I wish to refer to a photostatic copy of the Rand Daily Mail of the 29th of November We couldn't get the actual copy of the Mail itself. And the article which I want to refer to appears on the first page. I just want to refer, again, just to two passages. Security Police yesterday threw a light, tight cordon around an Eskom power pylon which was dynamited in the early hours of the morning disrupting train services in Germiston and Pretoria.
In other words, My Lord, there were a number of bodies which, during the period of indictment planned and carried out acts of sabotage. Now My Lord the Manifesto of Umkhonto was issued on the day that operations commenced. The response to our actions and Manifesto among the white population was characteristically violent.
The Government threatened to take strong action, and called upon its supporters to stand firm and to ignore the demands of the Africans.
The whites failed to respond by suggesting change; they responded to our call by retreating behind the laager. In contrast, the response of the Africans was one of encouragement.
Suddenly there was hope again. Things were happening. People in the townships became eager for political news. A great deal of enthusiasm was generated by the initial successes, and people began to speculate on how soon freedom would be obtained. But we in Umkhonto weighed up the whites' response with anxiety. The lines were being drawn. The whites and blacks were moving into separate camps, and the prospects of avoiding a civil war were diminishing. The white newspapers carried reports that sabotage would be punished by death.
If this was so, how could we continue to keep Africans away from terrorism? I now wish, My Lord, to turn to the question of guerrilla warfare and how it came to be considered. By scores of Africans had died as a result of racial friction. In when the famous leader, Masabalala, was held in Port Elizabeth jail, twenty-four of a group of Africans who had gathered to demand his release were killed by the police and white civilians.
More than one hundred Africans died in the Bulhoek affair. In over two hundred Africans were killed when the Administrator of South-West Africa led a force against a group which had rebelled against the imposition of dog tax.
On the 1st of May , eighteen Africans died as a result of police shootings during the strike. On the 21st of March , sixty-nine unarmed Africans died at Sharpeville. How many more Sharpevilles would there be in the history of our country? And how many more Sharpevilles could the country stand without violence and terror becoming the order of the day?
And what would happen to our people when that stage was reached? In the long run we felt certain we must succeed, but at what cost to ourselves and the rest of the country? And if this happened, how could black and white ever live together again in peace and harmony?
These were the problems that faced us, and these were our decisions. Experience convinced us that rebellion would offer the Government limitless opportunities for the indiscriminate slaughter of our people. But it was precisely because the soil of South Africa is already drenched with the blood of innocent Africans that we felt it our duty to make preparations as a long-term undertaking to use force in order to defend ourselves against force.
If war became inevitable, we wanted to be ready when the time came, and for the fight to be conducted on terms most favourable to our people.
The fight which held out the best prospects for us and the least risk of life to both sides was guerrilla warfare. We decided, therefore, in our preparations for the future, to make provision for the possibility of guerrilla warfare.
All whites undergo compulsory military training, but no such training is given to Africans. It was in our view essential to build up a nucleus of trained men who would be able to provide the leadership which would be required if guerrilla warfare started.
We had to prepare for such a situation before it became too late to make proper preparations. It was also necessary to build up a nucleus of men trained in civil administration and other professions, so that Africans would be equipped to participate in the government of this country as soon as they were allowed to do so.
At this stage, My Lord, the ANC decided that I should attend the Conference of the Pan-African Freedom Movement for Central, East, and Southern Africa, which was to be held in in Addis Ababa, and, it was also decided that, after the conference, I would undertake a tour of the African States with a view to soliciting support for our cause and obtaining scholarships for the higher education of matriculated Africans. At the same time the MK decided I should investigate whether facilities were available for the training of soldiers which was the first stage in the preparation for guerrilla warfare.
Training in both fields would be necessary, even if changes in South Africa came about by peaceful means. As I have just explained, administrators would be necessary who would be willing and able to administer a non-racial state and so men, and so would men be necessary to control the army and police force of such a state.
My tour was successful beyond all our hopes. Wherever I went I met sympathy for our cause and promises of help. All Africa was united against the stand of white South Africa, and even in London I was received with great sympathy by political leaders, such as the late Mr.
