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The Politics of Passes: Control and Change in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Philip Frankel
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Extract

The ability of technological advancement to diversify the means of political control available to the state is a distinctive feature of modern life. Today, with the exception of the most underdeveloped and brutal régimes, the overt use of state force is complemented by a variety of control techniques, some so oblique as to defy detection even by the groups they are designed to regulate or repress. South Africa's stalled revolution, the subject of considerable concern to many analysts, is clearly not attributable to black acceptance of the present system, nor for that matter is it simply the result of the effectiveness with which the white minority has applied the more blatantly violent and directly coercive means of domination.1

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 199 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

page 199 note 1 Sachs, Albie, ‘The Instruments of Domination in South Africa’, in Thompson, Leonard and Butler, Jeffrey (eds.), Change in Contemporary South Africa (Berkeley, 1975), pp. 223–50.Google Scholar

page 200 note 1 See, for example, Howe, Christopher, Employment and Economic Growth in Urban China 1949–57 (Cambridge, 1971).Google Scholar

page 200 note 2 Prior to the Native Laws Amendment Act, No. 54 of 1952, influx control was applied only if the white municipalities so requested. Even in these cases women were exempt provided they could prove they had accommodation in the urban area. See Horrell, Muriel, Legislation and Race Relations (Johannesburg, 1966), p. 35.Google Scholar The provisions of the Act came into force in Johannesburg in 1959 and in Cape Town in 1963. See also Sash, Black, Memorandum on the Application of the Pass Laws and Influx Control (Johannesburg, 1971).Google Scholar

page 201 note 1 Marais, J. S., The Cape Coloured People, 1652–1937 (London, 1939, reprinted Johannesburg, 1957), p. 117.Google Scholar

page 201 note 2 For histories of the pass laws, consult Kahn, E. H., ‘The Pass Laws’, in Hellman, E. (ed.), Handbook on Race Relations (Cape Town, 1949), ch. XII;Google Scholar and Walker, Eric, A History of Southern Africa (London, 1957).Google Scholar

page 201 note 3 Transvaal Provincial Report of the Local Government Commission (Pretoria, 1922).Google Scholar On the development of the notion of urban segregation, see Swanson, M. W., ‘Urban Origins of Separate Development’, in Race (London), X, 07 1968, pp. 31–41;Google Scholar and Davenport, T. R. H., ‘The Beginnings of Urban Segregation in South Africa’, Occasional Paper, No. 15, Rhodes University, 1971.Google Scholar

page 201 note 4 The 1923 Act empowered municipal authorities to establish segregated black locations and to deport ‘undesirable’ blacks from the urban areas. See Horrell, op.cit. p. 2. In addition, see Davenport, T. R. H., ‘African Townsmen? South African Urban Areas Legislation’, in African Affairs (London), 04 1969, pp. 95 ff.Google Scholar; and Koornhoff, P. G. J., ‘Urban Bantu Policy’, in Rhoodie, Nic (ed.), South African Dialogue (Johannesburg, 1972), pp. 315–35.Google Scholar

page 202 note 1 Carlson, Joel, The Pass System and Detention, Topical Talk, No. 24, South African Institute of Race Relations (Johannesburg, 1969), p. 3.Google Scholar The impact of the pass laws on the daily lives of urban blacks is also analysed at length in Duncan, Sheena, The Plight of the Urban African, Topical Talk No. 23, South African Institute of Race Relations (Johannesburg, 1969),Google Scholar in Horrell, op. cit. and in the Annual Surveys published by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

page 202 note 2 In terms of Section 10 of the 1945 Act as amended in 1952, 1955, and 1957, blacks qualifying for exemption under the influx control regulations must have lived continuously in an urban area since birth, must have worked there continuously for one employer for ten years (or have resided in the area continuously and lawfully for 15 years), or must be a wife, unmarried daughter, or son under 18 of a person qualifying under Section 10, who has lawfully entered the urban area and who normally resides with the qualified person. In practice many blacks are barred from qualifying for Section 10 privileges because they lack documentary proof of their birth and employment, or in the case of women and children dependents, because it is extremely difficult to prove lawful entry into the urban area. For an elaboration of these points, see A Survey of Race Relations, 1971 (Johannesburg, 1972), p. 148.Google Scholar

The obligation imposed on blacks to carry passes is formally rooted in the ironically phrased Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act, No. 67 of 1952. See Horrell, op.cit., p. 35.

page 202 note 3 Black Sash, op. cit.; The Star (Johannesburg), 7 09 1974.Google Scholar

page 202 note 4 Bantu Laws Amendment Act, No. 42 of 1964; Horrell, op. cit. p. 39.

