Moses Kotane
Date: June 1954.
Source: Moses Kotane. "Western Areas", in
Liberation. A Journal of Democratic Discussion, No. 8, June 1954
(Johannesburg); pages 9-11.
Publication at MIA: January 2024.
The townships of Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare were established as Non-European free townships way back in 1905 and 1912. They were set up as places where Africans too could acquire, buy and hold landed property in their own names in the same was as other, non-African, citizens of the Union of South Africa do.
The three of them together have a total of 2,605 stands on which there are dwelling houses, schools, shops, churches, halls, tea rooms and cinemas. These townships have electric lights, water and tarred roads. The house a Non-European population of some 60,000 souls or 19,130 families. They are within five miles of the centre of the city of Johannesburg, and they are served by what according to all South African Non-European standards is regarded as a tolerably good and efficient bus service.
Now the Nationalist Government and its conscienceless sadist Dr. Verwoerd ruthlessly plan to uproot this large and old established Non-European population of Johannesburg. To enable them to carry out their oppressive and humiliating policy of Apartheid, the Nationalists have passed the "Natives Resettlement Act" which provides for "the removal of Natives from any area in the magisterial district of Johannesburg or any adjoining magisterial district and their settlement elsewhere, ..."
This Act legalises plunder and downright swindling. It empowers the Government to acquire land "by purchase, exchange, expropriation or otherwise." The Government's brutal removal of all the inhabitants of the affected areas without regard to the loss suffered by those who have invested their whole life savings in there, and without offering equal terms at places to which they are to be removed. In addition to and apart from being cheated and chased out of their property and homes, therefore, these Africans will be deprived of the right to buy and own land in freehold.
The working people of Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare, the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants in these areas, are to be removed to Meadowlands, some six or seven miles further form their places of work; fares will be higher than they are and transport services will be of the scantiest kind; they will have to get up at three and four o'clock in the mornings, and come back late at night. At Meadowlands they will be subjected to oppressive and degrading regulations; there will be no electric lights; no tarred roads; water will be scarce, and it is doubtful whether school accomodation and recreational facilities as well as places of worship will be sufficient for the needs and requirements of the people.
Government propaganda has it that the scheme has been prompted by the desire on the part of the Government to abolish slums. This is not true. The truth is that this is the implementation of the apartheid policy. If it were true that the Government really wanted to do away with slums it would have started with the shanties and pondokkies at Moroka and Orlando, and with the squalors of Vrededorp, and not with the people who are relatively well housed. Let no one be misled by this false propaganda.
No, the scheme must be read together with other sinister acts of the Nationalist Party. It must be seen as a part of a huge conspiracy against the people of South Africa, in particular against the Non-Europeans and the working class. It is a part of a scheme to render the people hopelessly impotent organisationally and helpless politically and industrially by dividing them and impoverishing them, and by keeping them ignorant and making them suspicious of one another. It is part of the Group Areas Act, the Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act, the Industrial Conciliation Act Amendment Bill, the Bantu Authorities Act and the Suppression of Communism Act. The Western Areas Removal Scheme is such a scheme.
This predatory scheme has aroused the indignation of the residents in the affected areas and alarmed the African people and lovers of justice and fairplay throughout the country. It is the utter injustice of it all that has aroused the anger and opposition of the Liberals, Labourites, Christians and even of the majority of the members of the United Party. These people together with the residents of the Western Areas and the African National Congress, the S.A. Indian Congress and the South African Congress of Democrats are to be highly congratulated for the splendid and admirable work they have done so far in drawing the attention of the country and the world to the gross injustice that is being done to the people of Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare.
However, much more still remains to be done. The people in the affected areas and throughout the country must be made aware of the issues at stake in the Western Areas Removal Scheme. Let there be no mistake about it it is not only the Western Areas that are affected by the scheme and the Act. Alexandra Township, Lady Selborne and similar areas throughout the Union will be dealt with in the same way sooner or later.
All the South Africans must be made to realise that the Western Areas Removal Scheme is a matter of grave national importance. They must be made to understand that they are on trial; that they cannot with impunity allow the Government to get away with its criminal plan which the Western Areas Removal Scheme is but a part, and that it is their political responsibility and national duty to respond to the clarion call to halt the Government in its intentions.