Conference on the History of Opposition in Southern Africa
- Authors: Merè, Gary
- Date: 1978-01-27-30
- Subjects: South Africa -- Politics and government -- Congresses , Government, Resistance to -- South Africa -- Congresses , Apartheid -- South Africa -- Congresses , South Africa -- Social conditions -- Congresses
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66512 , vital:28957
- Description: The Inkatha movement has received, large publicity over the few years since its revival and especially recently with the formation of an alliance between Inkatha, the ("Coloured") labour Party and the ("Indian") Reform Party, Thi3 paper was done to suggest a possible approach, for discussion, to the analysis of current political, ideological and economic developments in the reserve areas of the South African social formation. More specifically the paper hopes to provide information that could be relevant to an analysis of developments in the kwaZulu region. An elaboration of the hints at an approach, integration of factors relating to the stage of capitalism in the South African social formation and class struggle would have made this a more satisfactory paper for discussion. The approach adopted has to be extremely tentative at this stage, both because of the immediate and obvious problems associated with contemporary research and analysis (It is even less possible to approach the subject with "objectivity", to "distance oneself from it", than is the case with topics that can more properly be called "history") but also because of the dearth of material available on the reserve "homeland" areas and the difficult y of doing research in these areas. (Wages Commission research into conditions on wattle plantations, Cosmas Desmond and others and their work on resettlement etc., and subsequent responses to these investigations, give some idea of the sensitivity of thin work), In the first section I will introduce certain concepts relating to an analysis of the "homelands" through some recent writing on these areas. References will be to the kwaZulu region. The second section deal.3 specifically with the Inkatha movement. Information relating to this movement is provided and one issue is presented in greater detail, hut no rigorous attempt is mado to apply the mode of analysis of the first section to the issues around the position of 'Inkatha. Indicators exist but with so many dynamics operative they can be no more than that. However, I do not believe that it is possible to understand the political, economic and ideological developments in the "homelands" without keeping the questions raised in the first section in mind - and definitely impossible to come to an adequate understanding if these areas are looked at in isolation, ie if apparently "internal" events and processes are not situated within a context broadly defined by the specific stage of the development of capitalism in South Africa (monopoly dominance), and without keeping in mind the history of class struggle within the social formation. , Class formation in the South African reserve areas: Inkatha - a study
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- Date Issued: 1978-01-27-30
Conference on the History of Opposition in Southern Africa
- Authors: Yawitch, Joanne
- Date: 1978-01-27-30
- Subjects: Riots -- South Africa -- Durban , Beer -- South Africa -- Durban -- History , Women, Black -- Durban -- Economic conditions -- Congresses , Black people -- South Africa -- Durban -- Social conditions -- Congresses , Apartheid -- South Africa -- Durban -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66623 , vital:28972
- Description: In June 1959 there were widespread riots and disturbances in the Durban African area of Cato Manor. The fundamental causes were socio-economic; arising from such factors as poor living conditions and widespread poverty. But it was the exhaustive beer-raids on illegal stills that provided a flashpoint. It was illegal for Africans to brew their own beer; instead they were obliged to purchase it from the municipal beer-halls - the money then being used for the development and administration of African facilities, (l) Amongst the inhabitants of Cato Manor and particularly amongst women who traditionally brewed the beer, this caused much dissatisfaction. However, discontent was prevented from reaching breaking -point by the police strategy of ignoring illegal brewing as long as amounts did not exceed more than k to 8 gallons, and also by only carrying out very perfunctory raids. (2) Another dimension was added to the beer-hall issue in the form of complaints by women that this was not the traditional way of doing things. They said that men should obtain beer from their women instead of frequenting the beer halls, and more importantly, by patronising the beer-halls, men were depriving their women of what little money they could have paid them. (3) In this complaint centering around the fact that an element of traditional life was being disrupted, is contained another issue of basic importance to the Natal riots in general. The policies of the government as implemented by the Durban Corporation in the case of Cato Manor meant the fragmentation of a traditional and still