Southern Africa Labour and Developrrent Research Unit LI\BOUR PREFERENCE, INFLUX CCNrnOL AND sQUATrERS: CAPE Ta\N ENTERING THE 19805 Dudley Horner, editor saldru Working Paper No. 50 .... ~~ cape TC7NI'l July 1983 ~ I I 'i ISBN 0 7992 0543 5 t-------------------~----~---!.. , . I must express my sincere thanks to. the following organisations and people: 'nle Black Sash Advice Office and particularly Ncel R:lbb and Val West for allONing us access to their dOCLmel1ts and for their friendly assistance; The South African Institute of Race Relations for acocmrodating us; my fellON exmtributors, Stephen Devereux, George Ellis, Delia Hendrie and Martin West, not only for their valuable contributions but also for their fOIDearance, too; Francis Wilson who provided the helpful :inpetus for the production of this dOCLmleIlt; and, Annette Than and Gordon Young without whose tolerant help it would not· have been produced at all. Dudley Horner TABLE OF CXNl'ENTS Page INTRODUCI'ICliI 1 INFLUX CCNl'ROL IN THE CAPE PENINSUlA........................ 15 '\ NYANGA EAST SQU~ : A SAMPLE SURVEY ••••••••••••••••••••• 37 REPORI' ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 38 Introduction •••..•.•.••...•...........•................ Surrmary of Results .••.............••••..•.••...•••..... 39 Conclusion •.•..••.•.•...•..........••••.•.•.•....•..... 45 TABLES................................................. 46 CASE STUDIES IN INFLUX CXNI'ROL IN THE WESTERN CAPE •••••••••• 53 Selected Cases •....••..•..•••.•..•....•......•..•..•..• 55 NYANGA SQUATI'ER DIARY JULy 1981 - DECEMBER 1982 ...•.•....•. 64 THE COWURED LI\BOUR PREFERENCE POLICY: A CHRCNOL<X;Y •••••.•• 95 AFRICANS IN THE WES'l'ERN CAPE : A CHRCNOL<X;Y ••••••••••••••••• 107 BmLIcx;RAPHY •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 116 TABLES INTRODUCTICliI Table 1 :Group Areas Resettlerrent of Cape Peninsula Families 5 Table 2 : 'Coloured' Squatter Huts in Cape Peninsula 7 Table 3 :Informal Settlerrents in the Cape Peninsula in the Mid-'Seventies 8 Table 4 : lMellings Canpleted in SpeCial • Coloured' Housing Schemes 1976-1982 9 INFLUX CXNI'ROL IN THE CAPE PENINSUlA Table 1 : Investigations by Police : Pass Laws 20 Table 2 :Pass Law Arrests by Police and Inspectors 20 Table 3 :Pass Arrests in the Major Centres 21 Table 4 :Pass Arrests of Waren in the Major Centres 21 Toole 5 : Influx Control Fines Paid by Employers and Individuals, Cape Peninsula 28 NYANGA EAST SQU~ : A SAMPLE SURVEY Table 1 :Sumnary Table of Length of Residence in Cape Town 46 Table 2 :Length of Residence in Cape TOIII1 46 Table 3 :Legal Status of Residents 48 Table 4 :Employrrent Status of Residents 49 Table 5 : Residential Area Before Caning to Cape 'l'cMr. 49 TABLES Continued Table 6 : Residential Area Before Caning to Cape Tovn of Persons Moving to Cape Tovn in Last Five Years 50 Table 7 :Marital Status of Residents 50 Table 8 :Married Waren Length of Residence in Cape Tovn of Husbands 51 51 ! • Table 9 :Married Waren ElTq:>loyrrent Status of Husbands Table 10 :Married Men : Place of Residence of Wife 52 Table 11 :Frequency Distribution of Number of QUldren 52 Table 12 :Number of Olildren 52 :Percentage Distribution of Length of Residence in Cape Town 40 :Residential Area (Town) Before Caning to Cape Tovn 42 Diagram :NlmtJer and Place of Residence of <l1ildren 44 CASE STUDIFS IN INFIJJX CCN1'ROL IN THE WESTERN CI\PE Table 1 :Categories of Problem 1980-1 53 Table 2 :1\dvice Office Clients : Februaxy 1980 54 MAP Coloured Labour Preference Area Centrespread INTRODUCTICN Dudley Horner In its report for the period 1960-62 the then Departrrent of Bantu l'dministration and Developrrent proudly annoill1ced that 'An aITOill1t of R2 344 844 frClll National Housing IDans was spent on 3 558 houses and 4 lONer primaJ:y schools in Langa while R137 462 provided hostel acC<l1m:Xl.ation for 2 752 single Bantu males' . The Deparbrent main- tained that these hOUSing facilities together with those in the recently established Cape Divisional Coill1cil ta.vnship of Nyanga 'resulted in the rerroval and resettlement of all (m,r emphasis) squatters and also those resident in wrongly sited areas'. 1 More than two decades later, in winter 1983, Capetonians are witnessing yet again the shameful spectacle of the authorities engaged in heartless skinnishes at the K.T.C. caJ1I> with African Squatters, virtually an annual event since 1975 as Ellis (pages 107-114) record. Squatting as a cost-effective means of acquiring shelter has a long history in the Cape Peninsula having been observed by Van Riebeeck as early as 1655. 