A Life for Africa The Story of Bram Fischer

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ALIFE rFOR *OR FRIC AFRICA

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A LIFE FOR APIUCA AIrnlCA LIFA FOR

A FOR AFRICA A LIFE FOR The Story of of Bram Fischer NAOMI MITCHISON NAOMI

London MERLIN MERLIN PRESS

M~rlin kfdrlin

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Prill Li.,ildd Lin-dted Prøss

I'll'ZI\OY SQ.UAlUI, LONDON w,L PITMY SQUAIXX, LONDØN W.

© J1973 973

COPVRX01,1T OC OOP\'RIOHT

BY DY NAOMI NA0h11 lIm'OlUSON 1,11T01-1180N

PAINT.1l 11'1' PRtNT)$D IN M OIUlAT ORD-AT BIUTAIN DRITAM BY

Clarkø, Doblø & Br#ndon Olark" Doblll (if Br,n"oll Ltd. ,PILYMOUTti LYWOI;l1'tl

Nation To the Afrikaner Afrikaner Nation hook I dedicate this book On one of the noblest of her sons

Oontents Cont en ts 1. AniîKANEIOM A~'iUKANrlRDOM ANI) AND Tim.~ nm ArRicA.Ns AFRIOANll I.

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Afrikanerdorn Afrikanerdom and the Africans

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HERE WAS a great gra.'lS plain, scarcely broken by wAs a great gramss plain, scarcely broken by hills, but with little roc.ky rocky outcrops OtlW'OPS randomnly randomly here . and there, tufted with wild bushes. Here one might find small aid rock rabbits, or even amall game, snakes snakes and lizards lizards and even leopard waiting to spring on beast or man. Most of the a leopard lions lioIlB which would pull down and eat a full-grc)wn full-grown ox had had been killed off, but you could could never be sure. When the rains cane was plenty came the grass grew, waving waving and rippling. There W!Ill plenty thl\ oxen, but for buck buck and zebra, of grazing, not only for the the hrutebeeste and wild(:heeste and danc dancdti moving herds ()f of hartebeeste wildebeeste arid farmers' grass, but good goocl ing antelopes, all busily eating the farmers though, it was dry for months eating themselves. Most years, though. mOlltils on came from deep wells; everything depended depended 011 end. Water crulle on the Orange l~ree Free 011 having water, water. If the rains rai.!ls were good tIle State prospered, the maize grew high, the nicalie prospered, mail,c high. the meruie cobs spirits and prailJed praised the de Lord swelled; everyone was Wall in good spirit, Lord mercies. for his mercil'.il. rain the die mai:te maize plants died died But in a bad year with little 1'ail1 back; there was only millet m.il1ct and beans beans and Ita few water water melons, The fat went off the oxen fmcl and their libs iibs showed. melons. Calving was poor. And the katnrll, kaffirs, too, looked dtin thin anel and tired; them; they lired I there was no getting hard work out of thrm; almost forgot to sing. ing. fari hnd had a kraal kraat of kaflirs per For every farm knffil'll on it, remains pel'-

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haps of the te tribe tribe which had lived there once before the hl\pa 13 13

A Life for for Africa A/rica with the guns, or wanciel'cr.l wanderers f!'Onl from coming of the white men Witll other tribes, speaking speaking a difft~rent different language, though thl~ the men ien command words in Afrikaans. The at least had learnt the c.ommand kaffirs lived in a duster cluster of thatched thatched huts, bm but the tie farm itself, the white man's home, would crouch shade of a crouch under the ~hacl(\ few trees, one storeyed, small windowed, in Ita straggle of garden. Lately, started planting the AusWt.lian Australian Lately, people had stmted gum-trees, which grew quickly and gav(: gave good, straight farm lay the great plain timber. All round the fann plain and on 011 the far horizons a few trees, or maybe a windmill, until edge of faJ: you got near to Bloemfontein, and there would bee the shar) Calvinist spires of the Dutch squat, simple roofs or sharp Dutdl Reformed nervil blne, blue, Reformed Churches, pointing up into the hot mCl'dless and stores along the tile high above the single storey houses ami wide streets, where where men might dd(~ thdr horses :It calle ride their at ease between between the slow, eight-span eight-spar ox wagons. They were proud men, Afrikaners, Afrikaners, desccndants, rome, elf descendants, sonme, of the first Dutch families to settle at the Cape, 01' or (1f of the voortrekkers voortrekkers who built up the independent Boer Republics and whose Transvaal Transvaal neighbours, allied allied with the Orange Free Staters, had held the British army at bay through thnJugh the grim war year.l years at the beginning of the twentieth twentieth century, only fifteen thousand Boers Doers against agail'llIt a quarter of a million indeed I The Iact fact tbat that the British English: matter matter for pride indeed! had won in the end and made a generous peace, partly because their own LiI)cJ'ub, Liberals, did not outout because of pressure from tbeir weigh the the eoncon thc deaths deaths of Boer women, women and children in tht: that I Riding into Bloemfontein Bloemfontein you centration camps, camps. Ah, that! could not but see the monmllent monument to those dead, faithful Afrikaners all, and hate Brithsh who had dc)!\c8uch done such Afrikaners Ilate of the Briti.,h things to the family, woke in Miyou again. NorI" were the lignIn. No

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Afrikansrdom and tlte Africans Africalls and the Afrikanerdorn farmers entirely happy about the discovery of gold and diamonds diamonds on the Reef; the first diamonds had been found 1884 in 1867 and the gold fields were opened opened up between betwe~n 1884 and 1887. 1887. The British South Africa Company Compamy WI\S was founded in 1888 and Rhodes Rbodes Ctlrne enomlOUS c,ne to power with his enornious drcan whicll which was not the dl'call'l dream of the Afrikaners, imperial drerun and in his wake not only British but other aliens, whose whost~ God was somewhat differently considered {mm from their God. Yet on the whole they had acquiesced acquiesced in the imm(msdy imnensely conciliatory legislative union of South Africa under the British Crown. There was much to be gained from it, gained frolll including bigher higher standards of living and education education and generation. In many wider possibilities for the coming generation. households English would be spoken as a second language and English books would be read. And yet-and yetyN--and yet-were th(lUsanc.t~ The Fischer Fischer farm was large; there wcre thousands of acres of crops back that ws crops and pasture. A hundred years bn('k wa.~ the way of it; but now !l.Cn'{ land, especially near neal' Bloemfontein, would have had :Ilmd."wllc mndst ne was getting scarcer. The farm w()uld brick-built barns IUld and stores and out-buildings, rThere and brick-built out-buildings. 'X'here would have been flowers in the garden, behind the fence bave g*trden, also the charmcharn of prickly pear, straggling roses perhaps, but Illso rain, ma.rigolcL~\ marigolds, ing bright annuals that come up with the rain, zinnias, nasturtiums and the African dal,sir.q daisies that open for zinllia..~, the sun. The house would have none of the ardlitccIU architectural 1'111 uncoipr,,unking beauty of the Cape houses; it would be an ul1c:omprml1ising wooden stoep stoop for ~hltde shade and and. stretch of plain rooms behind a wO(Jdc.1l furniture might night be plain, phiron, shelter. But inside, although the fUl'Ilitul'c there would be books, Dutch, English and pcrhltpa perhap It a few in the new language, Afrikaans, which was beginning eo to which WM literature. There wO\lld would be china and !lilver, silver, the develop a literat\lre. 15 15

A Life for Africa means for music at home. There The.re would be lamps in tllee evening evening and candles to go to bed by. Abram--Bran, as he Here Here there were five children, first Abram-Dram, he was always called-then called-then Paul and then sister Ada, and two two P. younger brothers, Gustav and Peter. Their father, J. p, Fischer, was a Judge President of the Orange Free State, following on from his own father Abram, after aCtIll' whom the tile gramlfathcr, himsclf himself eldest grandson was called, called. This grandfather, East India descended, far back, from an official of the Dutch Enst T. President M. T, Company, had been principal adviser to Pl'c:;id~nt State. He lie had Steyn, the last President of the Orange Orange Free State, been the chief delegate of a three-member three-menmber team which went and arouwt() try (md am uSt~ interest to Europe during the Boer War to was ]<-adcl' leader of the in and sympathy for the Republic, Republic. He wa., Orange Union after the war, Will', when Prime :t\nllist~r ,inister of tb,c the Orange Free State in the Orange River Colony and of the Orange dIe 1910. Then for three four years before Union-1907 to 1910, Minister years he was Minister of Lands and Md Irrigation, liTigation, and Ivfinis!(~' 1913. The fathe'r, Judge Judge of the Interior until his death deafh in 19l5, The father, very like Dram, Braini, President looks, in his photograph, President Fischer, ]()o.ks, photograph, vc.ry gaze. The dcildren's a gentle, determnined man with an open determined OP(~11 ga7-c, dIUdren'~ dl~lillgllL,hed igukhed mother, Ella F'ischcr, Fischer, had also c()me come from a dliti had secrely her marriage Afrikaner family; before hel' Imll'dage she Imd secretly perhaps put helped the war. That was perhaflllp:ut tile Boers during duting the war. enough It) to hel\\' hear history by the time the children children were old wcmgh something widell which you her stories, but the tradition of doing SOffit·thing was fOl'biddt11, forbidden, considered and just, however much it WM considered right !\lld Government officiA must have meant something powerful. Governm~nt oflidab temprd, while might say no, but they were in their nature tempoml, conscience was in eternity. one's conscience couragnus clevadevo In this atmosphere of public service and cClurugeoUil 16 16

Afrikanerdom and and tlls the Africans Afrikanerdom tion, a young boy might have clremned dreamed of one day being caught and araigned aITrugned by the forces of injustice and nnd tyranny (but perhaps in the dream they would be English) and IU'ld making a great speech in Court which would echo echo round the world. He H-e would scarcely have dreamed that the end of this clowly guarded, would be life imprisonment in Pretoria Jail, closely without news of the world he worked Ior, for, while most of that t:ondones that world slowly forgets the great speech and condones particular injustice along with may others, particular many others. quite. Not all of it. Or does the world wholly forget? Not quitt:. it. Not those who still recognize recognize injustice and want to fight it. Not those who remember Bl'am. Brain, Ie So, what kind of world was it that thllt he grew up into? He was born in 1908. Slowly the breach between Afrikaanq Afdk::um~· speaking English-speaking Afrikaners wws healing, speaking and English-speaking Afrikam:rs was British polipoXli through tactful and careful handling both by Hdtish ticians and Smuts ticians and, in South Africa, by men like Botha ancl and tllOse those who went with them. But the Britilsh, British, intent on late: adveraories, recreating good relationships with their theIr late ndvcl'lIarit'lI, con conveniently forgot the Aficans--som,, Africans-·-some of whom had helped hclped them. And genuine friendships friendships amnong educated did among the educated little to stop the historic dislike and sLlspicion suspicion at a lower lower diamond level. There were constant problems in the gold and di,ut\C\nd alo IIItl('iai scxial mines, problems problems of engineering and geology, ge<Jk)gy, but alllO Bram would have been too and economic. Brarn tOtl young to know much about Worlcl World WIll' War I and lhe the rebellion, understandable llnc\cl'lltand'lhlc enough, of the old Boer War Generals, De Wet, enough, Wct, Beyers Bey~rlt and nnd Maritz, battle Maritz, when Botha, defeating them, wept on Oil the batd~. field, as a six year old, he hnd had field. Yet he did remember remember how, lUI six. yeaI' iat on his {athel"s father's shoulder pro-Britslh mob bUlllt burnt !at shoulckr while 1\a pro~BritLolh and looted shops in Bloemfontein, including wme with the Bloemfontein, including !lOme lilt! n

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for Africa A Life for name Fischer. He saw his father leave with an ambulmce ambulance De Wet, and he unit to try and join De ]lC himself had had a little wooden chameleon carved by one of the Afrikaner Afrikaner rebel prisoners. But these are ancestors or of those nre Dutch names, Ilame.q, though the 'l.Ilcestors who held them had come from Europe two centuries or more ago. And the Fischer Fischer estate was in the henrt ()f thc heart of Africans? southern Africa. What about the Africans? By now the Africans had been been defeated defeated by the EUl'Opean European series of wars. This did not happen at once. invaders in a series opened At first, when the Dutch trading station had bewen been opened at the Cape as a break and place of rest and convalescence convalescence shipfarers on their way to and from the rich Indonesian for shipfarers Indonesian Empire, which which had made little Holland a great power, they Khoikhoi whom the had met wandering African people, the KhClikhoi Dutch called Hottentots and the San, the Bushmen. Bushmen, The Hottentots had herds of heavy-horned heav),.horned cattle, goats and fat Iat~ tailed sheep; the Bushmen Bushmen hunted and dug roots ro()t~ and painted painted extraordinary pictures in mountain eaves until they were caves ulltil extraordinary pictures chased out by enemies-that enemies-that meant, any other men. men. For POt' it is been. left nothing but a kind only lately, when they have be(:n of half life in desert~ deserts that nobody else dse watited, wllnted, that the of simply being being San have been thought of as people instead (If hunted and killed or at best enslaved. But the good, easily cultivated lands in the Cape filled up; the whites lived comfortable comfortable lives, importing importing slaves from the Dutch Empire, mostly Malays, running plantations pllUltatiollJl Colour eds, who and fathering a large mixed population, population, the Coloureds, thought themselves a cut above tile the Africans Afrkll.nS. Som 8()(m all nU the land was gone and the fnrmors farmers moved out, not always even n()t alwll)'ll bothering to build houses, but liviug living in their wagons as lIS 18

Alrikanerdom he Africatls Africans Afrikanerdom and lh6 trek-boers. It It was not easy to settle, for the gra.llll grass of the sourveld is good early on, but useless later, later. The African herders knew that and moved theil' their cattle on; it was no land for a settled farmer and that was what the Boers wanted. But further north there were Bantu nations, a.nd and some of them had begun to understand the menace whites mcunce of the whitCll sodal to their own way of life Md and to aU all their moral and social could values, though they could not have guessed that it cO\lld ever be as disastrous as, in the event, it was. But, for instance, of ownership of no southern African ever thought of private ownership clearly, should be free for all, as the air we land, which, dearly, breathe breathe or the water we drink. If a man wanted watted to build na Chief-in-Council who house or take a crop he would ask the Chief-in-Council controlled the common use of that piece of land; if it Willi was the crop wcrC were agreed he would go ahead; the house hous(: and tilt: his, but the land itself never. It was tie the land and the good rain, also perhaps controlled by the Chief who was partly Rain-King, which had kindly given him grain for a Rain"King, porridge, melons (II' or vegetables porridge, beans for stew and perhaps mdom for trimming. And after harvest could come harvest everyone's cattle c
A Life Lifo for Africa Fish river in 1779, 1779. The nmaama Bantu kingdoms, was at the I!"ish head-on. They were used to fighting Xhosa met the Boers head-on, cheerful kind when riling of a rather cheerful nlling families quarrelled quarrelled or or cattle were moved, moved. Sometimes it was an affair of ch.ampions clampions Europe, though of course and tauntings, rather like medieval F,urope, you could also llave have a really deva.~tating devastating "red" war. de Will', But the young walTiors warriors who had bloodl~d blooded their spears spears were now men; they were admired as dancers and song-makers; admired a..~ song-makers; marriages marriages were arranged arranged for them. This was WItS how a man should be, be. Yet the whites had guns that killed from far off, off; they had trained horses. Gradually Gradually they pushed back the Nguni kingdoms and e;tablished established themselves on the lands hnds they had taken. It was always the best land. All southem southern Africa was in disorder; it was the mfecane, the time of troubles. But troublt'S. But him this was also because the Zulu King, Shaka, and after him Mzilika2i, had attacked other, weaker peoples, peoples, the warrior Mzilikazi, who, if they did not submit, might be he dl'ivcn driven far off, scattered, losing their cattle and their women. Thus, pressure built up from both sides, slowly, with pauscs pauses of npparent apparent peace. But in the Maluti mountains, things were different. There Moshweshwe, the wise King, was gathering the disptlsscssed, dispowessed, the people from the broken tribes kingdoms, who spoke tribe.s and klngdom.~, more or less the same languages and had much the same morc hlld customs-and all, since, as So a young mllll, man, he customs-and he knew them al~ had travelled far and wide and had gathered wives here the people of and there. He made them into the Basuto, the Lesotho who, under the protection of the protection of the Mountain olthc use QI of Night, would learn learn to ride horses and to master ItlIUltCl' the UI1e fire-arms. He tried to rule justly to all and peaceably with 20

Afrikanerdom a.nd and the Africans

his neighbours, if if they would let him. The Boer farmers fal"mers tried either to take or to buy his land, but he explained that this, under African African law and custom, was not possible. Nor would he take their bribes. He knew that, sooner or later, he would be unable to avoid war, and he tried his best to to conciliate the British. Finally, he had a serious Boer oppo opponent, Bl'!\nd, Brand, who had organized effectively, and organized his side effectively, might have won, in which case the Boers would have taken all the good land in Lesotho, leaving only a few barren But Moshc.'lhwe Mosheshwe had mountains which they could not use, use. BlIt a new way out. He asked for the protection of the White Queen, his powerful sister in England. In this way he saved his nation, but lost so much of his best agricultural agrkuitlll'ai land that the Basotho have, ever since, been forced to g() go out and work for their aIel old enemies. Meanwhile, too, the Griquas, tough and intelligent, who had been living in the fertile Calec\on Caledon valley, vnlley, found them themselves assaulted. They had come originally originally from the Cape, but xxrer country where for a hut now had to move again, into pool'er time, until diamonds were found there, th(~y they were let alone. were {omld thel'e, And thus the Orange State came OrlU1ge Free Stat(\ came into being. These were wars of hatred and an attempted wiping out of the enemy: enemy; anel and when eith{\r either side could tell tell the other by was made wom. the colour of his skin, a bad bad situation sihlation Wall worn<:. It went on during the whole of the nineteenth nineteenth century. But Hut the Boers Boers had had other enemies. They started tel to leave leave the They had had started century, not only driven hy by land Cape during the eighteenth (:entury, hunger, but because they could not stand the arrogam~e arrogance and casual oppression taken over from oppression of the British who had tllk~n the Dutch as political rulers and whose urban standivls politiclIl urblU'l staml:u'dl! belittled farmers. The Britiah. British, too, interfered with belittled the tough hunters. witb

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A Life tor for Africa A/rica the obvious rights of the fanners farmers to keep slaves and punish them. The Missi.ons, Missions, especially those from Scotland, had started educating and protecting protecting the kaffirs and had the become so uplifted as to be insane idea that they might become useful trading partners! partners! The Boers Bocrs knew that it was laid children of Ham-the down in the Bible that the children Ham--the blacksblacks should be for ever hewers of wood lind and drawers of water, drawt:J's servants of the whites. You could COtlld not go against the truth. By the mid-nineteenth voortrekkers were were mid-nineteenth century the voortrekker:! in makeshift makeshift settling down, though some of them still lived ill huts, with little furniture and no education education for their children, other than the Bible, interpreted interpreted their their way. Gradually they some began to form small, rather classless states, focus of some kind of law and order. order, For a time they held Natal; then, in mid-century, the British pushed them replacing them Ul<:m out, n:placing them by assisted British emigrants; emigrants; here again was a solid solid grievance. The Boer republics inhabited and and republics were sparsely inhabitcd bw.c poor; it was was difficult for them to manage the basic machinery legis machinery of government, government. If a man rode in to help legisafter the late, he must leave his wife and and family to look .,ftcl' farm and the kaffirs might come and murder them, even ten-year-old could be as ready with though his wife or his ten-ycar-old a rifle as he was. Nor did the the falmers farmers Wallt want to pay taxes judges, or to build offices for the salaries of civil servants or juc!gc." or court houses. In fact they did not tthink terms of peacepeace think in tcrtUS service, but rather of able parliaments parliaments backed by a civil scrvice, armed laagel's laagers 01' or rifle-carrying rifle-carrying prayer meetings. The English, English, praye.r observing this, thought of them as savages, almost a.\mo!lt as bad as the blacks. From the British British point of view, the essential, essential, over half IIa century, was to contain the Boers. During the the century, tllC war with tile 22 22

Afrikanerdom Africans Afrilcansrdom and the AfricatIJ sug Zulu King, Cetshwayo, there were those who had suggested that Zulu and Boer should be allowed, in the interests of peace and true (,jvilization, civilization, to wipe one another out. acceptable and there was some attempt out, This was not acceptable to stop the Boer land raids on the ana-Zulu luna-Zulu from the Transvaal; this too was resented. In 1878, Britain officially annexed the Transvaal, Transvaal, which meant, among other things, taking on financial responsibility rcsponsibili ty for the creaking machinery of government. ama-Zulu, horribly murThen came the war with the ama.Zulu, mur derous on both sides. Some Some of the Boers must have been been in two minds when the British Army, incompetently incompett~ntly led, Isandhilwana, but they could not possibly was defeated at Isandhlwana, possibly have thought of themselves themselves as being on the African side. In tie conquered the ama-Zl1lu ama-Zulu the end the British decisively conquered at the ie battle of Vlundi, Ulundi, captured King Cetshwayo, divided captUl'(!d Cetshwayo, divIded up Zululand and were probably somewhat relieved when wh<:n x)rn, their royal captive died. When Abram Abram Fischer was born, the King's son, Dinizulu, was still serving a term im tel'm of imprisonment; he had dared to raise his head against his masters. All over the south, Allover south, the Africans had been fighting one losing battle after another, through the nineteenth nineteenth and early twentieth twentieth centuries. There were nine "Kaffir "Kaffir Wars", as they were called. In a final rebellion, rebellion, as it was referred to, a man called Mohandas Gandhi, a young Indian lawlaw yer, organized an ambulance servicefor tlle the British side, ambulance service--for Brimh llide. An odd bit of history. Much has been written aoout about the "Kaffir Wars" view- they were an "KnillI' Wars" from the white pxint point of view; were IU\ ideal taking off point for boys' stories. But the African side Ideal t.'lking ooys' llide considered, although the African heroes of th9ll the was not considered,

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A Life for Africa towns and vlllage.s villages wars have been talked about in tribal town.~ or in the grim locations outside the white tOWl1S, towns, and have orin found their way into songs and praise.pocms praise-poems made over names aml and deeds are known, the last hundred years. Their l1amc.~ in time Abram F'jllcher but not to the whites. And yet ill Fischer was to know and undcrstand understand them. them,

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2 Growing up

A

child Brain played with two African boys of his child Dram played with two Afrkan boys of his own age. They hunted or pretended to hunt all over the great farm. They swam in the water holes. hole-s. They had herds of sun-dried clay oxen, set them to fight one another, kraaled them at night. They had endless fun together. They all went barefoot until little Bram wa.~ was given given a pair of shoes by aIt senior statesman, President Marthenus President l\InrtlH'ml~ Steyn whose daughter Anna was married marri(~d to one of Bram's Brain's uncles. But then it was time for him to be sent off to school, first to the local primary and then, of course, to Grey: going through through the school and on to Grey College. It was not only the pride of Bloemfontein, where his father had been before him, but it went back well beyond that; the Abraham Abraham Fischer hostel for men at the University wa., wms named £01' for his grandfather. It would have been unthinkable to go IDlyniy where else. else, When he started there, the Principal wa.~ was the rather distant scholar and disciplinarian, disciplinarian, I.yle, Lyle, whn, who, how however had a tough job, especially over the question. the: language language qUClItion. Originally the intention had been to have both English Englillh and Rnd Dutch as the medium of instruction, instructdon, but, as time went on, Dutch became almost a Ioreign foreign language; language; there had to be aII it the lowc.f lower sellool. sc hoal. shift over to Afrikaans, especially in there Willi was a11 However, when Bram Bram was in his teens, tllere change; J. Murray Murray Meiring, Willi was a nUlch much change j the new Head, J. 25 25

It

A

for Africa AA Life for modern-minded man; there were changes and these more modem-minded included ill a pleasing included several handsome handsome buildings, some in version of Cape Dutch. Above all Meiring saw the school as a place where there could be iiia union of races, both in in language and thought. That was not easy; many of the. the Afrikaners still felt they had been unjustly treated; they were very prickly about anything which appeared to be making them less of a nation. Bram, Brain, feeling this plk'iSionate pawstonate unifomt i Afrikanerdom, refused to wear the school cadets' cadets' uniform it was English. His father, just as much of an Afrikaner Afrikaner and completely philo completely hi-lingual himself, took things more philosophically. One of the men who taught Dram Brain and who rememhc13 remembers n ex-Rhodes ex-Rhodes him well, was the historian Leo Marquard, Marquard, an scholar whose view of history, even then, was not entirely that of the orthodox Afrikaner historian. histol'hlll. Cert:tinly Certainly it was ht~ beat Grey, first the school and then the College, that le be. came a fluent English speaker. Grey College, with its motto: Stabilitas, Slabilitas, was as near an English public public school as it could well be: this was the period when English public schools were admired allover all over the world, above all perhaps, Eten. Eton. And Grey College would have trained young Brain Bram Fischer for leadership, a., ,iw Eton did with her pupim. pupils. But leadei'ship leadership need not be merely Etoniwau in the traditional sense. One can be-as be--lk~ some old Etonians means also have been-a leader of the future, which usually melUl4 being aII rebel of the present. Bram could not know what kind of leader he was going going to be. It was being built into him; he was growing in concon. he. expected fidence and courage; he expected to succeed, as n.~ no doubt his father, watching him, expected expected it. And at Grey, surely, Burely, 26

Growing up confidence was in the Afrikaner values. Some ()C of these were the standard aristocratic values, aid values, courage and .ve accepted generosity and loyalty. loyalty. But also he must hhavt~ baaskap-white domination-as the natural thing; at baaskap-whlte dominatioll-as moot praisehome no doubt he had seen it at its kindest and most praise neighbours who flogged their black worthy. Farming ncighbours Ti idea labourers would not have been thought well of. The of apartheid was gradually c()ming coming into being, the ~cpara· separa tion of races, with the emphasis cmphasis that the whites would always be on top. Perhaps he thought it out, agreeing that the Africans must develop in their own way at their own pace better for pace in their own home lands, land..~, which which would w()uld be bettl~r system of making everyone and much fairer than the old system them into "apprentices" "apprentices" or slaves. Yes, let them have their Councils and their Chiefs, so long as the Chiefs understood that they were, first anel and foremost, servants of the tllt~ white government, which cOlJld could tllke take away their salaries and privileges places. privileges in a moment if they forgot their plat:es. So apartheid was beginning to be worked out though the word had not yet gained currency. But, if there th(~re are aI'C ten tcn million Africans (of course there ther' arc are many mClre more today) fair wily way to and only three million whites, what was the fail' interested in divide up the land? Did the Fischer family, interCllted justice, think of this? Did they realize that in the plans phms for segregation, or whatever it WILS was called, racial segregation, 01' whatevet' called, Africans were Wet'C to be croweled crowded on to the WOttlt worst land, where they could could never make a decent living, but wo\lld would lnwe have to come out and work for the whites? Or were the Fischers FillChers too deeply occupied in worrying ab<>ut about the tell ten per cent of the Afri Afrikaner population who were poor whites, without more possessions than the poor Afl'ican African and ls survive? leu able to lIIulVlvc?

