Nelson T. Sambureni
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NelsonT. Sambureni University of SouthAfrica Introduction againstthe state'sforced removals,but turned instead to focus on municipalraids againstshebeens. The late 19508 were a watershed in African popular resistance and protest, especially in Cato Manor in Certainly, the urban riots of 1959 were the most acute Durban. The African National CongressOOcame highly expressionsof deep-seatedshifts in the structure and influential in shantytownsocieties, assisting residents to organisationof urban African society-shifts, moreover, resist forced removals. It was during this decadethat the fcr which the statehad been largely responsiblethrough National Pany government implemented coercive racially defined policies. This article analyses some removals of Africans from inner-city shantytowns to struggles from oolow, people'shistory; it is about how newly createdtownships, "far afield, where they would "ordinary" people resisted apartheid policies, and be cheaplyhoused, physically controlled, and politically explains their perceptions and experiences. It is contained".2 In terms of the Durban City Council Group primarily concerned with the outbreak of riots and Areas proclamation, Cato Manor was ear-marked for violence in Cato Manor from 1959 until 1963, during White occupation in 1958. As for the shantytown which period Durban experienceda sustained era <i dwellers living in the area, they had to be removed to urbanconflict. It also examinesCato Manor's past which new apartheid townships, zoned far away from the has recently again come into the limelight. Since the White areas. 1960sthe area has beenlargely undevelopedand vacant, despite some minor Indian housing developmentsthat Indians living in Cato Manor had to be forcibly relocated occurred during the 1980s. Recently, African people to Merebank or the newly founded township of oogan their migration back to the a,rea, claiming Chatsworth; African shantytown dwellers. whether ownership rights over it and building their shacks, illegal or legal. had to re evicted from the city and particularly in the Wiggins and Cato Crest area. The resettledin two newly establishedtownships: KwaMashu new shackresidents justified their return by reaffirming and Umlazi all considerabledistances away from central their history based on their 1949 and 1959 struggles. Durban. This was part of the National Party The future of Cato Manor remains one of political government's restructuring process of African urban controversy.It is its cruel past which makes it a fiercely society. For the processto succeedin Durban. both the and often violently contestedarea and it is only through central and local government authorities were agreed analysingthe historical context in which the riots took that Cato Manor should re cleared of Africans. even if it place that one can fully understand the controversy meant using force againstthem. surroundingCato Manor today. Many -both women and men -were illegal residentsin The Outbreakof Violence the shantytowncalled Cato Manor and lived in lX>verty. Few could afford or were qualified for any form of During the late 1950s,the municipality of Durban began accommodationin new townships. Men who qualified to remove Africans forcibly from Cato Manor to f(X' urban residencein terms of Section 10 of the 1952 KwaMashu.The removal processbegan in March 19583 Amendments to the Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1945 and for a while did not face any seriouschallenge from simply did not resist the restructuringprocess because it the residents of the area. In August 1958, the upgraded their standard of living. The restructuring municipality made an attempt to demolish the shack plans lX>sed the greatest danger to the economic settlementof Thusini, where most of the mobile workers existence of shacklords, illegal traders, shebeenqueens had lived for several years. Very little resistancewas and other emerging entrepreneurs, whose survival offered and most people simply moved away and re- largely depended on the existence of the shantytown erectedtheir shackselsewhere. The local advisoryboard, society. These were the people who resisted the state's the Cato Manor Welfare and DevelopmentBoard, under new plans of "ordering" society. However, protestsand the chairmanship of Isaac Zwane, could not tAlkeany riots, marked by violence, were not mounted directly CONTREE38/1995 23 OOcisiveaction fcx it was divided over the issue of life, illicit beerand poor wages.12However, the central ranovals. issue was that women wantro permanent residential rights in Cato Manor OOcauseshack demolition and During these early removals,the ANC launchedan anti- mass removals meant the end of their economic municipal campaign and the Director of Bantu existencein