Tomlinson Report (South Africa)

Last updated
Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs. HF Verwoerd Transvaler.jpg
Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs.

The Tomlinson Report was a 1954 report released by the Commission for the Socioeconomic Development of the Bantu Areas, known as the Tomlinson Commission, that was commissioned by the South African government to study the economic viability of the native reserves (later formed into the bantustans). [1] [2] [3] These reserves were intended to serve as the homelands for the black population. The report is named for Frederick R. Tomlinson, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Pretoria. Tomlinson chaired the ten-person commission, which was established in 1950. [4] The Tomlinson Report found that the reserves were incapable of containing South Africa's black population without significant state investment. However, Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, rejected several recommendations in the report. While both Verwoerd and the Tomlinson Commission believed in "separate development" for the reserves, Verwoerd did not want to end economic interdependence between the reserves and industries in white-controlled areas. The government would go on to pass legislation to restrict the movement of blacks who lived in the reserves to white-controlled areas.

Contents

Background

The South African government established native reserves in the 1913 Natives Land Act as areas designated for black citizens to live in. [5] As a result of the 1913 act, blacks could no longer own land outside of the native reserves. [6] The 1923 Native (Urban Areas) Act authorized local governments to establish residential areas designated for black citizens, leading to the development of low-wage laborer migration to urban areas from the native reserves. [6] While the government had intended to strictly control any limited presence of native laborers in urban areas, by World War II declining conditions had led to an outflow from the native reserves and the number of black urban residents had surpassed the number of white urban residents. [6]

In 1948, the National Party, which had campaigned on establishing an apartheid regime, came to power. [7] The newly-elected government began to engage in dialogue over the state of the native reserves and how increased black urbanization affected the apartheid vision. The South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA), a conservative think tank at Stellenbosch University founded in September 1948, emphasized the need for "vertical" segregation, a system which would enforce total segregation for blacks from the broader political sphere but allow for political advancement within the native reserves. [8] Verwoerd, who became head of the Native Affairs Department in 1950, stated in a 1948 speech to Parliament both that South Africa was a "white man’s country and that he must remain master here," but that, in the reserves, "we are prepared to allow the Natives to be the masters." [8] Verwoerd stated in 1950 his belief in the importance of separate political development for the reserves, stating there was "no policy of oppression here, but one of creating a situation which has never existed for the Bantu; namely, that, taking into consideration their languages, traditions, history and different national communities, they may pass through a development of their own.” [9] Verwoerd did not fully align with SABRA in his views; he belonged to a faction in the National Party that sought to enforce racial segregation to pursue grand apartheid and believed in the principles of vertical segregation, but did not want to negatively impact business interests that depended on black labor by enforcing a complete separation between the black population and the white population. [10] In 1951, the year after the Tomlinson Report was commissioned, the government passed the Bantu Authorities Act. The Bantu Authorities Act abolished the Natives Representative Council and created a new hierarchy for tribal, regional and territorial authorities. [11]

Creation and composition

In 1950, the Federal Mission Council of the Dutch Reformed Church passed a resolution that called on the government to examine "native life," particularly with regards to socioeconomic development in the native reserves. [12] That same year, the government appointed the Commission for the Socioeconomic Development of the Bantu Areas [12] to devise "a comprehensive scheme for the rehabilitation of the Native Areas with a view to developing within them a social structure in keeping with the culture of the Native and based upon effective socio-economic planning." [3] The commission was created with support from SABRA and included SABRA members. [8]

The commission was composed of 10 members, included four academics (including Tomlinson) and two Afrikaner farmers: [4] [13]

In the process of drafting the report, the commission enlisted research specialists.

Contents of the report

The Tomlinson Report was presented to the government in October 1954 and ran, in its unabridged form, to 3,755 pages published in 17 volumes. [1] [3] The report included 589 tables and 66 maps. [9] The report stated that the government could pursue either integration or total segregation, and strongly emphasized that the government pursue total segregation by industrializing the reserves to make them "economically viable." [14] The report recommended that land additional to the land set aside in the 1936 Land Act be purchased and annexed to the reserves, and that the state develop industries in the reserves to create an additional 300,000 jobs. [2] Even then, the report said, the reserves would only be able to include 15 million of South Africa's projected black population by the year 2000; the commission projected that 6.5 million blacks would be residing in the "European Areas." [3] The Report also concluded that the traditional 'tribal' authorities used to rule the reserves were not adequate for industrialized areas. In the report, the commission reiterated their commitment to separate development in the reserves to achieve racial harmony. [15] One section stated that “welfare should be measured by the standards of the people whose welfare is envisaged," and that Africans “should not be ignored nor treated as inferior, merely because they [scale of values] are different.” [9]

