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(STATE OPWE'NATION

■ EDITORIAL

FEB/MARCH 1985

PEOPLE WHO live in South Africa’s cities and towns seldom see what goes on in the rural areas of the country. It is easy to forget they are there.

Yet this is where poverty, starvation, and repression are more intense than anywhere else in South Africa. The rural areas need urgent attention for this reason alone.But more important, urban people need to

understand the conditions working people face in the bantustans and on -white farms, because both are exploited and oppressed by the fame system.They also need to know about the struggles

of rural people and they need to tell them about their own. The majority of South Afri­cans do not accept apartheid's divisions, and victories in one part of the country will echo j far away and give hope to others. And whenever one link in apartheid’s chain is weakened the whole chain is weakened.South Africa’s working class and .the fc

exploitative conditions under 'which it works'[ could not have been created without the ban- rustans. African people bad to be dispossessed of their land before they could be driven into the mines, farms and factories as underpaid, rightless wage labourers. 'Bosses could only pay low -wages because

they knew workers’ families were stuck away on tiny bantustan plots, scratching out what­ever they could to stayahve, and because they knew that workers who organised against this could be removed and dumped in the void, miles away.Workers are still rightless and underpaid and

| the bantustans are still playing their part. ' S.The bantustans have also-been used to keep

Africans politically weak. Traditional rulers like chiefs and .headmen were turned into employees of the apartheid government, and used to keep rural people under control, either by using resources like land to reward friends and punish enemies, or by naked force.Ban tustan governments still play that role.

The people still do not govern, and Africans in rural and urban areas have Sebes, Mangopes and community councillors shoved down their throats instead.Finally, the bantustans have helped the gov­

ernment and the bosses to turn their backs on the housing, health-care and welfare needs of millions of South Africans. The homeless, the sick, the old and the disabled were moved out of urban areas and left to fend for themselves. And nothing has changed.The pass laws were used to tie this system together. They pulled rural

Africans into the cities and farms, kicked them out when their labour was no longer needed, and tied them up in the bantustans to make sure they did not move again.Hiey hung like nooses over the heads of urban Africans. Pensioners, the

unemployed and the politically active knew the government could easily cancel their urban rights and endorse them out of the towns. The pass laws

still work in the same ways today.Now only 20 percent of all Africans live in the

white' towns. 60 percent suffer in the bantus­tans. 20 percent are tied to white farms.The bantustans continue to grow fuller. Over

one million farm workers, many of whom had been tenants on white farms for decades, have been slowly replaced by machines as farmers pursue profits and high productivity.Once the government has-forced people into

the rural areas it does everything in its power to keep them there — out of their wayT For many the long wait outside a labour bureau for a job is an endless one — with no hope of Escaping the mass prisons called ‘homelands’ except illegally.But people continue to resist and hungry

people still find their way to the urban areas and a chance of survival. They would rather face prison in the towns than starvation in the rural areasAnd in the past few years, organised opposi­

tion has grown in the rural areas despite dif­ficult conditions. The tradition of rural resis­tance is rich - the struggles of Pondoland, Zee rust and many other places are well knownThere is also a rich tradition of rural and

urban struggles linking up.Suffering in the bantustans has made migrant workers more militant. The strike by 40 000 mine workers in 1919 and again in 1946 was triggered off by worsening poverty in the reserves.In 1959 the African National Congress

(ANC) and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) called for a potato boycott to fight the terrible exploitation of farm workers in the Eastern Transvaal.Thirty years ago this year, 2 000 South Afri­

cans met at Kliptown to draw up the Freedom Charter. On the rural areas they said:• “the land shall be shared amongst those who work it;• restriction of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re­divided amongst those who work it, to banish famine and land hunger;

the state shall help the peasants with imple­ments, seed, tractors and dams to save

the soil and assist the tillers;• freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work the land;• all shall have the right to occupy

the land whereever they choose;• people shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.”The Freedom Charter links problems in rural areas to others caused by

the apartheid system. Land redistribution would not be enough without fulfilling all of the demands of the Freedom Charter. And without South Africa's working people having their rightful share in all of the country’s wealth.The struggle for land cannot be separated from the struggles for the right

to work for housing, secuntv. comfort, education, and for political rights.----------------------------- -—

O rganise or starveFarm workers produce food but starve page 31

CONTENTS IN S ID E :

M gwaiiTh epeoplefightbackpage 14

With Sticks and StonesA look at the history of rural resistance

Rural' ' women:

Strugglingagainst thebantustanburdenpage 18

Forgotten W arriorsC o n d e m n e d to exile in a rural- w asteland the plight of ban- nished people is se ldom - rem em bered

P A G E 16

| The Mslnga W ar*___i How strong la Inkatha ! UDF Interview______

R e m o va ls of a quiet kind • a look at la b o u r ten - •nta w ith ­out land

P A G E 19

Unw anted

T h e La b o u r bureaux keep unem ployed w o rK e rs m the bantustans

P A G E 10

1 SAOF propoganda «I Weenen violence —Mgwaii resistancePensions_____________15Wartom Namibia.......~ 21The rise of the ICU ____ 26

! Ethnicity_____________ 27i Bopping In the reserves ~ 28 Inkatha on removals — 29Witch hunting_________30Bantustan business___36Stockenstroom_______ 39The killing drought ...... 40The politics of ecology — 42

POLITICAL COM MENT STATEDFOH&HATKm atsS

LAND AND LABOUR

H EN TH E G O V E R N M E N T and the bones talk about persuading people. South African* and the world at large know exactly what they mean. Persuasion in South Africa has nothing to do with consultation or discussioo and even less to do with agree­ment.Instead it means the forced relocation o f

people, the detention m solitary confinement o f people who are opposed to exploitation and oppression, and endless pass raids. Per­suasion also means the arbitrary redassifica- bon o f millions o f South Africans as citizens o f so-called independent homelands.The government’s recent announcement

that it was suspending the forced removal o f people in communities convinced very few -South Africans, especially when they said they would only remove those who had agreed to move or whose leaden had agreed for them.A group o f communities under threat of

removal issued a statement making it quite ri^ »r that all removals must stop.W e w ill fight for our future whatever

reprieves or threats the government issues. W e bebeve that it is our struggles until now vfaidi have shown the government that to continue with removals will cause bloodshed and fighting. The government lean the bad -pebbcity which this brings to South Africa. But thi« is ryw u i entirely by its own anions,'they said. ____When removals cause public outcry and

fierce resistance it’s often hard to understand why the government continues with its prog­ramme o f removals. Removals expose Apar­theid in its most violent and naked form.