27 27

A Life for for Africa ~ many as possible possiblt~ of these poor pOOl' whites must be care. As mny care, fully nursed into genuine Afrikanerdom, their children gemline Afrlkanerdonl, chilrexi educated, the parents parcnts settled on good gcxld land and taught taught modern farming techniques. techniques. Then Then. they would cease to ~ b a shame and a blot on the Union of South Africa. But But whatever was done for them, there always seemed to be Iia problem of pOOl' poor whites who were difflicult problem difficult to help. Bl'am'~ Brai-n' elder sister, Ada, devoted herself to them. It must have been a thankless job, had job, a heartbreak often. But Someone somem1C hac\ to do it; typically, it was a Fischer. Nobody thought of doing the same sane thing fIJI' for the Africans. No farm labourer could save enough out of hii Mricans. his be miserable wages to buy even a small piece of land and 00come a fannCt'. farmer. No, that could not be allowed to happen; happen, baskap. Meanwhile the population it would threaten baaskap. population on so the reserves, these imaginary homelands, increased and so cattle. But there wms more Cree free land did the number of cattle, was no mort! that had once and nowhere for Africms Africans to move to; all tlUlt been theirs wns was gone. Still, that meant they had go out Still" thl\t h;~d to ,~o and work and thcre there were so many that wages coul hie wcre could be kept satisfactorily down, so it was all right for the Afrikaners. satisfactorily industrial citi(~~,. cities, there was race racte But meanwhile, meanwhile, in the industria! trouble, which was probably probably reported n!portt:d so one-sidledly one-sidedly that the boys at Grey's could only have felt that the blacks had old-faslhioned word. word, been infected with bolshevism-that old-fashioned being so, they must be taught att [cS'lOn les.on;i if a few of That bei.ng them were killed in the process process that thM didn't matter. maltcl'. The boys would have heard of the African National C()llgI'tSS, Congress, but probably laughed at it. Perhaps they might havc have taken more seriously the fight between between the white miners oni on the Rand, demonstrating demonstrating for higher wages alld and a.a better lx:tter 28

up Growing 11/1 ownCl'll standard of living for themselves, and the mine owners srmi or anxious to bring in African workers to do skilled semiAfricans, skilled jobs, but not for motives of helping the AfrIcans, expensive whites. comparatively exptmsive only so as to replace the comparatively

The Rand strike of 1922, in which some 240 white white wor WOfcon army, conkers were killed by the police and the anny, workers no good. It is trolled by Smuts, did the African wOl'kcrs is strange to think of elevated devoted men, hanged, singing the Red cause of all-white Flag with their last breath, but in the catlse brotherhood. But how much of it all would have meant meant a socially anything to a boy of fourteen? Yet he came from conscious family; itit must have been talked over. fair hair Anel so Bram grew up, blue-eyed, blue-eyed, with the fall' And oxy; that would go grey early. He was a strong, stocky boy; physical fifty years on he would need all that strength strength and ph)'sical this went on doing this endurance. He played scrum-half serum-half and Wen! was his kind later on whenever there was a game going; itit WM 1925 he h"c\ had the of thing. He was always afl swimmer. In 1.925 tennis; it was the highest sporting award at Grey for his ttmnis; same year in which he took Matriculation, with honours, honours. was never No doubt he joined in family worship, but Watl ne.ver fanatical deeply involved. Nor were his parents among the £anatie.al Angli in fact attended the Anglichurch-goers; church-gaers; his grandfather ill time, been, at that education must have can church. His education have: been, time. on mainly academic; lie he knew his classics. And he decided all his father coumr, and hi.~ a Law career. It was in the family, of COUl'se, fathe.r already a IItrongt~r stronger Brain 1l1rcady would have approved, but had Bmm feeling lor for justice? justice? Thabuic, the He would, for instance, have looked at Itt Thabuic, mil". white horse carved carved into the ridge of hill only three miles horw of King This had been the hOl'8Il from Bloemfontein, Bloemfontein. Thill 29 29

A Life for Africa Lerotholi of Lesotho, the second after wise King Moshweshwc. The Orange Free State had fought and Moshweshwe. beaten him and got more land out of the Basotho for themselves. This memorial was their boast, but was it justice? If Bram Bran thought that, it would clash with his pride prevail? in his State and its Afrikanerdom: Afrikanerdom: which wMch would prevail? I can only guess that he thought of the law as a noble career, career, as a service, but probably probably most of the time he was far more interested in passing his exams. exains, Mugging Mugging up Roman-Dutch law takes determinatioll, determination, but he would have Fischer, and a been ashamed ashamed to fail. After all, he was wa.~ a Fischel', brilliant Fischer at that. He duly got his Law degree from the University of South Africa, of which the Grey University College was a constituent part. After that he became Registrar to Sir Etienne de Villiers, who was then then Judge President of the Orange Orange Free State. This lasted for two years. Meanwhile Meanwhile his family had moved to town. Perhaps he never again saw the African friends of his childhood. It is possible that by now he had a few educated It educ.ated African acquaintances, but with a certain mixture of friends or acquaintance8, suspicion on both sides. He certainly certainly might have made some between school during his year at Cape Town University, bClwcen and College. In the olcicl'-or older-or can I say more civili%ed?civilized ? Africans and Coloureds had grasped grasped parts of the Union, Afdcans educational and job opportunities. They could, with at educational lnvo, the first Bantu newsnews difficulty, climb the ladder. lmvo, in 18M. 1884. paper, very cautiously edited, edited, had been bet'.ll started ill Now there were others, some not so cautious. cautious, There were in a modern sense. African political and trade union leaders leadcl'll in moderll ~ellile. It had begun before World War 1I with the "Sollthern "Southern It African Native Congress". die leaders thia-by now Congress». Now tlle leadel'S of thizt-by 30 30

Growing Growing up up it was the African National Congress, Congrcs.'l, usually called the A.N.C.-and of the various other African ()rgallizatiolls organizations and trade unions, were asking quietly but persistently, persistently, for 1\a few moderate reforms. reforms, Their alm aim was "to advance the general prosperity and progress of the country and its general the thin sone it seemed die people". Harmless Harmless enough, but to some edge of the wedge. All they wanted, really, was wa.~ to be recog recognized as people people and to achieve a small share of human happiness. But even that was too mllch much dignity, freedom and happiness. to ask. The trade unions, because they wanted solider and more idealisms, tangible things and were less involved with liberal idclliismg, being went further. During the war African workers were being organized as near home as Bloemfontein, Bloemfontein, where they were asking for an increase in basic wages, which had been pegged pegged at two two shillings a day, in spite of the steep increase and more in the cost of living. This went on, getting more atld "native unun propaganda was blamed for "native bitter. Bolshevik propaganda rest". In fact native unrest was due to thousands thousandq of workers being shoved below the poverty line and held there. What could anyone expect? conmunist party was also However, a real and active communi~t formed, The C.P.S.A. (C.ommunist (Communist Party of South being IOImed. South and willing to do Africa) was small but deeply committed IUld of the Africans, as interpreted interpreted anything to f"rther further the cause AfricanB, a.q "Com by the Communist Comm"rust International, and particularly "Com_ was occasional rade Bill" Bill" Andrews. In the twenties there Wll.'! occasional of the organIzed organized workers; it common action with some oftllc unionists andpolitic.iam and politieians that seemed to left wing trade uruOl1i~1ll They were over-hopeful. over-hopeful. All the capitalism was tottering. 1'he.y exemplified ill in enemies: capitalism time they had hac! two enemies: capitalism as liS exemplified

31 31

A Life for Africa A white indusindus. a government government by now largely dominated by white trialists and the major white, white trade unions. In ten years the white miners' miners' wages had risen by m()re more than fifty per cent, the African African miners' by only nine. Again, what was to be be expected ? expected? The African socialist socialist leaders leaders were by now making friends across the world, including Moscow. including both Great Britain and anel Ivio!ICow. As in other countries, countdes, the left movements, split and quarrelled quarrelled more bitterly than if they had been genuine enemies. Clement Kadalie was General Secretary Secretary of the I.C.U.-the Commercial General Union, I.e.U.-the big Industrial and Commerchtl which semi. whicll by now had a very large membership of semi· organized organized and not always paid-up paid.up workers. The official view was that it was "an "an organization known as the breeding. place of agitation among the natives". natives", Kaclnlie Kadalie tended to be be the main figure in the non-communist non-communist section of the common front. front, He made a good imprcssion impression on sllch such bodies International Labour Office Office and the British T.U.C., T.U.C., as the International but he was more effective effective politically than he ie was wa in achievachiev ing the workers' workers' demands in specific industries; it is not union with entirety entirely inadequate fiuances easy to run a big uniolt inadequate nuances and erratic help. In the end he was definitely ,lOti· anti-Com Comunions on the: the whole kept aloof munist. The Indian trade tUli(lIls from the African ones. The communists communitlt., perhaps saw s.\w further. But did the young Fis(:her Fischer know any of them or were Ilis his friends at this period all moderates, believers, shall we MY, say, fdends in apartheid seeries likely cll
32 S2

Growing up Growillg

one: to question the very bottom of his own feelings. Once one asks these questions, new ways open. Yet the political sce.ne scene was partly hopeful. In the twenties and carly franchise early tllirties thirties the Cape Coloureds had the fl'anchise qualification, within the Cape. As it rested on a property qualilication, there were many more Coloured than pure African voters, btlt still, there were a few, even of these. To vote !I That 'I'hat but seemed like power power and recognition. A step on from there of and they might themselves be legLqhttQI'Il. Already oome legislators. Already somic or themselves he everywhere, but among friends, them mixed socially, not cv(~rywhcre, friends. Some of the ladies were strikingly beautiful. They 'I'h(~y went shopping anywhere, though white customers might be served first. They had built themselves themselves nice houses hou${',s with pleasant gardens. They swam from the beautiful Cape tile beautiful pleasant both(~l'ed unless there happened happened to be beaches, and nobody bothered from very strict about, probably someone someone abollt, probably fmnl the north. It and, looked looked as if, iI, for fo!' them, everything would go smoothly Md, Cape following on, it would soon be the same for the C,\PC this is meant a non-radal non-racial State. Africans. That Incant AfricallS. State, And tlli$ i~ the ws grow. opposite of apartheid. But the idea of apartheid WM growcloud waiting for its lightning to strike. ing, a black cloutl When When the Union of South Africa Afrkll under the British Crown tried hard to get the was aclieved, achieved, the Cape delegates had tded sorts of same franchise, limited of course to men with all oorts Union. But it in other parts of the property qualifications, property allowed to happen. could be aa beginning. It Ie was not all()wed aniong the aware of the threatening cloud, amtmg Some were aWMe thr. whether Coloureds themselves Coloureds themselves and among white liberals, liberals, wltl'thcl' British, or Afdkancl'lI, Afrikaners. They European, which usunlly usually .meant meant B.rltillh, from fle knew the build-up build.up of pressure fro.m those who felt their sooner or later. There jobs or their way of life threatened, threatened, lJ(loner 33 c 33

A Life LIfe for Africa farmers who wanted cheap, unlimited tlUorganized were the ial'n1erS unorganized will. labour, which they could discipline at their theh- own sweet will, Any farmer had a sjambok sjmnbok or two on the premises. SuccesSucces sive pieces of legislation made things easier for them to use it. A A little later, when ordinary farm workers were not quite esy to come by, a paternal run so easy paternal State allowed them to !'tin their own little gaols, a few farmel'S farmers getting together, coco operatively, to build them. The labour was then completely disciplined. disciplined, Apart from that, however, farniets faI111et'!l considered considered that they had complete rights ights over their squatters (whose tribal home their land might once have been) or labourers, including their wives and children, children, so SO that it was almost impossible for a. a child or young permn person to get away. A few "good" farmers ran a low-level "good" farmers ran a low-level school, so that children could learn learn a little reading, a little arithmetic, but bllt writing. And of course the Bible, the magic probably not wdting, and powerful book of their God, backed fires of ltd!. hell. powerful backed by the fh'e., Perhaps the better farmers, reasoning reasoning that they had been whacked at school and the natives were "ouly "only <:hildren" children" lulled themselves that way. Or they did 110t not nmlly really notice what their overseers did. Boer farmers were not Mtet! noted for for their kindness even towards tlleir their own women and children, ami Schreiner's 7'lIe The SIM}, Story of lin ait as one can see by reading Olive Schrcinel"s African Farm, family, obedient Farm, although the idea of the family. ohedient to a loving, but chastising, father wa.~ was a strong image. image. was worse, from the wh~ite But the industrial industrial pressure WM while miners and railway workers, many of whom had nice bungalows where their wives had servants to ()I'dm' order around al'ound which had stopped happening and grumble grumble at, something whicll in England between tie some of the skilled the wars, wars. In fact, !Kline lIkiUed and semi-skilled un semi-skilled workers workers had come from conditions of un34. 34

Growing up employment and uncertainty in England following the big slump of the early thirties, triggered off from America. They what felt they had escaped; they were going to stick to what they'd got, and to hell with the blacks, They built up a soso called Labour Party, which was very muddling for Labour Labour supporters in England who had always thought that Labour Labour supporters stood for equality and brotherhood, But the kind of brotherbrother hood it stood for--and sometimes, as in the earlier Rand Rand strikes, died for-was strictII' strictly white. This white pressure also came down on all other non-white groups such as the Chinese, who had been imported as cheap repatriated 01' or cheap labour, but most of whom were being repatriated making their way out. Above all it affected the Indians Indians who in the Transvaal had established themselves mainly as small establis11ed themselvcs business men and shopkeepers, though also in the propro fessions, for example as doctors and lawyers. But we must not forget that many were indentured indentured workers on the Natal Natal sugar plantations, as badly off as Africans. Their own comcom munities were comparatively comparatively privileged, but they mixed whites or Africans; their ladies and girls little, either with whitcs mixed even less. nut But if for fol' instance they travelled, they were "coolies" and only too likely to be insulted, sworn at as "eoolies" pushed pushed around. This had happened to the young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi, who reacted strongly but was already building up his political philosophy of non-violence, non-violence, useful see, in Africa Africa against in India but not really, as we shall sec, against Afrikaners. Afrikaners. He, however, had left Africa, to go back to India, in 1914, having been too much occupied with the mounting see clearly mounting injustice towards his own community to sec clearly happening to the millions of other non-whites. But But what was happening more the time would come when first a few and then many !nore

35 35

A Life for Africa A leaders of Indian Indian thought thought and and action action would stand by the the leaders Africans. Africans. But there tbere was wa.~ one one Afrikaner Afrikaner politiciam politician who who was beginning, But happening. was what in his own own way, way, to understand understand happtming. Hof Hofin meyr, the the solemn, solemn, joyless joyless man, man, immensely immensely though though narrowly narrowly erudite, at twenty-two twenty-two appointed appointed a Professor Professor at Johannes Johanneserudite, now in the Government. He was WIIS an administra administraburg, was now tor of of strict integrity integrity and efficiency, dficiellcy, the kind of of man who tor worked all evening, evening, wearing himself down, unless unless his worked mother, from whom whom he never parted, parted, stopped stopped it. He played played cricket, but that can can be be aa deathly deathly serious serious game. And he was beginning to realize realize the basic injustice of the South African African beginning State. Yet he found it difficult difficult to work with the Cape gayer lot and had broken broken away away from liberals, who were a gayer even scared was He the narrow restrictions restrictions of Calvinism. Calvinism. even of receiving receiving delegations of what what might have been been near-com Ilear-communists. The time was never never ripe. And yet he was timidly tinlidly munists. beginning to believe in a common society S(lCiety including white, brown and "civilized" "civilized" blacks. More surprisingly, in a way, Smuts too was wa.~ occasionally occasionally thinking along the same lines lilles lines for the long term sane lin('~~ which were, after all, the only &WC 1930 that Smuts peace and stability of his country. It was in l!l30 urbanized natives" ...urbanized thought "it would be better to allow ... "exercise Europeanized" to "exercise who "claim to be civilized and Europeanized" That whites", 'DIal was their political rights along with the whites". scarcely revolutionary and little came of it in practice, yet no Afrikaner politician would dare to say it now. Smuts, different however, was quite capable of expressing very di.fferent nearly his own, to a non-liberal views, perhaps, more nearly audience. his Brain Fischer in his to Bram been apparent to All this must have been.

36 36

Growing up Growing up in the dimate climate of opinion early twenties. twenties, The stirrings in opinion lIre are sure to echo in the minds of the young and intelligent. intelligent. P~r· Per Bran was beginning haps Bram beginning to think of himself as one of the Afrikaners in a~\ multi-racial future leaders of the Afrikaners multi-racial or nOl\non racial state. In 1929, 1929, he became the first Nationalist Prime became Nationalist Pl'ime Minister of a student parlinment. L-re would no doubt have parlhul1cnt, He aristocracy, the the people been thinking of the Afrikaner !lrist!Jcrllcy, peoplc.\ of complete justice, equality principle who believed in complete equality of opportunity, stepping up of education and training, freedom trnining, fl'ecdmu from old-fashioned prejudice prejudice and so on. Yet probably he was not yet really intimate with an AfI'iCllI1 African and might have found it awkward to be btl so, although he was already trying to overcome an irrational pn~judice, prejudice. overcome what he now knew was tU). No doubt too he would have condemned condemned law-breakers, strikers and those who did not recognize authority. And by by authority he probably meant, deep down, white authority, What else could there be? have a certain contempt for the unedu He would also lULVe uneducated Afrikaners, whose principles stopped with their own interpretation of the Bible and whose somewhat peculiar peculiar interpretation prejudices stuck out a mile. His contempt mnight in prejudices might have included the equally prejudiced 1I,!'!\all small shopkc.!~pel'l! shopkeepers and busi· busi nc.s ness men. Even l~ven today, if one goes into their homes, one can easily find no printed matter except a large Bible in the best room and ait few comics, no decoration except dusty plastic flowers Mel and blown-up or even illuminated illuminated photophoto fanily man'iages marriages and grandpareuliI, grandparents, and it a total graphs of family hi such heretlcal heretical docdoe. disbelief, not only in ill brotherhood, but ill trines as evolution, evolution. This is, on the whole, the kind of home friom which South African from African police and prison warders warders come. But, immediately, Bram Brain wanted to continue and broaden 37 37

for Africa A Life fol' Scholarship hodes Scholal'ship his own education. He applied for an Rhodes out at Oxford and got it. This would be his first adventure adventure outSOllth Africa into a different c]Jmate climate of thought. In side South January January of 1932 after sitting his next law examination at Bloemfontein with a view to the Bloemfontein and doing extra Latin Nwith needs of the English Jurisprudence boarded the Jurisprudence course, he boarded bound for Europe and ship, well equipped no doubt, and hound New College.