Funding recommendations

The commission concluded that if the reserves were to support the growing black population the government would need to invest at least £104 million over the following decade to ensure fully diversified economies in the reserves. [8] The commission offered the following prospective allocations for the £104 million: [3]

Development scheme

The commission was critical of existing development efforts within the native reserves, stating that “individually and collectively the existing organisations do not comply with the new requirements set by the development programme. The deplorable conditions which prevail in the Bantu Areas today also testify to their present incapacity to bring about any significant development, and even to prevent deterioration." [16] The commission suggested that the Native Affairs Department undergo a re-organization to better support development progress. Specifically, the commission called for establishing a development council that would advise the Minister of Native Affairs on native reserves by conducting research on trends and needs in the reserves. [16] The commission also called for the creation of a development corporation that would both promote black enterprises in the reserves and create enterprises that would be transferred to black ownership. [16] As part of development activities, the commission stated that Church activities should be seen as integral to the development process. [15]

Policy recommendations

The report offered three major recommendations for the government's economic policies in the reserves.

First, the commission advocated for an agricultural rehabilitation scheme. [16] The scheme would separate peasant farmers from workers. In coming to this conclusion, the commission surveyed 111 peasant farmers and stated, based on the results, that “£56 p.a. is large enough to attract a Bantu to full-time farming in mixed farming and pastoral areas, and to bind him permanently to the land.” [4]

Second, the commission recommended that native reserve land be divided into "economic farming units" under individual ownership. [4] [16]

Third, the commission recommended that the government push for industrialization in the reserves to incorporate those who, as a result of land reform, would become dispossessed. [4] The commission called for investment in "European capital" and in education, particularly through the previously mentioned development corporation. [4]

Reception

Verwoerd refused to implement several of the report's recommendations despite accepting the report "in principle". [2] [1] [7] Verwoerd's objection focused in part on certain items that were allocated funding in the budget, expressing his wish to limit spending at £36.6 million. [9] He rejected the idea of allowing, as the report suggested, white industrialists to enter the reserves; therefore, he stated that funding allocated for the development corporation, which was "presumably based upon the principle ... of the admission of large European privately owned industries into the Bantu areas," could be excluded from the budget. [7] Instead of creating a program for "white capital" to enter the reserves, Verwoerd advocated for establishing “border industries." [9] Verwoerd also argued that the amounts set aside for agricultural development and urban development could be brought down dramatically. Finally, he rejected the idea of eliminating communal ownership of land. [4] Verwoerd stated that the Native Affairs Department would rely on “other considered views based upon much wider practical experience of administrative affairs” to determine proper financial funding for the reserves. [9] Verwoerd's opinions reflected the opinions of others in the National Party who did not want to curb dependence on African labor. [14]

Some faculty members from SABRA received the report well, viewing it as evidence that “apartheid could and must be made to work.” [9] Some members of SABRA voiced their displeasure with Verwoerd's refusal to implement most recommendations in the report. J.L. Sadie, a professor at Stellenbosch University, wrote an article in January 1957 for the South African Institute of Race Relations that criticized Verwoerd's decision to not allow for private industry in the reserves. [7] Sadie argued that foreign capitalists had already invested heavily in South Africa without making the country any less "South African." [4] Attendees at a June 1956 congress organized by the Dutch Reformed Churches, SABRA and the Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organizations commended the Tomlinson Commission for its report without directing any criticism at the government. [3]

In 1956, more than 400 delegates to the Interdenominational African Ministers' Federation (IAMF) conference in Bloemfontein voted to reject the Tomlinson Report. [17] [18]

Impact

The recommendations of the Tomlinson Report aligned with the government's belief in "separate development" for whites and blacks. [3] Even though the government did not follow several recommendations in the report, the government still sought to confine blacks to the reserves as much as they could without curtailing dependence on black labor.

Parliament passed several pieces of legislation that defined the segregated nature and structure of the reserves in the following years. Under Verwoerd, who became Prime Minister in 1958, the legislature passed the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959. This act created "bantustans," or separate homelands for blacks, that were established based on linguistic and cultural differences. [11] The act intended to develop self-government for the bantustans. [11] In 1970, Parliament passed the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, and in 1971, the legislature passed the Bantu Homelands Constitution Act. The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act designated blacks as citizens of their bantustans, and the Bantu Homelands Constitution Act gave the president the power to create tribal, regional and territories authorities. [11] The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act designated black workers as “foreign visitors” in white areas and led to the government forcibly resettling blacks in the bantustans. The Tomlinson Report had recommended that "all-Union Bantu" be regarded as foreigners. [15] As the Tomlinson Commission had concluded, the reserves as they existed could not provide economic opportunities for most black residents beyond agriculture; blacks that migrated to the bantustans were concentrated in border areas and commuted into white areas for their jobs. [6] In 1986, the government abolished pass laws and in 1994, the end of apartheid also led to the end of the bantustans.

