Law and the Unequal Society: Discriminatory Legislation in Rhodesia under the Rhodesian Front from 1963 to 1969 Part 2

Hansard, Vol. 52, col. 1946, 22 March 1963, Minister of Agriculture.

Ibid., col. 1566, 15 March 1963. Their total land holdings were 15,490 acres. Thus what had been represented as an advance for Africans, had meant little in practice.

Ibid., cols. 1946-7, 22 March, 1963.

Report of the Constitutional Commission 1968, para. 558.

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1479, 15 October 1969.

Report, para. 550.

Report of the Rural Land Board 1967, Government Printer, Salisbury, 1968, p. 5.

Ibid., p. 2. At the end of 1967 there were 8,110 purchase area farmers. As at 31 July 1964 of the 6,891 purchase area farmers only 39 held farms purchased for £250 or more: Hansard, Vol. 57, cols. 302-3, 5 August 1964. The Board's figures showed that in the 1966-7 season in a typical older purchase area, Chitomborgwizi, 71-5 per cent of farmers had gross sales of under £300 p.a. and in a newer settlement, Zowa, 35-5 per cent fell into this category.

Ibid., p. 6.

Act No. 47 of 1968.

S. 13 (2).

S. 17.

S. 5 (a). Nonetheless 'Government policy as indicated by the Minister must be considered': s. 5 (c).

Hansard, Vol. 73, cols. 89, 103, 17 October 1968.

Ibid., col. 111, Minister of Internal Affairs. The Act is based on the legislation governing the South African Bantu Development Corporation which has power to introduce white capital into the Bantustans.

S.R.G.N. 257 and 659 of 1964.

Local Government Areas (General Amendment) Regulations 1965 No. 6.

Annual Report for 1965.

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1054, 2 October 1969.

Land Tenure Act, s. 5.

Second Schedule to the Land Tenure Act 1969. The Rhodesian Front's attitude is expressed by the Minister of Justice in Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1351, 10 October 1969: 'It was decided that there would be certain land set aside for the African. At that stage I think it was 20 per cent—that is all the Africans were allowed, the rest was taken and conquered by the Europeans and became European land by conquest ... and as a result it was agreed that there would be 20 per cent. As the years have gone past, the Carter Commission and others, there has been an increase of that land to the figures that I gave when I opened this debate. We feel that there is sufficient now for the Africans to have and the Europeans are entitled because we have been giving, giving, giving all the time; there has been no response from the African, they have just been taking, taking, taking. We have now decided you can get no more, that you have sufficient.'

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1476, 15 October 1969, Minister of Lands. 'Criticism of this kind completely ignores the economic facts ... It ignores the fact that in 1968 the 44,400,000 acres of African area produced crops and livestock of an estimated gross value of £27,400,000 of which only £3,500,000 went into the money economy, while the 35,600,000 acres of the European area produced crops and livestock to the value of £64,100,000 of which £59,200,000 went into the money economy. It ignores the fact that other fields of economic activity such as mining, secondary industry and the distributive trades, almost all of which are confined to the European area, contributed 85 per cent of the gross domestic product.'

Hansard, Vol. 75, cols. 1475-8, Minister of Lands. He felt it was 'the greed for land that has blinded' African members who opposed the Bill: ibid., Vol. 76, col. 531, 30 October 1969.

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1480.

Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 1377.

Ibid., col. 1688.

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1479, Minister of Lands. See ss. 11 (1) and 24 (1) of the Land Tenure Act.

Ibid., Vol. 76, col. 1482, and ss. 7 (3), 9, 22 and 36.

Ibid., Vol. 75, col. 1483.

Ibid., Vol. 76, col. 526. The Government had considerable difficulty in 1969 in removing Rekayi Tangwena and his people from the Gaeresi ranch. See now s. 67 which permits the Minister, after three months' notice, to order persons to move from land, and authorises him to instruct the police force to perform the duty of evicting and removing any persons ordered to move. No compensation for buildings or improvements is payable and any structures may be destroyed. In exceptional circumstances an ex gratia payment may be made.