38

3 Oxford View from Oxford ZI.W COLLEGE is very beautiful. It is all stone-built, II.W COLLEGE is very beautiful. It t~ all stone.built, Cotswold crumbles on the C(,tswald stone that weathers weathers and cl'umbles s9urface, so that the faces of statues blllr blur and you ~l\rfncc, so see the centuries-old centures-old drnperics, draperies. There are only sec arc hC~LVY St()n~­ heavy Stones field slates on the roofs of the cloisters. Yau You turn a corner between high walls, between wall~. go in through the great gate, past the porter's lodge, lodg(~, into the fit-t first quad. Here is a huge green grass, the {il'st first thing perhaps, that young lawn of fine finc gra..'\.'I, yOUllg Fischer Fischer mu~t must have noticed. From heI'C here came. came the famous explanation explanation hy "You rolls it and cuts it and X'olls rolls it and by the garcdeer g(mi<'ner:: "You cuts it for about three hundred years and then it starts tak cutq hundt'ed ye;u'S start.~ takleft is chapel with ing shape." shape." To the lcft t, the chapel with its magnificent organ and stained stained glas, gla.'A'l, as well as Il.~ Willimn William of Wykeham's Wykeham's pastoral staft. stllii. The new Rhodes scholar might have noticed the in the memorial memori.Ll tablet to mermnbers membem of the College College killed in World War I, Iewould have I, including including the German German dead. He viited the cloisters, full of insc.riptions, with more lawn and visited the doistcl'lI, full of inscription" with more lawn and a great ilex tree. l4e Hex tree" He, would have h,we climbed climbed the tower, tower, up which, girt, I often pasting overseas wllkh, when I I was an girl. often guided guided pal\ting ovemcas iSitors for the tremendous view out over Oxford. Vit!it(ll'll view Oxford. eyoncl the first quad, with H4all library opening out Deyond (h'llt quad. Hall and liI)l'(lry opt~llillg Ollt of s the second, one sIde side is splen ()f it, ill m'<:oud, of which Wllich (lne is the garden, splendidly walls with didl), gated, built blli,lt in an angle IUlgle of the ancient city wnllg their their enibrasnu embl'M\II'('lI anid I1ml Impoholes. loop·ho!elI, 'iThe The wide herlaecous hel'l,)ncctol1s bor border, is a11 blaz der, expertly C-)cpertly tended, ill blce of colour colour eight months mont1l1l of

N

39

A Africa A Life for Afrita tfhe the year. On the grass slopes slopes down to the tho lawn there are always undergraduates undergraduates lying around, around, one hopes with text te~t books, In the centre is the tree planted Mound, which only hooks. centre planted lifo lind, wbich Follows are supposed to climb. climb, I used to climb it often Fellows a child, dodging the gardeners, and again aftel' enough as II after my brother had come back from India In(lia for my father's ccncen tenary and been given all an honorary degree. At the top he he said, "But we are arc only ghosts, you know". So I look back. are chestnuts and tulip trees and tall scented lime There arc trees prevent nit trees and spikes along the tops of the walls to pl'event alt but the the. brave from climbing in. The new buildings buildings nre re along t-olywell, and there is is a chen." cherry trcc tree in the terraced HolyweU, terrtu;cd quad with n.a street lamp which shines through a profusion profusion of white white blossom in May_ May. TIlere There are lodgings outside the College too, some very attractive, all set among among tulips ami and iris and lwd lupins, flowering shrubs and trees. Brain Bram Fischer Fischer had rooms in College. His tutor was Mr. Jenkins; at that time H. A. L. Fisher was the Warden; Fisher, anxious Warden; Mr. and Mrs. Fishel', anxioLs to encourage a young liberal, asked him to tea quite often. He was clearly much attached attached to the College for which whiich he played tennis and rugby football; it was during a match match that he hurt a knee cartilage and was in the Wingfield Wingfield HosaIos pital under Dr. Girdlestone. GirdLestone. Yet clearly much of his love was for Rhodes House and the Warden, Warden, MI'. Mr, C. 0. K. Allen. He became President of the Raleigh Club, a CommonCommon became wealth Society which met and still meets at Rhodes House, I-ouse, different ambience. though now it must nUlst have a rather diffr.rent He had missed a tcnn term as well as having the accident to acddmt to his knee, but he worked hard, including legal Latin, perhaps worked too hard, for he ended by getting a Third after a.a bad attack of exam nerves. A photograph of him at this period period shows 40

Viewfrom from Oxford Oxford View an intense, intense, tight-lipped, tight.lipped, short-haired short.haired young young man, man, clearly clearly an failure,. at nervons, who who might might become become extremely extremely depressed depressed at failure. nervous, The photograph is from Tlte Friend and, oddly enough, enough, next nc.xt The photograph is from The Friendand, oddily oneofofHitler, Hitler,then then coming coming toto the the fore. fore. But But the theNazis Na:r.is were were toto one deplored by byBrain's Bram.'s parents, parents, who who were, were, later, later, to to visit visit Oxford Oxford deplored and after after that that toto receive receive the the Warden Warden of of Rhodes Rhodes House House and and and Mrs. Allen Allen atat their tllcir own own home. llome. Mrs. understandably, Bram scems to have become, understandably, fed Ied up up with with become, Brain seems to have law. He He wanted wanted toto do do Economics Economics and and at at one one point point felt felt he he law. tutor should transfer transfer toto London London School School of of Economics. Economic-s. His HL1 tutor should Politics tried toto shepherd shepherd him him into into Philosophy, Philosophy, Politics and and tried Diplona a took Eoonomics, but but he he shied shied off off and instead instead Diploma in in Economics, delightful a show accounts All Economics in his last year. All accounts II delightful year. Economics his but not very very intellectual intellectual young young nian, man, much liked, liked, "a "II charm dlllrm· No, fellow", "one "one of the nicest nicest men in College". College". No, he he ing fellow", getting was he hadn't done done as well as was expected, expected, but getting hadn't ways. educated in all sorts of other other educated Rhodrs the Rhoot's The Victoria League organized tea parties parties for the League organized The one Ada his sister scholars. Young Mr. Fischer Fis<:her brought his sister Ada ortt' with doubt with no doubt Sunday to tea with my father and mother, no Sunday to anti scones and of s<:ones usual heaped plates of the silver tea-set and the usml condi African cOllcli· South African cakes. There was conversation about South method new method that aa new tions and Ada, trying to be helpful, said that "Yes,' mines. gold the gold mines. "Yt'll," in the to prevent pthisis in had been evolved to him of hill one of fact, oue'! In fact, it." In suggested it." said my falller father gently, "I suggested But II deawem. But mine di.'CMCS. on mine work Oil to work there to out there pupils gone out pupils had gone London, in London, living in and living married and myself; II was man'ied never Bran myself; never met Bram to not til politics, not British politics, in British involved in becoming increasingly involved becoming increasingly we threat we further threat the furthel' and the War and Civil War Spanish Civil speak the Spanish of the speak 01 with. reckon with. beginning toto rec.kon were were beginning bicycle r1da and bicyclerlct. walks and long walks for long went for Brain went That year Brant That year 41 41

A Li/e A/riea Life for A/rica through the Oxfordshire Oxfol'dshil'c countryside, marvelling at the damp greenness, so different from home. There were the great and gI'cetmess, elm trees and the t-all, tall, straggling hedges, the wide verges of the roads fuJI full of flowers, c.ow cow parsley, buttercups, buttercups, ox-eye ox-eye daisies, vetch and foxglovc,fol' foxglove, for these were the days before hefore weedkillers and the butterflies floated over them. He Ile carne came to an Oxford of winter days with snow and bare or bm'e trees, or slush and puddles, but by the end of the Lent (crm term the blackthorn blackthorn would be in blossom again. And always, always, clay sticky and I1meky mucky with the ground was damp, Oxford day sploshing back for milking, and lhe the two riwrs, rivers, CherCher cows splashing well and Thames, breathing out mists and Jeaf leaf smells. He would have gone with friends to drink beer with the leaf-flecked locals at the country pubs, watching the green, leaf-flecked or, in the long northcm heariing the northern dusk, heariflg river slide by, at', nightingales. Was it from this country COUll try that the soldiers had had savaged the crops, come who had burnt the little Boer farms, s;waged sent the women and children to misery and death in the one, doing that, camps? Should one try to forget or would OM, become less of an Afrikaner? Afrikaner? He was bound become involved irvohved in left polities politics hound to have become clubs, and might have got a new and dis. dis and debate and dubs, turbing perspective perspective on all his own country and what was going on there. In 1932 pressure from Boer farmers had resulted resulted in the Native N alive Service Contract Bill which legalized the whipping whipping of young Africans under e.ighteen eighteen who tried to get away from their "masters", "masters", and the binding of young young children to labour. He would hear about the brutal tl'e~\t­ treat ment of political prillOUCI'S, prisoners, kicked kcled and bealen beaten by their white warders and left to die, the perpetual perpetual bullying of the pass pa.'I.'I laws and tIle the heating beating up by the police, even before a chllt'ge charge 42

View from Oxford O.~ford was laid. And yet he would also find people who rememremem bered how Smuts had said at Oxford that South Africa's native policy was the best and should be imitated by settler governments Smuts had ts hnd govenunents in east and central Africa. And Smu charm, charm. Party in Great He realized quickly that the Communist Parly GI'C:lt Britain was quite respectable andl'cfused respectable and refused to b(~ be put upon. In South Africa constantly Africa it was still having a tough time, constantly for the first being reprimanded reprimanded from Moscow which, not {(n' or last time, failed to recognize recognize that the correct line might Certainly it was the Combe different in another country. Cct·tainly Com intern which first had the idea of a "black republic" with intern which first had the idea of a "black republic" with guaranteed call now guaranteed minority rights-what we would Cl\1l majority rule. But was the timing right? Of course it further alienated tlle the right wing trade unions, alienated unions. In the early thirties the A.N.C. had relapsed into mild protests and internal squabbles. Dut But surely by now they must have known that squabbles, respectable approaches were going to mlWC move the thr none of their respectable Smuts-Hertzog coalition. Yet Liberals went on hoping. hoping, Smuts-Hertzog Meanwhile Meanwhile increasing pressure pressure was being put P\lt on em by South Africa to incorporate incorporate the Protectorates, Bechuanaland. Bechuanahand, Swaziland Basutoland. Luckily this was met with Swaziland and Dasutoland. reasonable pgnible reasonable firmness by the Colonial Office. Was it POllllible to feel that becausr that Bram was occasionally made lC) be.caulIC he he was an Afrikaner ancl and proud of it, he lie was inevitably a WI\!! inevitilbly reactionary ? reactionary? in the I.ab(lur Laboxur .Pnl'ty Party Yet he was developing developing friendships .in IBetwecn 1932 and or bodies like the new Socialist SocialL~t League. LClIgue. Between lind been a ha\'denhlg hardening and taking up of p!:lIIitiollS positions 1934 there therc had bcen Britain. Mosley had brought the Britillh British r,'lUiCwt IFawait in Great Dritain. party into being and with it Ita violence which had .not niot been ~ll 43 4·3

A Life tor for Africa known for fol' long enough in England. In Europe the shape oC of things to come was appearing with horrible hordbJe inevitability, inevitabililY, In In 1934 Brain went on a short tour to the U.S.S.I., ,Ls many of Dram U,S.S.R., as 01 us did about then. With hindsight one realizes l'eali7.('.~ all that was going wrong wrong but which none of us could really sec, because see, because the part which was going right was weamed, wn.q so dazzling da7.zling and seemed, perhaps rightly, so much more Again, in AlIgll.~t August perhaps m()!'e important. Agaill. 1933, Dram student confetenccs B(waria and Brain went off to student conferences in Bavaria Switzerland. The full Nazi c!evelopme.nt Switzerland. y(~t to come, come., development was yet tak of all. Yet there but it must have been in the minds and talk therc were other interests. He thought for a time along the lines werc othel' intl!rcsts. of Child Welfare work. That tied tiecl in with with the econCllnies economics of poverty. So Bram Bram went back to South Africa to find something something of the same sort happening, especially younger SOIt especially among the younge.r Afrikaners a growing fascism, fascL~m, which put many of them into complete sympathy with the Nazis. complete N I)1.is. This had its high spot in the centenary celebrations celebrations of the Great Trek. It w~as MIS at Bloemfontein that the Ossewabrandwag (the ox-wagon Bloemfontein Ossewabrandwag founded; this took ova, over, and sentinel) movement movement was founckd; ami still keeps, the Nazi ideology, the worship of the volk yolk and hatred hatrt,d of foreigners. Anti-semitism was raging everywhere, evcrywlwrc, partly because many Jewish families, aware of what awaited awaited them in Hitler's Germany, Germany, were emigrating while there was still time, though a number of families had come come a generation generation or two earlier, to escape pogroms in Ruwia pogl'Otrui RUlISia and Lithuania. Lithuania. Afrikaner That was the picture. But was this what being an Afrikaner had come to? On September September 18th, Hl37, 1937, he Yet there was happiness. Ou Afrikaner married Mollie Krige, herself from a famous Mrikuner Mrs. Smuts, wife of til«: the Prime Mini!!Minis family, and Il.a niece of Mrli.

44 44

View trom from Oxford tel'. his views, ter, It is possible that her family were critical of bis btilliant, rising young advoca.te? heradvocate? She her but was he not a brilliant, sclf uttcdy; she was a person whose honesty Il()ncsly of self shared them utterly; was no one there WllS thought and purpose shone out. For him tbere else. was the political left WllR picture on the South African political The })ictul'o nprcusual disarray. A People's Front was formed, IIa wide spec trum from Communism to mild Liberalism, and the League of Nations Union, but it was the white left and after a good start it began to disintegrate. A A lively radical weekly, doubt the Guardian, Guardian, was eagerly read by all progressives, progre.ssives, doubt. less including Bram. Dr. Eddie Roux, intelligent and brave International when enough to stand up to the Communist International it totally failed to understand South African conditions and simply repeated inappropriate inappropriate Leninist phraseology, had party, and smaller Communist party. rejoined a.a discouraged and ~mallel' and and moved with it to Cape Town. It included the strong ilnd more civilized place steadfast Moses Kotane. This was steadfast Ivloscs wa., a civilize,d storm than the Witwatersrand, Witwatersrand, but also further from the stoml oppressions and centre centre of African working class miseries and oppl'cssion.~ anger and the ugliness of their lives, lives. IBut Cape Gape Town was not inactive. How could it be with But a generation of highly intelligent and cultured cultured Coloureds, Coloureds. Gool, including women like the brave and beautiful Cissie Gool, education, demanding complete equality before the law, over education, free work and all the other obvious things that mean real freedom and democracy? what Pericles in Athens, more than Mean two thousand years berot·c, before, had called isonomia. isonomia.. M~an. little but grew weaker and could think of while the A.N.G. A.N.C. weaker pointless deputations and letters destined to go unread by came white Ministers. Yet it and the Communist Party CIIIlle

45

Life for Africa A/rica A Lite together in 1935 to meet a common enemy, the Bill to take the Cape Africans off the common roll of voters. All the old slogans were trotted out by the sponsors of All followed was always followed political equality wa..~ the Bill, especially that politIcal Nazi-type All Na'ti-typc blood", AU by social equality and "mingling of blood". that extent tllRt politicians go crazy about blood, even to the l',Xlcnl politicians un exactly similar products un· blood donors have to have their ("J(actiy no doubt use scientifically labelled, Sensible doctors nt) scientifically race labelled. to find find what is there, though in South Africa it L~is pos.,ible pXssible 10 tie highly educated, educated, race prejudice so strong even among the that they acquiesce in this kind of nonsense. roll. So the Cape Africans lost their votes on the common roll, ,,), and though Hofmeyr mildly objected llnd so, more strongly, did though But the Sir James Rose Innes, a former Chief Justice. Justice, BUI male nothing, The same Act, putting male liberals could do nothing. voting communal roll, l'll\l, Africans onto a kind of indirect vOling sup. Reprewntative Council which created a Native Representative whkh wris wn., supcreated it But Government. to the posed to be there to give advice (',ovcl1lment. lInt advice posed was alLowed allowed to do so little that, ten years later, it was bitterly biucrly "a toy telephone" called "a telephone" by one of the Councillors, Counclllora. Mean Meancalled voters md influence while the status statns and influence of the Coloured Colollt'l'd vot<:tS vote altogether the only lost they But gradually decreased. decreased. loot v(lle otltogether the fifties. in ill what wa This was wa.~ a step backwards, baekwards, a new threat from wha.t W3.!i Everyone got togeder, clearly clearly becoming beC(lming a white police state. Everyol1r t()getha, an leaderi and including the respectable respectahle A.N.C. A,N ,C. lCILdcr:> lind formtid {()ITIIr.t1 an a coali by now wm Government African Convention. Convention. The Government WM IL wali· liertwg and Herlws: liberal Smuts lind tion between b~twcell the occasionally occasion1ll1y libcrlll step wav Its next supremacist. II! who was a way-out way-out white suprenmci!lt. ne.xt slep WilJI the Native Native Laws Amendment Amendment Act Act 1937. 193'7. This This wa, wn.q inter!!led illt~lldrd to III the big to stop the influx influx of of hungry, job-seeking job-seeking Africans AfriCIU18 ttl Ihe big 46 46

View from Oxford

is, "endorsed out" (that Is, towns and make them liable to be "endorsed supposed is "home-land" is supposed sent back to wherever wherever their ethnic "home·land" be, however however impossible it was to make a living there) by by to be, the white police and the bureaucrats bureaucrats who dealt with them in an utterly unsympathetic way. Meanwhile, of course, there had been been a ael'ies amendments, all series of other Acts and amendments, designed to keep kecp the African in his placc, place, not to allow him mcagre "home making "home lands", making to acquire land outside the meagre changed his which-supposing he ch,mged him can!, carry a pass, without which-supposing could jacket, for instance, and forgot to pocket the pass--41c jackct, pass·--he could suffibe thrown into a police pick-up van, probably with suffi bmises. A cient violence to break a tooth or be covered with bruises. cells from time to to time, plus a police beat few nights in the celIs be~\t­ ing, was normal lng, nonnal for most Africans, especially especially if they had h:\d any political political or trade union connections. (No wonder a comes out in certain cynicism cynicism became became the protective wear; it com(~s in stories,) In the last thirty years so many books and short stories.) than better, and being this has grown worse rather tlulU nne! is being imitated in Rhodesia. How could a man like Bram Fischer, believing in justice, keep out of the struggle? Now he dccided definitely to come in. decided But Eut the risks were frightening for the old members of the few years. In a desperate A.N.C. It did little for the next fcw de.~pcrate some situation, a number of groups and parties formed, some worked other. other anti-white. Yet in practice things work(:d definitely anti·white. A, H. Naidoo, an Indian, who was to do wise; for instance, A. his had discarded hit! in the freedom movement, so much ill movement, 11ad fellow ancestral Hinduism and married a white European Hinduism mal'l'ied worker in the Communist Party. miners had African millers And on the Rand? For thirty years Afrlcan I /Ga day for surface and two shillings wag<',s pegged at 1/8 lIhillinp their wages

47

A Life tor for Africa for underground underground work, out of which they must buy their fare. There own mining boots and pay train train fares. There was no pay for the sick or disabled. They were knocked about uuclcrgl'Ound undergound by white miners and above ground by comI)und managers. compound managers. This is not to say that all whites IIrc are had, bad, but these were conditions approaching slavery, Ilnd and people who have absolute bhave badly; absolute power over others almost always behave Imtlly; they cannot realize that those in their power arc are genuinely s' Ullion Uniol did not dl'CRm dream human beings. But the white rine mim~lo' of backing demands by the African AfriCtUl mine workers' tI rInion !lion for living, RUd and. better pay, following a steady rise in the cost of Hving. somewhat better living conditions. Hormeyr, Minister of the Interim', Interior, oCca.~iollally occasionally Hofmeyr, who WM was Minister helped the Africans; lie was struggling with his narrow up Africansj he upbringing and his mother's influence, towards a mild help over Afl'kan African child offenders liberalism. He managed to heIp ()fr~ndeJ's transferring the "ReCormatorit·s" "Reformatories" from the against the laws, transfcn-ing I.he Department of Prisons to the Department of Education, and Department Departmt~nt Edm:.ltiun, rutd gave Alan Paton his chance as an educator, tl:ll!ugh though this was was Afrikaners brought brought all undone later when the right-wing Afrikam:rs back a real old penal system. Meanwhile Broederbond, Meanwhile the tbe 13tot::dctbond, the Afrikaner's secret sodety, society, grew in st.l'lmgth strength ami and i.,is 81m still powerful and difficult to trace. The young Hiertzog, Rin of H~l'tzog, snn fit encouraged the Brocc1crbcmd Broederbond te) to rescue the Prime Minister, encouraged "poor young Afrikaners" from imperialism ant! and ComCom "poor young Afrikaners" from British impcrialL'lJ11 (or JewisI.} Jewish) intcrnaticmnlislI1. internationalisn. I-ertzog, munist {or He1't7,og, too, had been been a Rhodes scholar; my mother remembered her instant intstant dil>dis remeltlbcr~d he!' like of him to her dying day. was fought. The combined. combined In this spirit the 1938 election Wall to preach righI.right. Afrikaans churches churches sent Bent out their predikants predikantsto into combining against foreignel'll, foreigneiv, blll(:kl!, blacks, thinking voters il1tc} 48

View from Oxford Broederbond exerted exerted it~ its liberals, Jews and die the like. The Droederbond apartheid won; next coalition coalition power, Baaskap Baaskap and apartheid WOll; in the nc.'xt government govcl'11ment ilofmeyr, HoimeYl', inevitably, resigned. re,~igned. But when war ws was actually declared, Parliament decided to support Britain and the allies by eighty votes to sixty sixty-seven. Hertzog resigned ...~even. Hel't7.0g resigned as Prime Minister; he and Malan led an "anti-war" "anti-war" party. Smuts took in two new coalition members who were I)l'oiesscdly anti·Nazi pro-white Labour, though as racist anti-Nazi and pro-white professedly as the rest. But the opposition were banking on a German victory and considerable pressure was being put on from outside parliament gone olltside parliament by the Ossewabrandwag Ossewabrandwag which had gam: the whole way towards Nazi-dom, and in this belief whole Nazi-dam, prac practised a lot of efficient sabotage on government buildings, }Iertzog believed in uniting all whites in IIa power lines, etc. Hertzog only an an common bond of Baaskap, but Malan wanted wanted ouly Afrikaner republic. This went on, while they wrangled for power, during the early years of the war, but after atfter Hitlel"~ Hitler's of defeat, first in the Battle of Britain, then in the Battle oC Stalingrad, they began to realize that after all, the N!\7.i Nazi StaIillgrad, victory on which they counted was not going to happell. happen. which Malan's party, after the General Election of 1943, came out Malan's Gellcral 191·3, CRmc Ollt lost gro\lUd. ground. But the as the only real opposition. The rest IOBt as doctrine of apartheid was growing its own philosophy M vell as its own practice. well

o

49

4 The Closed Closed Door Door

T

to join up, went on. on, Bram years yeal'S wcnt Bl'am had wanted to but he was wa.~ turned down rather unexpectedly tUlcxperteclly and and as he got on health grounds; much to his annoyance, mllch older he had blood pressure trouble. For some time now his views had become become more and more strongly against again~t apartheid dohlg, Ap,U'thdd Apartheid as a w.s doing. and all that the Government wru; word had not yet been invented, but as action it wa.~ was already run it meant there, It was clear to him that in the long nm there. Africa and perhaps disaster for South AMca nothing but disru;ter perhaps the whole ad did help in the fight for world. As All a lawyer he could and t" racial justice, although although an outsider would have said that Iili. big successes successes were in company company law. He I!eC'Jned to be headed lie xeemed straight for the top of or his profession. The Hitler-Stalin pact, England and considering the attitudes of gngland inevitable as a.~ it was c(msidering and Then, as it did many worded him deeply, !Ill Imlny of us. Theil, France, worried came in he felt immensely glad and Union cltme when the Soviet lInion and was going to (oninmunist Party wa., justified. It seemed that the Communist justified, he W:lS was now opposition. At the same time he. be the real, real, practical practical OppooitiOll. centr, JohannesJohame. morc committed to the storm stclrm c~nlre, more and more behind. totally ht!hind. burg; he had left rural Afrikanerdom totltUy Har After Pc;U'1 Pearl Harchanp. Art~r Government (kJvermmmt attitudes llttitudea did not change. general IICIIJ'C scame of JJ'apanem bour and the genenu apane!!e invasion, invasion, Smuts SmuUl went went every wcld IlITn arm evety in that event he would as to So'!.y say that In as far lUI A few of the course nothing came of it. A African, But of CClUI'SC African. for lighter skinned coloureds joined up in the Cape, white COl' u. wAR HE WAR

T

50

Tho Closed Door Door The the duration of their service, service. But most Coloureds and Coloured Africans went into unarmed battalions battalions of the Coloured were on. Chiefs we.re Corps, the Army Sel'Vice Service Corps and so on, persuaded to bring in contingents; many must have been been disappointed at not being allowed to fight and may have Senegalese troops of their French allies were noted that the Senegalese very much in the armed front line, curious that line. It was also CUl'iOllS friendly conscious Afrikaners began to be quite ftiendly many race consciolls with Africans when they were abroad, and something of the same spirit was left among some of the ex-service men. The Springbok Legion encouraged this in various practical practical ways. Splingbok There was talk of the freedom envisaged envisaged by the Atlantic Charter; encouraging remarks by Smuts were talked over been pushed optimistically in the townships. The A.N.C. A.N.C. had been pushed into new ways by Dr. Xuma, the lively and able young President General, General, newly back from America America (with a Negro wife) and Europe. Em·ope. It was not without pain to some of the older members, for Dr. Xuma was intent on a complete reo re shaping, making the A.N.C. A.N.C. less of an institution and more con of a political political party. Bram helped him to draft the new can· stitution on more democratic lines; probably he was there, K too, when a group of African intellectuals, including Z. K. Matthews, by now Reader Reader in African African law la.w and language at III Fort Hare, began work on a Bill of Rights ba.~ed based on the Atlantic Charter. Azikiwe was doing much the same in Nigeria, but he was on his way up towards power. Not so the Africans in South Africa. For nothing really made any difference. difference, There was con con. siderable anti-white feeling in some of the African organiza African organiZil. sidet'able tions, Most living in tiOllS. 'Most of the African African urban workers were now living-in conditions of intolerable poverty, poverty, while white prosperity 51 51

