“The pass laws are now openly being used as a form of political persecution and intimidation.
“During the school boycott the Minister of Native Affairs threatened all school boys over the age of 16, who did not return to school by his appointed date, with compulsory registration as work-seekers and deportation to labour colonies if they did not find employment.
“Local authorities are also using the pass laws to persecute active ANC members. When it is found impossible to arrest them on any more serious charge, they are apprehended for non-payment of poll tax, of a contravention of permit regulations or some minor offence.
“Only last week the Secretary for Native Affairs informed the Cape Town City Council that under the Urban Areas Act children were forbidden to enter and remain in urban areas beyond the 72 hour limit, and that African children from country areas should therefore not be admitted to schools in the towns.
“The courts are clogged with pass cases. ‘Crime figures’ in the Union have shot up alarmingly, the monthly figures of convictions having trebled since 1936. But an examination of these figures shows that convictions for serious crime, theft, drunkenness and assault have not risen startlingly, and that the increase is in the number of convictions under the pass and permit laws.
“Investigations under section 10 and 14 of the Urban Areas Act, which might result in banishment from urban areas, impose the utmost hardship on Africans. The ANC demands the total abolition of the pass laws. It also calls on its branches to protest at the constant raids; to be vigilant for the people’s rights; to fight every endorsement out of the urban areas; to support the Cape campaign against the expulsion of African women; to link all campaigning, and in particular preparations for the forthcoming Congress of the People with the pass laws; and to increasingly fight against these laws which are a cornerstone of apartheid oppression.”
(New Age, 12 May 1955)
EVERY AFRICAN AGAINST APARTHEID
“The slogan of the conference might well be ‘Every African Against Apartheid’. These are days of grave crisis for the African people. The Verwoerd bills of the last session of Parliament – the amendment to the Urban Areas Act and the Native Administration Act and the Prohibition Interdicts Act – are new Acts of tyranny which climax painful years in which this government has piled one injustice after another upon our people.
“The anti-apartheid conference initiated by the Federation Interdenominational Ministers is most timely and should he welcomed throughout the land. I fully support the idea of this conference.
“Many things still divide us but the threat to our existence and our rights must now bring us together. Petty differences among the African people and their organisations where they exist must be submerged in the interests of a firm unity in the face of attack by the Nationalists. Every African must clearly understand that apartheid means permanent inferiority and acceptance of any apartheid scheme, whether it goes by the name of ‘separate development’ or any other label means the abdication of our human rights.
“Conference must not be a mere talking shop. From its sessions must grow a new understanding and determination to fight for the basic civil liberties that are the birthright of all peoples – against the threats to the independence of the churches from state control and government interference; against arbitrary deportations and exilings; against the slamming of the doors of the courts of law in our faces; against the never-ending uprooting and removals of our people and the pinpricks and humiliations which are our daily experience under the system of apartheid.
“From this conference should emerge a united people attempting not to form themselves into a single body, but to forge ways and means for all the varied organisations and representative groups of our people to act together for the common interest, against attacks on us and for our rights.”
(New Age, 19 July 1956)
NOT AIMED AT WHITES OR AFRIKANERS
Mr Tambo: The economic boycott is not aimed at whites or Afrikaners as such. Anti-Nationalist Afrikaners and other Europeans are called on to join the boycott.
New Age: Is a further list of products to be boycotted likely to be released?
Mr Tambo: We have announced the first list. After full investigation, additions will be made and released at suitable stages of the campaign.
New Age: Is this a national boycott?
Mr Tambo: Yes, it offers an opportunity to the millions of people in all parts of the country to participate by an act of self-denial in a nationwide protest against the arrogance of the Nationalists and their utter contempt for the rights of individuals.
New Age: What must shopkeepers who presently sell these goods on the boycott list do?
Mr Tambo: The boycott commences on 10 June. This gives shopkeepers reasonable notice to dispose of and to make no further orders for the affected goods. There is certainly no intention to involve them in losses. On the other hand we do not believe that they will be acting in their interests if they attempt to oppose, ignore or in any way to undermine the campaign.
New Age: Is the boycott appeal directed only to members of the ANC?
Mr Tambo: The campaign is being conducted jointly by the ANC together with anti-Nationalist organisations of Europeans, Indians, coloured people and trade unions. An appeal is made to all members of the public, including those who do not support the full aims of the Congress Alliance, to observe the boycott as a token of protest against government policy.
New Age: Is this boycott anti-white or anti-Afrikaner? At whom is the boycott aimed?
Mr Tambo: The boycott is not aimed at whites or Afrikaners as such. The Nationalist Party has gone out of its way to set up financial and business ventures as a part of its political plan. It is only such enterprises that will be affected by the boycott. The Congress boycott sub-committee includes European representatives and calls upon anti-Nationalist Afrikaners and other Europeans to join the boycott. The Congress movement is strongly opposed, on principle, to any form of racialism.
New Age: Critics of the campaign have suggested that there are many other ways of protest open to the people and that a boycott of some Nationalist goods is an ineffective method of protest. Any comment?
Mr Tambo: There are, of course, many other ways and our organisation is most active in advocating and pursuing such methods. The boycott does not clash with other kinds of political activity. In the course of conducting the campaign our organisations will endeavour to persuade the people of the reasons for not buying the listed products. This is valuable educational and political work.
I do not think the economic boycott could be described as “ineffective”. Although one does not expect the government to fall overnight as a result, hitting Nationalists in the sensitive region of the pocket may bring them to their senses more effectively than many more conventional protests which they have ignored.
(New Age, 6 June 1957)
EVIDENCE TO COMMISSION ON THE DUBE RIOTS
Tribalism