Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0321/03214.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 48KB | 738 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03214}
$Pretitle{293}
$Title{South Africa
Chapter 4D.   Politics of the Black Community}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jean R. Tartter}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{black
south
white
government
african
political
homelands
africa
homeland
party}
$Date{1980}
$Log{}
Country:     South Africa
Book:        South Africa, A Country Study
Author:      Jean R. Tartter
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1980

Chapter 4D.   Politics of the Black Community

     It may be said that the political rights of Blacks in South Africa have
passed through three stages. The first embraced the period from Union in 1910
until 1936, when Blacks living in Cape and Natal provinces who could meet
literacy and property (or income) qualifications could vote in general and
provincial elections. Blacks were, however, barred constitutionally under the
South Africa Act of 1909 from election to parliament or to the provincial
councils. As of 1935 only one Black was registered in Natal because of the
extraordinarily strict and discriminatory qualifications. In Cape Province
where educational and financial qualifications were the same for all racial
groups, 10,628 Blacks were registered in 1935.

     In 1936 even the circumscribed franchise for Cape Blacks was withdrawn
and was replaced by a Natives Representative Council of twenty-two members to
represent Blacks from all areas of South Africa in a strictly consultative
capacity. Frustrated by its own impotence, the council dissolved itself in
1946 and was officially disbanded in 1951. In addition Black voters on a
separate roll of Cape Province could elect three Whites to represent them in
parliament, and the country's Black population indirectly elected four White
senators to represent their interests.

     The third stage of Black political rights began after the National Party
victory in 1948. In keeping with the apartheid policy of excluding Blacks
entirely from the political life of White South Africa, parliamentary
representation of Blacks was abolished, and emphasis shifted to devising
governmental systems with tribal roots in the ten homeland areas. The process
was accelerated in the early 1970s. By 1979 three homelands had been declared
independent, and most of the others had self-governing status with legislative
assemblies combining elected members with appointed tribal leaders (see
Government and Politics in the Black Homelands, this ch.).

     Although some 53 percent of South Africa's Blacks lived in White urban
or rural areas in the late 1970s, these Blacks were regarded as being only
provisionally in the White areas in order to offer their labor. They thus had
no right to political activity except insofar as they wished to participate in
the political life of their designated homelands. In recent years the
government has made gestures toward municipal self-government, permitting
community councils in a number of Black urban townships. These councils are
elected by the residents and have a restricted range of responsibilities as
delegated by White administrators. In October 1980 Pretoria announced that the
community councils would be replaced by town and village councils. The town
councils would gradually accrue powers comparable to White municipal councils
with the distinction that they would be responsible to the minister for
cooperation and development instead of provincial authorities.

Blacks in Urban Areas

     A characteristic feature of nearly all South African cities and towns is
an area demarcated for Black housing, including standardized dwellings for
families having permission to reside in the area and barracks-like
accommodations called hostels, for workers. The latter are considered migrants
because their job contracts run for a stipulated period of time, and their
families in homeland or rural areas have not been allowed to join them. These
Black townships were originally administered by the adjacent White
municipalities. Despite the fact that in some cases elected Black advisory
boards or urban councils were established, they held no powers and were simply
consulted at the whim of White officials and administrators. The Black
townships, carrying no political weight, found that utilities, health
services, and housing tended to be grossly neglected. Although in 1971
responsibility for Black townships shifted from the White municipalities to
twenty-two regional administration boards (fourteen in 1980) answerable to the
Department of Cooperation and Development, conditions did not greatly improve.
Few outside funds were earmarked for township development, and township
revenues-derived mostly from beer and liquor sales and housing charges-
remained wholly inadequate. Married couples entitled to housing faced delays
of many years in being allocated rental quarters. When riots broke out in
Soweto in 1976 White South Africans were astonished to learn that in this
large Black township adjacent to modern Johannesburg, only 22 percent of homes
were equipped with electricity and only 6 percent had bathrooms. Unpaved roads
in the townships and squalid conditions in the community-run hostels have
remained the norms. While efforts were finally under way to electrify Soweto
and the ninety-nine-year leasehold scheme was leading to some home
construction, the glaring disparities between Black and White living
conditions-and the resulting potential for political unrest-had been little
altered by 1980.

     The 1977 Community Councils Act provided that Black communities could
have certain powers transferred from the administration boards. Council
elections followed, marked at first by indifference or hostility on the part
of many Black residents who viewed the new bodies as impotent pawns of White
officialdom. In Soweto the elections in 1978 brought out only 6 percent of
eligible voters, although in subsequent elections in other Black townships
participation ranged from 15 to 30 percent or more.

     The councils have been criticized because their powers were limited to
such matters as allocation of housing and building sites, imposition of
certain taxes and fees, and administration of sports, recreational, and
library facilities. These responsibilities are to be extended with Soweto and
other large townships ultimately to have full municipal status. If this
promised development occurs it is possible that the community councils will
achieve greater status as credible government bodies. The inadequacy of
local revenue will remain a serious constraint. Residential taxes and charges
are already burdensome when compared to family incomes. The townships have
little commercial activity and no industries to provide a tax base, nor do
they have access to capital markets. In 1980 they remained subservient to the
White bureaucracy of the administration boards and had little political
weight at higher levels of government.

     In the larger townships adjoining the main White cities where political
groups influenced by Black consciousness, such as the Committee of Ten in
Soweto, have materialized, the community councils are not regarded as valid
exponents of Black aspirations. Collaboration with the White government to
gain a role in administering their own communities is rejected by Black
consciousness adherents who aim at overhauling the entire political system.

     In his proposals for constitutional changes in 1980, Botha offered
a consultative role for urban Blacks-not on an equal basis with Coloureds and
Asians but in a separate advisory body representing the community councils
and homeland governments. The plan was scorned by Blacks as a further example
of the National Party's rejection of genuine political dialogue with the
country's majority population group. Even if Blacks had been accepted as full
participants in the President's Council, which Botha has refused to concede,
Black opinion would not be reliably reflected if their representatives were
chosen from the unpopular community councils and homeland political official