But even a brief analyus o f forced removals reveab that the government is not only deter­mined to continue with its programme, but compelled to. Along with the pass laws, con­trols over bousing and residence in the urban areas, manipulation o f citizenship, and the bantustan system, forced removals are an essential part o f controlling the African work­ing dass.From the earliest days o f South Afncan

capitalist agriculture, mining, industry and commerce, the ruling dass and the govern­ment have tried to make sure they have suffi­cient workers where they want them, when they want them and bow they want them.The bosses were faced with s shortage of

workers because the indigenous people had their own land, animals snd crops and were economically self-suffiaent. T o create a potential workforce the ruling dass had to smash that «elf-suffiacnt economy, leaving African people with no means of support other than wage iaboui on white-owned farms and mines. This would also satisfy white far­mers who wanted to take African people s land for themselves.

South Africa's rulert passed iaw» to u*pOi-- sess the people, and to ensure that workers were available’ for wage labour and their land available for others to farm.

Most famous among these measures was the 1913 Land Act which restricted Afncan land ownership to a mere 13 percent o f the availa­ble land in SA , on which 70 percent o f the population were meant to live and work. This was impossible from the start and grew stead­ily worse, forcing increasing numbers to seek work and survival in the cities, and on the mines and farms.It wasn’t long before the workseekers out­

numbered the available jobs and the job mar­ket in the dties was swamped. Since the early stages o f capitalist economic development a surplus people has existed — thousands upon thousands with no chance of surviving on the land and who oould not find jobs in the dues

Super-prof its from control over land; jobs and jobless

Soon the challenge facing the ruling dass and the government was no longer creating a landless work force but rather containing and controlling it — ensuring that the right numbeT o f people w ere allowed to migratefrom the rural areas to work, while the surpluswas locked into poverty in the rural areas.

But as former prime frowsier, Jan Smuts, pom ted out - you might as well try to sweep the ocean back with a broom. There was no way that people starring m the rural areas would avoid coming to the urban areas insearch o f work. And there was no way that the Tuhng and the government could allow uncontrolled movement.This fundamental conflict o f interests bet­

ween the working dass and the bosses and their government is fought out every day. With the pass laws as their broom, thousands of police sweep the streets in search o f people whose passes do not entitle them to be in that particular area. Every year over 200 000 people are arrested under the pass lawsin Johannesburg alone. Four million people have experienced the violence o f a pass arrest, the degradation of a prison cell and the humiliation o f the commissiooen courts.

People arrested, charged and found guilty are soon-back on the streets. The government does not have the machinery to drag them att back to the rural areas and the problems which forced them to leave are still there, driving them as forcefully as ever to the aties and towns.Forced removals were started to turn back

the tide o f people from the rural areas In 1960 some 40% of the Afncan population lived in bantustans. By 1980 the government had managed to push this up to 54%. T o do this they removed three million people from the urban areas and the white farms.But the fundamental contradiction the rul­

ing class cannot escape is that they have built a capitalist economy that is unable to absorb the working dass. which has no means o f sur­vival other than wage labour in that capitalist

economy. * - .And these surplus people are not being

looked after "by -any welfare programmes either. A network o f controls lias been developed to contain them in the rural areas. T o seek work they have to register with the local labour bureaux and sit and rot until some employer sends through a request for labour. With thousands o f people on the wait-

-ing lists, many will never get jobs Eleven million South Africans live (and die) like this.

and jobless, they are dictated to by government appointed chiefs whose power depends on performing the task o f control. This strategy has gone as far as establishing self- governing states in which the puppets are given a legislative assembly, a large bureauc­racy and a budget. Their captive subjects starves while they squander millions.Once in power these servants o f apartheid

have too little power to improve bantustan life — but enough to keep people under stria, repressive control.

A il this suits the bosses because it leaves workers so desperate and deprived tiiat they can be more easily exploited. Beggars can’ t be choosers and any offer o f work, no matter bow bad the waaes and working conditions, is better than no work at all. The bosses taxe run advantage of this and, with government assis­tance they easily rvd themselves of workers who oppose their own exploitation.

Even farmers use the bantustans, dumping their workers across the border and then trucking them in when they need them.Those people who slip through the network

of pass controls and who manage to escape forced removals find themselves in the dties with nowhere to live. T o restnct the number of people moving to the urban area*, the gov­ernment deliberately built too few houses in the urban areas.Again they miscalculated. The fact o f the

matter was that people in the rural areas were faced with the choice between starvation in the rural areas and squatting in the urban areas, and they made the obvious choice

The housing shortage is massive. In Soweto alone 40 000 people wait in anger and frustra­tion to be allocated a house. Estimates of the number o f people in a standard four-roomed house range from 13 to 17.

People lucky enough to have bouses face increasing expense. The government created rtrre situation by cutting o ff community coun­cil funds and forcing them to raise money through rents and service charges.Township residents simply cannot afford to

pay any more. They cannot afford to eat any less. And so, when already unpopular coun­cillors announced increases, popular protest was swift and direct. Many councillors lost then lives, their homes and property were destroyed. The council and admin board offices were burnt down.Entire townships became ungovernable as

neither the community councils nor their administration board bosses, nor even the army or the police could get people to pay rent. The contradiction o f the surplus people was being fought out again, this time right next door to the centres of power and wealth.I f oommuniry councils and ■ ii— ■ bo«rtls are

to govern these townships again, they will need-the army and the police constantly pre­sent. The struggle for control o f the townships

pasa laws and afftradiction o f a working class with no work, no land and no rights.These inescapable contradictions continue

to bound South A frica ’s rulers in all their attempts to control the African working dass. Members o f trade unions, civics, women, youth and student groups all have contact with family and friends in the rural areas. As their political consciousness expands, the links between degradation and suffering in the country and exploitation and oppression in the towns become dearer They are the result o f the same social system in which a ■mall minority owns and controls wealth and power and continually has to impose that ownership and control.

