THE VOICE of YUSUF DADOO on WEDNESDAY 16Th JULY, 1952, Dr

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THE VOICE OF YUSUF DADOO

ON WEDNESDAY 16th JULY, 1952, Dr.YUSUF MAHOMED DADOO, PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN CONGRESS, WAS SENTENCED BY A JOHANNESBURG MAGISTRATE TO 6 MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT WITH HARD LABOUR FOR ADRESSING A GATHERING IN CONTRAVENTION OF A NOTICE SERVED ON HIM BY THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE. BEFORE SENTENCE WAS PASSED, Dr.DADOO ADDRESSED THE COURT IN THESE WORDS :-

AS A qualified medical practitioner I have been in practice for the last sixteen years and in this period I have striven to the best of my ability and in keeping with the ethics of the noble profession to which I have the honour to belong, to help in alleviating the physioal and mental ailments of my fellow South Africans, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

During these years, more so then during my student days in London and Edinburgh, there hss been a growing realisation on my part of the fact that the major causes of the physical and mental ill-health of the vast majority of South Africans lie deep in the socio-economic conditions in vjhich people are made to live. By virtue of my professional activities I have b^en brought into very close contact with the lives of many people in our multi-racial community and I have found that the problems of public health and the well-being of the people have been aggravated to an alarming degree by the pernicious system of colour bars and racial discrimination which obtain in South Africa. It is shocking to realise thst this system has reduced the overwhelming majority of our population, namely the non-European people, to a state of chronic malnutrition, ill-health, illiteracy and poverty. Indeed, more than that, the stigma of racial inferiority has engendered in the minds of the nott-'White people not only frustration but a deep sense of resentment againat the whole fabric of society in which they are treated as sub-humans.

As a South African of Indian origin I cannot be indifferent to the plight of the INDIAN people who constitute only 2%l of the South Africon population. They have, since the arrival of their forefathers in the sixties of the last century, contributed their full share to the devel opment and material progress of our country. This they have done in spite of a host of discriminatory laws which they have to encounter in every sphere of life. They do ncrt enjoy political rights of any kind, their freedom of movement from one province to another is strictly restricted. They are not allowed to do skilled work, the doors of the civil service are closed to them. The primary means of livelihood open to them is either to work as labourers in the sugar plantations or do unskilled or semi- : skilled work or become traders. Their rights of occupation and ownership are severely restricted. Poverty, unemployment and the diseases due to malnutrition are rife among them. Now the Group Areas Act ominously threatens their very existence. It is aimed at annihilating thorn economically, strangling their future and eventually forcing them out of the country. It is designed to rob them of their h o m e s ,properties, schools, temples, mosques and churches, built and acquired after years of herd toil and honest industry. The Indian people, and indeed all sections of the non-Europeans, face a bleak and miserable future in the group areas to be set aside for them in terms of this most obnoxious and highly unprincipled law.

As a noi>^ui^opaaix and_a-Swfch African I cannot but find it deeply distressing to see the deleterious effects on the African people of the Pass Laws and Permit Regulations, the system of migratory labour, colour bar in industry, horrible living conditions in locations, mine compounds and shanty tovns, land hunger, low woges and non-recognition of African Trade Unions end serfdom on the European-owned farms - how the whole system of segregation with its concomitant evils of land and occupation restrictions and lack of proper health and educational facilities are

forcing/ •.. forcing the non-European pooplo rs o. whole, African, Colourod and Indian, to live a. life of out erst s without hope and security; and hot; the depriv ation of fundamental human rights without a direct and proper say in the affairs of government force then to submit to lav/s which in many instances are made against their interests and well-being and which aro intended to perpetuate a system which holds them in bonda.ge. No one who isseriously concerned with these grave problems fraught with distrous consequences for the country as a whole can escape the conclusion that their solutions ore mainl^r to bo found in the economic and political fields. In this situation, Your Worship, with a firm conviction of the rightness of the cause, I unhesitantly entered the political field to assist in righting the many grievous wrongs and to fight for a fully democratic South Africa ensuring equality of rights and opportunities and a decent and happy standard of life to the whole of our population, both white and non-white. In the pursuance of this righteous and what I consider to bo a noble task, I found myself elected to the official post of President of the South African Indian Congress, tie most representative national organisation of South Africans of Indian origin. It is therefore,Sir, that in accordance with the policy laid down by my organisation in a democratic manner we are working closely togethar with the national organisation of the Africon people, the African National Congress, the organisations of the Colourod people and indeed with all democratic organisations of the European sections of our community which ore prepored to establish a truly democratic state. I value deeply and endeavour to live up to,"the confidence and faith placed in me by the Indian and the non-European people and progressive-minded Europeans, Your Worship, it is important and significant to note thot whilst working for this great ideal we have been confronted during the lost four years with a Government which is not only fanatically opposed to this objec tiv e but which also ruthlessly follows the policy of rociolism, o.nd which strives to turn our country into a police state* The laws which tte present government hos placed on the statute book of the country are laws which are anti-democratic ond designed at curbing the civil liberties of our people. To quote but a few exomples, lav/s like tte Group Areas Act, the Bantu Author it ie s Act, the Coloured Voters' Act, the Population Registration Act, the Native Building Workers1 Act, and the Acts regarding the Africans in the rural and urban areas, including the regulations for the culling of cattle, and not the least the Suppression of Communism Act under which I stand before you in the dock, ore laws which, judged from the standpoint of the principles of democracy, are arbitrary, unjust and wholly repugnant to the spirit of freedom and the rights of man. In these circumstances, to have submitted without test or protest to these laws would bo tantamount to an abject surrender to tyranny, It is the sacred duty of every right-thinking person ond every democrat, be he white or non-white, to oppose every act of tyranny and to uphold the cherisehd principles of democracy. A failure to do this would, in my opinion, bo a betrayal of the vital interests of our country a.nd in fact, of history,. The orders issued by the Minister of Justice, restricting the legitimate activities of the leaders of the trade unions and national movements ore wholly arbitrary and designed ot destroying the democratic organisations of the people and silencing any criticism or opposition to the apartheid racialist policies of the government in power. It is, therefore, Your Worship, that I felt it a matter of duty to express in some tangible and concrete form my and tte people's disapproval of the highhanded and unwarranted actions of the Minister and in doing so, I happen to fall foul of what I consider to be an unjust and diabolical law. It is the irony of history that in the pursuit of the struggle for right and justice, honest and upright men are colled upon to fall foul of laws enacted by a coterie of men devoid of justice and humanity. History abounds with acts of sacrifice on the part of people resisting oppression and whatever the personal consequences may have been, such acts have been fully vindicated in the course of time. We are 1q . w abiding citizens ond ore prepared to obey all laws made for the peace, order and the good government of the country,But lows in the making of which we hove no say and which ore bad and unjust and calculated to disturb pea.ee ond harmony con not only not be tacitly opproved of but must be fought by every legitimate means at the disposal of the people,

' ISSUED BY THE NATAL INDIAN CONGRESS (FOUNDED BY MAHATMA GANDHI).

Collection Number: AD1715

SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974

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