South Africa After Fifty Years of Union

MR. STARK: In the last few years many of the various countries of the vast continent of Africa have risen to the forefront of our thinking as never before. Of these countries we have, of course, a special interest in the Union of South Africa; and it is difficult for us here to appreciate the perplexing and disturbing problems which that country faces. So it is, that we welcome to The Empire Club today, the newly appointed South African High Commissioner to Canada, Willem D. van Schalkwyk.

The High Commissioner was born in the Transvaal and received his higher education at the University of Pretoria. He joined the South African Civil Service in 1929 and five years later entered the Diplomatic Service of his country. His various appointments have given him a very wide range of experience. From 1934 to 1937 he was an Attach6 with the Union's Legation in Berlin. The next two years he acted as Secretary to the South African Delegation to the League of Nations. He then acted as an Attach6 for his country at Washington for two years and at Ottawa for six years, from 1938 to 1944. For the next two years he was with the Department of External Affairs at Pretoria; and for five years, from 1946 to 1951, he was First Secretary, South African Embassy at Washington, D.C. He acted as the Alternate Delegate in the South African Delegation to the United Nations in 1947. From 1951 to 1954 he was Consul General at Leopoldville; and during the next two years he was Consul General at Hamburg, Germany. From 1956 until June of 1960, he was Minister at the High Commissioner's Office in London, England; and in June of this year he received his present post as the South African High Commissioner to Canada.

Our guest married Miss Mary Jane Pelley, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Pelley of Washington, D.C. It will be recalled that the late Mr. John Pelley was President of the Association of American Railroads. The van-Schalkwyks have two sons; one of whom, John, is studying economics at Harvard University, and the other, Willem, is a student at Ashbury College, Ottawa.

It is with great pleasure that I now present to you Mr. Willem Dirkse-van-Schalkwyk, who will now speak to us on the subject, "South Africa after Fifty Years of Union."

MR. DIRKSE-VAN-SCHALKWYK: When you so kindly invited me, Mr. President, to address the Empire Club of Canada, you stated that you were sure that members would like to know more about South Africa, its problems, the question of apartheid-or separate parallel development as we call it-and also something as to the future.

Let me at the outset say how very much I appreciate the honour you have done me by having me as your guest, and for asking me to address such a distinguished audience. I shall endeavour to comply with your request, Mr. President, and have chosen as my subject, "South Africa after Fifty Years of Union".

This year, in which we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Union of South Africa, has been a momentous year indeed, not only on account of what has been happening in South Africa, but also because of the events which have taken place in West Africa, East Africa, the Congo, the Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and elsewhere, and the reaction these events have evoked in the international sphere. Although world attention has been focused on Africa particularly this year, the spotlight has been on South Africa for much longer. There is perhaps no other country which has to deal with such serious and complex multi-racial problems as the Union of South Africa. Our task has been made much more difficult by attacks and criticism from abroad which have been based mainly on ignorance and prejudice. On the other hand, there are those who are well-disposed towards South Africa and who would like to become acquainted with the facts of our multi-racial situation and the manner in which we are dealing with it.

Solutions which may be acceptable, perhaps inevitable, in other African states, have little relevance to South Africa. The Union is not a colonial territory where the Whites are an insignificant minority. It is a land which through three centuries has been built up by a large permanent white population to the most highly developed country on the African continent, where western civilization has struck deep roots and where a strong, stable economic and governmental structure has been evolved.

South Africa, which is about one-eighth the size of Canada, was mainly a pastoral and farming country; but with the discovery of diamonds and gold during the latter half of the last century, the whole economic basis of the country began to change.

Except for mining, the country was almost totally industrially undeveloped at the time of Union in 1910. In 1917 when the first specialized industrial census was held, the gross value of industrial production was only $136,300,000. The Union lagged far behind Canada and Australia. Since then, an industrial revolution has taken place, particularly in the years following the second world war. Today South Africa's industrial production totals more than $3,000,000,000.