page 202 note 5 Bantu Laws Amendment Act, No. 59 of 1970; ibid. p. 44.

page 203 note 1 Lever, Henry, South African Society (Johannesburg, 1978), p. 63.Google Scholar

page 203 note 2 For a detailed account of the horrific human effects of this policy, consult Desmond, Cosmos, The Discarded People: an account of African resettlement in South Africa (Baltimore, 1971).Google Scholar

page 204 note 1 Government policy under the National Party has consistently emphasised this point over the years. In order to appreciate this continuity, see Hepple, A., South Africa (London, 1969), p. 188;Google ScholarA Survey of Race Relations, 1966 (Johannesburg, 1967), p. 147;Google Scholar and Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 13 08 1972.Google Scholar

page 204 note 2 The Star, 1 July 1974; Mayer, P., The Urban Africans and the Bantustans (Johannesburg, 1972).Google Scholar

page 204 note 3 Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 28 06 1973.Google Scholar

page 205 note 1 Black Sash, op. cit.; Wilson, Francis, Migrant Labour: a Report to the South African Council of Churches (Johannesburg, 1972), pp. 235–49.Google Scholar The manner in which white employers exploit black labour through the pass system is noted in A Survey of Race Relations, 1972 (Johannesburg, 1973), p. 165.Google Scholar

page 205 note 2 Sachs, op. cit. p. 246; Black Sash, op. cit.

page 205 note 3 A Survey of Race Relations, 1967 (Johannesburg, 1968), pp. 135–6.Google Scholar

page 205 note 4 van der Horst, Sheila, African Workers in Towns (Cape Town, 1964), p. 12Google Scholar and Houghton, D. Hobert, The South African Economy (Cape Town, 1967), p. 162.Google Scholar

page 205 note 5 Edelstein, M. L., What Do Young Africans Think? (Johannesburg, 1972), p. 111.Google Scholar

page 206 note 1 Jabavu, D. D. T., ‘Native Unrest: its causes and cure’, Natal Missionary Conference, Durban, 07 1920.Google Scholar

page 206 note 2 Carlson, op. cit.

page 206 note 3 Marquard, Leo, The Peoples and Policies of South Africa (Oxford, 1969), p. 121.Google Scholar

page 206 note 4 The callousness with which the police enforce the pass laws is noted in Welsh, David, ‘The Growth of Towns’, in Wilson, Monica and Thompson, Leonard (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol. II, 1870–1966 (Oxford, 1971), p. 200.Google Scholar

page 206 note 5 Marquard, op. cit. p. 132.

page 207 note 1 White employers are legally obliged to inspect the passes of prospective black employees, and they are encouraged to report suspected irregularities to the police.

page 207 note 2 The Bantu Laws Amendment Act, No. 52 of 1964, is an example of the manner in which increasing numbers of officials of all types have become surrogate influx control administrators. See Horrell, op. cit. p. 39.

page 207 note 3 For a discussion of the background to the 1971 Bantu Administration Act and its consequences for the social and political development of the townships, see Frankel, Philip, ‘Municipal Transformation in Soweto: race, politics and maladministration in black Johannesburg’, in African Studies Review (Waltham, Mass.,Google Scholar forthcoming. Details of the 1971 Act are provided in A Survey of Race Relations, 1969 (Johannesburg, 1970), p. 145.Google Scholar

page 208 note 1 The Star, 27 October 1977.

page 208 note 2 Sachs, op. cit. p. 240.

page 209 note 1 Rand Daily Mail, 13 September 1973. In terms of the 1923 urban areas legislation, all ‘idle, dissolute and disorderly’ blacks could be deported to the rural areas by the local authorities. Under the 1952 amendment to the 1945 urban areas legislation, the powers of the authorities to remove ‘idle and dissolute’ blacks was extended, while the 1945 Act makes it clear that Section 10 is only to be granted where blacks display continuous ‘good conduct’. See Horrell, op. cit. pp. 35–9.

page 209 note 2 According to the President of the Black Sash, the present pass arrangements give the police ‘the ability to arrest people for pass offences when there are no other charges which can possibly be brought against them’. The pass laws, it is suggested, are ‘used for the political control of the whole black population’. See Johannesburg Advice Office, Black Sash. Report for the Year Ending 31 January 1977 (Johannesburg, 1977).Google Scholar

page 209 note 3 A Survey of Race Relations, 1972 (Johannesburg, 1973), p. 165.Google Scholar

page 209 note 4 For an analysis of the labour bureaux, see van der Merwe, P. J., ‘Die Bantoearbeidsmark in Suid-Afrika’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pretoria, 1971.Google Scholar

page 210 note 1 Welsh, op. cit. p. 201. Figures of arrests and convictions under the pass laws are provided in the annual surveys of the South African Institute of Race Relations. According to The Star, 20 April 1968, blacks equalling a quarter of the white population in number were being arrested each year for reasons of this nature. Statistical data over a 50-year period appears in Wilson, op. cit. pp. 163 and 232–4.