A Lifl1 Life for for Africa II African Youth League had been went up and up. The Afric:atl profes founded in 1943. There were the young African professionals and intellectuals who were going to become so Mandela, on-Oliver rambo, Tainbo, Nelson Mrulde1a, important later on-Olivel' Sisulu.their names amies Govan Mbeki, Anton Lembede, Walter Sisu]u,-·their stressing the African come later in this book, They were will book. strcs..~ing African technological necessities of a technological moral order working in with the ne.cessities or in some capitalism 01" and industrial society, whether run by capitalism form by the State. They also began to value the deep lessons of their own history; history i Nelson NelsOn Mandela, the sophisticated sophisticated royal family and had a young lawyer, had come from. fnml myal listened as a child to the stories of his own people, told They stayed stayt\
The Closed Closed Door Then came came more strikes. In one, soldiers were called in; they fired. Fourteen Africans Africans were killed, more than a hundl'ed wounded. Smuts WItS, was, probably genuinely, much hundred grieved and appointed a commission Blit any commission of inquiry. But in st.~tcments which appeared appeared and which were slightly in statements favour of justice justice for the natives, were immediately immediately attacked, as usual, by the white Unions. But there was more weight weight being thrown behind the strikes, boycotts and the struggle the against the pass laws in 1944. There There were were. loopholes loopholes in the laws which only a lawyer could see. There were ways of laws. doing forcible things which did not conflict with the laws, Increasingly Increasingly they came to Bram Fischer or he went to them. them, So far, probably very few people knew this part of his life, immediate family. unless perhaps perhn.ps his Ilis immediate From the other side the Afrikaner Nationalists becmm~ becane politics. They formed Ita increasingly involved in trade union politics, Society for the Protection Protection of White Workers. The predikants Church stressed the religious side of it. Dutch Reformed. Reformed Ohurch workers willing to fight for white civilization should join. join, They had a monthly paper where they preached preache,d the imaginary virtues of the early voortrekkers; the Volk nmust virtue$ Yolk must one. Only Afrikaans spoken. Afrikaner Afrikaner feel as one, Afrikaans should be spoken, bu't did nothing to to capitalists subscribed subscribed to the doctrines but increasingly international international tenets and practical alter the increasingly workings of capitalism. But an ideology capitalism. ideology was being built and is there today, often expressed just as crudely, though to the outside world it may have a slightly different face. too, Meanwhile, the Indian Indian attitude hardened, hardened, as they, toCl, were mCire more and more pushed around, around. There There was more genuine genuine co-operation with the Africans. Africans, This caune came at IIa time, just after the war, when Indian leaders, especially 53 53

A Life for for Africa A AfriclI Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs. Pandit, were being taken very very was,pe.rhap,s, perhaps, disdis seriously throughout 1\a white world which was, leaders and looking couraged by the performance of its own lead(~rs for moral guidance and hope. We in Great Britain were happy that India was at last freeing herself herself;j perhaps we put it down too much to the Labour Government Govemment which we had elected and too little to the inevitable march of history. Africa seemed much further away. But it was the Indian representatives at the United Nations who raised the whole whole representatives question of racial segregation segregation in South Africa over the treat treatment of Indians there. The pressure pres~ure continues. But all the thne was further repression time there wns l'Cpression of the Africans Africans and a series of Aets Acts designed t() to hold them down industrially and socially. In 1946 things came cae to ila head. Workers in power stations struck. This WM was followed, again, by the miners whose conditions had improved hardly at all in the last four years, yeaI'll, while the ~:ost WM going up. cost of living was The Chamnber Chamber of Mines refused to negotiate; by now they had IIa spy system in the compounds, though no d
54

The Closed Door Closed Door had always been interested in education and had been in fairly close touch with Z. K. Matthews, now Professor at Hare.But also he had been thinking about the future. Fort Hare. In 1946 1946 he made a speech in which he said: "By "By way of illustration can illustration of what prejudice prejudice means in South Africa, I cannot do better than refer to the growing tendency to describe dewcribe as a Communist-and Communist-and therefore one who should be concon demned by bell, book and candle-anyone candle-anyone who asks for fair play for all races, or who suggests that non-Europeans non~Europeans really should be treated as equals of Europeans before the law." law." practical action to be taken. As in There was plenty of practical officially other countries, basic groceries were short and officially price-controlled. But plenty of shops wete were selling them at price-controlled. high prices pdces under the counter to favoured customers. The organizing customers Communist Party started food raids, organizing into marches and then going to shops whirll, which, they knew, dishonestly. They demanded rice, soap or or were behaving behaving clishonestly. whatever itit might be, the whatever be. at the controlled controlled price; price; when tlH~ shopkeeper said he had none they pointed shopkeeper pointed to the marchers, took over, found his stores and started selling. Each one of of the customers customers got his or her ration at the proper, controlled controlled price. his blue city suit, one knee on a So there was Bram in hi.s case of soap, opening it up with a claw hammer and doling out the cakes of soap to the queue of customers. He put the money in a bag and at the end gave it back to the shop. shop keeper, exercise was extremely respectable. keeper, for the whole exercise Very probably he enjoyed doing thi.q this and for that matter ll1atter enjoyed occasionally selling newspapers at the street corner, something unheard of for a white man, doubly unheard unhear-d of

55

for Africa A Life for advocate, exceedingly exceedingly awkward for an already distinguished advocate" J. B. B, S. S. H~\ldane, Haldane, used t(l for the police. My brother, J, to do tile the same kind of thing when he wast wa.~ in the: Pal'ly. llnr that the Party. For matter a great mlLlly many of llS us did cid in the I,nbour Labour PlUty. Party. There mattei' self-punishment about it, it, but II don't think may be a touch of scM-punishment so. It was aa nice down-to-earth SQ, down-to-emth change, change. AN.G. was beginning to mov('. move. Younger Meanwhile, the A.N.C. YOllnger men had come in, I)rot{,,sts Protests had become nmr(\ more vigorous, and Selby Msimang were voted down when they Kadalie !lnd tried to organize yet another petition. In.Qlead Instead th(~ they decidl:d decided luards to boycott all elections to such things ias as advLsory advL'!()fY hOlll'\l'; nurticipal councils. Unlel\S and municipal W(~r<~ recognizcd recognized a~ Unless they were as have no part in the Statl~. State. citizens they would havt: But this was not n()t enough t~n()ugh for f()r people like Bmm. Brant. They knew it just w()uld would not come to anything. The te Th(" only way was w,~~ the all-out carefully worked out opp!.~~iti()n opposition of the (,on all-()ut and carefully (',ommunist'Party. And in fact the munist·.Pal'ty. tht" boycott pctm-ed petered out, partly because because existing existing African African members, often fairly succemffuil sucr~flll middleclass middle-class people, pe()ple, did not lI()t want to lose. lose their thdr positions, positioll.~, sudl such as they were. The Communist at til(" the time C..t)mmunist Party, whicti whkh was ;IC perfectly everywhere in perfectly legal, legal, decided dt:ddcd to put tip up candidates cunclid:ltes everywhere the hope of defeating defeating the Nationalist Nationalist Party, which whieh ws WIIS becoming more fascist every month. The service men at leat becoming f'l.~ci.~t Thl" srl"Vke me.ll IcllSt realized been lost realized that the war might have {xolm 1000t but for the tr. Ire· mendous Soviet Union. mendous fight put up by the Sovk"t Unioll. During the 19,1,6 1946 minel's' miners' strike, strike, detectives detcttives had raided raided the tbe offices office,s of the Party in Johannesburg Johannesburg and Capetown; Capetown; they the)! had found lists of 11IUl'1t'S nanes ami and charged forty--.ven men. and dmrged fOl'tY"llCYt'1I Illen lind five women under as under tie the Riotous Ri()tous A&swmblies A!!IIemblie•• Act as AS well lIII under under aIt war war merasure, mellSUl'il, no repealed. Of or the eleven eleven whites wllites who were were charged, charged, one one was Willi Brain Brwn Fischer. Fischer. In fact, he had hilt! been been

56

Closed Door The Closed

away on holiday during the strike and could have proved was the others, But the trial Wru! this, but he refused to leave tile Kotane, general fairly conducted. Moses Kotanc, genentl secretary of die the party, and five others were discharged. Otht~rs Others were fined, but not heavily. on officials came down on However, a few days later, police officials in radicals ill in all the large towns of the Republic, both in offices and private homes, removing books, pamphlets and private letters. Among the bodies raided was the Springbok carry on attempted to carryon Legion, in which ex-service men had attempted some of their war-time comradeship. comrackship. Two months later Communist executive of the Communist eight members of the central executive Kotane and Betty Sacks who Party were arrested, including Kotanc Guardian for many malty years. In had been editor of the GlIardian 19407 they were remanded for a pl'eparatory preparatory January 1947 series of pl'opaganda propaganda examination, which opened with a seJ'ies charges charges by the public prosecutor, Dr. Percy Yutar. You will is entirely on the side hear more of him later; he was and is of the police state. Most of his charges charges were quickly pulled to pieces. The speeches, speaking of their defendants defendants made sensible speeches, organization of the unskilled and down-trodden down-trodden and how a good Communist must show the workers they could rely on his hard work and honesty. Witnesses for the defence Oil explained how he had tried to per included a Senator who explained perboard an arbitration suade the Minister of Justice jtlstice to set sct up fin arhitnlticnl bnard strikes by even a few which could have avoided the mine BtrikC''s that conce sions, but that these were refused. He added small cOllce.ssions, Ildded t.hat at the miners mineI'll would need four times time", what wIutt they were getting lit wage, a living wage. present in ill order to have even l1.1iving court was acceptable. A However, However, this was not acceptable. A special COllrt WIll

57

for AII'iea Airica A Life tor convened in Johannesburg, to Johannesburg. But the accused objected to

irregularities and the court upheld the objeclio!l.~, Was this objections. Wns irregularities Bram's advice? Yutar, howevcl', was not INting go and tht: the letting however, accused were re-an'ested in open court and the 11ew trial, aid new re-arrested Joh'annesbuig this time on charges of sedition, took place in Johannesburg coniing general 1948, in the atmosphere of ita coming on May 3rd, Srd, 194'8, a election. Yutar now went all·out Communin lUI all-out against COlllmuTlL~m election. such, with the type of allegation which was common in the IvIlieved U.S.A. during the days of MacCarthy Ilnd and is still bdicvccl t1ie stupider conservatives conservatives allover world. The Thl judgl.'S, judge, all over the world, by the There was still a fine however, quashed the indictment. Th~J'e legal tradition in South Africa. Yet all this helped the Nationalist party in their electoral win, which was, all the same, attributed 7ran, aler, attributed by the 7'rausva[er, Verwoerd, to Divine Pro then under the editorship of Dr. VCl'Wo(~.l'd, Proover Afrikanerdom". vidence "which has always watched OVe! vidence "which Afl'ikl\m~l'dom··. This was of course COLlrse the God of the Old Testament, the less into line jealous jealous tribal God. The New New Testament fell lr.'l!l line with widl Afrikanerdom. Afrikanerdom. Smutt, who The election result was aII terrible terrible blow to Smutll, him tlbe and with !lim died two years years later, later. Hofmeyr Hoimeyr died, toxo, too, Md tllc liberal liberal possibilities possibilities of African African education. education. Diepkloof, the open openhad managed Alan Paton gated reform school in which which Alan Pilton mllTlaged eitizen, now conscious dtize!l.'I, to make his young delinquents delinquents into consciolls now plenty to institution. Paton, with pl('llly again became became a penal imtitution. away, to write and himself be penaized write about, came came ~\way, penll.lil.ed It is curious as some, so fiercely not for writing, although although $Orne. ill curtou3 police or does and to consider consider what docs aml what does not annoy polite politician. politician. Bram Bram wa was now I10W on the Central Central Committee CoOmmittcc of the Qijn. Gommunist munist Party, Party. He wrote Wl'Ote in 1940 1948 to C. K. Allen, Allen, his hill old old 58 58

The Closed Door Door Warden and friend at Rhodes House, telling him this Ulis and giving his reasons. It is is a cheerful letter, in which he gaUy gaily suggests S\lggests that iliat he is probably the only old Rhodes scholat· scholar in certainly never voted any this proud position. Allen, who cc.rtainly !lnything but true blue Conservative, Conservative, was deeply shocked shucked at Brain's political Bram's political position, btlt affectionate letter, but wrote all an affectionate case he wore begging him not to work too hard at law in ca.'ie himself out before before his sixties. The new South African Government meant hard-line apartheid, with people lik.c ap!l1'theid, VCl'woerd, Schocman like Verwoerd, Schoeman (who had stopped the training of African African ex-service men as building workers), Diederich and of course Hertzog and Malan, with workers), Havenga's anti-British anti.British Afrikaner party. In a sense they tlley represented at romantic Afrikanerdom, Afrikancrdom, aa. Volk; but it was as Germany, no place for the lower middle-class as Hitler's Gel'many, aristocrats by birth and education education and courage; no place fol' for a Fischer. Fischel'. So there was Malan riding the two horses of a black peril and a red peril. This government government was going to deal with both, both. Yet le he was was' to have a gadfly after him him;: Sam Kahn, special roll all as one of the the solitary Communist, elected on a speciltl African representatives. But the Suppression Coni. Suppression of C>ommunism, Act went through in 1950, one of the Government's munism early achievements, was unseated. So WIlli was his achievements, and he W(IS elected elected successor, SUCCCSSOI', Brian Bunting. So in turn tum. was Ray Alexander; Alexander; she was forcibly removed by the Ix)lice police even before she could enter the House and, though she recovered Huuse recovered damages never take seat. damages for the assault she could neyt~r tllke her seat, Even white Labour was WIIS out of the 1948 coalition. But they kept their pl'ivileges privileges by going thol'tlughly thoroughly racist, Yet racist. Yel position, For aIi century they, too, were in Iia difficult position. century Euro Euro59

Life, for for A/rica Africa A Life pean workers maintain their workers had struggled to build up and lna.intain standards largdy tlrnlllgh through the Unions. Many hac! had standard.~ of living, largely been through dump in the early thirties. They, had throtlgh the slump Th\~y, too, hac! hungry and despairing. Tht~y They had fought against diludilu. been hunglY tion, including dilution by women workers, who could be less. One gap in solidarity all might be lo.~t. lost. They paid Jess. solidarity and ~\Il Chnmb(:r of Mines Mhws or tht~ understood well that the Chamber the Railway Board would like to break break their solidarity by training blacks to step into their shoes. And they were not going to have it. shoved back into They were not going to let themselves be shovt:d the pit they had worked themselves out of. Inflation Infl;\tion went live, but in 19'19 1949 on. The unskilled workers could barely livc, the Government excluded nral Africans from school feeding Government excluded mral fe~ding But schemes, which could never have been expensive. {~xpensivr.. But themselves". Or die, liberals "Africans should look after themselves", die. The liber:l!s were immensely disturbed; Com disturbed; bodies like the Torch Torch Commando supported the rights of non-whites, but they wNere were not really prepared was prepared to collaborate and be inter-racial. inter-rada!' It WilH too late for their kind of protest. protCl>t. Now banning orders on Communists organizations such Communists in organizations as trade unions began began to come through. But anyone who held similar views-that view&-that is, who who believed in racial equality liberty-was almOllt almost equally at risk. Being ·'Liberali.l"Libernais and liberty-was tic" was almost as bad as being Communist, and this meant meant that the genuine liberals among the various libcral movemove, vario\L~ libeml meats, had to thitlk think hard and decide where they stood, stmd, what ments, help. risks they felt able to take, and how they could best hdp. General of idl'mity identity General misery and insecurity insecurity and the loss loll.~ oJ when men left the moral security of the tribe, unprogreive Impl't)gl't~l!Sh'c as it might be, made people behave badly. badly. Grtlclmilly Gradually it African could tl'ust trust IUtolitel', amther, came to the point where no A£rica.n 60

The Closed Door even in his immediate family, not to be a police informer. There were nasty racial riots, between Africans lind and Indians, busine.s often started by the undoubted undoubted fact that Indian btl~ine.'lS­ segregation against Africans, while making men did practice segregation money out of them. thern, Naturally it might be only a few in the community but they could spoil relations all round. and OWI\ own There was also the point that Indians could buy ,md There exeept in a few places urban land, while Africans could not, except like Sophiatown (but see Chapter 5). Some Indians were shacks on their land to Africans looking for work, at letting sllacks dis emel cruel rents. Yet many other Indians passionately disapproved. They formed themselves themselves into the N.I.C. (Natal approved. co-operated increasingly with the Indian Congress) which co-operated Indian COllgress) A.N.C. The Indian money-makers l>rt~ak away money-makers tended to break Organization. conservative Natal Indian Indian Ol'ganizatic)l1. and form the conservative There There were wcre splits splil;~ in the freedom movement, but the young leaders leaders who were coming to the fore in the African Youth League were moving in the direction of a Black Power feeling, feeling. though their methods needed sorting out. on themnselves Boycotts tended to turn 011 themselves and help the oppres oppresapartheid which by now had made sors. The enemy was apartheid under a Bantu itself a philosophy including revived tribalism und('J' Banlu dissidents practice somewhere to which authority, in practice audlOrity, dissic\cntli could rAluld banished, be banished. aother, enforcing One Act followed another, cl1forcillg segregation, or, like like Amendment Immorality Amendment Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality the ML'(ed colour and causing untold Act, outlawing sex because of skin colollr marriages. of existing misery in the break-up break-up exL~ting marriages. The PopulatiOn Population and colour IUld Registration Registration Act of 1950 classified clas.~i1ied people on skin ,:olour asgertion of ancestry; this, too, caused great misery, the as.!{:l'tioll Afrikaner population especially especially as at least a million of the Afrlkant'J' popUlation 61

A Life for for Africa had a coloured ancestor a few gcneration.~ generations back, pt~haps perhaps the present ones knew it even two centuries ago, whether the unexpectedly or not, and if the two genes met, colour was unexpectedly innocent child. But tlle the and devastatingly inherited by an ilmoccnt Suppression of Communism Act was the only one which was strictly political. Communism was to become a crime in itself without any other offence being committed; committed; MacCarthy MacCarU1Y that far, nor would the American people re,ally really never went tllat But the aim: aim : to get have allowed allowed him and his like to do so. Hut get rid of Communism, put the police supporters ilnd and pollee onto its itll supporters deprive them of civic rights, was the same. And the clefini· defini tion of "Communism" was so wide that it covered almost all "Communism" covered aimost 1I11 political action aimed against the State. There was to be no legal appeal from the power of the GC)vCl'llmcnt. Government. Tile Central Committee of the Communist party, includ· includ The ing Kotane, Andrews Andre'ws and Bunting, Hunting, Kahn, Dadoo, Dad()(), La Guma and others, as well as Dram Brain FL~cher, Fischer, met to try and decide what to do. The The police police had seized s('.ized lists lL~t.~ of mUlles. WlllI it what names. Was possible to chllnge change from legal legal to illegal work? work? They were wcre not not the kind of people people who were used to that. They decided decided to dissolve the Party, although, as they said iill their final although, a.~ declaration: "Communism cannot declaration: "Communism Cllnllot be destroyed destroyed as long as society is divided into two worlds: rich and poor, oppressor oppremr and oppressed." oppressed." Dr. Moroka, great-grandson great-grandson of the the Rolong R(l\ong Chief who had sheltered sheltered the voortrekker voortrekker leader, Potgieter, in 1836, and now one of the A.N.C. leaders, called all tlle aU Africans Africans to join join in a national day of protest and mourning mourning on June 26th, 2(itlt, for the murder of democracy. Later Later it was to become become Ita day of of resistance. Perhaps, for Africans, Africans, itit matched matched December l)e(:ember 16th, Dingaan's Dingaan's Day, when when the whites whitr.s went went on, on,l generation generation 62 62

The Closed Glosed Door defeat commemorating their defeat after generation, boasting and commemorating splendidly on the road of the Zulu armies which set them so splendidly to baaskap. Yet, whatever is in tlle resistance becomes become.j the heart, resistance more and more difficult. Remember Remember that any person person convicted convicted of breaking any law by way of protest could be sentenced to a fine fme of up to 9300, £300, three years' imprisonment and ten lashes, while, for them, the penalties were even leaders convicted of inciting them, years later; it heavier. This was under a law passed three Y(!arB and women after year brave men still remains, remains. But year WOll'len have been found ready to defy this law. While you read this someone is certainly suffering suffering this punishment.