Private manufacturing is the largest contributor to our gross national product, namely $l,373,000,000 in 1958-59; the second is mining, $746,750,000; third is the distributive trade, $659,080,000; and in fourth place is agriculture and forestry, $643,630,000.

In 1912, South Africa's total gross national product was $366,800,000. In 1959, it totalled $5,500,000,000-about one-sixth that of Canada. As far as trade is concerned, South African exports in 1958 amounted to $954,900,000, excluding gold. If the gold exports, amounting to $599,000,000, are included, this gives a total export figure of $l,554,000,000. Imports in 1958 totalled $l,500,000,000. The Union, therefore, had a favourable trade balance of $54,000,000 that year. The total trade for 1958 was over $3,000,000,000, compared with a total trade in 1910 of $246,500,000. (The dollar values here have been calculated at the rate of exchange of $2.70 to the £).

Approximately half of our export trade is with Commonwealth countries. Last year, direct South African-Canadian trade amounted to just over $58,000,000. Canada derived great benefit from this trade as she exported goods to South Africa to the value of $51,377,332 and, in return, imported goods to the value of $6,631,912. There is, thus, a considerable inequality in our trade in favour of Canada.

South Africa is today the most highly industrialized and advanced country in Africa. All of her people, White and non-White, enjoy a higher standard of living than those anywhere else in Africa. She is responsible for almost two-thirds of the total production of electricity on the African continent, for about 43 per cent of the total mineral output, and her railways carry about 52 per cent of the total rail freight on the whole continent.

Wage levels in South Africa are the highest on the continent and nowhere in Africa is the purchasing power of money greater than in the Union.

When the Union of South Africa was established in 1910 between the former British Colonies, the Cape of Good Hope and Natal, and the two former Boer Republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, the total population was estimated at 5,878,000. Today it is estimated at 14,928,000 and consists of four main groups.

First, there is the white, or European group--3,123,000. They are the descendants of the Dutchmen who first came to South Africa in 1652 and who, with the addition of French Huguenots and other small European groups, developed into the Afrikaans-speaking South Africans of today. They represent about 58 per cent of the white population. The other 42 per cent, the English-speaking South Africans, consist mostly of the descendants of the British settlers who came to the Cape Colony after it was annexed by Britain in 1805 and, mainly, after 1820.

Approximately 75 percent of the white population are bilingual since both Afrikaans and English are official languages of the country.

Secondly, there is the large Bantu, i.e. black, population of about 9,500,000. They are the descendants of various tribes which migrated south from Equatorial Africa. As they were moving south, the white settlers trekked north and east from the Cape. It was not until about 120 years after the first settlement was made at the Cape that the two races came into contact with each other. Both the European and the Bantu, are therefore immigrant races in South Africa, and both are permanently settled in South Africa. I may add that when they arrived, the country was practically uninhabited except for some roving Hottentot and Bushman tribes. From the beginning, the Europeans and Bantu occupied land which they themselves had chosen in the course of their respective migrations. The very nature of the country provided the space, the opportunity, and the freedom for the various groups to live their own lives, in their own way, in their own areas.

I must emphasize that the 9,500,000 Bantu, as such, are not a homogeneous united race. They consist of various tribes, or nations, such as Xhosa, 2,800,000; Zulu, 2,500,000; Southern Sotho, l,000,000; Northern Sotho, 1,000,000; Iswana, 800,000; Tsonga, 400,000, etc. They all have different cultures, customs, and languages. In addition to this, there are also vast differences in their stages of evolution, varying from extreme primitivism (in which witchcraft still forms a basic part of their make-up) to a handful of highly-educated intelligentsia.

Thirdly, there are l,450,000 Coloureds. They are a mixed race-descendants of Malayans, who were introduced as slaves chiefly from the Dutch East Indies, and remnants of the Hottentot tribes that were wiped out by an epidemic of smallpox in 1713, with some admixture of Bantu and European blood.

Lastly, there are about 450,000 Indians--persons of Asian origin. They are mainly the descendants of indentured labourers brought by the British from India after 1860 to work in the sugar cane fields of Natal.

This is the intricate racial pattern which exists in the Union.

