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SA Update
· Roddy Bray's Story-Letters from Southern Africa
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Three Lives In A Fraught Century
The history of 'Great Men' is rightly frowned
upon. Intelligent adults know that behind every 'great man' is more than (even)
a great woman, rather they are the products of vast, diverse and complex
movements. Individuals, no matter how impressive, can play only in their
context. On the other hand, individuals that stand out on the page allow us to
personalise history. As the 21st century breaks, I wanted to offer you a
concise look back at South Africa's twentieth century. For the sake of
simplicity I have thus chosen the lives of three people that, in my mind,
characterise South Africa's twentieth century.
As one looks for 'great twentieth century South Africans' across the
disciplines of society (but, for a moment, excluding politics and music) there
are so many well-known names to choose from: JM Cotzee, Nadine Gordimer,
Laurens van der Post, Raymond Dart, William Kentridge, Ernest Oppenheimer, Gary
Player, Sir Basil Scholand, Chris Barnard.. and many more. But all of these
people listed have one thing in common.. they were/are 'white'. Reviewing the
century one is drawn irresistibly to one overriding and obvious dominant issue
- the politics of race relations. In this regard three men structure this
century in my mind - Jan Smuts, who reconciled whites but neglected blacks,
Hendrik Verwoerd, the icon of apartheid, and Nelson Mandela the harbinger of
South African democracy. Here goes…
Our story begins in 1900, South Africa is at war. Britain tries to subdue her
former subjects, living in independence across the Orange River, and annex the
mighty Witwatersrand gold reef. The separatists are whites of continental
descent, known as Afrikaners. A Cambridge educated Afrikaner lawyer called Jan
Smuts, 31 years old and a tough-minded pragmatist with a vision for grand
strategy, raises the Afrikaners within the British Cape Colony in rebellion.
His daring expeditions rub salt into the painful wounds of the closing war,
which Britain wins, but without honour.
As so often in history, Britain won the war but lost the peace. Smuts, with his
elder General Louis Botha, pursue détente with the British after the
war. They negotiate self-government and, in 1910, the Union of South Africa
(the modern South African state). Britain's acquiescence leaves a national
political system dominated by the majority Afrikaners, with the old Afrikaner
states maintaining a 'whites only' franchise, and pays war reparation of
£3 million. Pleased by the peace, Smuts and Botha promote the idea of 'the
British Federation of African states' and lead South Africa into the First
World War on the side of the allies. South African troops seize German
South-West Africa (now Namibia - which remained under South African control
until 1988) and fight in East Africa and Europe. Smuts became SA Prime Minister
in 1917.
Smuts' faithfulness to Britain, particularly in the first and second world wars
(where he was an Allied Field Marshall) help to reconcile the English and
Afrikaner communities in South Africa after the horrors of their war. He
established South Africa as an honourable member of the British Commonwealth,
and he played a substantial role in the formation of the League of Nations and
the United Nations, helping to draft its charter.
Significantly, however, Afrikaner 'poor whites' never embraced Smuts'
pro-British policy. The former Afrikaner General JBM Hertzog, among others,
formed the National Party in 1914 to give leadership to these disgruntled
Afrikaners. They supported Germany in both world wars, leading a failed
pro-German rebellion in 1914. Smuts was prone to use violence. He harshly put
down strikes by white artisans and miners who were expressing their sense of
insecurity, particularly in 1922. All of this helped the National Party promote
a radical Afrikaner nationalism among 'poor whites', and it grew in popularity,
especially as blacks competed for jobs and the Great Depression set in.
Smuts also did not implement the high liberal ideals he promoted abroad. In
1913 the Native's Land Act reserved 93% of land for white ownership. A system
of Pass laws restricted black's freedom of movement. The African National
Congress, formed in 1912 was not given a political platform and blacks remained
dis-enfranchised.