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5

A

Fear Fear

Communist Party was now illegal, that Communist Party was now illegal, that organiza was not allowed to kill the spirit or even the ol'g:mimtion. A man man like Brnm wns not going to let don. A Brain J?ischer Fischer was out of doing what he deeply felt was the himself be scared Otlt the Much right thing. Nor were his colleagues, colleagues, black and white. 11'rllch later on, at his trial, Bram was to say: "My attraction to the BraID lI.'ty: "~I)' Communist Party was a matter of persoal observation." personal observation." He had watched other parties waver, wavc!', compromising with the somehow things would tUl'!l turn whites in power, hoping that somc:how out differently, which they never did. lie He went on: "The "The stood Communist Party had already for two decades stood unconditionally for political rightll rights for nonnon avowedly and tlI1conditionally members were, save for atl handful ha ndful of whites and its white membt~rs courageous indivlduals"·-How individuals"-How like Bl'um Bram to rcienIIxer courageous remember theni thrm as weUI-"the well 1 "the only whites who showed complete disrtgard complei:C di~rrliard fellow for the hatred which this attitude attracted from their fellow Africans. These •.. . . were whitrs whites who (Ould could have white South Africans, privileges open taken full advantage of all the privilegt~s ()p~n to them because prepared to because of their colour colour. ... . . . They were not pl'cpal'cdto flourish on the deprivations deprivations suffcl'ed suffered by others." others," But meanwhile, at the beginning of the fifties, fiftifUl, ther, lh~l't were painful ont the constant and paine ul quarrels between the partics pm'lics Utt the Left. The A.N, A.N.C. programmie of action. action. C. had decided decided on I\.a progrlUllnlc The Youth League leaders had been furious with the Ckm leaders bee.n Communists; at first Sisulu and Mandela munists i I\t MlIlldeia found it difficult to 64 64 LTOUGH TE THOUGH THE

X

Fear Fear co-operate with whites or trust them entirely. But Kotanc Kotane patient and helpful. In view of the increasing increasing was immensely patient police violence and total lack of sympathy from anybody in tie the Government, they decided that they must co-opcratc, ill co-operate, bringing in the Indian Indhm Congress Congress as well. well, At this point the much-respected Matthews was President of of much-respected Professor Z. K. Matthews the Cape Congress. By now he had been in the A.N.C. for ten years, but was one of these awkward people who always cxtrcmely truthful, which of course means try to be extremely mcans "if" "if" and "but"-hings "but"-things which which don't always help immediate immediate action. later Yet it was this meticulous truthfulness which made him, latt:1' trial, His wife, on, such a devastating witness at tht the Treason trial. Bokwe, was with Freda Bokwc, with him all the time, his sons sometimes a step ahead. And he had a new friend, a quiet, solid man, a Chief, whose name wa was Lutuli. But it it was not yet a name to echo round the world; he was a man who, like so many "uncivilized" Africans, Africans, hated violence, pl'cferring preferring to talk "uncivilized" hated violence, talk things out, and steadily helping tht\ the smaIl small Zulu group which which had called him to the Chieftainship, Chieftainship, for his community community was one of those which which usually elected their Chief, Chid, He, like others, was been many othel'S, was a devout Christian, and must have been deeply disturbed by the Afrikaner Afrikaner image of the all-white deeply disturbed God. Among those with a very different Christian image diffcrc:nt Chl'isti;Ul was Canon Calata, an Anglican priest, who happened happened to be black, an A.N.C. stalwart. farm. Another new name at this time was that of a farm Sibande, perhaps the same same kind of slow slowworker, Gert Sibandc, moving, quiet, but utterly forceful man as those who, a century and a half earlier, had been condemned condemned Co to Cralllltrans.. earlier, had portation portation for life in the Tolpuddle Tolpudclle trials in southern England. labourerm What he laid bare was the condition of the farm labourers a

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A Life for Alricl! Africa of Bethal, a respectable respectable Boer community which had got its blacks well and truly into a slate, slavelY. The floggings state, of slavery. chainings and deaths deads had been kept well hidden within and chaininga within the community until first the Guardian (whose xevelations revelatio s unfulfilled, of an examining brought the promise, tmfulfillcd, examining Commis· Conmis afterwards Drum, the African picture paper, then sion) and aftcrw(tl'ds at its height, heIght, sent a reporter in, in. Other newspapers, genuinely horrified, followed up, up. Conditions were WC1'e actually nltt~l'ccl. altered. During the whole of the following twenty years, tone SOllle at Press, especially the BaIrd Rand Daily Daily least of the South African Prc'IS, Mail, although Mail, followed the best practices of free journalism, joul'llalism, although and in the last few years they have been increasingly harried ancl censored. Now, in the early fiftk~, fifties, there was increasing organi·l.ution organization of resistance. But there was little money zoney and people like Mandcla and Oliver Tamoo, Mandela Taminx, bright y()ung young law)'(~I1i, lawyers, found the material conditions of this work constantly material conditic)tls (:ollstanlly putting puttinr. way, They could not lmvel travel comfortably obstacles in their way. or find hotels; telephones were not always accessible non acccs.~ibh: to mmwhites. on all the time and now Chid Chief whit(>.8. But protests went all stroagly into Lutuli moved like a Chief, strungly intc) action, actioll, but hut always speaking non-violent terms. terms, They had meetings IIlldr.r under speaking in nOll"violent the black, green and gold flag which n:H'allt. meant Afrka; Africa; they sang songs which went to the heart: Nkosi ,Iikllicl'i sikelel'i "{rica, Africa, to tune : Mayibuye oddly oddlly to the tune a sad, powerful hymn tunc: lpower were of Clementine. And the whites in positions of power too afraid to grant them any single thing. They sent Matthews to America tIl to put thdl' their ca.~~ came to the left he said: United Nations, Nations. At the meeting before he h~ Idt hr. !laid: "Fighting for fl'ccdom freedom.,.••. U!a is a very painful prrocew." For "Fighting 1)l·tlC(~'ItI." Fur how many this was so 1I Many women wcre were flI'W now tf,lking taking p"trt, part,

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women like Lilian Lilian Ngoyi, deeply concerned Ngoyi, who felt so deeply concerned about the plight plight of tIll al African children, that she had to her own sick daughter. But Mociimo, vlodimo, the decide to leave hel' God of Llltuli tile others, decreed that her child should Lutuli and tie should live. Many meetings began with prayer, as they did in Great Great Britain a hundred years ago and in Arkansas in 1934·. 1934. One blow came Lutuli was told that he came after another. Llltuli must either resign his Chieftainship Chieftainship or give up Congress. It lie was, to give isishard for a conscientious and able Chief, as he up people. lip all the help and leadership he can provide for his pe.ople. But for Lutuli there was no choice. He refused to do either, Government, but was deprived of his Chieftainship Chieftainship by the Governnumt, which of course conrse did not care in the least that he had been democratically .C. went ahead with their democratically elected. The A.N A.N.C. Defiance Campaign, a deliberate breaking of the apartheid the ceremonial passes. Tlwn~ There laws; this included til(: tcremonial burning of pmlscs. African P(!()Pltl'~ People's was a joint Planning Council, Council, including the Africnn Organization (Coloured) and the Indian Congress with such such Organization representatives as Dr. Dr, Dadoo. Dadoo, They knew Gandhian representatives kn~v the Glllldhian techniques of non-violence. non-violence. But would they be effective resistance wave was the here? Part of oC this well-organized well-organized resistallce non-violence of going into "whites "whites only" simple non·violence only" entrances entrances of hotels or street street cars or railway trains. This meant arrest, often sometimles flogging. The oftcn violent, jail sentences and sometil'l.les police were always quite ready to shoot. In fact the Defiance Defiam:e Campaign was almost the last attempt at organized organized and dedicated non·violent non-violent action by still patient Africans. An An immense amount of organization orgllnization was put into it and, nml, of course, courlge from the volunteers. coursc, great courage Next, some !iOn 500 people were named Communists, Illllned as C()Jmn\lnL~tli. although all were or had been Party members; Mollie Mollie nlthough not an

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Life for Africa A Lie AfriCa Fischer these, They were debarred fronl fron public Fischel' was one of these. And more and and life, but many of them still went on working. Alld dedicated whites Patrick whit('.~ joined in: among them l'alrick more dedicated Duncan, lame but brave as fire on a hillside, son of the former Governor-General Africa, Romantic British Brit'if Governor-General of South Africa. Conservatives disapproved somewlmt somewhat of the cause, but could could only Jove love and admire the rebel. Another most important important ally, especially in the sense that he could influence tie the outout Trevor Huddteston, side world, was Father Father Treval' Huddleston, and another Anglican, Hannah Stanton. Hannah In early December the leaders of the A.N.C. defiers, several of the including Dr. Moroka, Sisulu, Mandela and se,veral Indian leaders, were on trial under the Suppression of ComCom munism Act. Unhappily, Dr. Moroka did not like the panel of lawyers engaged by the others, which included COlmer former Communist Party members, and engag~d engaged another counsel. He insisted on declaring that he was totally again5t aginst CoOmCom munism: not that it helped him, as all the ddendants defendants were munillm: imprisonment, although the sentenced to nine months' jmprisonm~nt, Judge, Mr. Justice Rumpff, said that the charge had "noth"noth This ing to do with Communism as it is commonly known", known". Tht~ A.N.". Unmeant choosing a new President Presid«,,nt for the A.N.C. Un Chief---tutuli. doubtedly it would be, and was, the Chief--·Lutuli. Meanwhile, Bram and Mollie had three children. children, Ruth, Ilse and Paul, who was born with an incurable illness. They lise always hoped that some new cure might appear, appenr, but no. she wa.~ was more realistic perhaps lIhe Mollie fought for his health; perhaps ie and than Brain, Bram, who always half hoped that, somehow, Bomehuw, he his son would who had by would live and work together. Bram, whu increasingly lIOught sought after now taken Silk, was becoming an inereuingly mining IflWj law; counsel. He was an expert on company company and milling 68

Fear Fear he wrote in learned journals. Insurance news Insurance companies, newspapers ~md him. One of his most and big business all wanted him, papels intercsting 1960, was an Arbitration Arbitration undel' under interesting cases, around 1960, Schreiner. It was a claim from an insurance company t~ompany engaged following from the Kariba Kariba flooding; they had engaged counsel from England. Bram appeared for the Rhodesian Rhode.~ian Bran appeared earnings went Power Board, and won the arbitration. His earnings pm'tly to the needs of his political political comrades comrades and partly for partly Johannes pleasantest part of Johanneshis household in Oaklands, the plcasantest burg, with the beautiful rooms and garden garden and swimming swimming where people of all colours knew that at last they were pool, whcre Thcre was a covered-in pergola where where pcople people at home. There cailm and atmosphere of calm stayed to supper and ate in an atmosphere gracious gracious hospitality. Mollie managed to grow all sorts of rare and lovely plants and shrubs; it was one of her talents. And, because hc he and Mollie Mollie were so totally devoted, so utterly honest, honcst, people who had compromised, compromised, as so many well-meaning whites have done in South Africa, well-meaning Afdca, found that Bran and his family. Brain was their conscience. Dram Bram One repressive measure after another followed. Under declare a state the Public Safety S~\fcty Act the Government could declare over. of emergency. emergency. Then the police and army could take ovcr, 1961, In the 1953 elections, elections, and again in those of 1958 and 1961, the Nationalists Nationalists increased increased their votes and their seats, at the which, howhow the mainly English United Party, whkh, expense of expense which ever, had hived off a Progressive Progressive wing, a liberal party which tried to fight against a host of injustices, and had just one opp×o Suzman, the only genuine oppoM.P., the admirable lI·f.P., admirable Helen Hc.len Suwan, sition member. In III the Nationalist leadership, ieadenhip, Malan, the respectable Calvinist, who had been holding unswerving, unswerving, respectable holding was succeeded after his eightieth birthday, power until powel' WlUI succeeded by 69

A Life for Africa Strijdom, who was much more of a Nazi type, aggressive and Stl'ijdom, lind are the kind of lenders leaders who llre are thrown uncultured. These arc tlll"OWll up by a nation which is afraid, afraid. For the Afrlkam:l's Afrikaners were afraid, and deeply clt!t:ply afraid, afraid. Cor for their own identity, identity. The Mixed Mardages Marriages Act and the Immorality Act which had both be(~n been widened to exclude Coloun:cL~, Coloureds, however light-skinned, were breaking marriages. howev(:r bl'¢:aking up happy marriage!. Reservation of Separate These and the RCSClvation Sep;ll't1tc Amenities Act were the signs of a frightened people. people, Let us al!iO also remember remeniber tlmt that it was probably South African African pressure on the Unit~d United KingKing dorm dom which led to the banishment of S('rct:;e Seretw, Kluuna Khama and his English wife, who, not so very much latcl', later, were to b(: be PrcsiPr 0i dent and First Lady of an inderH:lldc!lt Botswana. independent country, Botswana. none of this could be effective in keeping Yet Ilone ke(~Jll!lg an active acth'c A.N.(. and and intelligent intelHgent people permanently permanently down. down, The A.N.C. organizations were perpetually protesting, p~rpt~!Ul\J1y perpetually pl'OtcHting, perpetually other organizations being arrested and questioned, and this questionil1g questioning wus wits; Sonie of thenr getting increasingly nasty, even for the whites. SOllie Iht'm hutt some oire fdt Mf.t were frightened and yet managed to go on, nn, btl desperate whites had desperate enough to try anything. The .iberal Libl'l'al whitl's though othl~l'li others w(~n' were afraid most to lose and a few risked it all, th()lIgh to go too far. It is very difficult not to c()nlpl'omist~ P\~l'~ compromise or ttl to per.. suade oneself that one's work is, is, in in tIle the long nm, run, more slIade important and may do more good than joining in prtst; important thlm joinUl!! :\a pl'lllest, this may indeed be correct. YI!t Yet Branl Brarn Fischel' Fischer had everyevery thing to lose: home and a young family, a Cllft'Ct' career which which took him on to being a Q.(J. Q.C and which would sIIH'lj" .1nn',ly, in time, take him on to being·--·say··-a being,,--- say-a Judge of tlH: the SUl)rt'me Supreme Court: that is if the South African Sup\'{~m(\ Supreme Court (lourt ('(mld cnuld uncorrupted by politics, politics. YeJ!, Yes, he could look at his fut ure stay uncorl'upted hi~ future was not afraid. lIot afmit!. and put it into the balance. And he WII.'

70 70

Fear Fear No doubt this was partly long-sightedness. !ong.sightcdnl''ss. He knew that, ifif he and otl,ers, mem others, many of them ex-Communist Party memo bel'S, did not act in the right way, things would be that much bers, IVone in the end, not only for the Africans but also for the worse Afrikaners. By By continuing with racialism and I'cpressi<'Il, repression, Afrikaners, they were were sealing their own doom as people,; indeed this a people; scaling lIlay be, by now, wllat what has actually happened. None of us may inevit sec Ita civil war, and yet it may be becomting becoming inevit.want to see that something--anything--.something.-.anything able, nb1e, though one always hopes thllC lIlay happen to avert it, Brain, lkam, jllS! just because he was an may Co happen and knew desperately wanted it not to Afrikaner, desperately baas apartheid and baasthat the only way out was not through apartheid appli(~d, but lhmugh through nonnon kap, more and more rigorously applied, racialism and equality of opportunity, opportunity, education and respon l'/:spon· sibility. sibilily. Many English-speaking English-speaking people WCI'I~ were now beginning beginning to leave the country, especially leave especially perhaps those with young sending children; chilckcnj they could not risk bringing them up or ~cnding atmosphere. They would them to school in the South African Afl'ican atmosph(!re. and gai<-.ly, gaiety, but in the miss the sunshine, the peculiar peculiar beauty :md final count they had somewhere to go home to. The South Jcwish population tended to be enthusiastic African Jewish alo somesome handsomely in money, but also Zionists, contributing contributing handsomely least they, too, had a times moving on to Israel, where where at leaRt nowhere to go. Bram Brar home. Only the Afrikaners had n()where as any Afrikaner Nationalist. realized this as acutely a.~ Nntioll
A Life for Alrica A Lift! A/ricil in adtlirion adiction teacher, ill Fischer worked as an unpaid voluntary tcncht'l" Fischer to all the many other things she was doing. prtte. s Afrian prutest., Bram's fellow Afrikaners, the African But for Dn\m's by the were certainly alarming, especially (',~pt:cially as pn'~rnt('d presented hy unietiril further nu:elinl-,rs were [m'lht'" Nationalist newspapers. In 195'I tl\(~l'e werr 1954 there "Congre ,s of the People" planning
or

72 12

Fear Fear Worse slums, slums, where where the houses houses were were white-owned, white-owned, had on. Worse Sophiatown was to suffer suffer because becausc it was govern gov~.rn· been left; left; Sophiatown been in ment policy African h()u~e-owncrs in house-owners freehold African no have to rnent policy what they they were were going going to to turn turn into into aa "white "white area". arca". After Afc,:r what this there there were were to be be no 110 more African African freeholders frcdwlders in in or 01' near m~ar this white towns. towns, There There had been been protests prutests for two years years and by white world press press was was alerted. alertcll. So when when Robert Robert Resha Rcsha now the world of the Youth League League went wcnt down down there with Father Father Huddles Huddlesof ton, the eyes eyes of the the world world were were on Sophiatown, Sophiatown, where two thousand heavily heavily armed anncd police police had come (;ome to drive out one thousand hundred and and ten families. Gradually the rest I"est left and white hundred families moved into into better better houses. The new white Buburb suburb WllS called called Triumph. There were were plenty of other other evictions, was including that of Sibande, Sibanclc, who could find nowhere nowhere to house his family, nobody even willing to let him work for them. His own house was sold at public pu blie auction for ten potlncL~, pounds. educa. the BIatu About this time, too, came cmne the dIe start of Bantu education policy, poJicy, according to which "natives" "natives" were to be taught families mostly in their own language language (no matter mattcI' if their iamilic.s had liVt~d nrban townships [CIt c()uple of generations and amI for a couple lived in urban had almost forgotten it) on such subjects aas it) with emphasis on assigned to might be thought suitable for them in the role ns~igned theological tllem WIIS thctJlogical them by God and the Government. There was remarkably tendentious curriculum of history drill and a remarkably on private schools which putt 011 teaching. Prcaaure Pressure was pu children taught Of course, chtldrcn attempted to teach anything else. else, or inade its few itmdc· with "mother-tongue" in "mother-tongue" at primary school ill on at lIC.col1dnry secondary less chance of getting <m quate books, had much les., quaW This Afrikaans, Thill English or AtrikalU15, instruction was either in Engll'l!l where inst1'uction no doubt part of porents but was 110 was cleat' clear to protesting parents WlIS Government plan. the Govemmcnt

73

A Life tor for Africa Alrica This went with the de increasing intcrest interest in the political p<1litical role were about abmt to of the Bantustans, the "home lands", which wert~ be started. started, The ofIicial official Tomlinson Tomlinson Report Separate ltc/JIJI'/ on Sl~llllrale Development DC1)c/opment (1955) (1955) was due to be be publisht~d. published. It Wt'llt went into This would would the whole question of setting s~.lting up Bantustans, !lltntmtans. 1'hil infra-structure of cost £104 million over ten years on the illfra-stl'w'.ture these possible Slates, including water wat~r and IIgricu[tur
74 74

Fear

Bantustans viable, thirty thousand thousand new jobs a year would Bantustans years. However, the be needed over the next twenty-five yeaI'll. Minister for Bantu Affairs announced that over the first six years there there had been a total of 945 9'~5 new new jobs. That is is rather a devastating gap. When Dr. Vel'wtlcrcl took over in 19.'15, diITer(~nt Dr. Verwoerd 1955, he was an different type from earlier Afrikaner Prime ~[jnisters, N[inisters, a Stellenbc.>5ch Stellenbosch in sociology, psycholgy and logic, a degree with intellectual intellectual with a degree in sociology, psychology and logic, of course within the framework of Calvinist ideology. His wife, too, was an intellectual, a !ccturer, lecturer, as wdl well as -asbeing nelkterte, which are a superior kind famous for her delicious delicious melktertc, of custard pie. pic. He Hc had thought out the doctrine doctrin!! and philuphilo sophy of apartheid apartheid and now was able to put it into practice, prtlctice. 01' at least to take the Ill'st steps. The Tl'anskci, first of the or first Transkei, Bantustans, was actually set .Bantustans, sc:t up in 1963 196:~ with Chief Kaiser Matanzinia as Prime Minister. NMinister. We shall ~ec see more of what is Mntanzima wht\ti~ happening happcning there and in the tl1(~ oth(:r Ilanlllstans. The emphasis other Bantustans, emiphasis Bantustans meant that the three on notionally notkll1aJly self-governing BanlllRtans thn'c white representatives of Africans who sat in Parlianent, representatives elf Africans wil() ~at Pal'li!1Il1cnt, were, rt:llIoved. removed. elected from the special roll, could be, and W('fC, Government-appointed Commissiollc.r Commissioner General Instead a Govcl1lmcnt-appointt·.d after each the was charged charged with tie the task of looking netcl' (:ach of th{~ Batustans. Since have been n.A.D. B.AtD. IvIinU!ters Ministers Bantustans. Sincc then there howe (.e. Bantu Administration and Development) with deputies (i.e. Bantll dcputirli are supposed who arc supposed to represent the Bantustalis Bantustans to the Government and also the Government to the BantustlullI. BantustaLhs. Government Government [0 Trade Uni(Jn.~? Unio=,? Meanwhile, what was the th(~ position of the '1'rad(~ The old I.C.U. 1928. But lh~II' thel v I.e.u. had come to an nn end around 1920. were other big unions, including the Mine Workers, the wel'e tht! IVIine WC)rkCI'M, fhl:' Garnent Workers and the l~ood Food and Canning WOl'kCl'll, Workets, wilt) who Garment Workers !HId had mixed membership membership or a parallel parallel African AfriclUl metnbeattip. mel'l1bcl'llhip.

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A Life for or Africa Africil Their leaders had worked to impmve improve the conditions conditions of both both black and white workers. But this, of counse, "Corn course, was "Communism" Garment nmnism" and must be attacked. Solly Sachs of the Garment and Workers fought back; he had not only to defend ddcnc1 himself alld his union against defamatory defamatory words, but hut tlls<) also broken lxttles bottlcs and brick-bats. In the late forties there wa IVas considerable con..~idcrable pressure to have a new kind of genuinely South African Trade Union more in accordance with the ideals of the Afrikaner church church and yolk races. This was helped by some volk and with no mixing of raccs. massive donations of money from anti·Comrl1\Jl)i~t anti-Communit well.well wishers, and by all the moral and political weight of the wishel'S, Broederbond. Some unions which Broederbond. which had been mixed, like the Food and Canning Workers, were forced to expel their their African members. Unions such cea.<;c(\ ceased to In the fifties African African Trade U nions as a.~ SUdl exist, Schoeman, the Minister of Labour, W;h~ ws det~nnined determined exist. Strikes were forbiddr'lI forbidden by never to let the blacks organize. Stdk(:!l law and instead a paternalistic piece of burlaicwiatic paternalistic piece blll'(~:llIITatic machinery natives. It has, machinery was set up t() to look after the I)(l()t pxor natives, of course, never worked. more drastic worked, But even before the.1C these mOl'(l was for measures, in the mixed trade unions the tendency Wall different entrances and different staffs at the tihe hradqll[U·ters. headquarters, told me: "We As one African ex-staff ex-staff member member toId "W(! always said said never went allY any fUl'ther." further." good morning to one another, but it nevel' Indus The very large Industrial Council for the Clothing Indusand provi.dcnt provident try, founded by Solly Sachs, had Ita medical medical alld fund; among the staff on the African side 8ide were wel'e several sf-veral worth splendid women, among them Helen Joseph. Joorph. It is is wort.h remembering that Helen Joseph, who is is now in her ~ixlirs, sixties, was under house arrest for eight years. She had lwr her dog lind and 76

Fear Fear cat, but only a cancer operation has allowed her hel' in 1971 to be released released into hospital and human society and frienc1ahip friendship once more, although of course it isis still against the law ll\w to quote anything she says or writes. writes, Yet there were occasional victories. When the Transvaal rolls, Law Society petitioned to have Mandela struck off the rolla, he was successfully successfully defended by Walter Pollock, Q.c. Q.C. Jo Matthews. Another Q.C., Donald Molteno, defended .To This was brotherhood. 1956, there was But shortly after that, at the end of 1956, arrest and seizure of documents and letters. another mass alTest lettera. One hundred and fifty-six men and women, black and white, most of whom had been in the Congress of the People con 1955, were charged with a treasonable conat Kliptown in 1955, spiracy against South South Africa, inspired by international int(~rnational some not. were Communists, Communism. Some, in fact, Kotane, Dr, Among them were Mandela, Sisulu, Kotanc, Dr. Naicker, Naickcl', Tambo×), Professor Z. Z. K. Matthews and his son, Jo, Oliver 'rambo, Lutuli, Robert -lilda and Rusty Bernstein, Hilda Bernstein, Helen Joseph, Lu(uli, Sibande, Ruth First, Lilian Ngoye. After the Resha, Gert Sibandc, Rcsha, dis preparatory examination, some of the accused were dispreparatory were allowed Mandela, charged. Most of the rest, including l'..fandela, days in the dock facing a bail, so that they spent their da.ys charge punishable by the death sentence, and their evenings in political and other work. Mandela by this time had a legal practice of his own. Maiseli, The defence team, led by another Q.C., Mr. r.I. A. Maisels, gradually took on what was to prove a four years' struggle, gt'lldUllllv Vernon Berrang had breaking breaking down d01l'1l the prosecution case. V cl'l1on Berrallge led in ill the preparatory preparatory examination, examination, making a splendid of the aiddress to the court. Bram nddress Bram. was one of the ablest 01

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A Life for Africa defence meticulously with defence team, talking over the evidence mCli<:njOlts\y problems. all the accused, getting to know them and their problt~ms. He was also acting in the early stages of a patents case in in Southern Rhodesia, giving this all the profe.ssinnal care professional care which was his pride and duty. This meant a 55 a.m. SUlrt start in Dram was at the height of his powers. He was the office, but Bram Bar also a serving and valued member of tie the Johannesburg Bar Council. We get a good idea of how he seemed to thosm tho.'IC he was defending from Helen Joseph, accused no. 2 in the Tfl'a.<;on Treson Trial, in her book If This be Treason. Treason. She his contrasting contrasting him with Vernon Berrang6, his leader, whom they all Berrange, hh! lcad(~l', admired and trusted and who had served them so \\'well hlld serv~d 1'11 in in the preparatory stages. She says, "Dram "Brain Fischer WItS was V(~r­ Ver preparatory stag(:s. non's opposite: stmdily sturdily built, fresh f\'t~sh complexioned, compkxioned, with a gentle, almost boyish face, despite his now greying (\lmost gl'c,ying hail', hair. Uu Butt deceptive, for underneath Bmlll Brain was that gentle face was dccc,ptivc, was advocates. He could indomitable, one of the most brilliant of advncates. He could pursue his way with a Crown witnes as relentlessly as witness just :ts l'dcntlrssly lIS Vernon; silver"tougued, silver-tongued, he won the confidence of his witness Vernoll; wilne::.s gentle skill. He. He didn't chase his witn('&~ witness into a eomer comer with gentle, and pin him down, down, indeed, he never raised rru.'lCd his vnier, voice, but the witness tUl'ned turned out to hnvr have said -Wid in the end, somehow, tllc just what Bram wanted him to say. We marvelled nl at his unerring technique. I think the Crown did, did, too, when they th~y concessions their witnesses realized the fatal concess[()!ls witnessc., WCt' wereC making 110 so unsuspectingly."" unsuspectingly. This was the first of the South African trials to affect nITc,CI the conscience of the western world. Clearly, many of the defendants were quite poor people who could !lot not manage manage dcfendltnts any of the expenses, expenses, ancl and whose familiez allY families would have a hard Imnl

