A memorandum submitted by the ANC stated that the causes of the Dube riots were ethnic grouping and the general policy of racialism; the sense of dissatisfaction, discontent and frustration under which Africans live as a result of discriminatory and repressive laws operating against them; the miserable wages paid to African workers; the fact that Africans are constantly being hunted and hounded by the police in connection with petty offences, namely pass laws and poll tax, a practice which does not allow the Africans to live the lives of normal human beings; and the migratory labour policy, which makes the African workers temporary sojourners in the urban areas with no permanent homes.
Asked to suggest what should be done, Mr Tambo said that the evils brought by the migratory labour system could be reduced to a minimum by the encouragement of a settled community in which the worker lived with his family in the area of his employment. The employment could be provided either by the employer or by the employee, if he was paid adequate wages.
Q – Would you say that the tribal fights that have been going on in the Transkei are due to the operation of discriminatory laws?
A – We are not saying that there can be no fights between tribal groups except as a result of oppressive laws. But what we say is that in this instance tribal fights between ethnic groups are likely to occur frequently because of the effects on the people of these laws.
Mr Tambo was closely questioned in connection with the Congress statement that the African people are mishandled by the police, insulted and beaten up and that they finally land in gaol for no fault of their own, or for the most trivial reasons. The partial attitude of the police is a major contributory cause to the tension and resultant violence now under enquiry.
Q – Why do you say the police are partial? It is one thing to attack the police for being incompetent but quite another to say that they are partial. Just what do you mean?
A – That is the feeling of the people.
Q – Yes, people who are misguided and misinformed can say that, but what do you yourself say? Do you agree with that statement?
A – I cannot disassociate myself from the statement.
Q – Can you tell us why?
A – The position is this. Firstly, the police should have expected that there would be trouble at Mofolo North, which is a Zulu area, and they should not have taken the procession through Mofolo North. They could have taken a different route. For instance, the route they took on their return from the cemetery. When the police reached Mofolo North there was no necessity for the police to shoot.
Q – But we have it on record that the Zulus adopted a threatening attitude.
A – That is precisely our point. The police fired at people because they showed an attitude.
Q – When the police officer spoke to the leader of the Zulus asking him to disperse his people, the leader of the Zulus raised the weapon he was carrying and was about to strike when the police officer fired at him.
A – If that evidence is correct, there was no necessity for the police officer to shoot.
Q – The evidence is that the Zulus threw stones at the police.
A – Yes, that is the mystery. According to the evidence not a single policeman, not a single Mosotho was struck by a stone, and our point is that in these circumstances the shooting by the police was absolutely uncalled for if they were being impartial peace-makers.
Q – How does your organisation arrive at the conclusion that the discriminatory laws have resulted in a clash between the Zulus and the Basutos?
A – Take for instance the pass laws that have been a subject of protest by Africans ever since they were introduced. And far from being abolished, they have been intensified and made applicable even to women. Hundreds of thousands of Africans have been arrested under the pass laws and their protests have yielded no results whatsoever. They have been placed in a position where they feel they have no redress for their grievances. The only redress is that they get arrested. Therefore their life now is not a life in which grievances are redressed by discussion and negotiation.
(New Age, 27 February 1958)
VERWOERD CANNOT KILL THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE
“The position of the masses in South Africa is akin to slavery. There is no such thing as a home for our people. Jobs are being reserved for whites and Africans are being forced on to farms as cheap labour.
“But every discriminatory law passed, every hardship imposed on the people has not been able to kill their spirit to continue with the just struggle to make South Africa a democracy where every section of the population will enjoy freedom.
“Speaking about the future of South Africa to the Provincial Conference of the Natal ANC, Mr Tambo said that Verwoerd would deal with the country and its people as he had done with Zeerust. The murders, the killings, the mass arrests of people and the banishing of chiefs and leaders … those were the consequences of Verwoerd’s policies. His record in dealing with the people of Zeerust and Sekhukhuneland had earned him the leadership of the Nationalist Party and the Premiership. The Nats say ‘South Africa must be made safe for the whites’. Their position as masters over the non-Europeans must be secured at all costs. To achieve this end we have the Bantu Education Act, passes for women, Bantu Authorities, the Group Areas Act and a host of other oppressive laws.
“Our people’s opposition to oppression, discrimination and slavery had given rise to mass arrests and mass trials such as the Treason Trial. Thousands of people were being sent to gaol for their opposition to tyranny. These are good people made into criminals by government policy. Mr Tambo condemned the informers and spies who were trying to destroy the people’s movement. These people were trying to sow discord at a time when the people’s leaders were facing a capital charge of treason.
“The government’s policy affects us all and we should therefore face the enemy together. A united struggle is our best answer to apartheid, which threatens to destroy South Africa. We have the task of bringing peace and happiness to all the people of this land.”
(New Age, 10 October 1958)
ANC STANDS BY THE ALLIANCE WITH CONGRESS OF DEMOCRATS
“It would be surprising and unnatural if the policy of the ANC provoked no criticism from any source whatsoever. Indeed, recognising that the ANC is anything but infallible, its leaders have not infrequently gone out of their way to invite criticism and comment on matters appertaining to the struggle and have as often urged free and frank discussion at all levels of the organisational structure.
“Mistaking this attitude on the part of the ANC leadership for an invitation to them to indulge in puerile pranks, the edition reporters and ‘Africanist’ correspondents of the World have been pouring out cheap abuse about the ANC being controlled by the Congress of Democrats.
“Others, employing the columns of Contact, the Liberal Party organ, and Indian Opinion have joined the chorus, though they failed to stop at the level of the World.
“In isolated cases public speakers have attacked the alliance of the ANC with the Congress of Democrats not on the ground of control of the one by the other, but because COD is ‘an extreme leftist organ’ and ‘does not honour Western civilisation or Christian values’.”
1949 PROGRAMME
“The adoption by the ANC of the 1949 Programme of Action was in large measure an answer to the vicious pace at which the Nationalist government was attacking the democratic rights, particularly of the African people. The 1948 general election ushered in a new political era in which the ANC, if it was to fulfil its historic task, was called upon to go into action on a militant programme.
“It says much to the credit of the ANC that it has honoured the 1949 decision to embark upon mass action, and in the political conflict that mark the period from early 1950, its leaders have been banned, banished, deported, arrested and