Hugh Gaitskell and Mr. It was Ben Bella who invited me to visit Oujda, the Headquarters of the Algerian Army of National Liberation, the visit which is described in my diary, one of the exhibits. I had already started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training.
If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them. Notes of lectures which I received in Ethiopia and Algeria are contained in exhibits produced in evidence. Summaries of books on guerrilla warfare and military strategy have also been produced. I have already admitted that these documents are in my writing, and I acknowledge that I made these studies to equip myself for the role which I might have to play if the struggle drifted into guerrilla warfare.
I approached this question as every African nationalist should do. I was completely objective. The Court will see that I attempted to examine all types of authority on the subject — from the East and from the West, going back to the classic work of Clausewitz, and covering such a variety as Mao Tse Tung, Che Guevara on the one hand, and the writings on the Anglo-Boer War on the other.
Of course, these notes, My Lord, are merely summaries of the books I read and do not contain my personal views. I also made arrangements for our recruits to undergo military training. To this extent then there was a departure from the original decision of the ANC that it would not take part in violent methods of struggle, but it applied outside South Africa only. The first batch of recruits actually arrived in Tanganyika when I was passing through that country on my way back to South Africa.
I returned to South Africa and reported to my colleagues on the results of my trip. On my return I found that there had been little alteration in the political scene save that the threat of a death penalty for sabotage had now become a fact. The attitude of my colleagues in Umkhonto was much the same as it had been before I left.
They were feeling their way cautiously and felt that it would be a long time before the possibilities of sabotage were exhausted.
The ANC had also not changed its attitude. In fact, My Lord, the view was expressed by some that the training of recruits was premature. This is recorded by me in the document which is Exhibit R14 which are very rough notes of comments made by others on my report back meeting after a full discussion, however, it was decided to go ahead with the plans for military training because of the fact that it would take many years to build up a sufficient nucleus of trained soldiers to start a guerrilla campaign, and whatever happened the training would be of value.
Much of his account is substantially correct, but much of it is slanted and is distorted, and in some important respects untruthful.
I want to deal with the evidence as briefly as possible. I also informed them of the unanimous resolution condemning the ill treatment of the African people here and promising support. I did tell them that the Emperor sent his warmest felicitations to my leader Chief Luthuli. By the time I left Ethiopia the first South African recruits had not yet reached that country. And Ghanaian soldiers, as far as I am aware, received training in the United Kingdom.
This being the fact and my understanding I could not possibly have thought of telling the Regional Command that the Emperor of Ethiopia thought our trainees were better than the Ghanaians. I certainly did not tell him that certain African states had promised us one percent of their budgets. These suggestions of donating one percent never arose during my visit. It arose for the first time, as far as I am aware, at the Conference in May by which time I had been in jail for ten months.
Such general education of our people has always, as I have pointed out, been an important aspect of our plan. I also said that Algerians had promised assistance with training and arms. But I certainly did not say they must hide the fact that they were communists because I did not know whether they were communists or not.
What I did say was that no communist should use his position in Umkhonto for communist propaganda, neither in South Africa nor beyond the borders because unity of purpose was essential for achieving freedom. What we aimed at was the vote for all and on this basis we could appeal to all social groups in South Africa, and expect the maximum support from the African states. In speaking of my visit to Egypt, I said that my visit had coincided with that of Marshal Tito, and that I had not been able to wait until General Nasser was free to interview me.
I said that the officials whom I had seen had expressed criticism of articles appearing in New Age which had dealt with General Nasser's attacks on communism. But that I told them that New Age did not necessarily express the policy of our movement, and that I will take up this complaint with New Age and try and use my influence to change their line because it was not our duty to say in what manner any state should achieve its freedom. I spoke of the warm affection with which I was received at these embassies.
And that we were offered all forms of assistance including scholarships for our youth. In dealing with the question of white and Asian recruits, I did say that as Cuba was a multi-racial country, it would be logical to send such persons to this country as these recruits would fit in more easily there than with black soldiers in African states.
On my return to Tanganyika after touring the African continent I met about thirty South African young men, who were on their way to Ethiopia for training.
I addressed them on discipline and good behaviour while abroad. Eric Mtshali may have been amongst these young men, but in any event, if he was, this must have been before he visited any African state other than Tanganyika. And in Tanganyika he would not have starved or been in difficulties since our office there would have looked after him.