78

Fear Fear time. So the International International Defence Defence and Aid Aiel Fund came came into timc. being, at first supplementing supplementing what the Quakers QlUlkcl'S were already the families of those in in jail. doing to help the intention of the trial was to break break the A.N.C., A.N.C., equat equat. The intention ing it with destructive world Communism. This was, destructive Communism. This wa." of of course, in the MacCarthy MacCarthy era; the same same feelings were WI:re being being aroused in America America and in South South Africa. Africa. It did not succeed, succeed, aroused but the A.N.C. attempting A.N.C. certainly certainly suffered. It was still att<:mpting to use non-violence, non-violence, and the riots at Zecrust, Zeerust, for example, women protested protested against being being made to cary CIUTY when the women passes, was against against policy. But there were also splits within passes, within the movement. In 1959, 1959, Robert ,n able and ambitious young Robert Sobukwe, Sobukwe, an young Co\1gres.~, with with teacher, formed the P.A.C., P.A.C., the Pan African Congress, no whites in it, although although a few were were admitted admitt.ed later, latcr, rather rather grudgiiigly. grudgingly. This was mostly in protest prot(~t at what what he considered consiclered the over great influence influence of the white white Communists on the joint Action Committees Committees with the A.N.C. since the banning increa singly rC$ponsible responsible of their own party, and who were increasingly for policy. Sobukwe may have felt tiat Mandela had gone fol' that :Malldcla too far in friendship or alliance with the whites. But did that include the treason treason trial Defence Team? Yet it may also dislike of Communism Communismn have been a genuine suspicion and dislik(~ as such. Why should the Russians have so much say in rlS African African politics? Did they understand real African African Sobukwe thought he usc it? Sobukwc nationalism, or did they merely use his party's idea to ma.'l,q mass burn the knew the answer. It was hL~ passes, and perhaps this was something to do with the fact not been at all active in earlier AN. A.N.C. C. that they had Itot campaigns. Nineteen fifty-nine was and arrests. Brmn Brain waS a year of riots Itnd

79

A Life Li/e for Africa Fischer would refuse advantageous advantageous briefs from big comcom panies in order to defend black or white comrades, Party commitment or non-Party, in the Courts, although his main commitment was to the de treason also tre,lSon trial defendants. defendallt~. A A few other lawyers abo helped, refusing interests of justice. The South refusing fees in the intel'csll! African Bar was still not allowing itself to be intimidated intimidated Afriean but there was a growing number of political appointments to the Bench. Then, in February 19(JO, 1960, Harold 'MacMillan MacMillan broke broke with tradition by making his famous wind of change change South Africall African pllI'liamcnt. parliament. speech to the two Houses of the South He said that black nationalism nationalism was IIa political fact and "we must come to terms with it", tine both France and it". By this time England were granting independence ex-colonics independenc.e to their ulelr cx-c{llonies and these seemed to be going [,lirly fairly welL well. But the speech WHS was totally unexpected, must unexpected, especially from a Tory leader, and llluM have taken Dr. VCl'wocl'd Verwoerd right lie dght on the chin. However, he ten spoke back, in the course of his speech using llsing the very \'(~ry tendentious and much repeated phrase "We seltled settled a count!.'y country phrase:: "We which was bare." bare." When South African ethnologists took When Africall look kraa] air photographs showing the remains of the great kraal rings at various points on the Rand, SOme some p(~opk people thought them highly unpatriotic. No doubt the reaction, both to MacMillan's MacMillan's spl'ech spee h and to the growing unpopularity of South Africa with the rest of led to to the Commonwealth, Oommonwealth, helped on the voting which It'd South Africa 19fiO, Africa becoming a Republic at the end of 19(10, leaving the Commonwealth Il a few montls later. The vothig months vuting 100,000 out of a was fairly close-it was won by less than 100,000 (white) poll of about 1,600,000. 1,600,000. South Africa still, Iwwn'cr, however, (white) Commonwealth shares certain economic advantages of Ita COllln1tmWelllth country and is is determined determined to keep them ii E. in the E.ltC.

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But that was in October. It was on March 21st that the crowd of demonstrators demonstrators at Sharpeville, Sharpeville, police fired on a crowd til(:m killed 69 and wounded 180, while their officer called them Fewcr wcre were killed at Langa in the unavailingly to stop. Fewer Kgtlslme, Cape, but that was because a young man, Philip Kgosane, who in the photos looks like 1\a quiet undergraduate undergraduate in shorts open-necked shirt, managed to persuade a and sandals and open-necked mass demonstration demonstration to disperse peacefully, after he had had argued with nervous police and made his poInts. points. Yet was alarming not this control by an African leader almost equally alarming to the respectable? respectable? could It seems scems certain certain that in both cases the situation could other ways, that is, if the police have been controlled in othcr been wantcd not to kill. But a few of them had h~ld in fact been had wanted taking no killed earlier on at another place; they were showed chances. It was unfortunate unfortunate that photographs showed obviously innocent and unarmed Africans dead, mostly shot found in the back while running away, and the photographs .found had demonstrations had country. Both these demollstrations out of the cOl.mtry. their way Ollt bccn1cd been led by militants of the P.A.C. such could not allow for such The forces of law and order could of persuasion. In 1960 a State .)f things as argument and pel'8u!lsion. another five months, another Emergency Emergency was declared and lasted for five: sign of fear. lcru.. Some 20,000 people p<.'Ople were arrested, al'l·c.sted, men and come Brain was women, young and old. Bram wa.~ expecting them to COlTlC there was ua dawn arrangement was that if thcre dawn for him. The arrangement p×olice, knock, Mollie should go down and open to the pol icc, and should Brain should then chat with them in ill a loud voice so that Emu getaway. But when it cane and make a quick getaway, hear !\l1d C!\l11C and she aile went down to the door in her nightgown, she called up very clear. It's the police, but it's for me." "Don't worry, dear. coolly: "Doll't me," 7~

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AA Life for Africa She went off, reasonably reasonably light-heartedly, Iight.heal'tedly, under unde:r arrest. arrest. But But Brain completely furious. Half Bram was completely Half dressed, dressed, he he ran down the drive after the police police car, and, as they drove drove off with with his Mollie, shouted shouted after them: dIem: "I'll get you for this I" In He was not arrested arrested himself this time, but it was WlIS a 1.\ busy time for him and his few like-minded like-minded colleagues. colleagues. For many of those arrested al1'ested it was only a few months in prison, but but others longer arrested for otl~ers longer sentences. sentences. Africans Africans who had been Arrested as "agitators" "agitators" were banished urbat areas banished from the urban IU'Cas where the tlle authorities authorities felt they were endangering endangering themi them with their subversive doctrines, into rural, subversive rural, poverty-stricken, poverty-stricken, hungry areas. It was often a heavy punishment for fOl' an African intellectual or semi-intellectual semi-intellectual from a city, especially if he found himself under the authority of a backward chief. But it spread areas. spread the subversive subversive doctrines doctrines into the rural nrcns. The next Government move was the Unlawful Unlawful Organiza Orgnni:t.ations tians Bill. This was intended to break both both the A.N.C. and the PAC., P.A.C., as well as any other groups which might be named. Instead, it sent them underground.

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6 Another Way OT MANY months before the banning of the A.N.C.,

N

OT :MANY

months before the banning of the AN.C.,

its President, Chief Lutuli, spoke to an audience

Town, They were of some 1,500 people in Cape Town. for the most part white, some Liberals, Libe.rals, but many just interested middle-brow United Party voters. Lutuli spoke of democracy, brotherhood and peaceful peaceful co-operation. co-operation. The banning of the A.N.C. was to end all that. A whole gcneragenera tion-two generations even--had evcn--had tried this "knocking in vain, patiently, moderately moderately and modestly at a closed and and wts a barred door". Nothing had come of it. All the answer was stepping up of penalties, even for a small, peaceful meeting. The answer of fear. to So what else could unbar the door? Was it possible possible t(l make them flhen so uneasy, so insecure insecure in spite of all the police, concede some.some the regulations, the passes, passes, that they would concl~de thing? Was it possible that mounting fear might force a break somewhere, in this police state? It is incompatible incompatible incom with human dignity to be forever humiliated; humiliated; it is incoml'O beg and beg. Once, our our patible with human honour to people fought. Yet, in the nature of things, only a minority of any society is truly political, is why democracy in it.~ its political. That is sense meant that everyone, thlLt that is to lIay say original Periclean Periclean sen.,e is all citizens, citizens, must be interested. And that is also also why it ill in communities so difficult to make it work ill conUllunitiell larger than

83

for Africa A Life lor -re post-Periclean world arc ancient Athens. Most people in the post.PericIetut security for more interested in making money, in having sccurlty their families, in sex and and sport. Of course all aid religion Ilnd these are in a sense political, especially and sex in especially religion lind South so. Yet most men specifically so, Soutbh Africa, but they are not specifically and women will act politically over a short-terril grievance short-term grif.vance in This was wsas cleat' clear in or injustice, especially an economic ecollomic one. Thi~ the bus boycotts organized by tlle a rai.'ling raising the A.N.C. llgainst against It of fares from the black locations to the places of work. In earlier oppositions to tyrannies, the printing printing press had easy here and carried used, But it was not so ca.'y been much used. hideously grave penalties, far worse than the Siberi~ln Siherian exile of Tsarist tinles prcs~ or It a duplicator times in Russia. Even a small press were more and is easily seen and from the fifties on there wel'e more police spies, often Africans on whom dIe the police had some hold. In a poverty stricken society, especially espedally if if It it i.'lis next door to a rim rich one, bribery is easy and cheap. Urb!U1 Urban African communities were becoming becoming increwsingly incrca.~ingly degraded cohesions ami wad loyalties loy.tIlirs had and broken up; the old tribal cohesiolllJ gone, helped by the missionaries who luwa)':l always Illlppresscd siippre ed initiations which, among other things, taught i-ne ta.ught people oomething of their own culture and history. history, An anthl'opologist, anthiropologist, who should have known, once told me that he lie did not think any African who had been through initiation would ever become police spy spy;j lle he would still be in an honourable become a.a police relationship cannot be certain of this; relationship towards others. One canMt tllia; it may be a point of view. But instead of mutual loyalty, the it mutunlltlyalty, tlle highest aim of many was "a good tinme". If thh meant highest "a time". thi.1. robbery or even murder, that was just jWlt too bad. A few few urban urban Africans had done done well well in in businem; they AfricalllJ had busil1~; they dry-cleaning establishments had garages, shops, dry-clean.ing c8tablislll\lrnt~ and, of

84

Another Way

course, shebeens. shebecns. But obstacles obstacles were always being put in in their way and the police watched them in case ca.,c they bad had bad thoughts or harboured subversive company. It was be always possible, for instance, that a licence might be revoked; that is what· is a powerful powerful police weapon. But what ever they did, however law-abiding law-abiding and suc(,,('"'l.qful, successfhl, Africans could only get into their own imitation high Africans society, never into that of their rulers. This applied equally to those in the professions. In Marxist Marxist terms there was a funnelling off at 'the permanent permanent black proletariat, with no funneUing the find bourgeoisie. Any white who happened to timl top into the bourgeoisie. himself in a proletarian economic economic situation, would be quickly pulled out. Bram's sister sL~ter Ada, now married, was doing just this, and how often, when something was asked for on behalf of the Africans, the Afrikaner answcr answer was: fol' W!lS: we must look after our own people people!! But the police spies were not only Africans. Some of them were Special Special Branch professionals, who had mugged muggt:d up sympathies, or Marxist phraseology, phraseology, expressed exprc:ised all the right symp!lthies, had even ~.ven forged letters from trusted friends. It seems that this sort of dishonourable activity is inseparable inseparable from the and that people can holding of absolute political power, !Inc! friendship. even be proud of outwitting those thosc who offer them fl'icndahip. pre and "Liberalism" "Liberalism" are pre"Communism" !uld Of course, when "Communism" dim sented as bogeys from fl'Om pulpits and part of the press, the dimbeen in other parts of as they have be(~n witted are taken in, 1!.'S dim the world, world. But the professional profc.qsional police spies were not dim" wits. in. Another nasty class of people who wh() have flourished Inatmosphere in South Africa creasingly in the police state !l.tl1losphf'J'c creasingly Afl'ka are ar~ sometimes women) tortures, the men (and oomdimcs the professional professional tortureI'll,

85 85

for Africa A Life /or of of the type who ran ran the German German concentration concentration camps camps and apparently enjoyed enjoyed liquidating Jews, gypsies, gypsies,) Communists and other other undesirables. If If one reads the records records of those who have have survived sUl'Vived aIt term, term of South African African imprisonment, impri,onmelll, certain names re-appear, for instance, Swariepoel, nam(',s :rc-appear, Swanepoe1, Dirker, Dirkcr, Greyling. Grcyling. I am not Ita violent person; I vIolent person i disapprove profoundly profoundly of political political assassination. as.qnssination. But those those who have personally p(~rsonally comcom mitted certain certain crimes on other human human beings, with enjoy enjoyment, appear appear not to merit survival. Any of us who have lived Africa or lived in South Afriell 01' its neigh neighbouring countries, have met the ordinary Special Spe.cial Branch, usually rather large chaps, quite quite jolly when drunk, drunk, keen photographers. Quite possibly possibly some o[ m(~!\n no harm. of them mean One gets an idea of their general calibre from a(l book llOOk snch such as Forman and Sachs' Tlte The Treason Treason, Trial, Trial, when, when Berrang, B(~l'range, leading for the defence, pulled pulled them and nnd their evidence to pieces with no trouble at all. all, Even the magistrates magL~trates couldn't CCluldn't help laughing. But it is is not so Inughable laughable to be in their the.il' power. English accents, They are also the elegant young men with I~nglish real dishes, some some of them, ready to join join in and and profess fas, sympathy, rather more morc subtle destroyers. destroyers. James Bond fans, no doubt, doubt. Up to a point, the penalties against all political political activities worked. There had been a lot of chalking and sign painting, often by young white Liberals. But the risks were getting too great, great. The signs have now largely disappeared, A believe that there is is stranger can go into Johannesburg Johannesbmg and believe. "trouble". It is a curious city. There are no "trouble". tIl'C quid quiet and beautiful areas, full of flowering trees and green spaces and and fruit trees and pleasant houses set well back with pools lind terraces, The middle of the city is is mixed; there thefre are vine terraces.

86

Another Way Anothl1r

new high blocks, yet much of it is is still rather like a fronticr frontier town, and probably many Jo'burgers like it that way. There are a few bookshops, in some of which banned books have an under-the-counter under-the-counter sale. articles for domestic con· con sale. Most articks sumption are showy and uncouth. l"rills Frills and wriggles and taste "hand painting" seem to predominate. In fact, it is the t:.'Ulte small farmers' wives who have 11eve.r of the small never been in touch with great art and would not approve approve of it if they had. get more and It is a sad place for artists and writers, writern, who gt:t more disheartc,ned. disheartened. Some retreat towers or into morc retreat into ivory towel'S dangerous. There is constant angry, vain protests. It is is alto> also dangemus. robbery and violence. And again again it is almost impossible impossible to see or speak to an African (\3 as a friend without hr<:aking breaking some some law. A kind, white employer, stretching a rule in order to help a black employee, perhaps perhaps to see a relative, may land in trouble herself. teacher, he,rself. A young, white volunteer teach . ..r, trying to see a MotswaM Motswana girl whom he had taught in school, but whom but who had, owing to family circumstances, to take a job in Jo'burg, told me how the atmosphere had smeared meared over with guilt his totally innocent talk with her "quarters". hex in her "quarters". Under the tourist image of sunshine and relaxation, there is is deep anger and unhappiness, only masked by formal politeness. Unfortunately, is clear how much the Johannesburg Unfortunately, it ill values have corrupted the Africans in surrounding placem places mid Much is and countries. Anything from Jo'burg is O.K. Mudt is tailored for the African market, induding including the comics, based taU.ored comic.~, bil,.~t:d on the good time, time concept, featuring sex Illld and sport. The African papers gone downhill. downhill, partly on disdis serious Afdcat1 papers have golle couragerment, partly on straight censorship. couragement, censol'llhip. And they started so well !I

87

Life for for Africa A Li/e A/rica even Movements involving Europeans who were not even "Liberals" came into being, including the Black SllSh: Sash: ladies "Liberals" including thc who protested injustices, wearing protested silently against obvious obvious .injustk~.$. they, too, were the tie target of young their black sashes. But tlley, louts who screeched screeched at them, calling them kaffir-lovers, them, clllling katnr-l()ycl's, a usual term of lower-class Afrikaner abuse, or threw tomatoes and eggs, while the police were anliably amiably pem1issive. permissive. During the fifties, much of the protest and many demonstrations had been nm run by women. But prison prison conditions were as tough for African women as for men, good food and adequate sanitation sanitation not to be had. Only, somehow, they went on singing. Alan Paton led the Liberal !'arty Party in Natal. Leo MarMar quard and Margaret Ballinger were among his stalwarts. But most of the p~\rty party could thems ivcs to could not quite bring theml;e\ves say: One man, one vote. vote, From time to time some peron or or lime person family could stand it no longer did long(!l' and left for Europe. It did from not, of course, stop members of the Liberal Party from being vilified and put ulldr,r under house arrest "Com aJ'rcst as notional "Communists",. ··munists" But by 1960 1960 many of tlle the A!riCaJl African intellectuahi intellectuaLs were lOllt out of action. action, Z. K. Matthews was "detained". "detained". The politically politically involved members of his family were e.llIcwl1ere. elsewhere. involved younger menlbers There was no income coming in. And Mrs. Matthews, with a There income home tt) to keep up alld and children still to educate, consider educate, was lXll1~ider" It was Brain Fischer turned up. up, with ably worried. It wa~ then that Bmm friendliness, He pocketed one or two reassuring news and friendliness. outstanding bills and that was the 1110'1 last she SllW saw of t1lt~m. them. outstanding This stress, Altmost Thi.~ was a Il time of terrible stress. Alll1o..~t all the known leaders had been imprisoned. ill'lprilloned. This now included Mollie Fischer. Another was Robert Sobukwe, arrested arte.llted during the

88

Another W Way 4y was 1960 State of Emergency, whose term of imprisonment WI\., always being being extended whenever it seemed to be coming to panache. He an end. Perhaps his mistake was in Iia certain pal~ache. wanted to lead from in front, ami wnd did it well. But the ti.m.es times called for leading from behind. with In April 1960 the defence team had been forced to withdraw from the treason trial. The e.mergency emergency regulations made it impos.,jblc impossible for them to continue, Imt but they had made so many holes in the prosecution prosecution case that it could only accused, flounder on. There several lawyers among the at:cllscd, There were severallllwyers the but it was Mandela who conducted most of the rest of the defence intelligence and devodevo defence;j he had grown in stature, in intelligence aware that here was a tion and capability. People were awnre somebody. The government was aware of it, too. Part of somebody. this had been brought out by the defence team led by Israel as a Maisels, Q.C., in their examination examination of Mandda Mandela a.~ he himself nor the witness; it became became clear that neither h(~ t.hc A.N.C. as a whole were Communist in any meaningful sense. Above all he impressed impresed the .iudg{~. judges. So, it seems, did some of the other accused, including includ.ing Kathrada, who took I on the examination witnesses during the period of the examination of witnC58c., Emergency Emergency Regulations when the defence defence team had to leave them, but the trial, it was ruled, must mu.,t go on. However, the State of Emergency was lifted in August and the tellm team came back. This time Brlun Brain asked the presid presidfrom the cllse) cav) ing judge is, tn to resign judge to recuse himself (that L~, I'Cflign (rolll consistently been all on the side I)l of on the grounds that he had cOllsistently the State, involving himself in political argument with the tlle politicllI argUl\1(~llt eonstant hOlltiJity hostlity to the Afrit:1Ul Arrican witnesses witnesses which showed constant moved, Yet, iw case. But Mr. Justice Rumpff refused to be moved. case. Yel, WI time went 011, on, he became increasingly increasingly impatient with the 89

Ii for Africa A Life for inadequacy and stupidity of the prosecution con inadequacy prosecution and its confour yeal'S years after tentions. Finally, in March 1961, more than tlllll1 foul' tile Brain short itl in, his the accused were arrested, the court cut Branl Brain had brilliant arguments. Here probably Dram Illld used his brilUant technique under-statement, in which he put forward the the technique of under-statement, stages of his argument so gently that the judge felt that it was not the advocate advocate but himself who had reached I'e,achcci the final, logical conclusion. The judge president call~d called the accused accused "You are found not guilty and dis dis-to their fect feet and said; said: "You charged and you may go." few But by now the A.N.C. and P.A.C. were wcre banned, banned. A It!w people, including Oliver Tambo, went out Ollt of South Africa Africa Mandela had been been in order to get things going abroad. Mandcla banned from any political gathering years. This gathering for nine }'cal'~. 196 1.He went into hiding, th(~n then was due to expire in March tl1al'ch 1961. suddenly appeared at the All-in African C''(lI\r~:l'encc. Conference which had been called by whichever leaders were not not whichever of the lenders village actually in jail. He came barefoot, a dd(:g*lte delegate fmlll from his village of the few facts of life among other village delegates. One of which make things slightly easier emsier for African opposition opixsition is that, to many whites, all blacks look alike. So a man can coure this Illso also holds the. the disappear into a sea of faces. Of course African friends sometimes don't other way round; l'Oundj one's African ([(m't 1961.L know one! one I It certainly certainly helped during the dark days of 196 From that day on, Nelson Mande!;\ Mandela was underground, l~rom tlmt only appearing now and then, always with devastating deva.~tating All-in Conference, which wa.~ was Suppol'ted supported by many many effect. The AlI·in Liberals and othel'S, others, called for a natiom~\ national (o!wtntinl\ convention to South Afl'ka. Africa lIew non-apartheid !lon-apartheid constitution for SmIth draft a new and a general strike to drive the demand home. There was strong Rnpport support for the strike, and Ute the GovernGovern 90