Related Research Articles

Politics of South Africa Political system of South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The President of South Africa serves both as head of state and as head of government. The President is elected by the National Assembly and must retain the confidence of the Assembly in order to remain in office. South Africans also elect provincial legislatures which govern each of the country's nine provinces.

Bantustan Territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia), as part of the policy of apartheid

A Bantustan was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa, as part of its policy of apartheid. In a generic sense, Bantustans are regions that lack any real legitimacy, consisting of several unconnected enclaves, or which have emerged from national or international gerrymandering.

Hendrik Verwoerd Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also commonly referred to as Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, was a South African politician, a scholar of applied psychology and sociology, and chief editor of "Die Transvaler" news paper. He is commonly regarded as the architect of Apartheid. Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.

Ciskei Former bantustan in South Africa

Ciskei was a nominally independent state—a Bantustan—located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean.

National Party (South Africa) Former South African political party known for implementing Apartheid

The National Party, also known as the Nationalist Party, was a political party in South Africa founded in 1914 and disbanded in 1997. The party was an Afrikaner ethnic nationalist party that promoted Afrikaner interests in South Africa. However in 1990 it became a South African civic nationalist party seeking to represent all South Africans. It first became the governing party of the country in 1924. It was an opposition party during World War II but it returned to power and was again in the government from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994.

Bantu Education Act, 1953

The Bantu Education Act, 1953 was a South African segregation law which legalized several aspects of the apartheid system. Its major provision was enforcing racially separated educational facilities. Even universities were made "tribal", and all but three missionary schools chose to close down when the government would no longer help support their schools. Very few authorities continued using their own finances to support education for native Africans. In 1959, this type of education was extended to "non-white" universities and colleges with the Extension of University Education Act, and the University College of Fort Hare was taken over by the government and degraded to being part of the Bantu education system. It is often argued that the policy of Bantu (African) education was aimed to direct black or non-white youth to the unskilled labour market, although Hendrik Verwoerd, at the time Minister of Native Affairs, claimed that the aim was to solve South Africa's "ethnic problems" by creating complementary economic and political units for different ethnic groups.

KaNgwane

KaNgwane was a bantustan in South Africa, intended by the apartheid government to be a semi-independent homeland for the Swazi people. It was called the "Swazi Territorial Authority" from 1976 to 1977. In September 1977 it was renamed KaNgwane and received a legislative assembly. After a temporary suspension of its homeland status during 1982, the legislative assembly was restored in December 1982. KaNgwane was granted nominal self-rule in August 1984. Its capital was at Louieville. It was the least populous of the ten homelands, with an estimated 183,000 inhabitants. Unlike the other homelands in South Africa, KaNgwane did not adopt a distinctive flag of its own but flew the national flag of South Africa.

In South Africa, pass laws were a form of internal passport system designed to segregate the population, manage urbanization, and allocate migrant labor. Also known as the natives' law, pass laws severely limited the movements of not only black African citizens, but other people as well by requiring them to carry passbooks when outside their homelands or designated areas. Before the 1950s, this legislation largely applied to African men, and attempts to apply it to women in the 1910s and 1950s were met with significant protests. Pass laws were one of the dominant features of the country's apartheid system until it was effectively ended in 1986.

Apartheid System of racial segregation in South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia) from 1948-91

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority white population. According to this system of social stratification, white citizens had the highest status, followed by Asians and Coloureds, then black Africans. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.

Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970

The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 was a Self Determination or denaturalization law passed during the apartheid era of South Africa that allocated various tribes/nations of black South Africans as citizens of their traditional black tribal "homelands," or Bantustans.

Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act, 1959 Apartheid law in South Africa

The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act, 1959 was an important piece of South African apartheid legislation that allowed for the transformation of traditional tribal lands into "fully fledged independent states Bantustans" which would supposedly provide for the right to self-determination of the country's Black population. It also resulted in the abolition of parliamentary representation for Blacks, an act furthered in 1970 with the passage of the Black Homeland Citizenship Act.

The system of racial segregation in South Africa known as apartheid was implemented and enforced by many acts and other laws. This legislation served to institutionalise racial discrimination and the dominance by white people over people of other races. While the bulk of this legislation was enacted after the election of the National Party government in 1948, it was preceded by discriminatory legislation enacted under earlier British and Afrikaner governments. Apartheid is distinguished from segregation in other countries by the systematic way in which it was formalised in law.

Law enforcement in South Africa Overview of law enforcement in South Africa

Law enforcement in South Africa is primarily the responsibility of the South African Police Service (SAPS), South Africa's national police force. SAPS is responsible for investigating crime and security throughout the country. The "national police force is crucial for the safety of South Africa's citizens" and was established in accordance with the provisions of Section 205 of the Constitution of South Africa.