It would be absurd to suggest that the South African office in Dar es Salaam would discriminate against him on the ground that he was a communist.
A proclamation had been issued by Umkhonto on the 16th December announcing the existence of the body and its name had been known for seven months before the time of this meeting. And I had certainly never referred to it as the military wing of the ANC. I always regarded it as a separate organisation and endeavoured to keep it as such.
I dealt with the problems relating to each phase but I did not say that people were scouting out areas suitable for guerrilla warfare because no such thing was being done at the time, at that time. I stressed, just as he said, that the most important thing was to study our history — our own history and our own situation.
We must of course, study the experiences of other countries also. And in doing so we must study not only the cases where revolutions were victorious but also cases where revolutions were defeated. These photos were only published on the 21st of February after I was in jail. He also said that the sabotage was held over for a few days because it was thought that the police would be on their watch on the day that I was sentenced. All this must be untrue. I was convicted, My Lord, on the 7th of November , and was sentenced on the same day to five years imprisonment with hard labour.
The sabotage in October could therefore not have had anything to do with my conviction and sentence. My Lord, I wish now to turn to certain general allegations made in this case by the State.
But before doing so, I wish to revert to certain occurrences said by witnesses to have happened in Port Elizabeth and East London. I am referring to the bombing of private houses of pro-government persons during December, during September, October and November I do not know what justification there was for these acts, nor what provocation had been given.
But if what I have said already is accepted, then it is clear that these acts had nothing to do with the carrying out of the policy of Umkhonto. One of the chief allegations in the indictment is that the ANC was a party to a general conspiracy to commit sabotage. I have already explained why this is incorrect but how externally there was a departure from the original principle laid down by the ANC.
There have, of course, My Lord, been overlapping of functions internally as well because there is a difference between a resolution adopted in the atmosphere of a committee room and the complete difficulties that arise in the field of practical activity. At a later stage the position was further affected by bannings and house arrests and by persons leaving the country to take up political work abroad.
This led to individuals having to do work in different capacities. But though this may have blurred the distinction between Umkhonto and the ANC, it by no means abolished that distinction. Great care was taken to keep the activities of the two organisations in South Africa distinct. The ANC remained a mass political body of Africans only carrying on the type of political work they have conducted prior to Umkhonto remained a small organisation recruiting its members from different races and organisations, and trying to achieve its own particular objectives.
The fact that members of Umkhonto recruited from the ANC, and the fact that persons served both organisations, like Solomon Mbanjwa, did not in our view change the nature of the ANC or give it a policy of violence. This overlapping of officers, however, was more the exception than the rule. Another of the allegations in the indictment is that Rivonia was the headquarters of Umkhonto.
This is not true of the time when I was there. I was told, of course, and knew that certain of the activities of the Communist Party were carried on there. But this was no reason, as I shall presently explain, why I should not use the place. I came there in the following manner: a As already indicated, early in April I went underground to organise the May general strike.
My work entailed travelling throughout the country, living now in African townships, then in country villages and again in cities. During the second half of the year I started visiting the Parktown home of Mr. Arthur Goldreich, where I used to meet my family privately. Although I had no direct political association with him, I had known Mr.
Goldreich socially since Goldreich informed me that he was moving out of town and offered me a hiding place there. A few days thereafter, he arranged for Mr. Michael Harmel, another co-conspirator in this case, to take me to Rivonia. I naturally found Rivonia an ideal place for the man who lived the life of an outlaw.
Up to that time I had been compelled to live indoors during the daytime and could only venture out under cover of darkness. But at Liliesleaf I could live differently and work far more efficiently. In December, Mr. Goldreich and his family also moved in.
I stayed there, My Lord, until I went abroad on the 11th January As already indicated, I returned in July and was arrested in Natal on the 5th August. With the exception of myself, none of the officials or members of these bodies lived there, no meetings of the governing bodies were ever held there, and no activities connected with them were either organised or directed from there.