Another Way ment had to rush through legislation to allow them to t1t~m to detain suspects without tdal. trial. Of course all meetings were banned, and some some 10,000 Africans were an-ested puc arrested and put in jail. Even the usually critical ()pposition prcs.~ was bul1it~d opposition press bullied into suppressing is clear that there was widewide suppressing news. But it is tllCl'e W'IS spread support; students, for instance, stayed away from classes. Yet it ended in a state of confusion confusion between exex A.N.C. and ex-P.A.C. A.N,C, ex-PAC, leaders. leaders, Mandela pas.~ionately Mandela was passionately anti-Bantustan and anti-Matanzima. the anti·Bantustan anti-Matanzima, So were most of the others. Theoretically othel's. Theoretically they were, of course, correct, since part of the Bantustan idea was to break up pan-African loyalties, but when one watches what is happening, one feels that but when one watches what is happening, one feels that is all turning out rather differently, as things possibly it is sometimes do. Those whom they branded as traitors may particular moment of hi.~tory history be one of the now at this pmticular more pragmatically anti-Government forces, forces. The mOre pragmatically potent anti·Govcl'llment cannot needling and protests from fwm the Transkei, which canMt shnply be suppressed word-eating simply suppressed without a great deal of word·rJldng something in1por. impor and a bad image abroad, may be doing IlOmething tant. he 1)has b('£ome become something tanto Matanzima IIiIatanzima (no democrat, c1(';mocrat, he!) unconm of a hero figure with the township masses, ma.~C8, while the uncomare rotting in pison. Perhaps the masses promising heroes arc prison, Pllrhaps Traskei was Mandda's have something. But the Transkei Mandda's own country; he could no more take what was happening over there at an
Life for Africa A Lifo with Dr. Banda of Malawi and to t,lm turn his back on any idea of meeting the black leaders leadCl'S of his hill own country for COl' any meaningful discussion. Meanwhile, for Bantu meaningful his Minister fat' Affairs treat the Zulu people., people, including Affairs continues to try to tJ'cat including educated and able persons, as children who highly educated Wh(l cannot cannot conference table, and wll()se whose demands must be allowed allowed at a conference always "No". always be met by a somewhat somewhat hysterical hystel'ical "No". In December, 1961, 1961, Chief Lutuli was presented pr(',Sentcd with the Perhaps it was partly a political gesture, Nobel Peace Prize. Pedulps gesture, but it gave anoth.cr another platform to the freedom movement. movement. There attend There were some A.N.C. representatives representatives regularly attending U.N. sessions, pressing for economic economic sanctions ag;linst against South South Africa. considerable student interest. By now, there was considerable intel'est. N.U.S.A.S., the National Union N.D.S.A.S., Dnion of South African Students, had recently recently become active. White students student~ were beginning beginning to realize that they must help. Of course this wa.~ was only in the English-speaking universities, which used to have Afiean English-speaking univcrsities, African were no students, but, under the Bantu education system, system, we!'() them. Since then, N.U.S.AS. has longer allowed to enrol them.. tiHm, N.ll.S.A.S. Government. MC.lmMean been almost constantly constantly attacked by the Govcmment, while, tie Afrikaner their the universities made great play with their Calvinist anti-freedom doctrines. There was no violence motto was wEas violence during the strike. The moH!) non-collaboration. But organized organized non-violence non-violence was non-collaboration. WtlS an import from India. It had worked there because the Ddtish Ilritish raj still had a conscience. But it does conscience. not work on those who are immune to love and forgiveness. And there were other other
Another Way fl'ecdom freedom movement, and explained what was happening and why aII new method of opposition was w!l.~ being tried, that in face of all the guns of all the For it was realized dmt whites-and the Government armoured cars, tanks tanks and heliheli copters were matched by the Afrikaner Afrikaner ladies at pistol practice, ready to shoot any black with a disrespectful }()ok look -there had to be another answer. In October of 1961 -there Government buildings, pylons, telephone wires and similar objectives, were attacked, blown up or destroyed. This was the work of Umkonto spearhead of the nation. Urnkonto we Sizwe, the spearh('.acl Another chapter was being opened. opened, However, the older A.N.C. A.N.C. people, including always Lutuli, "the Chief", loved and revered by all, black or white, were very definitely non-violent. Simon Mkalipe, the embarrassed the judges when he read to them man who so embarrassed from the Book of Daniel, said in his evidence: "My Lords, if that could come, that the African National Congres African N ationltl Congress could change its policy from non-violence into violence, I rmy participation liberation movement would withdraw my participation in the tlleliberationmovement of the Africans," Africans." That is definite enough,

93

7

E

The Spear Head flIOIrNT SA0OTAG8 avoiding damage to people is not

avoiding damage to pr.oplc is not place easy. Home-made Home-made bombs go off in the wrong pla<:e some or, if they go off in the intended place, may kill some harmless harmless person. It is not fun. It is not like washing the spears in a war. Yes, it frightens people, people, but in doing so makes them nastier, crueller, harder. And may do same d<) the same to you. Once you start violence it is impossible to keep out out the naturally rough and reckless people, including including the thugs who exist in all societies and who are attracted the whiff whiff attmcted by thl~ And again, priv!tte private vengeance will of violent conspiracy. Aut! are most most pretend to be public protest. Nor are arc those who arc politically educated, necessarily the best at making making explosives. The people who had to decide that violence was was the only way, knew it all, only too well. Tiley They could not not entirely Yet entirely avoid the bad effects of a sabotage campaign. Yet "terrorists" alike. alike, the official line made all "terrorists" No doubt some people in P.O.Q.O. (the name means means F'cin, not all of whom were angels) much the same as Sinn Fein, were out for revenge. But most had thought nut out what they they These were Xhosa people, were going to do and why. The.~e descendants in an an ure,\ area where descendants of fighters, not urbanized, and ill whe.re there was little A.N,C. organization. They were effiient and and A.N.C. were: efficient ruthless, The people they killed were or had been police ruthle,SS. police informers. threatened or bullied, including including infonners. But others were threatened some other Africans, possibly not Xhosa, who had taken a 94 FFICIENT SAllOTAOll

E

Spear Head The S/Jcar for example, in comparatively non-political line and were, fol' in business. They did some burning and looting, espedally in especially in and around Paarl, where they almost captured captured the police station, station. The movement was short-lived; after a few months the police got onto it and repressed repressed it bloodily. It It is is still uncertain apparently P.O.Q.O. was involved in the apparently ullcertain whether P.O.Q.O. non-political murders. Perhaps the full story non-political Bashee River murdcl·s. will never be known. And again, there were some leaders P.AC. Icade,rs of A.N.C. and P.A.C. who did little to help their cause. Even allowing for angcl' anger and frustration, Potlako Leballo of P P.A.C. .A.C. struck me as the across to have any kind most difficult person I ever came across Those who, because of their of meaningful discussion with. Thosc their situation, were unable to act, continued to boast. This of course normally nOlmally happens to forced exiles from any country. Mandela, brilliantly escaping to tour tour But Nelson Rohihlahlia Rohihlahla Mandcla, the capitals of Africa and Europe on behalf of his people, and then coming back to live underground in various dis disguises, but appealing appearing suddenly to give explicit directions or or splendid splendid encouragement, encouragement, he was IIa leader, a symbol, some someone to speak about forever. forever, The sabotage campaign more successful campaign was a good deal more, than the Afrikaner Afrikaner Nationalists Nationalists wanted the rest of ()f the world to know. But it was not terrorism against people, since that intensify the inter-racial bitterness, Above all itit iltter-racial bitterness. would only llltcnsify was not an assassination campaign. White politicians had nothing personal to fear, But violence to fcar. violence had been used by the white Government increasitlg1y; increasingly; I have pointed pointed this out in a number of instancc.~. instances, although much has been left out. out. They had left the African choice African resistance resistance movement no dmke "but to hit back by all means ill in our power in defcnce defence of "but

95

A Life for for Africa our people, our future and our freedom", freedom". I quote from the 1961 manifesto of Uimkonto we Sizwe-the spearhead of 1961 Umkonto Sizwe-the spearhead die nation. nation, the an easy decision. Many of the older Yet it was never IIll leaders A,N.C. had been teachers, roli leaders of the A.N.C. teachern, ministers ministers of reli, life IUld auid gion, and so on, people whose whole philosophy of liIe practice under practice had been been one of patience and an attempt to underand stupidities. Some of t.hem them stand other people's difficulties .lnd may well have fclt felt that if they did llot not themsclv(:s themselves take be left some of the responsibility for violence, it would he entirely in the hands of the younger people, whose whole lives had been spent in bitterness and frustration, and they might well let it rip and get out of political control. WhatWhat ever happens in the future, it may well be the unending unending continuous patience of the older African leaders and their contimlolL~ attempts at understanding attenlpts understanding which astonished whites will have to hope for, perhaps not in vain. Various leaders were cOlL~ulted, consulted, but it would have been been A.N.C. as a .C. :~~ stupid and indeed impossible, to consult the A.N pxlitical whole, since it was a mass organization. orgmization. Its job was politicnl propaganda and organization was specifically non lltm~ propaganda organization and it WI\.!! violent. This had been emphasized at meeling meeting aftcr after meeting, violence and at times when people had been so angiy angry that violence looked likely and excusable. excusable. But individual members of A,N.C., using what Mandela "controlled A.N.C., Manclela later called "c.ontl'Ollcd violence", would not be subject to party discipline; they would obey their own consciences. The A.N.C. leaders were passionately as such; they knew pallSionately against civil war lIS kll~W the centuries of hatred it would engender sides, iDsides, engender on both sicle~. Bdlldes, experienced non-racial comradeship. comradeship. so many of them had experienced W!:l'e What they were doing was essentially symbolic. They were

96

Spear Head Hend The SPear

saying: These are are selected target~, targets, c(mtres centres of Govcmment Government oppression; we are putting them out of action. Saying: Saying: before it is too late-look and thiink. think. In fact, things did not work out that way. There was no response whites, They were merely prepared to response from the whites. meet violence with violence and with "standing "standing firm". Civil war came nearer. This led on to a study of guerilla guerill warfare and an increasing involvement with revolutionary movemove ments elsewhere. elsewhere. A A few Africans went north to Tanzania Tanzani:l or Algeria for training. From the other side carne came the death sabotage in 1962, 1962, and a year later, as we shall penalty for sabotage see, the ninety-day detention, interrogate detention, to allow police to il1ten'ogate any suspects. It became necessary African necessary for the high command of the Africal'l resistance resistance movement to find themselves a headquarters. headquartcl1!. This Tius was Lilieleaf farm in Rivol1ia, Rivonia, just outside Johannesburg. It was a large and imposing house with plenty of rooms and an mty. arty, steep-pitched twenty-eight steep-pitched roof, standing in its own twenty-eight acres of grounds. It did not look at all like a revo!utiol1ary revolutionary headquarters. Arthur Goldreich was a suitable tenant, not headquarters. G<)ldrcich not only interested in the arts, but also an ex-soldier of tlle the Haganah, the terrorist wing in Pale.qtinc. Palestine. No doubt he and some of the leaders had much to say to one another. What came of this will be seen in the next chapter. Mandela Mandela started visiting at Rivonia in the latter half of 1961; later 5tartcd But on he stayed, disguised, close to the Goldreich family. Dut seventeen months itl in he was constantly constantly on the move. After seventeell hiding, but nc.ver never far from those he was encouraging, instructing and leading, he was caught by the police, on instrllcting 011 an in£ol'l:ncr. informer. information given by all campaign had gone on. The Meanwhile, the sabotage campaigtl oa

97

A A Life for for Africa A/rica agents were not neee.'I.~arily necessarily knowll known to one another, ,mother, nor even in the same grouping or, for that matter, with exactly the what they were. were doing. Ilu! But all same ideology in regard to wim! careful about human life, in fact the only time were very careful someone was accidentally accidentally killed, it was when someone Wll~ a young yt\\lng white, even John Harris, who had planted the bomb, bomb. He was not even a member member of Umkonto; once he had been in the Liberal party, but had joined the African African Resistance RCliistanc(~ .1IItlvcment Movement sabvage, which hoped to induce a change of policy through sahowge, though what he did was entirely his own idea. He paid for it with his own But this could could own death, by legal execution. Bllt on the public. not entirely pay for the bad effect it had Oil And yet it did something else. It showed in a hard, clear deal' whites, too, wllo who were pl'cpared prepared not light that there were whlte..~, not only to live, but also to die, for African freedom. African Resistance Movement, There were others in the African RcsL~tancc Movement, tough, the A.R.M. It was a small body, but it had some tough, intelligent committed members. Most of them thtm intelligent and and entirely committed had realized that turning the other chetk check to an Afrikaner Afrikaner This was a pity but true. policeman had no effect at all. Tllis The They were responsible for some successful sncces.'uul sabotage. TIle same could, I think, be said for other bodies. trial was held in Pretoria, starling starting ill in OClober, Octobcr, Mandela's t1'iaJ 1962, on charges of inciting the 1961 strike and leaving the 1962, travel document. He conductr.d conducted hill his country without a valid travC'l own defence, making a superb speech prow speech and pulling the pro..'!t~· cution witnesses various kinds. witnesses to pieces, including police of "nrioll~ white friends <\tid ;atd He, a lawyer, who had so many loyal wllitc "I hate rllce race dist:l'iminati.un discrimination colleagues, said at one point: "I most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have f()lIght fought it all during my -mylife; I fight it now, and s) until the amI will do 110 98 98

Tile Head The Spear Head end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. he.re. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man's court. This This feci should not be. I should feel perfectly perfectly at ease and at home with the assurance that I am being tried by a fellow South entitled to to African who does not regard me as an inferior, tmtitled a special type of justice." justice." And again: "Broadly "Broadly speaking, this country counllY have no common Africans and Whites in t.his standards of fairness, morality and ethics, and it would be ~tandards very difficult to determine dctennine on my part what standard of fairness and justice Your Worship has in mind." mind." This was terribly true, and how painful it must have. hel:11 have been for the South African minority to feel themselves accust~d accused in this way. And know it was true. Already Brain Bram Fischer Fischer was beginning beginning to understand understand that it might be laid on him to show that it was true. wu.~ not universally univ/!rsally tl'lle. Mandela as an (,Jlilc, exile, the Mande1a spoke of his life lIS thc separation from a beautiful wife, and from thdr their children. He said of thi.~: this: "But there comes a time, as it came in my life, when a man is denied the right to live a normal life, when he can mml is cun only live the life of an outlaw because becausc de the Government has h!l.~ so decreed to use the law to impose a state of outlawry upon uxn him." Nothing had any effect in turning the course of white him." mnting justice, and he was sentenced to five yeal'll' years' imprisonment. this time, with the If they could have connected c()nnccte.d him, at thl~ worse, hut but sabotage campaign, campaign, no doubt it would w()\lld have heen b~(~n W(l!'lIC, this they had 110t not yet managed to iust Lo do, though they lhey must have suspected. suspected. By increasming numl~r number of people, lnduding including whitl's, whites(, By now an incl'tlasing imprillonl'd, often without had been arrested, questioned and imprisoned, 99 99

A Life for for Africa being able to communicate comnmnicate with their homes or with a torture was more l\scd used on the the lawyer. Probably physical torlllre Africans, and in any case their general treatment was worse. But there are various techniques for with. the effects foJ' dealing with of pain and fear and loneliness; some of these had been been scientifically worked out by the CommlluL'lts. Communists. more or less scientifically Branm in good One only hopes they are still standing Bram g()od stead. No doubt one technique de.:'tls deals with minimizing the effect elect of total boredom when someone used to action and tllinking, thinking, decision making, is to quick sorting out of the news and deci~1on is kept enth-e1y entirely without knowledge of what i.~ is going on in the outside world. For how many months, for how many years, work? will such techniques work? Certainly, there were many people who could not stand up to skilled questioning, combined perhaps, with threats statements to the to the prisoner's family and friends and statel1lenl~ effect that someone else had given everything someone away. Can one blame them? Are any of u.s us totally sure of acting well in this kind of situation? situation? A number number of books have by now detailed the treatment treatment of political prisoners in SOUtll South Africa. These have almost aU all been by white prisoners; one must remember that Mricl~n, African, Indian and Coloured prisoners are always treated much worse, especially the Africans, however much they may professions. That did not have been members of learned pl'Ofessions. not save them from filthy, louse and bug infested alld inCested blankets and insufficient food, revoltingly served: served: nor from sanitary [:on. con ditions perhaps no worse than those in 18th century centuty EUl'(lpe, Europv, was quite but inexcusable today. Yet prison treatment treaCmellt WIlll sufficiently European proonel'll, priMoner, none of sufficiently unpleasant tll1pleasant for the ElIropClUl of whom were members of the "criminal "criminal clames". cl~I"lI:Ies". v

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The SPear Head SpearHead Brain consqulted with prisoners, Bratn knew all this; he had consulted priSOIl{\fS, {or for example during the long months of the treason trial between 1961. He had his eyes open. He 11e knew what be 1958 and 1961. he might lmve have to suffer. Or part of it. Clearly he was still doing things of a kind which were against the law; he would know this far more clearly than an ordinary nonnon legal person, person, who might sometimes sometimes be uncertain. He did these things because he knew they were right. This rightflcsH tllese rightness outweighed the fact that they were illegal. I think we ean can O\ltweighed guess guc,1S what kind of things they were. Month after month, the police net was closing, closing. There were more raids, especially on those who had ever been prepre viously arrested, especially in the big treason trial sweep. alTested, t!'(~ason Books and periodicals were banned. It became Dooks becrune a crime to happen to have old numbers of banned banned magazines, perhaps they sent in by someone from outside who didn't realize th(~y were putting a friend into danger. There were police poliG~. raids, suspicious matter taken out of people's houses; and it was semi-literate policemen to judge what was sus for only semi-literate suspicious! picious! Letters were of course opened in the mail, and still arc. are, And there was constant watching harassment watching and harassment of anyone suspected of being "Liberalistic". "Liberalistic". Yet it was hard for those who had supposed themselves to be living in Iia civilized country to adapt themselves Sonie wf.l'{~ were themselves completely. SonIc police careless; they left files or lists of names where the th(~ po Ike could find them. It is difficult to team learn total mistrust. We in iII Europe learnt the hard way in val'iolls various national resistance rcsi~tnncc movements, during World War II. It is something one learns is by doing. Yet by now more and more people from outside were f!'Om out.~ide Africant affairll. affairs, The beginning to find themselves involved in African

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A Life for Africa authorities so prepared, right eight or authorities were not quite SO ()t' ntn~ nine yellrs years butt ago, as they they are now to crack down on the disaident dh."liden t bu highly respectable churches churches 01' or on "heretical" "heretical" C!hrt~tianl!. Christians. Bishop Reeves and Archbishop Archbishop de Blank could still for a WlIll happening. time come and go and speak about what was Certainly there were wer(~ dHIercllc(',s ~~aetly where wh(~'e the variolls Certainly differences in exactly the various churches dug clug in their on. nparthcid, apartheid, where llml and how theil' toes on how compromise Much depended depended on their ('Ilvitun. environ compromise took over. :Much ment and, perhaps perhaps -lways, always, on a few committed people. pcopl(~. worse; The image of South Africa was changing changing for the lIIorst; it only stayed good for those who were W(!l'(~ willing to l.It:ccpt willing accept explanations and excuses, or for those -- an inc('('aliing increasing official explanations tilosc,--e'an number-who saw it as a place cheap labour, finly number-who p1:t(;e where ch(~ap l1nnly held in place, would maximize pl'ofil.1. hcld profits. M()rt~ More [Iud and more developed subsidiarits British and other European firms developed subsidi:u'ics in South Africa and it was only when shareholders tuanaged Africa s1ml'choldcl'll managed pressure that they either considered 1pulling OUt to put on prcssure considered pulling Ollt their African employees a few side give to trying least or at 01' at least trying to give their African t~mpl()YI!ClI a kw side benefits nearer the "PtlWfly "pIoverty benefits which would bring them a little IWlrer African workers !!Vl:'l' ever rise. datum line" line" above which which so few African

102

8 Rivonia

T

1962 General Law Amendment Act, introduced Vorster, made almost anything a crime, by Vorstcr, crim(~, possibly po..'I.,lbly punishable by death: possessing punishable possessing urettrms, <)1\ firearms, going on strike, painting slogans, endangering law and order. The extended indefinitely. net could be extended indefinitdy. There was provision for summary trials with an element of secrecy lind and without aII preliminary investigation before before a magiqtr:lte, I't~triaI after magistrate, retrial after There were special powers against person., acquittal, the lot. Thcrc persons "listed" as Communists, even those who had never been "listed" been near the party or were, in fact, anti-Communist. anti·Communist. A A great many people all over South Africa woke up and protested, people pmtestcd, not least the lawyers who saw in this a denigration and sham shaming of the law. But the Commissioncc Commissioner of Police gave public P()lit:e gavI: thanks for legislation which Wllich would provide his men with the necessary equipment to rid the Republic of its enemies. necessary R(~Pllblic ()f speeches or writing from Under one clause of the Act, no speeches was taken a list of 102 people could could be published. One wa., back, to the ficcce1y fiercely ironic abuse illiterate ruling cla~s abusc of an illit<:mte class years before. For in Roy Campbell's The Wayzgoose, forty yeilrs For all this was not only the police, not only the machinery of oppression, oppression, the sound of the car ,:ar stopping and the heavy steps; it was the mob; it was w:~~ the filthy abuse; it was the calls. Or children their anonymous dirty phone calL" chUdr(:n wanting thdr mothers at birthday parties, hut but motheJ: mother bained barmed fronm Irom any "gathering". such "gathering". HE

T

103

A/rica A Life for Africa The Publications and Entertainments for Entertainments Bill provided (or blanket (:ensorship censorship of almost everything. Nothing new could be startt!d. started. l\Jore MIore nnd and more intelligent and thc-rdol'e therefore h"liberal" liberal" people lost their jobs or them 01' were unable to go on with them 1963 owing to the conditions which were imposed. Then in 1953 Security Bill under which anyone could be amstcd arrested came the Securit.y and held for ninety days without any rights including niru:ty tights at all, including the right to see lawyer, In the nim:ly ninety da}'s days of solitary St~e a lawyer. imprisonment lways including including imprisonment and police questioning, always some form of torture unless people poopl!: spoke at once, oncc., even the Or strongest can be broken, br()ken. They will say what is wanted. 01' manage to kill themselves. And, increasingly, their friends mamlge inc:rt:usingly, fdends and relatives outside ()utside knew this. I1th, 1963, 1963, the police Lillieleaf Farm in On July 11th, poliet! raided LiIlil'kaf Govan Mbt,ki, Mbrki, Lionel Rivonia. They caught Walter Sisulu, Si~t11tl, Govall (Rusty) Bernstein, Ahmed Kathrada, Goldberg, Bob Kathl'llda., Denis Goldb(:rg, Bob Hepple and Arthur GQldreich. Goldreich. But Arthur Gnldreich Goldreich Hepple managed aursted and held hLq managed to escape, though they arrested his yaung young wife in solitary confinement confinement for three monthll months trying to get get arnuold Woipe, her to talk, talk. Hare1c1 arl·(~tc:d immediately Wolpe, who WM was arrested after the others, escaped with witll him; him j so did two other other Indians, prisoners 19-year-old charged prisoners on the African African side. A 19·year ..old warder wankr charged with helping them to escape escape was sentenced to six years' inprisonment; that WIIS was the atmosphere especially imprisonment; atmosphere of fury, especially at losing Goldrdch, Goldreich, whom they assuned assumed to have been heca a king-pin of the loathsome Communist conspiracy. The re~t rest in solitary confinement confinement until Octobt'r, October, then were held ill then Mandela, nimollt almost brought out into court along with Nelson Manddll, unrecognizable after two years in solitary, twenty-three unrccognb:able hours out of twenty-four, in conditions thought suitable COl' for houl's was allowed some law books Africans, although he Wall hooks for fo!' study. Btudy.