the urban area. New housesin K waMashu Administration, S.B. Bourquin, was called "the Satanof and Umlazi were occupiedonly by legal male tenantsor the Bantu people."4 The whole issue was viewed by prospective buyers with their recognised wives and Albert Luthuli, the ANC President General, as an children and single women were automatically oppornmity to gain followers, thereby leading to a disqualified from the new set-up. growth in ANC membership. Although the ANC had support in the shantytown of Cato Manor, some In pursuit of their Sb"uggleagainst removals, a sizeable members of the community remained indifferent to number of shebeenqueens invaded the Cato Manor politics. It was only during times of trouble that they beerballs on 17 June 1959 chasing men away.13 The tendedto rally behind political parties. riots which eruptedwere led by thousandsof embittered women who faced deportation to rural areas owing to Trouble began in earnest when the municipality their lack of legal documents. Serious disturbances attemptedto clear Mnyasana,the most notOrious shack began the following day when women blockaded the area in Cato Manor. It w~ dominatedmainly by a large beerballs,warning men not to try to enter. Thousandsof number of Mpondo migrant women, most of whom were African women from various parts of Cato Manor, "illegal" residents and who were well known for 00er fittingly describedas "one of the largestand most hor- bewing, illegal trading and prostitution.5 It was there rifying slums on the continent", were armed with sticks, women who championed the struggle against the hatchetsand piecesof wood. They marched,danced and municipal removals and tOOkit ontO the streets on 23 "shook sticks in dazzling defiance at the whole edifice of February 1959, supportedby women from other shack white apartheid authoritY".14 The ANCWL took an areas of Caw Manor.6 The women staged a active part in this women's sb"uggle;Dorothy Nyembe demonstrationat Bourquin's office and were assistedby and other Women'sLeague members organised marches Aaron Gumede,A.C. Shangaseand J.J.Shabalala,ANC to the Victoria Stteetbeerball and the Mobeni area.IS stalwarts and memrers of the "General Committee" of die Location Advisory Boards: A large proportion of thesewomen were brewersof beer, the sale of which was a sourceof livelihood to them and The demonsttatingwomen were also led by membersof their children.16 Women who failed to secure formal the ANC Women's League (ANCWL), including employment often made ends meet in this way. This Geruude Kweyama, T. Mazibuko, Dorothy Nyembe, oonflicted with municipal oontrols over such activities, F1«ence Mkhize, Ruth Shabane,Florence Mwelene and since the municipality had its own beerballs which were Lucy Mazibuko.8 The woman told the authorities that supposedto generaterevenue. There is no doubt that the &beyfailed to understandwhy they were being removed overriding factor to the oonflict in Cato Manor was from Cato Manor, their home, which "they fought for.. economic and its crux, according to Bourquin, was that they have spilt their blood for ...and having poverty: oonqueredthe Indians they will never give Cato Manor t.:k to the Indians".9 The women demandedan im- I wish to make oold and say that whatever mediate meeting with Bourquin and informed him that reasonshave been advancedare of a purely "since Africa belongedto them [his] office was part of it superficial nature. Even the women who and belonged to them... and that when Africa returned to started off the ttagic course did not express them they would in any case sack [bim]".IO The their grievancesin terms of bare,basic and in- involvement of women had far-reaching political trinsic facts...The basic and ultimate reasonis implications for the ANC and the ANCWL gained great an oconomic one. The poverty of the urban support from those women whose livelihoods were on Bantu; the discrepancyootween his earning the verge of destruction. As rightly noted by Edwards, capacityand his cost of living; his inability to sbebeenqueens who had previously shunned politics, meet the demandsof modern times in a city saymg "this thing with politics", flocked in numbers to modelled on the western ways of life; his jOin the women'sleague. I I inability even to meet the barest necessityof life, to feed, clothe, educateand househimself The tenseatmosphere created by the women'srevolt was and his family.17 associatedwith many complex issuesand evolveda wide range of 'emotions. At a later meeting addressedby While poverty constituted a major problem in Cato Bourquin, a number of complaints were raised. The Manor, the liquor questionwas an issue in its own right. women demandedthat forced removals be stoppedand Councillor Mervyn Gild saw the area as "an illicit Council beerhalls be closed and voiced their concern brewer'sand