On numerous occasions during my stay at Liliesleaf farm I met both the Executive Committee of the ANC, as well as the National High Command, but such meetings were held elsewhere and not on the farm. Goldreich in the main house and he also paid me visits in my room. We had numerous political discussions covering a variety of subjects. We discussed ideological and practical questions, the Congress Alliance, Umkhonto and its activities generally, and his experiences as a soldier in the Palmach, the military wing of the Haganah.
Haganah was the political authority of the Jewish National Movement in Palestine. Goldreich, I recommended on my return to South Africa that he should be recruited to Umkhonto. I do not know, of my personal knowledge whether this was done.
On my return in July I lived in the thatched cottage. The evidence of Joseph Mashefane that I lived in room number twelve during the period that he was there, at the farm, is incorrect. Another of the allegations made by the State is that the aims and objects of the ANC and the Communist Party are the same.
I wish to deal with this and with my own political position. The allegation as to the ANC is false. This is an old allegation which was disproved at the Treason Trial, and which has again reared its head. But since the allegation had been made again I shall deal with it as well as with the relationship between the ANC and the Communist Party and Umkhonto and that Party. It is not the concept of African Nationalism expressed in the cry, 'Drive the White man into the sea'.
The African Nationalism for which the ANC stands is the concept of freedom and fulfilment for the African people in their own land.
It is by no means a blueprint for a socialist state. It calls for redistribution, but not nationalisation, of land; it provides for nationalisation of mines, banks, and monopoly industry, because monopolies, big monopolies are owned by one race only, and without such nationalisation racial domination would be perpetuated despite the spread of political power.
It would be a hollow gesture to repeal the Gold Law prohibitions against Africans when all gold mines are owned by European companies. In this respect the ANC's policy corresponds with the old policy of the present Nationalist Party which, for many years, had as part of its programme the nationalisation of the gold mines which, at that time, were controlled by foreign capital. Under the Freedom Charter, nationalisation would take place in an economy based on private enterprise.
The realisation of the Freedom Charter would open up fresh fields for a prosperous African population of all classes, including the middle class.
The ANC has never at any period of its history advocated a revolutionary change in the economic structure of the country, nor has it, to the best of my recollection, ever condemned capitalist society. As far as the Communist Party is concerned, and if I understand its policy correctly, it stands for the establishment of a State based on the principles of Marxism.
Although it is prepared to work for the Freedom Charter, as a short term solution to the problems created by white supremacy, it regards the Freedom Charter as the beginning, and not the end, of its programme.
Its chief goal was, and is, for the African people to win unity and full political rights. The Communist Party's main aim, on the other hand, was to remove the capitalists and to replace them with a working-class government.
This is, My Lord, a vital distinction. But co-operation is merely proof of a common goal — in this case the removal of white supremacy — and is not proof of a complete community of interests.
My Lord, the history of the world is full of similar examples. Perhaps the most striking illustration is to be found in the co-operation between Great Britain, the United States of America, and the Soviet Union in the fight against Hitler. Nobody but Hitler would have dared to suggest that such co-operation turned Churchill or Roosevelt into communists or communist tools, or that Britain and America were working to bring about a communist world.
My Lord, I give these illustrations because they are relevant to the allegation that our sabotage was a communist plot or the work of so-called agitators. Because, My Lord, another instance of such co-operation is to be found precisely in Umkhonto. Shortly after Umkhonto was constituted, I was informed by some of its members that the Communist Party would support Umkhonto, and this then occurred. At a later stage the support was made openly.
I believe that communists have always played an active role in the fight by colonial countries for their freedom, because the short-term objects of communism would always correspond with the long-term objects of freedom movements. Thus communists, My Lord, have played an important role in the freedom struggles fought in countries such as Malaya, Algeria, and Indonesia, yet none of these states today are communist countries.
Similarly in the underground resistance movements which sprung up in Europe during the last World War, communists played an important role. Even General Chiang Kai-Shek, today one of the bitterest enemies of communism, fought together with the communists against the ruling class in the struggle which led to his assumption of power in China in the s.
This pattern of co-operation between communists and non-communists has been repeated in the National Liberation Movement of South Africa. Prior to the banning of the Communist Party, joint campaigns involving the Communist Party and the Congress movements were accepted practice.