How long the government and the bosses can continue this ultimately hopeless task of controlling the working dass has become a real question

Administration o f the apartheid machine oosts the government millions o f rand each year. A t the same time resistance to forced removals, the pass laws, rent increases, Bantu education, and undemocratic government increases and democratic organisations grow.

Attempts to suppress opposition through the use of the army and the police have failed. People have shown their willingness to meet force with fore? refuse to be intimidated.

Peaceful protests against rent increases have escalated into dvil wan. protests agamst excessive use o f corporal punishment and the

. . . . . '- . » I havf r V (-IlMUCuau. ..... . — •—*--5 1lated into nationwide schools boycotts The retrenchment o f 6000 workers at Sasol threatens to develop into a national general strike.

Even so. the stakes are too high for the gov­ernment simply to accept defeat. Each new failure and set back prompts them to renewed action. A never ending senes o f commissions review government policy and strategy and make proposals for more effective measures o f controlThe dividing lines however between the

exploiters and the exploited have been too clearlv drawn and the arsenal of controls that the bosses and their government' rely on to ensure exploitation and subordination of the working dass have been identified and rejected.

No m an ran for co ve r w hen the shooting b e ga n at M atshe-M atshe. S h o u l­d e r to sh ou ld e r 1 000 m en

stood in the blazing sun, firing vo l­ley after volley.'.*

Som e said it was the dagga grown in

flinching.JSixtv.men died that morning,^/larch 11, Mabomvu and Mafosi clans nao clashed

The sun had risen at5 am and by midday the temperature was a sweltering 40C.

One thousand men lined up in the open veld, most dressed in boiler suits with sashes, head bands or belts to denotewhich side they belonged to. .

The shooting continued until the Mafosi ran out of ammunition. Only then did their ‘warriors' flee, to be pursued by the jubil­ant Mabomvu.. -

Many Mafosi were mowed down by their pursuers. Sixty men died and at least 30 were injured.

The Majosis were completely defeated, and those who had made off with the Mabomvu cattle before the battle, were shot down before they got very far.

It took three days for the bodies to be taken to the mortuary at the Tugela Ferry

_u n<;nitaL-Onlv-35 werejocated — the. S s werecollected by relatives before> the police arrived. The district surgeon

whose job it is to perform post mortems - « * <M* a U 4 f c e s e ^ a - d i e J » ; a a 9 i e n c e .

area, found the mortuary floor littered with bodies. The midday temperature

,<§ was39’ c~ ‘ v • T o page6

In three months fast year 35 people died in the Msinga violence. The offi­cial figures don't count the bodies col­lected off the battlefield by the families of the dead. What is the reason for the killings? The commer­cial press puts it down to ‘Zulu blood- lust’. STATE OF THE NATION took a closer look at...

STATE OF THE NATION

JL he area o f Msinga in N«tal is located between Dundee and Greytown. It hal it» heartland in the village o f Tugela Ferry, on-the banki o f the Tugela River. The ftark androcky hills, eroded by the summer thun-

- derstonns, rise steeply from the nver. Thorn tree* cover the moderate slope*. Even in pimmer there is very httla grass.'M ost -agricultural enterprise h concen-

.' trated along the banks o f the river. RwaZohi jovertm en t boreholes have been sunk overm oatof the-territory, but many are txx func­tional because they are poorly sited. Daring

'th e drought the watertaWe in Msinga fell «o -k w that even the well-aituated boreholesdried up. People have to walk many kilomet­ers each day for water.There are 174 000 hectare* o f arid

/thorn veid strewD with rocks in Msinga. Th e ' -population censuses incomplete bccaiar iac- tion fighting apparently interrupted the 19$0 surrey. In 1970 the census was 115 000. Ej6-‘ mates now vary from 160 000 to 200 000 people. •

In 1954 the Tomhnaon Commission calcu­lated that Msinga oould adequately support •

. only 2 100 families. N ow there are about 20 ■000 families. *

The only way people can survive is throughemployment outside the area,The income offamilies is derived alnfoct-totally from.the

*. remittances of migrant workers in the cities ’ and in the mine*. 1

T h e Land A c t o f 1913 and the'Land'BiH of 1936 drew boundaries on three sides, Kmit-

,; * in g the movement o f the people o f Msinga. ' 1 ^Msinga was almost surrounded by * * i t e

\ farmland. '

w *t / ithin this area eight dans could be dis­tinguished. Their dutmcrioo was accen­tuated by the appointment o f ciriefs to each o f these groups. Before the government introduced the bantustan policy, the.exis­tence o f chiefs was beginning to die eet. People were moving away from tribabsm, but goveromenrpoticy — especially after the 1953 A ct — halted this tendency. The appointed chiefs now owed allegiance lo the paramount chief at Ulundi and lew jo to their people. Chiefs became puppets in the KftwU o f bantustans and central govern­ment. ' ", The quantity o f land allocated to the people

o f Msinga might have been adequate in 1913 but is unlikely. It is now totally m»Ar^n*tg The tradmocaJ anne xing o f Land as families expanded could no longer o co ir__ it was limited on three sides by wtaxto-owned land. ____

And Msinga became one o f the many rural ‘dumping grounds’ for people who were removed from white *arms and black freehold areas. * • •

Population pressure on the land is one of the root o f conflict in the area.This fact was recognised by the government t

as long ago as the late 1800‘ s. Despite th i*^ relocation o f people into the area has gone ahead. . ,

Another .cause o f conflict has been that of disputed boundaries. In 1922 an attempt was made by the local magistrate to redefine the boundary between the Mthemhu *ndMabaso. ____ .Th e -result was a war in .which over 1W -

people are said to have died._________________

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aV ' / ' ............... a ’ i

f k i . -

f ' A :" %

Carrying the dead o il the battlefield--

In 1944 an area o f prime agricultural land xja the banks o f the Tugela -was disputed by the Mtbembus and Mchunus. A fter 150 people were killed the l*nd was-confiscated .by the government and handed over to what b now known as the KwaZulu Development Corporation (K D C ).The K D C hoped to manage the land effi­

ciently and productively as an example to the people. Initially meahe* and potatoes were grown and there seemed promise o f a good harvest. But the displaced people stole the

potato crop and moti o f the mane.