Unable to counter the growing popularity of Hertzog's National Party during the
Great Depression, Smuts lost power during the 1930s and only returned as
wartime leader in 1939. The National Party implemented sweeping laws to
restrict black migration to urban areas. They nationalised industries to create
jobs for poor Afrikaners. These changes ever more discriminated against blacks
in favour of Afrikaners and young leaders in the ANC, among them Nelson
Mandela, formed the ANC Youth League to radicalise the organisation.
After the war, in 1948, the National Party swept back to power under the
leadership of a Dutch Reformed Minister DF Malan. Smuts died two years later.
Malan articulated a systematic policy of Afrikaner nationalism called
'apartheid'. There would be 'separate development' for the races. Whites would
be the ruling class. In 1949 mixed race marriage was outlawed. The suburbs and
land of the country was divided into (unequal) 'group areas'. Race was defined
by the Population Registration Act, by which all South Africans were classified
and identified. Homelands were established for blacks, according to old ethnic
divisions, under 'white guardianship'. Pass laws were tightened and harshly
enforced to restrict black access outside the homelands.
The minister of Native Affairs, and from 1958, Prime Minister, was Hendrik
Frensch Verwoerd. Dutch by birth, he was educated in Freiburg, Germany, in the
1930s. During the war he promoted Nazi propaganda in South Africa. Unusually
intelligent and imperious, he believed in apartheid not merely as a policy for
Afrikaner upliftment, but as an ideology. He drove through apartheid policies
and presided over their relentless implementation on the black population. His
Bantu Education Act made it very plain blacks should not be educated 'above the
level of certain forms of labour'.
Most disconcertingly, Verwoerd's passion for apartheid - and his lasting impact
- was not to promote or defend it as a self-serving policy, but as a positive
ideology. With religious overtones and fervour, he communicated this and
inspired a too-willing white population to embrace apartheid as a logical and
moral solution to race relations. Verwoerd inculcated in South Africans a
belief that those who opposed apartheid or criticised it either misunderstood
the policy or were dangerous communists.
Verwoerd's grand plan was simple. Under white leadership the homelands would be
lead towards 'self-determination' and enjoy 'separate freedoms'. The separated
tribes would become nations and ultimately, there would be no such thing as a
'black South African', instead white South Africa would give leadership to
various small black states south of the Limpopo River. This he proposed would
be for the good of all and promote black development.
Thus, with zeal, Verwoerd pursued systematic apartheid. Every bench, beach,
park, toilet, sports team was categorised by race group. Areas like Sophiatown
- reclassified white - were destroyed and their residents hauled off in trucks.
Protestors were met with violence. In march 1960, in Sharpeville, an anti
pass-law demonstration was shot at by police. 69 were killed (mostly from
behind) and 180 wounded. The ANC and other organisations were banned. Detention
without trial was introduced - first of 90 days and then 180 days. Verwoerd
pressed on, ultimately 317 statutory restrictions were introduced based on
pigmentation. He also broke links with Britain and declared South Africa a
Republic in 1961.
Donald Woods, the South African editor, described Verwoerd as 'courteous,
friendly, smiling' but beneath 'there was a chilling madness in his demeanour'.
Harold Macmillan - whose speech 'the Winds of Change' in the Cape parliament
fell on deaf ears - stayed several days with Verwoerd prior to the great
speech. 'I have seldom met a couple with greater charm than Dr Verwoerd and his
wife' he wrote, but he also discovered that under Verwoerd's 'calm and measured
tone' and 'his charming smile, his courtesy, his willingness to expound his
views' he found 'nothing one could say.. would have the smallest effect upon
the views of this determined man.. here it was a blank wall.' Macmillan
continued 'I began to realise to the fullest extent the degree of obstinacy,
amounting really to fanaticism.. apartheid to him was more than a political
philosophy, it was a religion; a religion based on the Old Testament rather
than the New.. he was convinced {that} he alone could be right, and that there
was no question of argument but merely a statement of his will.'
Verwoerd survived as assassination attempt in 1960 (which helped to deify him
further) but was killed by a Greek immigrant in 1966. His spirit, however,
lived on for twenty years, inspiring his successors, the devious John Vorster,
and the crude rule of PW Botha. More than that, it lived on in the hearts of
many white South Africans until FW de Klerk undid their faith in the 1990s.