African communists could, and did, become members of the ANC, and some served on the National, Provincial, and local committees. Marks, a former member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In my younger days I held the view that the policy of admitting communists to the ANC, and the close co-operation which existed at times on specific issues between the ANC and the Communist Party, would lead to a watering down of the concept of African Nationalism. This proposal was heavily defeated, and amongst those who voted against the proposal were some of the most conservative sections of African political opinion.
They defended the policy on the ground that from its inception the ANC was formed and built up, not as a political party with one school of political thought, but as a Parliament of the African people accommodating people of various political views —convictions, all united by the common goal of national liberation. I was eventually won over to this point of view and I have upheld it ever since. It is perhaps difficult for white South Africans, with an ingrained prejudice against communism, to understand why experienced African politicians so readily accept communists as their friends.
But to us the reason is obvious. Theoretical differences, amongst those fighting against oppression, is a luxury which cannot be afforded. What is more, for many decades communists were the only political group in South Africa who were prepared to treat Africans as human beings and as their equals; who were prepared to eat with us; talk with us, live with us, and work with us. They were the only political group which was prepared to work with the Africans for the attainment of political rights and a stake in society.
Because of this, there are many Africans who today tend to equate freedom with communism. They are supported in this belief by a legislature which brands all exponents of democratic government and African freedom as communists and bannned many of them, who are not communists, under the Suppression of Communism Act.
Although My Lord I am not a communist and I have never been a member of the Communist Party, I myself have been banned, have been named under that pernicious Act because of the role I played in the Defiance Campaign. I have also been banned and convicted under that Act. It is not only in internal politics that we count communists as amongst those who support our cause.
In the international field, communist countries have always come to our aid. In the United Nations and other Councils of the world the communist bloc has supported the Afro-Asian struggle against colonialism and often seems to be more sympathetic to our plight than some of the Western powers.
Although there is a universal condemnation of apartheid, the communist bloc speaks out against it with a louder voice than most of the western world. In these circumstances, it would take a brash young politician, such as I was in , to proclaim that the Communists are our enemies. Judge: Well Mandela it is time for the court to adjourn. My Lord, I wish now to turn to my own position. I have denied that I am a communist, and I think in the circumstances I am obliged to state exactly what my political beliefs are in order to explain what my position in Umkhonto was, and what my attitude towards the use of force is.
I have always regarded myself, in the first place, as an African patriot. After all, I was born in Umtata, forty-six years ago. My guardian was my cousin, who was the acting paramount chief of Thembuland, and I am related both to Sabata Dalindyebo, the present paramount chief, and to Kaiser Matanzima, the Chief Minister for the Transkei. Today I am attracted by the idea of a classless society, an attraction which springs in part from Marxist reading and, in part, from my admiration of the structure and organisation of early African societies in this country.
The land, then the main means of production, belonged to the tribe. There was no rich or poor and there was no exploitation. It is true, as I have already stated that I have been influenced by Marxist thought. But this is also true of many of the leaders of the new independent states.
Such widely different persons as Gandhi, Nehru, Nkrumah, and Nasser all acknowledge this fact. We all accept the need for some form of socialism to enable our people to catch up with the advanced countries of the world and to overcome their legacy of extreme poverty. But this does not mean we are Marxists. Indeed, My Lord, for my own part, I believe it is open to debate whether the Communist Party has any specific role to play at this particular stage of our political struggle.
The basic task at the present moment is the removal of race discrimination and the attainment of democratic rights on the basis of the Freedom Charter, and a struggle which can best be led by a strong ANC. In so far, My Lord, as that Party furthers this task, I welcome its assistance. I realise that it is one of the main means by which people of all races can be drawn into our struggle. But from my reading of Marxist literature and from conversations with Marxists, I have gained the impression that communists regard the parliamentary system of the work - of the West as undemocratic and reactionary.
But, on the contrary, I am an admirer of such a system. The Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Rights are documents which are held in veneration by democrats throughout the world. I have great respect for British political institutions, and for the country's system of justice. I regard the British Parliament as the most democratic institution in the world, and the independence and impartiality of its judiciary never fail to arouse my admiration.
The American Congress, that country's doctrine of separation of powers, as well as the independence of its judiciary, arouse in me similar sentiments. I have been influenced in my thinking by both West and East. All this has led me to feel that in my search for a political formula, I should be absolutely impartial and objective.