'll1e poor of all ethnic groups have employed the stratagem for centuries in the face of the authorities' inability and often obdurate ill1willing­ 2 ness to cope with a critical housing problem. Ignorance of the social forces at work in the process of urbanisation is a special plea which IlnlSt be disallONed the authorities as nore than two decades have elapsed since the Department of Bantu Administration and Developrent showed an admirably clear ill1derstanding of the fundamental issues involved: 'The shift in occupation of the working Bantu population and acccrnpanying process of urbanisation are fill1ctions of econClllic developrent •.. a shift has taken place in the process of developrrent frClll primaJ:y to secondary and tertiary activities which are mainly concentrated in the urban areas, with the result that an increasing proportion of the Republic's total Bantu population has settled in urban areas. ' 3 1. Deparbrent of Bantu Administration and Developrrent. Annual Report for the Period 1960-1962. R.P. 78/1964, p.4. 2. Ellis, George, et.al. The Squatter Problem in the Western Cape. .1 Johannesburg, South African Institute of Race Relations, 1977. I (see especially pp.114-119) . 3. Department of Bantu Administration and Developrent. Annual Report for the year 1963. R.P. 41/1965, p.3. j. 2 '!his frank acknowledgerrent of the, no doubt, unpalatable reality of ,the rI situation was contradicted simultaneously with the aninous annOilllcerrent that 'During the year under review this Division made a start with the t systematic implementation of the policy for the Western Province, I~ narrely that the Bantu labour there must be gradually replaced by Coloured labour, but not in such a wa:y as to dislocate the labour position •.. (my enphasis) ,.4 It is on this special aspect of the Verwoerdian grand design of Apartheid which the various dClCl.meIlts pre­ sented in this publication concentrate. While South ,Africa's present rulers pay lip-service to separate development and separate freedoms the older ideology is proving extraordinarily tenacious. As West (see page 16) indicates there is well-founded speculation that under­ lying the 'Coloured Labour Preference' policy is the hope of sore Cape Nationalist ideologues who 'envisage the Western Cape as' a potential white horeland of last resort'. '!be policy and the programne instituted to effect its goals require " , closer scrutiny than can be afforded here. Even a cursory examination, ha.ever,' reveals interesting facets. In 1951, Dr. 1.0. du PlesSiS, was appointed to the office of Ccmnissioner of Coloured Affairs.' He' was reputed to be extremely synpathetic to the 'coloured' people and in his first report on his activities made the following direct asser­ tion: 'One of the IlOSt serious problems facing the Coloured, and particularly the unskilled labourer, is the increased ccrnpetition by the large ntmibers of Natives who have entered the Cape Peninsula, in particular, and the Western Province in general - the traditional sphere of the Coloureds. '5 '!he 'traditional sphere of the Coloured' became a constant refrain in govemrrent reports, in the statements of politicians who were protagon­ ists of the principle of racial hierarchy and in the reports of govern­ rrent ccmnissions. Nevertheless this apparent concern for the welfare of 'coloured' people had not constrained these self-appointed protectors fran passing the Group Areas Act in 1950. '!his instrurtalt of Apartheid 4. Ibid. p.7. 5. Ccmnission for Coloured Affairs. Report for the year ended 31 March 1952. U.G. 45/1952 p.7. 3 was to exact an extrem=ly heavy price fran the group who were oste..'1- sibly the object of this special concern, particularly in the Western Cape - their 'traditional sphere'. 'Coloured Labour Preference' conveniently for the state, but very inconveniently for the Peninsula's African population, ignored the historical presence of the African who had been living and working in the area since the early nineteenth­ century (see West p. 15) . By 1900 approximately 10 000 Africans were living in the greater Cape T= area where 1 500 of them were an essential carponent of the work force in the docks. The first tONl1Ship in which they were housed, Ndabeni (previously Uitvlugt) was established in 1901 and Langa Town­ ship (planned in 1923) was opened in 1927 when 10 000 African residents of the Peninsula, constituting sane 12% of the errployees of private industry, were registered. The atterrpted rerroval of sane 3 000 Africans fran Cape TONI1 then had failed because of the deploynent of legally defective procedures (see Ellis p.l06). The rate of African urbanisation in Cape Town was bolstered during the Second World War when the state actively recruited large numbers of African -workers fran the Transkei and Ciskei to assist with construe- lion which was vital for the war effort. The authorities shirked the responsibility for housing these workers who built their own shanties in sane areas which have a disconcertingly familiar ring now: 6 aetreat, Vrygrond, Phillipi, Grassy Park and Elsie' s River. By the mid-'fifties Africans constituted 25-27% of private industry's errploy­ ees in :the \Estern Cape (see Ellis p.106) . Dlring the 'fifties the state made little actual progress with the re­ settlement of people disqualified fran being in certain group areas because the Cape TONI1 City Council refused its cc-operation on the grounds that the ilrplementation of the policy was ilrpossible without 7 causing great hardship to vast numbers of citizens. On the other hand Dr.