Ibid., Vol. 75, col. 1477, 15 October 1969, Minister of Lands. 'No European businessman will invest in the Tribal Trust Land without security of tenure, and a flexible approach must be adopted to allow him to have this, subject to suitable safeguards.' See also col. 1492 on the inadvisability of putting any obstacle in the way of the very encouraging mining development occurring in Rhodesia.

Although the law permitted the conversion of Tribal Trust Land to land which could be held individual freehold tenure and title, none had been so converted by the end of 1969: Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 1377.

E.g., the Masters and Servants Act which, though couched in non-discriminatory language, resulted in the conviction of 3,506 African servants between 1965 and 1969 for the criminal offences of desertion from service or insubordination to an employer. A further 350 Africans were convicted for similar offences under the African Labour Regulations Act: Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 1572-3.

Hansard, Vol. 49, col. 579, 7 March 1962 and Vol. 61, col. 1505. In 1962 there were 1,195 European apprentices. Immigration of skilled Europeans has been encouraged by the regime. See Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General for the year ended 30th June 1968, p. 124, which discloses that in the financial year 1967-8, £39,882 was spent on immigration promotion and £124,416 was spent on immigration grants-in-aid (assisted passages of Europeans). Since 1965 there have been 48,000 European settlers: Meet the Ministry No. 4, The Ministry of Information Immigration and Tourism, Government Printer, Salisbury, 1970, p. 4.

Hansard, Vol. 72, col. 859, 30 August 1968 and Vol. 76, col. 1382, 14 November 1969. He was in the Department of Works. There were 83 non-African apprentices.

Ibid., Vol. 76, col. 1383, 14 November 1969.

Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act 1964, supra under 'Security'.

Act No. 26 of 1967, ss. 11 and 12, amending sub-ss. 46 (4) and 60 (4) of Chapter 246. African trade unions, registered and unregistered, had been recipients of much assistance from international labour organizations.

S. 63 of Chapter 246, as amended by Act Number 26 of 1967.

Act Number 43 of 1963.

Act Number 37 of 1966.

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General for the year ended 30th June 1968, Government Printer, 1969, p. 70. Income tax, etc. was £28,562,975 while customs and excise duties were £15,895,483 and sales tax yielded £5,748,074.

C.S.R. 19-1965, pp. 16-17.

Act Number 26 of 1966.

R.G.N. 75 of 1968, 2 February 1968.

Salisbury (African Residential Areas) (Supplementary Charges) (Regulations) 1968, R.G.N. 249 of 1968. Average annual earnings for African employees were £144 in 1968: Monthly Digest of Statistics, November 1969. Central Statistical Office, Salisbury, p. 13. Average annual earnings for non-Africans were £1364 p.a.

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, supra, p. 13.

Ministry of Information Press Statement 466/68/SG, 28 June 1968.

Hansard, Vol. 63, col. 1480, 9 March 1966. The proposer, a Rhodesian Front back-bencher also suggested 'something could be done to discourage large families by making certain provisions and conditions for the occupation of houses by Africans.'

Hansard, Vol. 72, cols. 1206-7, 17 September 1968.

The Minister of Internal Affairs announced that seed for late planting had also been given to all who had asked for it: Hansard, Vol. 70, col. 417, 2 February 1968; Ministry of Information Press Statement 942/68/DN, 19 December 1968 on Tribal Trust Land Drought Relief.

Rhodesia Herald, 23 December 1968. He suggested that the real problem was raising the African population from a vertical to a horizontal position and that men of God were, as usual, in the forefront of troublemakers.

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General for the Financial Year ended 30th June 1969, Government Printer, Salisbury, 1970, pp. 136-8, read with Monthly Digest of Statistics, November 1969, pp. 9-10. These figures exclude expenditure on and pupils undergoing teacher training.

Hansard, Vol. 68, col. 563, August 1967. On a voluntary basis such schooling would cost £62 million per annum.

African Education (Schools) (Amendment) Regulations 1964 (No. 1) S.R.G.N. 504 of 1964.

Federal Education Act, Number 15 of 1965.

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General for the year ended 30th June 1968, p. 74. A further £29,109 of non-African school fees was written off: p. 73.