I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than that of socialism. I must leave myself free to borrow the best from West and from the East. I wish now to deal with some of the exhibits. Many of the exhibits are in my handwriting.
It has always been my custom to reduce to writing the material which I have been studying. Exhibits R20, 21 and 22 are lectures drafted in my own hand but they are not my original work. They came to be written in the following circumstances: For several years an old friend [unidentified person coughs] whom I worked very closely on ANC matters and who occupied senior positions both in the ANC and the Communist Party had been trying to get me to join the Communist Party.
I had had many debates with him on the role the Communist Party can play at this stage of our struggle. And I advanced to him the same views in regard to my political beliefs which I have described earlier in my statement. In order to convince me that I should join the Communist Party, she from time to time gave me Marxist literature to read, thought I did not have — always find time to do this.
Each of us always stuck to our guns in our arguments as to whether I should join the Communist Party. She [sic] maintained that on achieving freedom we would be unable to solve our problems of poverty and inequality without establishing a communist state and we would require trained Marxists to do this.
I maintained my attitude that no ideological differences should be introduced until freedom had been achieved. I saw him on several occasions at Liliesleaf farm, and on one of the last of these occasions he was busy writing with books around him. When I asked him what he was doing he told me that he was busy writing lectures for use in the Communist Party, and suggested that I should read them.
There were several lectures in draft form. After I had done so I told him that they seemed far too complicated for the ordinary reader. Judge: I didn't catch the name — who do you say this man is you were talking to? If the court will look at some of the standard works of Marxism, my point will be demonstrated.
He said it was impossible to simplify the language without losing the effect of what the author was trying to stress. I disagreed with him and then he asked me to see whether I could redraft the lectures in the simplified form suggested by me. I agreed to help him and set to work in an endeavour to do this but I never finished the task as I later became occupied with other practical work which was more important.
I never again saw the unfinished manuscript until it was produced at this trial. I wish to state that it is not my handwriting which appears on Exhibit R23 which was obviously drafted by the person who prepared the lectures. My Lord, there are certain exhibits which suggest that we received financial support from abroad, and I wish now to deal with this question.
Whenever we had a special campaign or an important political case we received financial assistance from sympathetic individuals and organisations in the Western countries.
We have never felt it necessary to go beyond these sources. But when in the Umkhonto was formed, and a new phase of struggle introduced, we realised that these events would make a heavy call on our slender resources, and that the scale of our activities would be hampered by lack of funds.
One of my instructions, as I went abroad in January , was to raise funds from the African states. I must add that whilst abroad, I had discussions with leaders of political movements in Africa and discovered that almost every single one of them, in areas which had still not attained independence, had received all forms of assistance from the socialist countries, as well as from the West, including that of financial support.
I also discovered that some well-known African states, all of them non-communists, and even anti-communists, had received similar assistance. On my return to the Republic, I made a strong recommendation to the ANC that we should not confine ourselves to Africa and the Western countries, but that we should also send a mission to the socialist countries to raise the funds which we so urgently needed.
I have been told that after I was convicted such a mission was sent. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact the suggestion is preposterous.
Umkhonto was formed by Africans to further their struggle for freedom. Communists and others supported the movement, and we only wish that more sections of the community would join us. Our fight is against real and not imaginary hardships or, to use the language of the State Prosecutor, 'so-called hardships'. Basically, My Lord, we fight against two features which are the hallmarks of African life in South Africa and which are entrenched by legislation which we seek to have repealed.
These features are poverty and lack of human dignity, and we do not need communists or so-called 'agitators' to teach us about these things. South Africa is the richest country in Africa, and could be one of the richest countries in the world.
But it is a land of extremes and remarkable contrasts. Forty per cent of the Africans live in hopelessly overcrowded and, in some cases, drought-stricken reserves, where soil erosion and the overworking of the soil makes it impossible for them to live properly off the land.
Thirty per cent are labourers, labour tenants, and squatters on white farms and work and live under conditions similar to those of the serfs of the Middle Ages.
