philosophy of apartheid. Even though they tend to join the English-speaking community, which is in almost total agreement with the Government on basic issues for the country’s future, immigrants will naturally vote for whatever policy seems capable of prolonging their new prosperity.