This obstinate spirit was characterised by a sense of self-righteousness, being
misunderstood by the outside world and anger against black resistance to their
'guardianship'. All of this translated into violence under the guise of
civilised law enforcement, which drove black leaders into exile and the
ruthless quenching of any internal opposition. Protestors were bludgeoned and
many activists died mysterious deaths in 'detention' supposedly 'slipping on
soap'. Only recently have the true stories begun to emerge.
Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in the rural Eastern Cape. His book 'long walk
to freedom' documents his life admirably. His role in our story begins in 1963,
as 'accused No. 1' in the great Rivonia Trial. He faced the death penalty for
plotting sabotage. Having evaded arrest for many months (he was called 'the
black pimpernel') he had already had a high profile. His stirring statement
from the dock wrote him into ANC folklore 'I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and
with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die'. The
judge would not rise to the bait, and sentenced Mandela to life in prison.
During the long years, many with hard labour, on Robben Island and elsewhere,
Mandela's fame grew inexorably. He became a symbol. The fact that even his
picture was banned in South Africa and he was locked up, incommunicado, on a
prison island, inflated the fascination with this eloquent, tall and dignified
member of the ANC. By the 1980s 'Free Mandela' was the stuff of huge Wembley
benefit concerts and a slogan synonymous with the end of apartheid.
Mandela himself worked hard on Robben Island to improve the unity and thinking
of his fellow inmates. The self-styled 'University of Robben Island' challenged
them all to think soberly about the best outcome for South Africa. Finally in
1987, unknown to his fellow inmates (whom he knew would object) Mandela
requested private talks with the government. It was a bold move. By this time
the situation in the country was that of a vicious military state and
'low-intensity civil war'. The riots of 1976 in Soweto led on to the mass
activism of the 1980s, where the angry youth aimed to make the townships
'ungovernable'. Mandela, now 70, sought a negotiated settlement before the
country spun into full-blown civil war. Mandela's aim was national
reconciliation, and he knew he had to take the ANC and the government along
with him. Over the course of three years Mandela held twelve secret meetings in
prison with the justice minister Kobie Coetzee. Mandela was separated from the
other inmates and given a private prison-cottage.
When the hard-line president, PW Botha had a stroke in 1989 the formerly
conservative FW de Klerk stepped into power. A lawyer by training and a shrewd
politician, de Klerk's aim appears to have been to seize the moral high ground,
pursue long-drawn negotiations, and try to split the ANC and win a democratic
election. At the very least he aimed to safeguard white interests. Thus, at the
opening of Parliament, February 1990he dramatically announced an end to
apartheid, unbanned political parties and released political prisoners. His
actions took the world by storm, de Klerk was regarded as a peacemaker and a
still dignified but much older Mandela walked to freedom a few days later.
For four years negotiations faltered. The government presided over
(orchestrated??) a terrible descent into inter-fractional township violence.
But, chiefly under Mandela's influence the ANC held together and black
opposition remained moderate. Even after the assassination of youth leader
Chris Hani, Mandela managed to sooth passions and maintain the focus upon a
negotiated non-racial, democratic South Africa. Conciliatory and forceful, as
the situation demanded, he manoeuvers the government into keeping their
promises and finally, April 27 1994, South Africans of all colours and creeds
joined long queues to vote. Not a single crime was reported in the country on
that day.
President Mandela led a government of national unity and popularised Tutu's
phrase 'the rainbow nation'. He signed into effect a new constitution
guaranteeing the freedoms of all, irrespective of race, gender or creed. He
reached out to Afrikaners, famously flying to a rural town to have tea with an
elderly widow, Mrs Verwoerd.
He became the first African leader to relinquish power after one term in
office, and although in his 80s he is now involved in international peace
talks, particularly in Burundi. He has brought honour, unity and dignity to
South Africa in the place of callousness, division and shame.
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