The other thirty per cent live in towns where they have developed economic and social habits which bring them closer in many respects to white standards. Yet most Africans, even in this group, are impoverished by low incomes and the high cost of living. The highest-paid and the most prosperous section of urban African life is in Johannesburg. Yet their actual position is desperate. The latest figures were given on the 25th of March by Mr.
The poverty datum line for the average African family in Johannesburg, according to Mr. Carr's department, is R He showed that the average monthly wage is R Poverty goes hand in hand with malnutrition and disease.
The incidence of malnutrition and deficiency diseases is very high amongst Africans. Tuberculosis, pellagra, kwashiorkor, gastro-enteritis, and scurvy bring death and destruction of health.
The incidence of infant mortality is one of the highest in the world. According to the Medical Officer of Health for Pretoria, it is estimated that tuberculosis kills forty people a day, almost all Africans, and in there were 58, new cases reported.
These diseases, My Lord, not only destroy the vital organs of the body, but they result in retarded mental conditions and lack of initiative, and reduce powers of concentration. The secondary results of such conditions affect the whole community and the standard of work performed by Africans. The complaint of Africans, however, is not only that they are poor and whites are rich, but that the laws which are made by the whites are designed to preserve this situation.
The first is by formal education, and the second is by the worker acquiring a greater skill at his work and thus higher wages. As far as Africans are concerned, both these avenues of advancement are deliberately curtailed by legislation. The present government has always sought to hamper Africans in their search for education. One of their early acts, after coming into power, was to stop subsidies for African school feeding.
Many African children who attended schools depended on this supplement to their diet. This was a cruel act. There is compulsory education for all white children at virtually no cost to their parents, be they rich or poor. Similar facilities are not provided for the African children, though there are some who receive such assistance.
The other main obstacle to the economic advancement of the African is the industrial colour-bar under which all the better jobs of industry are reserved for whites only.
The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of white supremacy. White supremacy implies black inferiority. Legislation designed to preserve white supremacy entrenches this notion.
Menial tasks in South Africa are invariably performed by Africans. When anything has to be carried or cleaned the white man will look around for an African to do it for him, whether the African is employed by him or not.
Because of this sort of attitude, whites tend to regard Africans as a separate breed. They do not look upon them as people with families of their own; they do not realise that they have emotions - that they fall in love like white people do; that they want to be with their wives and children like white people want to be with theirs; that they want to earn enough money to support their families properly, to feed and clothe them and send them to school.
And what "house-boy" or "garden-boy" or labourer can ever hope to do this? Pass laws, which to the Africans are among the most hated bits of legislation in South Africa, render any African liable to police surveillance at any time. I doubt whether there is a single African male in South Africa who has not at some stage had a brush with the police over his pass. Hundreds and thousands of Africans are thrown into jail each year under pass laws. Even worse than this is the fact that pass laws keep husband and wife apart and lead to the breakdown of family life.
Poverty and the breakdown of family life have secondary effects. Children wander about the streets of the townships because they have no schools to go to, or no money to enable them to go to school, or no parents at home to see that they go to school, because both parents if there be two have to work to keep the family alive. This leads to a breakdown in moral standards, to an alarming rise in illegitimacy, and to growing violence which erupts not only politically, but everywhere.
Life in the townships is dangerous. There is not a day that goes by without somebody being stabbed or assaulted. And violence is carried out of the townships in the white living areas. People are afraid to walk alone in the streets after dark. Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to perform work which they are capable of doing, and not work which the government declares them to be capable of.
Africans want to be allowed to live where they obtain work, and not be endorsed out of an area because they were not born there. Africans want to be allowed to own land in places where they work, and not to be obliged to live in rented houses which they can never call their own. Africans want to be part of the general population, and not confined to living in their own ghettos. African men want to have their wives and children to live with them where they work, and not be forced into an unnatural existence in men's hostels.
African women want to be with their men folk and not be left permanently widowed in the Reserves. Africans want to be allowed out after 11 o'clock at night and not to be confined to their rooms like little children. Africans want to be allowed to travel in their own country and to seek work where they want to and not where the Labour Bureau tells them to.
Africans want a just share in the whole of South Africa; they want security and a stake in society. Above all, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy. But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination.
Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy. This then is what the ANC is fighting. Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.
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