A j in o y e d by this failure to harvest the ‘de­monstration' crops, the KD C planted cot­ton. This was n o t«o len . but made do profit. The following year strawberries were planted An agreement between the K D C KwaZulu government and a Durban-based firm led to the fields o f Msinga being used to grow delicacies for the nch o f Durban The war between the Maiosis and the

Mabomvus has resulted in only one pitcheO

i battle. Otherwise guenlla warfare continues i — surprise attacks on isolated kraals.| am bus he* on the road, even shooting mig- I rants in Johannesburg hostels.

i B o r d e r warfare is almost a thing of the| past with killer gangs striking deeplv mto the 1 heart o f enemv country Ln January this year

an ambulance from the Tugela Ferrv hospt- : taJ was borrowed by one of the amoulance i drivers and used to transport an impi into I enemv temtorv and then to ma*e a g :uw a»

V E N G E A N C E

Fa ctio ni H E REASO N for fiction figbt-

M. ing or the 'ideology o f ven­geance' in Msinga cm be explained by one factor — insufficient land.

By 1881. there were 14 tribes K t- tied in the Msinga location, of which the largest were the Tembu and Qiunu. A t that stage there were no territorial boundaries, and tribes­men tended to live dose to the chiefs kraal. Those roost distant from his kiaal intermingled with neighbouring tribesTraditionally the number o f fot-

lowen a chief had. reflected his power and authority. This deter­mined his ability to allocate land This tradition was undermined by

the natural population growth of tribes. Secondly, chiefs were paid a

I l l j l l l Ot I

salary by the magistrate . The salary was calculated according to the size ■ of the tribe and the rank of the I chief. This encouraged the chief to attract followers and added to land pressure.

Most importantly the government began to evict squatters from sur­rounding *white' areas and place them in the Msmga reserve From 1911 to 1921 the populauon in Msinga increased by 21 percentThe pressure on land meant that

chiefs were now unable to allocate land without encroaching on other tribes' temtorv. But the chief had no control over the influx of people which was decided by the govern­ment.

It soon became necessary for the

a creation of apartheidmagistrate to proclaim imaginary boundaries between tribes to pre­vent disagreements The govern­ment decided to fix a boundarv bet­ween the Tembu and Mabaso tnbes. This boundary cut the Mabaso off from a natural bound­ary — the Tugela River The Mabaso petitioned the gov­

ernment to revise this bounaary but without success In 1905 thev took matters into their own hands and encroached on the Tembu side of the boundarv ln response the Tembu killed five Mabaso. burnt 11 kraals, destroved stock and looted extensively The authorities believed that each

change o f boundarv would ease the tension ln fact, no boundarv

change could end the hostility, for boundaries could not be redefined without taking land from one tribe and giving it to another

In April 1922 the magistrate decided to implement a plan which he thought woDld ease the tensions between the Tembu and MaDaso He set up a beacon on the Nokeshe Plateau This redefinition of the boundary brought to a head * 0 vears o f tension and hostilityFierce fighting broke out between

the Tembus and Mabasos The vio­lence lasted for three months and onlv ended when police remlorce- menis amved from Dundee and DurbanA tier 1922 the depression and a

large influx of people through evic-

uons placed a tremendous strain on the Msinga people.

Antagonism between the Chunu and Tembu reached a peak during World War II and in 1 44 the tnoes mobilised for a showdown The confrontation began on farm land and involved tarm labourers living as far as 30 miies from the reserve Farmwoncen and labour lenants

were aware of tneir insecure posi­tion — tnat thev could be dismissed and evicted B> aiding their tnbesm war tnev were identifying therr-- seives witn the land and their chief in the event of eviction

Faction fignting began as an attempt bv rural people to maintain their rura; economy — and movt importantiv — access to land

IN 1983 ... 35 KILLED IN THE FIRST THREE / MONTHS O F 1984 WHAT WILL 1985 BRING?STATE OF THE NATION . 7

After the attack.The ambulance driver w u j member o f the

Mabomvu /action and hu incursion was into Majosi territory at Pomeroy He waited in the vehicle while the other men attacked a bouse, shooting four men. Two o f them died immediately, but the two others were taken to hospital.

In the past year the employment of hired killers has increased. One o f the reasons for this is increasing unemployment.Many o f the out-of-work young men who

return to Msinga are aiming to violence as a way o f veoung aggression and making J money to survive. These local mercenaries j

— the 'hired killers’ — are replacing the j traditional irapi which wa* under the control of the chief. It is said that ‘the real power in Msinga is passing from the chief and his indunas into the hands o f young men. who have learnt how to survive by illicit means and who wield authority through the barrel o f the gun.'

1 he Msinga crisis eventually led to a Msinga/Weenen Commission o f Inquiry appointed by Koomhof The result was the enlargement o f the police force instead of attempts to solve the crisis of poverty and unemployment. A t Easter, police reinforce­ments arrived from Johannesburg, a contin­gent o f forty white police The neu police force was effective The war has subsided But the causes of this violence — the pov­erty, unemployment, landlessness and hunger — have not.

Land conflict sows poverty, disease andstarvationTHE EFFECTS o f faction fight* a r t*o d far bayond tha battla* tham aalva*.

During a war batwaan two d a n a It la traditionally taboo to plough tha land or plant any crop*. It la baliavad that to do so would taka tha atrangth away from tha Impla and tha chancaa ot w inning tt>a w ar would ba graatiy dacraaaad.