South African nationality has been influenced primarily by the racial dynamics that have structured South African society throughout its development. The country's colonial history led to the immigration of different racial and ethnic groups into one shared area. Power dispersion and inter-group relations led to European dominance of the state, allowing it to directly shape nationality although not without internal division or influence from the less empowered races.

Bantu Authorities Act, 1951

The Bantu Authorities Act, 1951 was to give authority to Traditional Tribal Leader within their traditional tribal homelands in South Africa. This legislation, succeeding the Native Affairs Act, created the legal basis for Self Determination of the various ethnic and linguistic tribes into traditional homeland reserve areas and established tribal, regional and territorial authorities. This Act was augmented by the Bantu Homelands Citizens Act of 1970.

Bantu Investment Corporation Act, 1959

The Bantu Investment Corporation Act, Act No 34 of 1959, formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation in South Africa. In combination with the Bantu Homelands Development Act of 1965, it allowed the South African government to capitalize on entrepreneurs operating in the Bantustans. It created a Development Corporation in each of the Bantustans.

Bantu peoples are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.

Native Trust and Land Act, 1936

The Native Trust and Land Act, 1936 in South Africa passed a law that served as the reorganization of its agricultural structures. This followed the recommendations of the Beaumont Commission.

Werner Willi Max Eiselen (1899–1977) was a South African anthropologist and linguist. He was an ally and associate of Hendrik Verwoerd, the Minister of Native Affairs from 1950–1958 and the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958–1966. He led the Eiselen Commission, an advisory board that investigated native education and formed the basis of the Bantu Education Act of 1953 which moved control of education of South Africa's blacks from missionary schools to local government control. It also made starting a "Bantu" school without permission and registration from the government illegal.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Giliomee, Hermann (2011). The Afrikaners: Biography of a People. Hurst.
  2. 1 2 3 Beck, Roger B. (2000). The History of South Africa. Greenwood. pp. 133–134.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Houghton, D. Hobart (January 1957). "The Significance of the Tomlinson Report" (PDF). Africa South.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Evans, Ivan (1997). Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa. University of California Press.
  5. ↑ "Bantustan | historical territory, South Africa". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Ogura, Mitsuo (December 1996). "Urbanization and Apartheid in South Africa: Influx Controls and their Abolition" (PDF). The Developing Economies. 34 (4): 402–423. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1049.1996.tb01178.x . PMID   12292280.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Lazar, John (1990). "THE ROLE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BUREAU OF RACIAL AFFAIRS (SABRA) IN THE FORMULATION OF APARTHEID IDEOLOGY, 1948-1961" (PDF). ICwS Collected Seminar Papers. 14.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Dubow, Saul. (2014). Apartheid. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN   978-1-306-63761-9. OCLC   877039537.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Davie, Grace (2015). Poverty Knowledge in South Africa : a social history of human science, 1855-2005. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-107-55173-2. OCLC   911176624.
  10. ↑ Kuperus, T. (1999-04-07). State, Civil Society and Apartheid in South Africa: An Examination of Dutch Reformed Church-State Relations. Springer. ISBN   978-0-230-37373-0.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Butler, Jeffrey (1978). The Black Homelands of South Africa: The Political and Economic Development of Bophuthatswana and KwaZulu. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  12. 1 2 Saayman, Willem (December 2008). ""Good mission policy is good state policy in South Africa": The influence of the Tomlinson Report on racial separation in church and state at the dawn of apartheid" (PDF). Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae. 34: 15–39.
  13. ↑ "EXTRACT FROM THE SUMMARY OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION FOR THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE BANTU AREAS WITHIN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA" (PDF). S.A. TYDSKRIF VIR GENEESKUNDE.
  14. 1 2 Maylam, Paul (2017-03-02). South Africa's Racial Past: The History and Historiography of Racism, Segregation, and Apartheid. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-89893-5.
  15. 1 2 3 Summary of the Report of the Commission for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas within the Union of South Africa. 1955.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 NIEUWENHUYSEN, J.P. (1963). "ECONOMIC POLICY IN THE RESERVES SINCE THE TOMLINSON REPORT". South African Journal of Economics.
  17. ↑ Vigne, Randolph (1997). Liberals against Apartheid: A History of the Liberal Party of South Africa, 1953-68. Springer. ISBN   978-0-230-37473-7.
  18. ↑ Mandela, Nelson (1990). Nelson Mandela: The Struggle is My Life : His Speeches and Writings Brought Together with Historical Documents and Accounts of Mandela in Prison by Fellow-prisoners. Popular Prakashan. ISBN   978-81-7154-523-0.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.