Mr. President, as a multi-racial state, it would be unrealistic to deny that we are faced with an extremely complex situation. We are not oblivious to the happenings on the African continent. Every endeavour is being made to promote as rapidly as possible the well-being and advancement of our non-white races. In this regard I shall be speaking mainly about the Bantu, who are numerically South Africa's largest population group.

There is a tendency today to minimize the contribution of the Whites to the Bantu's development. It would therefore appear pertinent here to draw attention to the role the Whites have played in promoting the development of the Bantu.

South Africa is ahead of all countries in sub-Saharan Africa regarding the solution of the problems of urbanisation and provision for housing of the Bantu. Through the combined force of mass production techniques, good organisation, and low-cost building materials, the back of South Africa's slum problem has been broken. In the short space of eight years, more than 130,000 full family-sized brick and concrete houses have been built, providing accommodation for over half a million people.

Astonishing progress has been made in the field of literacy and education of the Bantu. The European people of the Union are committed to a policy of educating and civilizing the Bantu.

Since the Bantu Education Act was passed in 1954, the number of Bantu pupils attending school has increased from 700,000 to l,500,000. Today there are 6,336 Bantu schools under the jurisdiction of the Department of Bantu Education. In addition, there are hundreds of Roman Catholic and other schools.

The Bantu Education Act gave the Bantu parents, for the first time, a real voice in the education of their children: Today there are 483 school boards and 4,100 school committees consisting entirely of Bantu members. There are more than 25,000 Bantu teachers with 6,000 student teachers in 43 training colleges. It is acknowledged that the schooling the Bantu receive in the Union is the best in Africa. The literacy rate is rising fast, and it is anticipated that in another generation 90 per cent of the entire Bantu population will be literate.

There are at present 49 Bantu attorneys in practice, 76 Bantu librarians, 81 medical doctors, 7,500 nurses, 73 chartered accountants, 176 laboratory assistants, and 61 Bantu qualified in analytical chemistry. 1,700 Bantu students are attending universities. South Africa already has 2,000 Bantu university graduates and this represents more Bantu graduates than in all the other countries of the African continent put together. The demand for university education has increased considerably in recent years, and to meet this demand, three university colleges, solely for the Bantu, and another at which they can train as doctors, have been established. The cost of education is rising each year, and in 1959 over $25,000,000 was spent on Bantu education alone. This and many other services are provided for them by the Government, the total cost of which amounts to $162,000,000 per year. Of this amount, the Bantu contribute, in direct and indirect taxation, about $48,000,000-little more than one-quarter. These services include pensions for the aged and blind, subsidized transport and housing, free hospitalization and medical services, etc.

One of the biggest specialist hospitals in the world is the Baragwanath Non-European Hospital near Johannesburg, where 182 full-time doctors (including 16 Bantu doctors) and 1,000 Bantu nurses are employed. The hospital contains 2,500 beds. The annual cost of maintaining this vast institution is over $4,000,000 per year.

Many Bantu are sharing in the general prosperity and stability of the Union. Their participation as entrepreneurs in trade, industry and finance grows steadily. There are Bantu businessmen who bank up to $2,800 daily. Under the policy of separate development and with new enterprises, a vast new market is being created with the result that a solid Bantu middle-class is rapidly emerging. All these are factors making for increased stability.

The annual purchasing power of the Bantu is estimated at about $l,500,000,000, i.e., one-quarter of the total buying power of the country. Wages are rising steadily. Over the last three years, they have been increased by over $55,000,000, and increases are being made continually.

The wages paid to the Bantu in South Africa are higher than anywhere else in Africa, and as already stated, the purchasing power of his money is greater than anywhere else in Africa.

Better living conditions, better wages, and the prospect of securing employment have attracted thousands of Bantu from other parts of Africa to the Union.

At any given time, there are at least three-quarters of a million foreign Bantu in the Union. An estimated one-third are there illegally. Surely this vitiates the allegation that South Africa is a land of oppression.