During tha tum nwr o f 1964 ad agricultural land In both araas w as unploughad and not ptantad. Tha rasult was furthar povarty and starvation.Tha hospital bacam a llmttad in

Its ability to aarva tha naads of tha M ajosl paopla. Am bulancas v a r a tumad back whan caliad to c d la c t m atam lty caaas and tha moblla clinic was unabla to raach Its two stopping points from Christmas until Eaatar.A ftar an sm bulanca was

hl|ackad, virtually no Tugala Farry hoapltal staff darad risk travailing into M ajosl tarrttory. A s a rasult m asslas casas an ivad at tha hoapltal In Incraasing numbars bacauaa of tha lack of Immunization. A a p ad a l m aaslas ward had to ba opanad. M aaslas couplad with poor nutrition hava iad to a tragic incraasa In child mortality.

Th e gun supply police ca n ’t endC LU STE R E D O N the banks of the Tugela are a number o f tents surrounded by high wire fences. This is the home o f the firearms squad.

The camp was set up as a temporary solution to faction fighting ui Msinga but the unit has now existed for 2b years The firearms squad attempts to reduce the killing bv confiscating weapons.

To encourage iocaJ people to pve up theu weapons there is no prosecution in cases where guns arc recovered The majority of police hauls are a result of up-off? from the opposing faction

When they first arrived the gun squad hoped that Msinga would be cleaned up within a year. 1 361 weapons were collected between 1979 and the end of 1983. The squad collected guns at the rate of -u per month in 1983

Fe** firearms are made in Msinga Most come from Jonannesburg where thev are stolen or traded tor Oagga. Police regularly raid the Tugela valle>. one of South Africa's premier dagg3 growing areas. In 1979/KO nearlv 60 000 kilograms valued at well over R10U million were destroyed but tnere is atwavs plenty left for sale

Ammunition is not easilv obtainable Doctors extracting bullets from wounded people have found pieces of un metal and cloth The ammunition does not always fit the

calibre of the firearm, so it is necessary to wrap the bullets in other metal or coarsecloth.

While South African Defence Force service nfies and equipment, including machine guns, are definitely m circulation in the area it is clear that some tribesmen fight with more primitive firearms, some of them probablv ‘home made' in workshops around the

country

When police receive information they immediately go to the kraal or house. If guns are found the person is not arrested.

However ..if the suspect is not able to produce

anv firearms he is arrested and subjected to

lengthy interrogation

a

9 l

STATE OF THE NATION A P A R T H E ID S C H ILD

Buthelezi claim s 500 000 Inkatha supporters, m any from the rural areas. T ru e or false? A nd can Inkatha survive w ithout P retoria ’s helping hand?THOSE NAM ELESS , k c e le a Pretori* bureaucrats wbo designed the 1982 plan to hand a chunk of KwaZulu to Swaziland, may have been Inkatha’* • finest -recruiting officers.Not o f course, that this was their

intention. But the plan to hand the Ingwavuma territory to King Sobhuza sparked a crisis which more than doubled Inkatha's mem­bership.Th e threat to ingwavuma provided

a rallying point for emoboual meet­ings throughout Natal at which people joined Inkatha in their thousands.And this was particularly true

Ingwavuma itself where inkatha uniforms and insignia blossomed.Less than two yean later, paper

membership remains, but active support has dwindled and Inkatha uniforms are rarely seen in the Ingwavuma district.The view o f the Inkatha-oon trolled

KwaZulu administra­tion as liberator has changed to that o f oppressor to the extent that there has been talk recently o f moves towards ‘indepen­dence’ from KwaZulu for the 90 000-strong Tembe-Tonga group living in the Ingwavuma district.In March last year,

the Tembe tribal authority met Swazi government officials to seek protection from the KwaZulu administration.Behind this local conflict lie the

activities o f the new KwaZulu Bureau o f Natural Resources. It has placed restrictioos oq thf cutting of grass and firewood and is in the pro­cess o f erecting a 59km electrified fence to form the Tembe Elephant R «unhappiness over the loss of graz­ing, the threatened removal o f 30 families from within the proposed reserve, and the shooting o f a Mr Mazibuko by the bureau's game guards.

Buthelezi’s response to the crisis has been to attack the Sunday Tribune jounalist who reported on these developments and to threaten the position o f Chief Tembe and other Tribal Council members.

He defended the establishment of an elephant reserve, saving the elephant ‘ has had such a vital part in our history and culture.'

Threats to Chief Tembe s position came when he and his Tribal Coun­cil were summoned to appear before the KwaZulu Legislative

Assembly in May last year to exp­lain their search for help outside KwaZulu.In early November Q uef

Buthelezi again threatened the Tembe people. He displayed docu­ments signed before the magistrate and additional magistrates at Ingwavuma. One o f these ceded Chief Mziraba Tembe's land to ■£«*a*>ia*d This w *« ^tnequently cancelled. Buthelezi alleged the South African government had promised self-determinaoon to the Tembe people, which the Depart­ment o f Foreign Affairs denied.

Gatsha’s threats, rural control

Buthelezi warned Chief Tembe he would lose his position as chief if he continued to ignore the law govern­ing chiefs in KwaZulu

This law is the KwaZulu Chiefs and Headmen's Act. KwaZulu's own version of the notorious Bantu Authonues Act. It places the hir­ing. finng and salaries o f al! KwaZulu chiefs directh under

Buthelezi s Department o f Author­ity Affairs, providing a useful instrument for Inkatha's control of rural areas.Through their control o f land allo­

cation. registrations for work seek­ers. pensions and other patronage, the chiefs are effective recruiting agents for InkathaThis coercion, and the conflict in

the Ingwavuma district reflect Inkatha's basic dilemna. While it is able to recruit a large membership through its control o f public resources and the instruments of state control in the rural areas, real support is lading as Inkatha becomes increasingly identified with an inefficient administration and with unpopular institutions such as the chieftainship

This loss ot support docs not mean

Gatsha go es for public d isp lays: far le f t addressing a not-eo- full stadium; left, p lay­ing Chancellor at the University o f Zulu- iand; and above, saluting supporters

that open opposition to Inkatha will develop, or even that membership will decline. Rural people lead a precarious existence and cannot nsk losing their access to the means of survival by being seen to oppose those who control this access

