Forced Removal of Population the Apartheid Regime Has Sought to Enforce Strict Territorial Segregation of the Different ‘Population Groups’
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residence, commercial activities and industry for members of the White, Coloured and Asian groups (each in separate zones). Based on these group areas are segregated local government structures, and a segregated tricameral parliament with separate White, Coloured and Indian chambers, designed to preserve white political power while extending limited participation in central government to small sections of the Indian and Coloured communities. The majority of the population in South Africa is united in rejecting the segregated political structures of apartheid. Forced Removal of Population The apartheid regime has sought to enforce strict territorial segregation of the different ‘population groups’. People are forcibly evicted from their homes if they are in a zone which the government has asigned to another group. The government speaks, not of forced removal or eviction, but of Relocation and Resettlement. The evictions take place in many different kinds of areas and under different laws. In rural areas people are moved on a number of different pretexts. The places in which they live may be designated Black Spots — these are areas of land occupied and owned by Africans which the government has designated for another group, usually white. The occupiers are moved to a bantustan. Others are moved in the course of Consolidation of the bantustans, as the regime attempts to reduce the number of fragments of land which make up the bantustans. Over a million black tenants have been evicted from white owned farms since the 1960s. Tenants who paid cash rent to the farms were called Squatters, implying they had no right to be on the land. In the process of removal most of those affected lose access to land for cultivation, and most are put into Resettlement Camps, some of which are called Closer Settlements (urban-type settlements in remote rural areas, most of whose residents have no access to agri cultural land). The term Squatters is also applied to people Who occupy land for resi dence in or near urban areas without official permission. Because of the shortage of housing created by policies designed to back up influx control (see below), vast squatter communities have grown up in major urban areas. Where the communities lie outside bantustans, the government constantly tries to evict the residents and destroy their accommodation. Another process of removal in urban areas has taken the form of the concentration of black people into larger and more sharply segregated regional townships, usually situated further away from city centres. As applied to the Indian and Coloured communities this has involved the 126 Group Areas Act. If a bantustan is situated close enough, Africans have been moved into new townships within their boundaries, to become Commuters, travelling each day or week to work in the ‘white’ areas. This process has also involved an attempt to locate industries close to or inside bantustans, the so-called Border Industry policy, which is now part of a policy described as Decentralisation. Control of Movement For the majority of people in South Africa there is no freedom of move ment in their own country. Their movement is controlled by a system of regulations known as Pass Laws, which apply only to Africans, and which form part of the policy and practice of Influx control. Every African over 16 years of age must carry a set of identity documents known as a Pass. The government now calls the pass a Reference Book or, in the case of people from the so called ‘independent’ bantustans, a Passport. They may be renamed yet again and called Identity Documents. The country outside the bantustans is divided for the purpose of influx control into Prescribed Areas (which include all cities and most indus trial and commercial areas, where most employment opportunities exist) and Non-prescribed Areas (largely farm land and mines). The right of Africans to remain in such areas is linked to employment and housing. The implementation of the pass laws outside the bantustans is carried out largely by what were until recently called Administration Boards and are now called Development Boards. They work closely with the police and labour bureaux (see below). Africans may live on white-owned farmland if permitted to do so by the farmer who employs them. If ordered off the land they must go to a bantustan and can only move to the towns through the Migrant labour system operated through the Labour Bureaux. All African men of work ing age (15-65 years old) must register with the labour bureau in their area, unless they are self-employed. All women who are seeking employ ment must register. On registration a worker is classified for a particular category of work. No one may leave an area to seek work without per mission from the bureau. To obtain employment a worker must be requisitioned through the labour bureau system and become a Contract Worker: a contract of employment is attested by the labour bureau. Contracts are normally for a maximum of a year, and must be renewed at the same labour bureau. A worker cannot be employed in any other category of work other than that for which he or she has been registered, without the agreement of the labour office. 