Mr. President, I mentioned earlier that the Europeans and the Bantu, from the beginning, occupied land which they themselves had chosen. Both groups therefore have historic claims to the land they occupy. Far from being annihilated by the Europeans, the Bantu peoples are still in possession of their land which, by and large, comprises some of the best land in the country. These territories--their traditional homelands--are safeguarded for their posterity. By law they possess the sole and inalienable right to these areas since no one else is entitled to buy or procure land there.

For the white population, South Africa is their only home. They cannot return to the countries of their forbears. Nor can the Bantu. Not only are the white South Africans entitled to the protection of their nationality, but the different Bantu peoples are equally entitled to the fullest development of their nationality. This principle is basic to the Union's policy--the policy of separate parallel development (apartheid). This is no new policy--it is South Africa's traditional policy.

I shall now deal briefly with the main features of this policy. In a speech delivered as far back as 1917, General Smuts stated, inter alia:

A practice has grown up in South Africa of giving the Natives their own separate institutions on parallel lines. On these parallel lines, we may yet be able to solve a problem which otherwise may be insoluble. These political institutions should be different while always proceeding on the basis of self-government.

This policy of "separate institutions along parallel lines" envisages the agricultural, economic, and industrial development of the Bantu territories or homelands, as well as their political development to eventual self-government.

I have mentioned that the Bantu are still in possession of their traditional lands. It is estimated that 28 percent of the Bantu are in the European urban areas, 30 percent in the European rural areas, whilst 42 percent, or 3,600,000, still live in their territories or homelands. These territories, including additional land to be acquired under existing legislation are, comparatively speaking, larger than England and Wales, nearly one-third the area of France, twice the size of Austria, and slightly less than the combined areas of the New England States (viz., Connecticut, Massachussetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine).

As far as the agricultural development of the homelands is concerned, great and rapid strides are being made to improve the Bantu's primitive farming methods. In the past few years, for example, more than $33,000,000 have been spent on agricultural and forestry development alone. Great advances have been made in livestock improvement, in raising cereal production, in the production of sugar cane, citrus fruits, and fibre, in checking soil erosion, and in land and water conservation. With agricultural development going on apace, it is considered that there is no reason why the homelands cannot support a population of at least fifteen to twenty million.

However, total reliance cannot be placed solely on agricultural and farming development. Industrial and economic development are also necessary.

In order to promote the industrial and economic development of the Bantu territories, to encourage purely Bantu industries, and to act as a financial and investment development institution, the Bantu Development Corporation was created last year with an initial capital of £ 500,000 (about $l,400,000) provided out of Government funds. As and when further funds are required, the Government will make the money available. It is not the idea that the Bantu Development Corporation should become a shareholder in Bantu companies, but its purpose is to assist those companies to develop. Nor is it the purpose of the Corporation to distribute profits, but to plough them back into the Corporation for further use. The first Bantu industry--a furniture factory and saw-mill, costing one-half million dollars has already been established. White industrialists will not be permitted to develop industries in the Bantu homelands--the policy being that the interest of the Bantu in their own territories must always be protected.

Together with the establishment of industries in the homelands, the Government, after consultation with industrialists, has this year drawn up a comprehensive plan for the establishment of manufacturing industries on the borders of the Bantu territories.

The principal aims of this plan are to create additional opportunities for labour, to curtail the flow of Bantu in seek of work from their homelands to existing overcrowded urban areas, and to promote the decentralization of manufacturing industry, which is at present highly concentrated in only four areas. A further advantage of this scheme is that the workers will be able to earn the high wages which are associated with manufacturing production, will be able to return to their homes just across the borders, and will be able to take home their weekly wages and so contribute to the economic welfare and viability of their homelands. I may add that keen interest, also by international concerns, is being shown in this plan of establishing industries on the border of the Bantu territories.

I have dealt with the economic aspect of South Africa's policy for the Bantu territories. I shall now deal with the political aspect.