important social order. The economic function of the women of Cato Manor, and ass will be seen later, of most Natal women was being removed. In addition to basic deprivation it was this factor that can to a large extent be seen as the reason for the intensity and militancy of the women's attacks on the beer-halls and on Corporation property. Cato Manor was an area unique among the locations and townships of Durban. Its inhabitants had moved there in the years just after the war without any official sanction. Cato Manor was unplanned, and as a result of its spontaneous creation far less controlled and policed than any of the townships set up as a result of government planning. Because of this freedom Cato Manor was a haven for all those who were illegally in the urban areas, or whose livelihood contravened the multitude of rules and regulations governing the lives of Africans. Cato Manor's large population of shebeen queens owed its existence to this lack of control. (4) In 1958 there had been considerable discontent and unrest in Cato Manor over the attempt to implement shack-removal schemes, thereby clearing the slum and transferring much of its population to the new township of Kwa Mashu. At Kwa Mashu where rents were higher and which was also less centrally situated than Cato Manor, there was far more rigid control. Removals would have in effect meant that. Cato Manor's large illegal population, including the shebeen Queens and petty traders, would have been deprived of their livelihoods or endorsed out of the urban areas. (5) It was in this context that threats of a Typhoid epidemic in June 1959 caused the Durban Corporation to decide to radically increase and improve sanitation measures in Cato Manor, and to eliminate any conditions conducive to the breeding of flies. The refusal of the inhabitants of Cato Manor to do away with the large quantities of illegal liquor negated the health measures taken by the authorities. Finally, municipal labourers were ordered to enter Cato Manor and destroy all stills. The resentment aroused by this action caused a large group of women to march on the Booth Road Beerhall on June 17th whereupon they chased out the male customers and destroyed the beer. (6) The rioting spread rapidly to other Durban beerhalls and a large proportion of the Corporations property was destroyed. In addition, a successful beer boycott was launched. In Cato Manor violence had subsided by the beginning of July at which time it had already spread to such areas as Verulam and Umbumbulu. Six weeks after the initial rioting essential services had not yet been restored fully in Cato Manor. By the beginning of August unrest was rife in many of Natal's smaller towns as well as a large section of the rural areas.
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- Date Issued: 1978-01-27-30
Conference on the History of Opposition in Southern Africa
- Authors: Dison, David
- Date: 1978-01-27-30
- Subjects: South Africa -- Politics and government -- Congresses , South Africa -- Social conditions -- Congresses , Local government -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66567 , vital:28964
- Description: It is certainly true that a number of the men who have sat in homeland representative councils live in white areas. Apartheid idealogues draw two inferences from this observation. Firstly, that as the policy of separate development unfolds, urban representation in homeland councils will be a continuing trend. Secondly, that the political aspirations of urban blacks can be fulfilled in the homeland political arena. (1) Both of these conclusions can be refuted at the empirical level alone. With regard to the first, Kotze himself inadvertently provides us with evidence to the contrary. Of the seven representatives " from white urban areas" whom he mentions, four of these men were forced out of the homeland political arena, in 1975 alone. Collins Ramusi and Mageza, having become "interior ministers" for their homelands (Lebowa and Gazankulu respectively) were forced to leave their positions towards the beginning of that year, and Barney Dladla, Executive Councillor for Community Affairs in Buthelezi's KwaZulu cabinet, was ousted as well. Baldwin Mudau’s Venda Independence People’s party suffered continual harassment and was thwarted in its attempts to hold elections in Venda. It was decided to examine the cases of Mudau and Mageza in greater depth to explain how the demise in their roles as ’homeland politicians’ occurred. This examination revealed the fallaciousness of the second and central inference mentioned earlier. It was shown that although these men lived and worked in the city, their electoral support did not come from the urban areas. Once it was established that their electoral base was in fact a predominantly rural one, the refutation of this second theme became complete. On a purely empirical level then, the contentions of Kotze et al were refuted. But to merely refute these ideological statements by providing evidence to the contrary does not answer the questions that have arisen as a result of the investigation. , Opposition politics in Venda and Gazenkulu
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- Date Issued: 1978-01-27-30