Empty rhetoric, less support

| Only traumatic events like forced I removals or the invasion o f the Urn- | versity o f Zululand hostels by j Inkatha supporters prompt rural i people to express open criticism j The inabilility or unwillingness of I Inkatha to assist communities fight- i ing threatened removals has led to j allegations of KwaZulu complicitv ! in the process A ^eceni Umversitv

o f Natal survey in St Wendolins. an I area which has successfully resisted j removal, reflected a widespread j disillusionment. Some 9o percent o f ' those interviewed said Inkatha had : done nothing to a&sis; them

The violence at the Universitv o f | Zululand on Octooer 29 o f 1983, which left four students dead and

> over 100 injured, shocked many Inkatha supporters

Initial reaction in rural areas was to believe the Inkatha version of

i events put out by llanga. But. as 1 students from rural homes started

returning to relate eyewitness accounts of the attack, tnere was a swing in opinion Reports say Inkatha members bumf their uniforms in anger Other member* explained that tnev wouid no longer support Inkatha. but they would have to keep their memoership Inkatha is continuing iu» attempts

to gain comoiete control in rural Natal bv large I v following a poii.-v of coercion through their control or the local state machinery and pat-

! ronageThis mav be an effective short­

term p o lio hut. in the long run it must backfire

E 5

UDF INTERVIEW STATE OF THE NATION 9

Are there many rural organiza­tions affiliated to UDF?

It is true to say that we have strong sup­port in the raraJ areas, a large part which still has to be converted into formal organization. But

we already have organization in areas like the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Transvaal.

In the past, It seems that rural resistance has been around Issues like removals and betterment planning which Immediately affect people's economic position. Is It possible to translate this local resistance around Immediate Issues Into long-term political organization?

sThese communities are organising around immediate issues, but their organa*boos have the potential to cany the struggle far beyond the immediate short term issues. The question o f additional land for African people is going to become a daily issue.The 13 percent o f the land set aside fbr A fri­

can people is literally overflowing. W e can’t see how the government can calm this situa­tion— which is generating so much unhappi­ness that it is inevitable that organisation around these areas will take place.

People -are going from the Ciskei to the Western Cape for instance, and then being taken back to the Ciskei. W e most not forget that these people arc members o f unioason the towns and that through this their political consciousness is raised. This leads them to have a critical look at the circumstances m which they have left their children and their wives in the rural areas.

AO tins is petrol which generates beat and must generate action through organisation.

How possible Is It to organised areas where chiefs and tribal authorities exist? /

As the pressures of the capitalist economy penetrate even those rural areas, more and •more people are making a break with the tri­bal ties o f loyalty to the chief — who are being seen to be serving not the community but themselves. What we are going to see is the building o f new leaden, not on the basis o f old traditions. It will be a slow and pamful process.

What are the difficulties of UDF organising In rural areas?

The main difficulty is ooe o f resources. These communities are located far from does. Most o f the men in theae communities stay in the cities where they work so it is a destabilised community. Magopa is a good example. Many o f the able-bodied men were working in Johannesburg. Those left behind were old people and children. And even when men could go back they were only

TALKING TO THE FRONT

TERROR LEKOTA ON RURAL ORGANISATION

United D em ocratic Front publicity se cretary, T e rro r Lekota, speaks to State of the Nation

ing autonomy o f women to decide for them­selves whether they want to join an organisa­tion or not

It is going to help a lot if an organisation which organises in the compounds and hos­tels is consciously going to follow men to the areas m which they stay and take advantage of the periods in which they are home. so that these men can give the seal of approval to the organisation. It is going to make for smoother organisation o f women m rural areas

Once the resources are available, the pro­cess can be followed consciously and it will break bamers that are very difficult to break.

there fo r a day or two.A ll the government did was to wait for their

time at borne to expire and then go ahead with removal programmes.

A further problem o f rural areas is that they are out o f public attention. They are not immediately accessible to the outside wocid.In the isolation and desolaboo o f the rural

areas, the chiefs and the state can terrorise communities into submission. These are real problems.

UDF seems to have merely been responding to crises in ru ra l areas, like the'removal of the Magopa people. Is It likely that UDF will set up alternative structures in rural areas; before crises take place?

We are now contemplating that il we have the resources we will employ rural organisers who will set up structures, monitor whjt is going on and feed information to these com­munities. It is only through structures that resistance can become active.

What Is the potential tor organising women in rural areas, If as you point out,-men are mostly away from their

homes In rural areas?

In attempting to organise our rural rally, our efforts were concentrated on organising rural women. H ow ever.Ihe traditional cus­tom o f men acting as heads ot the tamiiies

,**ho comesin. Howpwer, there « anmcrefs-

What is the relative importance of organising urban and rural people?

The South African scene is quite unique in some senses. The vast bulk of workers still come from rural areas, in terms of that there is a tremendous need for orgamsauon of rural areas.

However, it is easier to organise workers at the point o f employment You reach them easily and you reach them consistently . But we must also be aware o f where the work force is located. Some form o f orgamsauon is necessary in those rural areas which are resevoirs o f labour.

A lso, because workers in urban areas are relatively more comfortable, it seems that a high level o f militancy will come from rural areas. T o ignore these areas is to ignore areas

j o f high resistanceHowever at the same time, urbanised work-

' ers remain very important because legalised | trade unionism for Afncan workers is only I about 2 years old and there is still a tremend- i ous amount to be covered.

When workers get retrenched they are forced into rural areas. This means that if you organise workers and they get retrenched, a new lot o f workers areemployed, so you must start right from----- Y o u can go on sno or) inSTwayTherefore it is necessary to organise people

where they stay as well.

t Generate action through organisation 5

STATE OF THE NATION ' 10 T H E D IS C A R D E D

---- ’ "

No t w a n t e d / n e v e rW A N T E D : People undei 25 or over 45. especially

those who have do money to pay taxes, do money to pay bribe*, do connections to recommend them, those that are tick and weak or just look ihabby and thin. They qualify.

Women, * well as peopie who have been fired or have deserted, also definitely qualify.

These are the three million unemployed people living in South Africa ’s banrustans. They stand tit­tle chance o f ever getting a job.