127 Those who avoid the system and go to the towns or cities to find work on their own are described as Illegals. The presence and movement of Africans in the prescribed areas are regulated by various pass laws. Those whose passes are not in order may be Endorsed Out, that is to say, an endorsement is put in their pass book and they are sent to a bantustan or a farming area. Many others are fined or imprisoned. The conditions under which Africans may remain in pre scribed areas are set out in Section 10 of the (Blacks) Urban Areas Act. It stipulates that no one may remain in an urban area longer than 72 hours unless he or she: (a) has lived there continuously in the area since birth or (b) has worked continuously for a single employer for 10 years or for different employers for 15 years; or (c) is the wife or dependent child of someone who has rights (a) or (b); or (d) has permission from the manager of the local labour bureau to be there for more than 72 hours. This last category consists mainly of migrant, or contract labourers. The government has repeatedly said that the pass laws would be scrapped. Some of the changes which have occurred are only in the words used (the legislation used to extend passes to women in the 1950s was called the ‘Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents Act’, because the passes were renamed as ‘reference books’). Real changes which have occurred have benefited only a small minority. As far as the majority are concerned, the system of pass laws, influx control and labour bureaux has become steadily more effective in restricting their movement and in maintaining a supply of cheap labour for the white- owned economy. 128 Inside a government shelter at ‘Compensation Farm’ resettlement camp — August 1983 Photographer unknown Farm workers in the Transvaal, faces protected against a cold wind Photograph: John Seymour Workers stacking bricks in the Eastern Cape Photographer unknown Domestic worker in Johannesburg Photographer unknown Squatter camp inside Alexandra Township, near Johannesburg Photographer unknown Single-sex hostel inside Alexandra Township — 1983 Photograph: Nigel Dickenson Women’s demonstration against the pass laws, Pretoria — 9 August 1956 Photographer unknown Women resisting the issue of passbooks in Zeerust— 1957 Photographer unknown Arrest under the pass laws in Johannesburg Photographer unknown Suppression of women’s protest in Cato M anor— 1959 Photograph: Laurie Bloomfield Lilian Ngoyi at the head o f a demonstration against the pass laws Photograph: Eli Weinberg At the Congress of the People, Kliptown — June 1955 Photograph: Eli Weinberg Demonstration in support of those accused in the Treason Trial which started in 1956 Photograph: Eli Weinberg Demonstration outside the court in which Nelson Mandela was facing trial in 1962 Photographer unknown Winnie Mandela leaves the court after Nelson Mandela had been sentenced to prison in 1962 Photograph: Ernest Cole Protesting against the setting up of the segregated tricameral parliament, Durban 1983 Photographer unknown Residents of New Crossroads, near Cape Town, demonstrating against rent increases at the offices of the Western Cape Development Board — January 1985 Photographer unknown Residents from Houtbay, near Cape Town, calling for improved services. The women, in their work clothes, are employed in the fishing industry— 1983 Photographer unknown iff* UNITE UNITE si U N iff ( UNITS A t a rally in Johannesburg on South African Women’s Day, organised by the Federation of South African W omen — 9 August 1984 Photographer unknown ZJgff ; MmHat uULj ye reinemDH the uomenTof " ’ 'rinnP At a rally in Rylands near Cape Town in April 1984, organised jointly by the United Women’s Organisation and the Women’s Front, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Federation of South African Women Photographer unknown References ABBREVIATIONS 12. L Clarke & J Ngobese, Women Without Men, Institute for Black Research, Durban, 1975; M V The following abbreviations are used: Gandar & N Bromberger, ‘Economic and demo Cit The Citizen, Johannesburg. graphic functioning of rural households: CT Cape Times, Cape Town. Mahlabahini District, KwaZulu', Reality, DD Daily Dispatch, East London. Pietermaritzburg, September, 1984; S.Exp, 4.11.84. Debates House o f Assembly Debates (Hansard), Cape 13. J Yawitch, op. cit, p.38. Town/Pretoria. 14. J Cock et al. ‘Women and Changing Relations of DN Daily News, Durban. Control', South African Review I — Same Founda FM Financial Mail, Johannesburg.