In order to give the Bantu the right to manage their own affairs in their territories, legislation was passed by the Union Parliament in 1951 and 1959 providing for the establishment of Bantu Tribal or Community, Regional, and Territorial Authorities on the basis of the different ethnic groupings among the Bantu. The Bantu proceed from the single authority (chief-in-council) to the regional authority (a group of tribal authorities) to the comprehensive territorial authority, which is virtually a Bantu parliament where various regional authorities combine in an authoritative body to exercise jurisdiction over a large area, the national homelands. The three stages of self-government may be likened to a purely local authority, a provincial authority, and a national authority. The principle followed is that representative Governmental bodies should not be forced on the Bantu from above, but that they should come into existence as a result of a national evolution from below. By this means, there will be avoided the tendency to despotism and the creation of virtual dictatorships. There will be a system of representative and responsible government, which will eventually lead to the establishment of six or more completely self-governing states. Of the possible 400 to 500 Tribal or Community Authorities, 371 have already been established, whilst forty-eight Regional Authorities and two Territorial Authorities have been established. More will come into being as the Bantu progress.

These authorities consist entirely of Bantu members with a Bantu chairman and a Bantu secretary. Powers of taxation and of civil and criminal jurisdiction are being extended to the authorities on an increasing scale as they progress. All the administrative functions in their homelands will be handed over to them.

For the purpose of maintaining liaison between these Territorial Authorities and the Union Government, a Commissioner-General will be appointed to each of the Territorial Authorities. Two have already been appointed.

We see the future political development of these Bantu territories along the lines of the constitutional development of the British Commonwealth. The relationship between the Union and these self-governing Bantu states will be somewhat similar to that existing between members of the Commonwealth. Our Prime Minister recently described the future relationship as "political independence combined with continuing economic inter-dependence".

This policy has been warmly welcomed by responsible Bantu leaders in the Territories.

What about those Bantu who live and work outside the Bantu homelands? I have explained that those in the homelands will have political rights. The Bantu outside will be able to return to their own territory at any time to exercise their political rights there. The vast majority of the Bantu outside of their territories have maintained their links with their homelands. It is proposed to have in the main urban centres representatives of the different Territories who will be able to make representations to Governmental or to local authorities on their behalf. In fact such representatives have been appointed. Urgent attention is now also being given to transform existing urban Bantu Advisory Councils into Urban Bantu Authorities.

I have sketched for you, Mr. President, South Africa's economic and industrial progress since 1910 and what has and is being done for the advancement of the Bantu. There have, however, also been other developments particularly on the constitutional side which have culminated this year in the holding of a referendum as to whether the Union should adopt a republican form of Government or not. As you know the result has been in favour of the Union becoming a republic.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly expressed the desire of the Government that South Africa remain a member of the Commonwealth.

The Prime Minister also stated that it would not be advisable or feasible to call a special session of Parliament since Parliament meets in any case in about three months' time. He said further:

There is much to be done and many preparations to be made. Attention must be given to matters relating to the external relations of the new State, including that of her relations with the Commonwealth. The time needed for this will, it is hoped, be utilized for adjustments to the new situation by everybody concerned. Furthermore, Parliament might deem it of value to associate the birth of the republic with an historic date such as the 31st of May.

I might mention here that it was on that date in 1910 that the Union of South Africa was established.

As far as the new constitution is concerned he said:

The draft constitution based on existing constitutional legislation will be published as soon as possible. After the acceptance in principle by the House of Assembly, it will be sent to a joint Select Committee of both Houses of Parliament. This procedure will be adopted to enable all to participate in perfecting this legislation in a practical way. It is all the more applicable because the Bill will be a consolidating measure.

As to the future, Mr. President, we look forward to continued economic and industrial development.

In regard to our non-white races, we shall continue to promote their economic and political advancement as rapidly as possible. Not only do we want to preserve the future of the Whites but we also want to safeguard the future of our non-Whites. In our task, we need the understanding of our friends who know that South Africa is a reliable supporter of the Western World.

In conclusion, I wish to echo the words of our Prime Minister when he recently said that among nations South Africa wants no enemies but seeks only friends, and for its own people, white and black, the Government desires happiness and progress.

THANKS OF THE MEETING were expressed by Mr. Sidney E. Ashley.