SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 21

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVES

BILL AGAINST COMMUNISTS TRIAL OF THE SEDITIONMONGERS The Durban disorders last June — which developed into serious racial riots —surprised and alarmed the white community. The nativ.es had certain grievances, but there wus a general uneasy suspicion that Communist agitators were to blame for the disturbances. This suspicion was confirmed by the inquiry into the whole affair conducted by Mr. Justice de Waal, who found that, though the rioting was not directly due to Communist agents, the agitation which they had been carrying on had certainly contributed to the general unrest. Popular uneasiness was increased by the successful appeal to the Supreme Court of a Communist named Bunting, who had been charged under the Native Administration Act with using language "calculated to promote a feeling of hostility between the native and European races.” The incident on which this charge was based oceurred-Hn the Transkei, and he was convicted before the Magistrate, but on appeal it was held by the Judge-President of the Eastern Districts Courts that no intention on Bunting’s part to promote such a “feeling of hostility” had been shown, as he had “preached only the doctrine of Communism, a recognised political faith.” During the debate on Supply, General Smuts drew attention to this judgment and pointed out that, though the I.C.U. —the Industrial and Commercial Union, which is the natives’ principal organisation—had been converted into a genuine trade union, a movement of a dangerous character could also be discerned; that it was obvious that a Communist movement was growing among the natives; and that if matters were allowed to drift the movement would become very difficult to control. For once the Prime Minister and General Smuts saw eye to eye on native affairs, for General Hertzog thanked the Leader of the Opposition for raising the question, and said that the law as it stood apparently left an opening which should be closed at once. He promised that a Bill would be introduced to strengthen the law. The measure now published is the fulfilment of that promise. The I.C.U. In his report on the Durban riots Mr. Justice de Waal said that the constitution of the I.C.U. was based on trade unionism and as such presumably excluded Communism, but that the I.C.U. leaders had at all times given hospitality to notorious Communists and placed their hall at the disposal of these agitators. Mr. J. S. Marwick, M.L.A., who is regarded as one of the best authorities on natives affairs in Parliament —30 years ago, when he was a young Natal Civil servant, he shepherded several thousand Zulus who were employed on the Rand back to Natal by road, having first persuaded President Kruger into providing them with supplies—is convinced that Communists were the chief instigators of the trouble. Speaking in the House recently, he quoted from letters he had received before the Durban riots from native correspondents, who warned him of the activities of a small party of European Communists. These activities, the native writers declared, would assurely lead to trouble. Indeed, the tactics of the I.C.U.—the Natal organisation is a separate organisation which broke away from the parent body—seem to indicate that they were dictated by a European and not a native mind. The trouble arose because the 1.C.U., in a campaign ostensibly on behalf of native temperance, created a boycott of the Durban Corporation’s native beer halls. These beer halls were established over 20 years ago, and were started in order to enable the authorities to close down the “shebeens,” where native beer and much more potent liquors were brewed, and provide the natives with alternative resorts. The municipal monopoly system for kafir beer has been adopted in many other towns, and it is generally known as the Durban system. Recently a suburban authority proposed also to adopt this system, whereupon the I.C.U. began an agitation against it on the ground that it would increase native drunkenness, though local statistics, which Mr. Justice De Waal quoted in his report, show that native drunkenness greatly decreased in Durban, after the establishment of the beer halls. The move was a shrewd one, for though .the members of the I.C.U. are probably regular customers of these beer halls, many missionaries and the Christian natives under their influence are inclined to disapprove of the system, as they object to any legalised facilities for the provision of fermented liquor for natives, and their criticisms were used by the 1.C.U., or by the European minds behind it, in the campaign against the establishment of similar institutions in the suburbs. Collisions With Europeans. Week-end demonstrations were organised, and during some of them there were slight collisions with Europeans. Finally, when some other minor grievances arose, a boycott of the Durban beer halls was declared. Then the movement got completely out of baud. Bands of natives raided these places, driving out the customers and doing some damage, while others attempted to force the Europeanowned eating houses for natives to close down, and a campaign of intimidation was begun to compel all natives to. join the I.C.U. These activities finally brought about European reprisals at the I.C.U. offices, in the vicinity of which the more serious conflicts occurred. A curious feature of the outbreak is that it ceased more suddenly than it began. It is true that many of the natives who took part, and probably a good many who were entirely innocent, received very rough treatment at the hands of the’ European civilians. Originally the Eure — 'ns went to the assistance of the p....ce, but afterwards they took the opportunity, as they put it, “to teaeh the natives a good lesson.’ It is an unfortunate fact that in South Africa any native disturbance immediately assumes an inter-racial character, for there is always a tendency for the Europeans not merely to range themselves on the side of authority, but to use the occasion to mete out to native lawbreakers punishment far more drastic than the keeping of the pence requires. There is no doubt that the native leaders had no intention of precipitating troubles of the kind which occurred. In the end they had to seek police protection, and one declared he feared his own supporters just as much as he did the Europeans who had taken the law into their own hands. It is a remarkable fnet that the disturbances should have occurred in the centre where the natives are not politically minded, for the great majority of the native population of Durban consists of men who are still under tribal influences, whose permanent homes are at their kraals in the country, and who are only resident in town (luring the intermittent periods that they are at work. But undoubtedly the Communists were able to exploit their grievances and their misunderstandings: and there can be no question that the dangerous agitation among the natives is being intensified, not only in Natal, but in the Transvaal.