page 210 note 2 Personal communication.

page 210 note 3 The issue of corruption in the administration of the influx control laws is dealt with in Molteno, D. B., ‘Urban Areas Legislation’, in Race Relations Journal (Johannesburg), XXII, 2, 1955, pp. 26–35,Google Scholar and in Republic of South Africa. Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Events of the 20–22nd November 1962 at Paarl and the Causes which Gave Rise Thereto (Pretoria, 1962).Google Scholar See also Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society, Report of the Law Commission, Law, Justice and Society (Johannesburg, 1972), pp. 55 ff.Google Scholar

page 210 note 4 A Survey of Race Relations, 1967, p. 187.Google Scholar

page 211 note 1 Sachs, op. cit. p. 246; The Star, 3 July 1974.

page 211 note 2 Personal communication. See also Republic of South Africa. Commission of Inquiry into the ePnal System of South Africa (Pretoria, 1976).Google Scholar

page 211 note 3 Personal communication.

page 212 note 1 On the newly-emerging consociational theme, see Sunday Times, 19 November 1978; The Star, 20 and 27 October 1978; Rand Daily Mail, 27 October 1978; Sunday Times, 21 January 1979, and National Party of South Africa, New Political Dispensation for White, Coloured and Indian (Pretoria, 1978).Google Scholar For a critical analysis, see Frankel, Philip, ‘South African Consociationalism: a dangerous fantasy’, in Sunday Times, 14 01 1979.Google Scholar

page 212 note 2 For the exemptions under the 1923 legislation, see Welsh, op. cit. p. 198.

page 212 note 3 Rand Daily Mail, 27 October 1977; A Survey of Race Relations, 1977, p. 389.Google Scholar

page 213 note 1 Wilson, op. cit. pp. 158–9.

page 213 note 2 Mark an Meningsopnames, Meningspel vir Rapport (Cape Town, 1976),Google Scholar reproduced in part in Lever, op. cit. p. 171.

page 213 note 3 See A Survey of Race Relations, 1977, p. 389,Google Scholar and Republic of South Africa. Government Gazette (Pretoria), 20 05 1977,Google Scholar Government Notice 867.

page 213 note 4 Rand Daily Mail, 10 November 1977; The Star, 3 April 1978; and Rand Daily Mail, 25 May 1978.

page 213 note 5 Rand Daily Mail, 9 February 1978; Post (Johannesburg), 9 02 1978.Google Scholar

page 213 note 6 See, for example, Kane-Berman, John, Soweto: black revolt, white reaction (Johannesburg, 1978), ch. 16.Google Scholar

page 214 note 1 Sachs, op. cit. p. 245; Rand Daily Mail, 13 August 1974; The Star, 23 November 1974.

page 214 note 2 Rand Daily Mail, 20 July 1974.

page 214 note 3 Sunday Times, 5 June 1977.

page 214 note 4 Post, 7 November 1977; Rand Daily Mail, 29 May 1978.

page 214 note 5 Viljoen Commission, op. cit.

page 214 note 6 Frankel, op. cit.

page 215 note 1 Sachs, op. cit. p. 245. The so-called ‘aid centres’ do not find blacks employment in the urban areas; what they rather do is to investigate whether they should be ‘endorsed out’ or not. From the point of view of blacks, the only difference is that under the new system they are deported by an instrument of the state other than the courts. Rand Daily Mail, 20 July 1974; A Survey of Race Relations, 1977, p. 387.Google Scholar

page 215 note 2 Kahn in Hellman, op. cit.

page 215 note 3 It was pressure by the Transvaal Chamber of Mines which persuaded the Kruger Government to promulgate pass legislation in the Transvaal Republic during the 1890s. Transvaal Chamber of Mines. Annual Report, 1895 (Johannesburg, 1896), pp. 26 and 39.Google Scholar

page 215 note 4 The Star, 28 April 1978.

page 216 note 1 The KwaZulu authorities led by Chief Gatsha Buthelezi refused to be party to the agreement on travel documents concluded between South Africa and the Homelands on the grounds that it did not represent any real change in the existing pass system.

page 216 note 2 The Star, 4 November 1977.

page 216 note 3 Sunday Times, 16 July 1978.