Hansard, Vol. 63, cols. 1847-60, 20 April 1966. According to the former Secretary for African Education the 'thinking' behind the limitation to 2 per cent of the G.N.P. was that 'only by the African contribution to the general economy increasing can African education be expanded beyond the present limits': 'African Education in Rhodesia', C. S. Davies, (1969) NADA Vol. X, No. 1, p. 34.

Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 1567-8, 28 January 1970.

Ibid., Vol. 63, col. 1849. The policy is reminiscent of South African Bantu education.

Ibid., Vol. 63, cols. 1850-1, 20 April 1966.

Ibid., Vol. 72, col. 1172, 5 August 1968.

Hansard, Vol. 67, col. 911, 12 May 1967 and Vol. 70, col. 669, 9 February 1968. The Minister stated that Harare (Salisbury's major African township) did not have a junior secondary school and he had no idea when one would be established. In 1967 four schools were established by aided authorities, Government aid amounting to £5,000 and salaries of approved teachers: Ibid., Vol. 72, col. 1008, 1 April 1968.

Ibid., Vol. 74, col. 737, 25 July 1969. The reason for the large number was that the length of the African primary school course was being cut from 8 to 7 years and there would therefore be a double bulge of school leavers—83,000 in all, but only 10,000 of these would be able to receive any form of secondary education.

Ibid., Vol. 66, col. 1905, 22 February 1967, Minister of Education.

Ibid., Vol. 66, col. 1908, 22 February 1969.

Report on Education 1967, Government Printer, Salisbury, 1968.

Ibid., p. 16. Out of 115 students 60 were due to take up teaching, 5 law, and 4 were studying for the B.Sc.(Econ.) degree.

Hansard, Vol. 70, col. 54, 23 January 1968.

Ibid., Vol. 76, col. 1167, 6 November 1969.

Ibid., Vol. 74, col. 1540, 13 August 1969.

Ibid., Vol. 76, cols. 1845-7, 4 February 1970.

Ibid., Vol. 76, col. 1383, 14 November 1969.

1967 (1) S.A. 84 (R.A.D.).

1967 (1) S.A. 227 (R.A.D.).

See Bulletin of the International Commission of Jurists , March 1968, p. 24.

Sub-s. 277 (60A) of Chapter 125 as amended by sub-s. 34 (h) of Act 51 of 1967.

See Report by the Constitutional Council upon the Municipal Amendment Bill (A.B. 43A, 1967). Report No. 50, 26 October 1967. The Council reported that the Bill was inconsistent with s. 76 of the 1965 'Constitution' prohibiting discrimination.

Hansard, Vol. 74, col. 96, 27 June 1969.

See J. Barber , Rhodesia: The Road to Rebellion ( London, Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 245.

See E.S. Munger , Afrikaner and African Nationalism ( London, Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 80 and 122.

See the insulting remarks by Mr. Lardner Burke , Minister of Justice in Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 280, 28 October 1969.

Hansard, Vol. 75, col. 1350, 10 October 1969, Minister of Justice. These communities already have segregated schools and hospital accommodation. Later the Minister, in answer to criticism that Asians and Coloureds voted with Europeans, replied that 'one cannot look into the future or what it will give to us or what will be necessary in days to come': Hansard, Vol. 76, col. 489, 17 November 1969.

Hansard, Vol. 76, cols. 1568-70, 28 January 1970. Of the 3,156 persons convicted over the five year period only 13 were non-African.

Ibid., col. 1570.

Ibid., col. 1571.

Ibid., cols. 1233-4. The figures for each year include many of the same individuals since on each declaration of emergency fresh detention orders are required to be made.

Ibid., cols. 1231-2. There is no repetition of individuals here since restriction orders run for five year periods unless varied.

Ibid., cols. 1373-4. In 1963 there were four convictions; in 1964, 10; 1965, 11; 1966, 6; 1967, 5; 1968, 0; 1969, 0. The Minister of Justice has also stated that the incidence is lower.

African Times, Government Printer, Salisbury, 18 June 1969, broadcast by Minister of Justice.

Hansard, Vol. 76.