Kept oat o f the-towns and cities by ever-stricter influx control laws, their only ray o f hope is the possibil­ity o f bung recruited at one o f the labour bureaux which are scattered through/the bantustans at magis­trates’ or chiefs' offices.

Bosses send ‘requests’ — called 'requisitions’ for labour to these labour bureaux through the administratioa boards in the towns

Labour bureaux can be described as the worid's crudest kind o f employment agency.

They are continually surrounded by crowds — thousands o f people waiting in desperation for jobs that

A dcrk at a labour bureau in Lebowa described the situation 'Every day not less than 4 0 0 work­seekers arrive. When the word is spread that a recruiter is coming, more a thousand workseekers come.'

A Gazankulu worker said: “ I f the labour bureau is recruiting ten people, then five hundred people will pitch up for the job. People have to wait two years for work."

Some people wait longer. Many people five up. Those who live far­away from the labour bureaux are the most unfortunate.

Areas nearest the district, labour bureaux are privileged, people there find it i to this office to wait for fob*, labour dcrk explained.

Sometimes employersselves to look for workers. Other times they send a “ home boy" to recruit for them. And they send requisitions and it is the responsibility o f the labour clerks to do the recruiting.

According to a labour derk in Lebowa, “Sometimes employer* are afraid to come themselves because the workseekers are wild and uncontrollable with hunger, and become very angry when they don’t get jobs."

One employer who came to recruit w »s mobbed as he was leaving— be was assaulted and robbed o f hts watch and both he and the magis­trate were trampled under fooc

Apparently, after that incident an armed South African policeman was appointed as the labour clerk.

With so many people and so few jobs, it would be wishful thinking to believe that jobs are allocated on a first come first served basis.

I Bribery is rife. The only chance of | being nobced is to bribe. When a

W*K»f«g tor wort

bureau can be a tuft-

ttme )o6 • wtth no hope

. . . 4

requisition arrives, people crowd in front o f the derk and throw their passes at him. The so-called “ green page’ - a R IO stuck in between the pages o f the pass book often helps the derk to decide which book he wiD catch. *

Some areas sd fom *et requisi­tions ao workers.'fnxn A e s e places .try and move to otberfparts o f the bantustans which receive more requisitions. However they will never get a job unless their refer­ence book says they come from that area. So again they resort to brib-

CryA Lebowa derk explains,' “ It is

seen as custom — they must oO the C h ief s hand. Just to greet the Chief one must pay. People buy stamps to have a false address entered in their reference book."

Workseekers need two essential qualifications — a healthy body and a healthy passbook. And these are difficult enough to meet if ooe looks at the conditions under which people bve in the bantustans.

If a worker’s pass shows that he has

destinies are controlled

by labour bureau

S T

y

oOt paid his taxes, has deserted or was fired from a previous contract, -be has do chance o f getting a job.

A labour derk said that those wbo haven’ t paid their taxes are set aside and the recruiter chooses those he wants from the ones that are left over.

Another labour derk said, “ employers check workers' records

. in their pass book. As t result people wbo have left employers as s result o f squabbles and so on become victims o f this system."T o sort out the healthy and strong

from the weak and sick, the crudest o f methods are used.

Ooe worker described what hap­pened to him: “ I was told to come to the office on a specific day because a

white man was coming from Cape Town to recruit labourers. This man was from Fattis and Moms. He brought with him a bag o f flour and the first thirty people who could lift and carry the bag were given a con­tract."

Another worker said: “ People are measured and the taller ones are taken."The police and labour office staff

help in the ‘medical tests’ . One worker said: “They wanted tough people so a policeman held us and

When survival depends on landT ___ f V .. ■ I.nr T ia mn

T H E E XPU LS IO N o f workers to the rural areas from which they come, benefits both the state and the factory owners. It means that there is leas likelihood of political unrest in urban areas where unemployment is already high. Moreover social and economic rcsottosihtfity for these workers is then p laod on the banrustan governments. Inadequate funds and a corrupt bureaucracy mean that retrenched workers are unlikely to get either unemployment benefits (U IF ) or pensions.

It is argued that forcing these people into rural areas, where many are landless, will lead to political resistance there. As they have been exposed to worker organisation these retrenched workers will create new political consciousness in the rural areas.

This is difficult, however, as forcing retrenched workers into rural areas leads inatead to the break-up o f organisation Bowed under the authority of the chiefs, and straggling to get social benefits, these work- en are too concerned with survival to attempt organisation.The steel company from which James

Hlongwane. a migrant worker was

retrenched is one o f the oldest companies on the Reef, producing for both the local and export market. It was severely hit by the recession and began retrenching workers from November 1982. A ll grades o f workers were affected.

" A t the end o f January 1983. approximately 70 migrant workers *e re retrenched. Mos: o f them were still serving their annual con­tracts. The Metal and Allied Workers Union, in an attempt to put an end to the widespread practice o f retrenching workers who were still under contract, threatened the company with legal action for breach o f con­tract.The following interview wi\h Hlongwane

took place in November 1983. two months after he had lost his job. Since January 1983. he had spent his time back in his homestead in Dukuza, in the Upper Tugela Locauon. KwaZulu.

Can you tell me bow you lost your Job?

I h.\d worked for the company for 1U years earning R89.00 per week. Each year 1 would come home to visit my family for three weeks in December and then 1 would return in

January. This year. I returned to the com­pound where we used to stay; waited there ior a week and iuld there was no work and I would have to return home. Sometimes we would wait i week or two in the com­pound and then go into the factory. This year a hundred o f us waited and then were sent home.

Were you given any amoey?

They had given me leave pay in December. I only got an R80 bonus and no money for the week in the compound. Here I got some food from my brothers who were working and also had to borrow money to buy soap and a shirt When I left by tram I only bad this bonus money. The foreman did not explain anv- thing he just said that there is no work and 1 saw that there were many o f us waiting for work. And then many of us left. Some wen; to the Transkei. others came back with me

How have you been surviving since this time?

1 have had to borrow money from my neighbour. He does not work, but get» money from his brother who is working. In March I applied for UIF. I had to go to the

THE DISCARDED STATE OF THE NATION 11

shook us. They pounced on y^J when you were least expecting it."

Employer! are not thy about using these methods. A manual written by Van Breda gives the following advise to employers: "L e t the

‘ applicants run on the spot, in order to eliminate the unfit ones."

If worker* are fortunate enough to

be selected, they are unlikely to turn down a job. Bowes take advan­tage o f this, offering very low wages and ipakmg workers endure the worst work and bvmg coodioocs.As a Kwarulu worker said: “ I was

suffering so I took the job without knowing anything. When I found out I was bong paid 75 cents per

hour. 1 was unhappy bat didn't have a place to stay. There was nothing I could do. 1 was too scared to ask for

j more in case I lost the job ."

! Worker* rarely refuse bad con*|tracts because there are so few jobs.

I I f conditions become unbearable I they deacn. The -most unpopular

jobs include farming, brickmakmg, foondary work, mining, some con­struction and road building.

O n c e w o r k e r * *rm ...........b o * u m c u i to register them. Regotiatioa o f workers has the

"ipt'n* rmmlaHy agreed oootxaa?M reality it is nothing o f the sort. Con­ditions at the workplace seldom resemble conditions spelt out on the contract form and often condition* on the contract are incomplete or not filled in at all.

A worker from Cala said: “When we were recruited, few conditions were explained to us. W e had to fwear we would not desert and were told what our wages would be. I only saw the contract once 1 got to the site. Then 1 saw that the wage* were 45c per hour, but 1 didn’t know what to do about this."

Another worker said: “ Out o f desperation we did not try to negotiate the contract. W e know bow difficult it is to get a new job because o f influx control."

in the past, workers who could not • find jobs at labour bureaux would make their way to towns and cities and look for jobs themselves. They would work illegally or manage to persuade their employer to apply to the labour bureau for him or her to be registered ia ih cu emplovmeaL

Labour bureaux and administration boards refuse to register workers who have come to town illegally. jo S ubow fa * - Unemployment is safer if it’s far away, rather than in the townships, on the bosses doorsteps.

K oom hofs new laws have been. designed primarily to halt the stream o f despesate people coming to the does to look for work.

With unemployment and poverty in the bantustans becoming more rife, with influx control laws becom­ing more stringent and as the economic recession creates less jobs, no immediate relief is in sight for the people dumped in the gov­ernment’s wastelands.(The information and interviews in

this article come from work done by the Labour Allocation Project dur­ing 1979 and 1980)

or labour, but there’s poor land and no work* . . . ■ ._________________1. . k . » « . m n 0 fnrfnrm v to oav to plough There is s man with a tractor

labour bureau, which is far. It takes me the whole morning to walk there. When I first came back, 1 dicfoot have my blue card so I had to get a friend to tend it. I still go to the labour bureau every two weeks to sjgnbut I _ have not received anything. The people there say that it is still coming, but I do not know ot anyone whctia* uUJoe>*Tbe*, tell me to come back, but nothing happens. Now we are starving. ^

H ow toany people are la yoar fam ily?

There are eight of us, my wife and six chil­dren. One “boy is away, he works in Durban and sends his wife money; there is nobody else working. My four children were at school here but now I cannot pay. It costs me R30 each, sometimes more for books. Now they are at home doing nothing, just sitting with me. Sometimes they go to Bergville to ask help at the shops. There they sometimes get a little to eat. A t home all we eat is mieliemeal with a little vegetable imbuva We used to buy milk and slaughter but 1 only have two cows. The others died four died because there is no rain. Even a horse died

Do too pioozb ?

1 did plough, but this year we got nothing no ram. I used to get eight bags for the family. We also grew some vegeubies cabbages and butter beans but there is nothing.

Where do j m f r t food?

I went to the store and a white man gave me 50kg of mielies. I had to show him that I had two cows. 1 showed him my dipping book Then he gave me the mieliemeal and a paper When 1 get money I will pay him R 17.50 I sometimes get food from the neighbours, and sometimes the children bring something. If I get money 1 will buy more cows

Where do yoo th in k you w il l get the mooe> ?

I think that the companv owes me a pension We paid money everv month, ana thev said that it would te sent For 10 vears 1 gave monev 1 think now it should be some hun­dreds but it has not come

Have you tried to look fo r work?

Yes. 1 went to the labour bureau, there are

alwavs many people there waiting for forms. So few have gone back. They say there is no companv coming to look for people; we must just wait and wait. I went to look fo r work at some ot the hotels, but nothing. O r.; tirar I went back to Johannesburg. I had to first get money. It cost me R20, and R20 Id come back. ! **en» with others tn a taxi. W e could only stay two oays. ana wcut oaci; to our old company but there was nothing.

Do people also go to Darbon?

Some o f them do. But I do not know Durban. 1 only know Johannesburg

Where did you May wbeo yoo went bock?

1 have a brother in the hostel in town.*I just staved there for two nights on the floor.

Can you tell me what you did when you were working — bow did you support the family?

1 sent home R100 a month. Sometimes if a tax: was leaving we would also send some clothes and meat, candles and tinned food. It is cheaper here My wife used to look after the cattle With the money 1 earned we used

to pay to plough. There i ... sometimes I would pay R40 and then help him with his fields. W e do not have enough oows to plough ... we need 12. Now there is no mooev to plough, no money to buy seeds which cost R9.00 per packet and no mooey for fertiliser. The bags cost R10.50. There is nothing now. I may have to sell one o f my cows for R20H soon

H ave y ea goae to ask fo r help from tke chiefs?

Some people went but he said that there was nothing which he could do. We may go again but he has never helped us. Sometimes the store owners give us a little. 1 am womed. One o f my children is sick She coughs and cannot eat. My wife asks me to go and look for work again. 1 will try Dundee next week But I am not well. I injured my leg at work. It got burned once and is weak so 1 cannot walk far Perhaps my other son who is in Durban will help. My wife will visit his wife's family and tell them. I hope that the pension money will be coming. I will try the labour bureau for work and on Wednesday I must go to sign my card

Collection Number: AK2117 DELMAS TREASON TRIAL 1985 - 1989 PUBLISHER: Publisher:-Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand Location:-Johannesburg ©2012

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