104

Rillonia Rivonia other Africans Africans arrested anested weeks before before were were also ;l1so brought brought Two other cnine only whose Kantor, in. The other prisoner Wall Jimmy whose only crime Jimmy was prisoner in, was to have have been Harold Harold Wolpe's Wolpc's quite unpolitical tmpolitica! brother brother'· was in-law and legal partner. in4aw tile date of of the arrest arrest all the mass media, media, of course CoUrRC Since the turned been had including Dutch Reformed Churches, been turned Reformed the including on to make the Rivonia Rivonia prisoners prisoners appear "violent appear guilty of "violent hdlish revolution". revolution". The fears feat·s of of a white minority, minority, il()Whow and hellish ever well armed, amled, in a black country, country, worse, worse, in a blaek black continent, were were whipped up. There were constant consttmt new new continent, questioning, including including 70-year 70.yeararrests and terrifying police questioning, First, Ruth First's I"irst's father. By By the time of the trial trilll old Mr. First, every the guilt of the Rivonia Rivonin prisoners for every every terror tel'l'01' and and evel'Y tie discomfort of their masters was Wall assumed to be proved. So So discomfort which it might seem than an background in which much for the background even partially fair trial was unlikely. So now we set the dle scene. The Judge President President of the eleven men on there to try the cleven is dlere Transvaal, Mr. de Wet, is wntence. cat'fying the death sentence. charges of direst conspiracy, all carrying the attorney always as Joffe, The defence, with Joel alw,~ys Ilttomcy in charge, has not even been told the terms of the inctictnert indictment weeks' asks for a six w(:ck.,· counsel rusks defence couusel until the day before. The defence course, of is, adjournment. He is given three weeks. He is, COUI'llC!, Brain Fischer. All the defendants had asked for him. Bram just Of course? Bran Bram had been at the farm at Rivonia, Rivonin.. jllllt as Harold Wolpe had. Harold, knowing he probably probably faced country; death sentence, managed to escape out of the (:ountry; a death Brain, as he one can be sure he had friends helping him. Bram, said quietly to someone, bought himself a short immunity wotld by appearing for the defence. Even in South Africa Afdca it would could they counsel; leading the arrest to bad have looked counsel i could

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A Life for Africa A scarcely defy worlel world opinion that far. But in IIny any case Bram Bramn now had increased responsibilities in the Freedom leader Freedom leadership. And also under it all there was the strange obstinacy obstinacy of the Afrikaner; he could not desert llis his country. Under all his kindness and gentlene&s gentleness and understanding understanding there was a hard core: Hier Hier stoke stehe ick, ich, ick ich katl1l kann nic/il nichl anders. It anders. He would dire moral state. When When would not leave Afrikanerdom Afrikanerdom in its dire. his comrades were in two minds about going, he always told them their duty was to stay, if necessary to go unde.runder ground. This was something he Ielt felt so dc(~ply deeply about that there was no question. His frienct~ friends knew it was IIScless useless even even leave. Some of them were J Jewish. trying to persuade him to leav(:. (~wish. South They had made their homes in Sou th Africa and loved it and felt themselves to be South Africans, but yet, for those diaspora, it was who had suffered from centuries ccnturir"~ of the diaspom, perhaps a little easier to find a home elsewhel't~, elsewhere. Yet it would not be easy for Bram Brain Fischer examine tIle the Fischel' to cxamim' much. A slip of the tongue, an inin accused. He knew too mUGh. cautious look even, from someone tired desixrate, and and til't~d and desJX~rate. it would be clear that counsel's position was in ill fact the same as that of the man in the dock. But this was Ita dsk risk he had to take. It was also, of course, a risk that that his hL~ wife wiCe knew about and approved. One courage strengthened the other. courage strengthened Bran had immediately The legal side had to be built up. Bram found two juniors, George Bi7.oS Bizos who hild had escaped from fiom the Nazis in Greece, as a child, before the days of the Colonels : and Arthur Chaskalsoll, Chaskalson, a young barrister with a Colonels: Maissels was by this time Judge rising reputation. Israel !vIaissels Judge of of the High CC)ult Court in Rhodesla.Berrange Rhodesia. Berrang was t'Angland, hut but Wal! in l~nglalld, was 110W now arranging to come over, Understandably enough, arrauging over. Undcl'Stancinbly eMugh, Bar wanted to take not all counsel of the South African African Ba\' 106

Rivonia this case. teamr. case, But there was one other member of the team. completely Bram llad Mollie with witl) him, full time; she was as c()mpletely Brain had was. trllsted prisoners as he himself WM. tie prisoners trusted by all connected with the What more could one say? Many families needed comfol't; comfort; some needed Many of the frunilies material help of other kinds. They went, as al~ matter matter of course, to Bram Dram and Mollie. It had always been like that. course, Some people have a kind of inner strength on which others can draw. This was how it was with those two. tW(), Nobody Nobody hM has been able to take their place. Dr. Lowen appeared appeared for James Kantor; he, too, like like Bizos, was IIa refugee from the Nazis and und his e:dicst earliest lef!al legal Nazi-engineered trials in G(:rmalty. Germany. But experience experience was in Nazi..cngineered Bob Hepple was not legally k~gally represented; he had agreed to give evidence against the accused, for the State, Luckily for his own peace of mind he made a break and got out of made Ila South Africa before he was called. In fact, he had madc' jxlire statement statement while in solitary confinement, confinement, under under police threats. But lie pressure prCSllure and tbreats. he refused to be 11a political tool. on On the first day of the trial Bram Bram begins his llj.q attack attack Ot! in his slightly diffident, but utterly effective the indictment, efr~ct.ivc' the accused has been remarkably remarkably badly framed; til(! way. It has have ttJ to amwer; still do not know exactly exactly what charges they havc, ,lI1llWt'I': sa-ys alo Illl)'~ he must have time to examine clulmine it thoroughly; thoroughly; he alllO are the people who carry the deep "the accused in this case d(~.cp and of a Yey large proportion of the population respect respect very proportion :tnd he done". done". for this reason alone, justice should be seen to be rather tluan In fact, the indictment indictment i.qis a political I'llther than aIt legal document; Brall1 Brani tears it gently to pieces, documentj pice,eIl. Inside the court difficult to hear; it is an old nineteenth-tentury it is tot and it is hot dillicult hear j ninetcenth-t:emury and Mr, Justice de Wet building with curtains and carvings, ctU'Vings, lind Mr. J\lStice Wet

107

A LITO Life for A/riclt Africa in Ita kind of four-posted pulpit; an old electric fan, high up, barely stirs the air, air. The court is so crammed with. with armc.d armed police and specials for spectators, specials that there is little room fo), the wives are not though most of the arc there, there. Winnie Mandela not this tidal, Tembu dress, dre., but able, at this tdnl, to wear her splendid Tcmlm bUl still a remarkably b(~autiful beautiful wOmftn. woman. Seats nre are kt\pt kept for n a few bhdies. privileged observers from foreign embassies or official bOCItC5. police Outside, rain, heavy rain clearing clearing to drizzle drizzle on the polil'.c quiet, patient African crowds and the police dogs and on the q\liet, African Cl'o\\'{l~ in the Square at Pretoria, unable unable to get in, only wishing well, wel!, forever well, to to their leaders in mortal d:lngcr. danger. Dr. Yutar is as in the is the prosecutor, the same Dr. Yutar YutUl' a.~ 194-8, but even m()re more deeply committed trials of 1947 and 1948, Government policy. His first sct-back to Government MI'. set-back comcs comes when Mr. Justice de Wet, conceding conceding that the State has not supplied sufficient details of its allegations, quashes the indictment. sufficicnt Joffe, their attorney, Legally the prisoners pdsone.rs are free. Joel J oITe, thei.r knowing what is certain to happen, triC's tries to cleal' clear a way so so that their thelr wives can speak to them and kiss them again. But the Special 13ranch Branch intervene; the prisoners, struggling fmilies, are re-arrested pushed down to speak to their families, re-arrested and pusht!d into the cells. The only sound in the grim quiet is is oue one girl sobbing. new trial opened formally in Decl!mber. December. The State's The uew Slate's but indictment was little better, though it was longer, but clearly the judge wanted to get 011 on with things. All pleaded not guilty to the rather ridiculous string of charges, Then ch.~rgC!1. Then Yutar swung into it, it; sabotuge, salxtage, violence aml and destruction, driltl'1.lctitm, planned, engineered AN.C. with itl! its plnrll1ed, engineered. and directed by the A.N.C. headquarters at Rivonia, Rivonia, but aa. terdI}'ing terrifying network of lcnten headqual·terll elsewhere, a "Vllllt "vast Communist machine" tacles spread out ehiewhere, machille"

108

RivOIlia Rivonia

ready to assail and overwhelm white civilization with lxrnb bombl!, froul hand grenades, grenades, mines, and of course unlimited money {I'mll all sorts of hideous and powerful external sources, intent intent on the destruction of Christian Afrikanerdom. Hc: He spoke (li tf plans for a mass escape of the prisoners, of new plots; he worked himself into an embarrassing state of hysteria. State witnesses cowed, witnesses were brought brought in, thoroughly coached and cowed. repeating statements statemcnts they appeared appeared to have lem'nt learnt by heart. We in our time have seen this tllis in too many mallY countries. Berrang6 Dcrrange was now back and made hay of their statcstate ments. Twenty-nine of the State witnesses had been held undex Twenty-nille the law, some of them mothers with young d\Ud· child tllC ninety-day htw, ren. ?-even if pel'lUlPS perhaps reno Who would not agree to a few lies ?-evcn it tipped the balance towards someone else's death sentence,. sentence. The African African foreman at Lillieleaf Lillielcaf farm, who knew nothing the visitors, had been very unplea..'IlIndy unpleasantly about the business of tl1(] assaulted assaulted by the police. Was what he said true? He answered: "A man speaks better wIlen when he ie has not been answered: "A hit." And to be questioned and threatened day after d.ay day hit;' until one memory? one doubts one's own own mind and memory? As it happened, this man was asked in court to identify woen at LUUetea! Lillieleaf fann. farm. It was those whom wllOm he had seen wa.., known that this would probably be the procedure. procedure, He might have identified not only tho.'!C those in the dock, but also Bram, Bran, whom he had seen several times. times, On this, Bt'am Brain was begged to &a. absent himself from court for a while. while, He refused to do 110. counsel, The fort!fore It would have been improper for defence counsel. reaon, man looked all round the court, but, for whatever rt'llllOn, did not recognize recngnize Brarn. Emm. In February the privileged seats for foreign offiials February clfiicmb and 109

A Li/o Life for Africa wa bec:mse because one, observers were no longer allowed. This was dis. mace a face expressive of disDr. Carter, Garter, appears to have made witnesses. one of the State of belief during the evidence evidence witnes.~rs. perhaps All this time the Presiding Judge is is largely silent; pcl'lmps is, il\(~vjtably. inevitably, he dislike_~ dislikes both sides almost equally. But he i~) on the side of law and order. And sometimes law and order ol'drr is allowed allowed say one thing and justice another. anotht~r. Jimmy Kantor K:mt(l!' is house sold, to go at last, with his legal practice ruined, his honse Ue could hav(: have got nervous hre~tkdown. breakdown. He on the edge of a nervolls out of it all immediately betraying IlOnlcone somneone simply, by Ibtraying immediately and simply. he knew well, who had helped with his partner's rscape. escape. remain. so. Human decency and loyalty n~main. But he did not do S(}. team to to tle ddrllcc defence ttmm Now there were five weeks left for the documents, examine all the State evidence, including pile's piles of doeumcllt~, people three pt'ople rome relevant, some not. On the main charges, du'c(~ some theni;i proved :Igalnst against them had nothing in the way of conspiracy pmvecl Bernstein, Raymond Mhlaha, who was these were Rusty Bernstein, devoted very intelligent intelligent aud and drvote.d one of tht~ the Africans, and the ve,ry young Indian, Ahmed Kathrada. They pleaded plcildt~d not guilty. not to conspiracy, though flot Por evidence of conspiracy, For the others, the evidence revolution, was oVI't'wlwlmoverwheln and immediate revolutioll, make a bll)ody bloody tmd collective d~d­ deci ing against some. But no doubt there were wrl'~ (oll('rtiw defend ill in and who were to ddrnd sions on what pleas to make ami skms for not easy court the principles which they all CO\lrt Illl held. It was wa$ I\Ot ('MY for consulta them; al counsel to consult with them or c()unscl tJr advise Ih~m; Illl toI1SUJt!lqnickly bak to to ro)m went in the prison waiting tions tionsin .I'(}Om qllkkly h:lrk lawyer knew IllOl'r more than a lawyer Dr. Yutar. Arty Any sign that Bram Bram kn~ suppremed. should, must be watched for and $upprc.'lIIIld. final had Iven Nelson MII.ndelll, Mandela, in his priwn, pl'illOn, hlld heen writing finnl Ho pnJilll'd. p;wved. A Univeisity law degree. H~ London UnivCI'ltity papers for a tondon papel'!! using it? it? stopped front for a mat forevex useles degree useless It mlln rorever from u~inl! I10 llO

Rivonia Rivonia Perhaps. But, somehow, somehow. the mind mittd must be kept going, the from speech from Meanwhile, he must prepare his speech bright mind. Meanwhile, speech. dealing with wi tll the the the dock. It was a magnificent speech, to A.N.C. of the reluctance the foundation of Umkhonto, reluctance considcr consider violence at all, and the fact that the aims of the of A.N.C. and the Communist Party differed. differed, He spoke of A.N.C. his childhood; har childhood; he spoke of suffering and freedom and Imrlistened mony mony;j it was a five-hour speech, carefully argued, listened "During to by the judge and the press at least. He ended: "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle struggle of the tht: and African people. I have fought against white domination and Aftican cherished I have fought against black domination. I have cherished democratic and free society in which all pcrper the ideal of a democratic sons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. opportuniti(~s. It is achieve. is an ideal which II hope to live for and achieve, But, if need be, he, it is is an ideal for Ior which I am pt'{~pal'cd prepared to die." dic." As Mandela had perhaps Aq perhaps hoped, but maybe isis never to know, this speech speech was reported reported all round the world. Far off in Scotland I cut it out of the Observer, Scotland I Observer, I have it still. Others Brain, and eross Others were examined, examined, kindly by Bram, Cro."1which infuriated examined with a tone of racial sarcasm whichillful'iall.:d BerrangS and others, and in such a way that they and thdr their 13crrange smeared, by Dr. Yutar. colleagues were as far as possible smeared, But, of course, that was his job. SiSlliu Sisulu went through tll1s this and Kathrada who had been and remained, a Communist Communist Party member. There was some angel' anger in COllrt. court. Yutar denied denied that police went about arresting people indiscriminately. Sisulu arrested his wife Sisull! looked at him, told him they had an'ested and son without evidence, evidence, while he himself had been arrested arrelltcd 111 111

A Life for Africa added:: six times in one year by Warrant Officer Officer Duiker, He lldded "I "I wish you were were an African and could find out what perse persecution really means." means." Rusty Berl1lltdn, Bernstein, in cro,-exami-ation, cl'O.'!!I-e.xamil'mtion, answered that he MIS Communist Party member m~f)\ber up to the was a Commiunist time of its dL'Isolutiol1; dissolution; with the relit rest he I'd reCOW1d answer u.'led to IIm.wer more or to give nam~s. names. All this llnnoy(~d 2unnoyed justice Ju~tic:(' de Wet. t:ouu.m!l Naturally Yutar Yutal' also wished to smear I3ram, Brai,cot isel for the defence, ill defence, in the eyes of th(~ the judge and tlte the public, l~mm From his point of view and Govern lind assuming he believed b(:lkvcd totally in Qcwern. use any and mel1t policy, he Wall was presumably entitled to use. ment policy. eortsistent with weaport-that is, if he could find this consistent every weapon-that his duty as a member of the 13,11' Bar,, Yet one might hnvc. have supsup posed that certain professional professional decencies w(lllid havc decencies would have been to get a1Y observed. If the Special Branch Branch had managed managed w any Bram, they wuuld would no doubt completely firm evidence on Bram, ahead, They must have' have tri~d tried W!(N to get it from fromr have gone right ahead. some of the prisoners. prisones. But in order to ~t:t get it l!try they would (ll'cl~r ttl have to twist the minds of their witne-st to lwlieve evil thdr witncs,'It'.lI II) 1X'1i<~\'~ (~vil of Bram, and this they could not yet do, do, IInn flit!. fact, he was so Dram, Wll.'$ 110 tinder dure!!S, duress, he WllS was lhe· the l11t much loved that, even under hlSl picnon p<:1'S01l anlyone name. anyone would nante. However, clear that during the Rivorull Rivonia invclItigalioll5 investigations However, it is clenr by the State, which were extremely they were cxLremdy thomrough, thnt'lmgh. Iht'1' gradually beginning to discover almost enough evic.nace beginning almOlit cllnUJ;h evidrtl(:e to Brain. Some out during the the convict Bram. Snme may even eve11 have have! cone !:(mll: uut examinations of witnesses le wuuld would have actual examinatiollll witnc.'!IICs in the trial, I.l'ial. He the mounting dllngeri danger; 1«) so would Mollie. It been aware aware! of thc wuuldMullie. made 110 no differcncettl difference to their actiomq actions; we tlo do nllt not kllllW know what whnt they dreamed. It was clear that Dr. Yutar W~LlI wwi 1111\0 als trying tqing to put Christian Aid and Defence wid Aid into the dlX'J;, dock. '1'0 To JIOmc sonie Christiall DeCCllee and

112 112

Rivonia name with the extent he succeeded. succeeded. He gave them a bad name, Government and with the average Afrikaner elector. Government Govan Mbcki, IX>litid;Ul, experienced politician, Mbeki, perhaps the most experienced counts well-educated, well-educated, an ex-teacher, admitting to all the wunts explained that he had a moral duty to tell the against him, explained organization;v, court the reasons why he joined the named ol'g,mizauolls, names. I)enis no ag!tin he gave DrIlL~ including Umkonto. But again wv-Is an Goldberg, too, felt he must give his rearons. reasons. He was rJlginccl'; after thinking it over, he had decided that, because because engineer; he believed in ill African freedom and because, becausc, now, there give ~eemcd to be only one way of achieving it, lie he ought to gi\'<~ seemed certain pieces of technical information to Umkonto, which whkh could be used for sabotage. In fact, technical fact, he had, on tedmical grounds, advised against the practicality practicality of anything like grounds, Soie guerilla war; not that this was accepted accepted by the judge. S()Ine witnes; VCLY very definite lies had been told about him by State witnesses; himself. he had to clear lLimself. indigna newspapers the moral indignaIt is sad to re-read It re-read in old newspapers intervention from other African promises of intervention African tion and even promises and Labour :md countries, from India, the U.S.A. and the British Lnbour South Liberal Libcml parties--and parties-and indeed others. Pressure on the South talked was sanctions-everything Government, sallctiot\s-everything African Afdcan Govc.l'l1mellt, talkC'.ci even telegramns, r:vell was done. Yet the threats, the tclcgl'RU1s, alvxut;j little WUl! about people, perhaps the arguments, had some effect on some people. inter is just necessarily acknowledged. It is not netc,';sarily jllS! not true that interlanger; countries into lan.ger; national intervention merely drives countl'ies .national ones lIttcnd, attend, make adjustments, the wiser on~,lI adjustments, know they cannot ClIllIlOt everyone's enemy. That was why the defence afford to be evclyone's organizing their friends spent time and energy team and theil' energy in organ.iting groups, overseas pressure groups. information to OVC1'!lCas and getting infOimation 1965. Yet I remember also, a story from the next year, 1965, H

1118 113

A Life Lite for Atrica Africa news In a certain prison the African prisoners had got the news and shouted with delight to hear that the Labour Party out I"" It was had won the British election election:: "They'll get us Ollt Com no more probable than that the Russian or Chinese Com~ have actually intervened in munist governments would wmlld ever luwc U.N,, whose job, perhaps, it was, is is a practical way. The U.N., remarkably powerless. As for Great Britain and the United powerleliS. foJ' Brit,dn United States, these are "democracies" "democracie which mean.q means that their least governments must do what the electorate clectol'ate want, or at Ienst is the big idea. that is idea, Arc Are most of the e1ectorat(! electorate intcr~jlted interested in what happens to prisoners in South Africa? Not Nnt on your your life. arid Brai Fiwcher So now to go back to the Rivonia trial and DI':tm Fischer coming into court with his brows contracted contracted under his white hair and the ends of his white legal legal cravat f1o:tting floating out. The defence finished; they had hoped to get one more witnes witness but he was not forthcoming. Probably Pl'Obahly lie he was too scared. Vutar, armed with three lx-unci bound all, Yutar, At the end of it :tll, "documents", made nutde one of his Rpc.c(:h()$j W(\flt volumes of "documents", speeches; it went tie African political which he knew rambling into the politicai past of whid.l knew so little, imagining, as so many rulers have done, that 99 per cent of the ruled are "faithful "faithful and loyal". kyal". So that if only luled :Ire if ollly one could elimin.ate eliminate the one troublemakers, all Olle per cent of troublemakcr.!. would be well, murder, attcmptt:d attempted murder well. High treason, mu.rder, countrim, in had been proved. How often, oft(!tl, in how many c(Jun!rirs, how many languages and with different phraswology, has l:tnguages diffcf(:nt phra.~ro!{Jg)'. htUI said I Death sentcm:e.~ sentences have been pal!llNi passed and this been saidl und carried out. Brave men and women huye have dil:d. died. l1w The human hutl1:tn survives. Some of thOll!: those on trial lllUS! must have spirit su.rvives. hnvr thotught tlmuKht that. Some mothers and wives, desperately longing f()l' for l'on· Ion ane! wivt'll, tact with their caged forbidden men, mu!t must have said caged and forbidde,n nnid it 114 11'~

Rivonia themselves. Could the edifice of lies and power anyhow to themselves, be toppled? It rested with the defence. then First Chaskalson, in a speech full of legal firework.,} fireworks, then argu tore up the legal arguBram Berrang6, toJ'C Brain Fischer and Vernon Berrange, politics. ments, Bram tile basic politics, Bran in particular dealing with the But Govan Mbeki, Mandela Mandela and Sisulu were found guilty under various counts of tie the indictment, Goldberg, Mlangeni Motsoaledi on lesser ones. ones, The judge conceded that the and Motsoaledi A,N.C, and Umkonto had never decided on al1m:d armed revolurevolu A.N.C. tion, though inevitably inevitably it was bound to be considered for again. change. And again, the future if there was so sign of political change, he AN .C. and Urakonto, Umkonto, their spearspear lie conceded, conceded, that the A.N.C. independently con head, were two separate organizations, independently controlled. meant that The judge's concession on the second point mcltnt A.N.C. members, although they could still be charged A.N,C. tharged with belonging to an illegal illegal organization, organization, could not automatically automatically be charged charged with treason and sabotage, This, for the future, meant all the difference between ten years' imprisonment imprisonment and the death sentence. sentence, Dr. Yutar and the Berrang6 Berrange also attacked the methods of Dr, evidence. smear technique, the absence of facts and direct evidence, He had been, as a lawyer, disgusted. Now it was over, once square. more the police and their police dogs cleared the square, the judge concon The COllrt court adjourned adjourned for three weeks while tile cells. sidered sidered his verdict. verdict, The prisoners were back in their cells, the high command command It must have been quite clear that all ilie action, of the African Freedom Freedom Movement were now alit out of a(:ticln, and inspiration Mandela, for ever, except as story probably probably inspiration: closely Sisulu, Sisulu, Mbeki. Others were out Oll t of the country or so clo!lt'ly nothing. Only a very under house arrest that they could do nothing, 115 115

for Africa Li/a for A Lifa few could now take over, perhaps only for a short time them, IDQ. deci.sions, too, But there were decisions, i onlem, closed in until the net cJosc.d channels taken, be to had which involving other people, cJmnnel!! of else. One clomed, and much else. communication communication to be cleared or closed, secn with utter thi, as he must have seen of those who must do this, litter lave seen, Mollic must have as :tv!oliic clarity and control, and as S~t'n" was Braim. BI'i.1.ffi.

116 116

9

T T

The Next Strike

of of Rivonia Rivonia h(\c[ had been sentenced, in spite of came Olle witness wittles..~ who clime an appeal for mitigation by one forward-Alan Patoll, deeply oppoSt~d forward-Alan Paton, opposed to violence violnce but deeply certain certain that the accused had acted from right man" were "unmask this man" motives; Yutar's smear tactics to "unmask perhaps aware of the eyes of used on him, too. The judge, perhaps the world, perhaps also alBa with some understanding understanding of the "treason", avoided the capital sentence, nature of this "treason", sent(~nce, but but impri.onment, including including instead sentenced sentenced ten men to life imprisonment, guilty on all Kathrada and Mhlaba, who were not guilly Kathrada nil counts, secretly sentence. They were fol' maximum s(~ntcn(:c. wrx(~ ~et:n~tly but 011 on sufficient for to Robben flown to Cape T()wn, Robben Island. The world Town, thence t() Africa paid no attention. But he found protested and South AMea new chaurges Rusty Bernstein Bernstein not guilty. Rusty was to have MW ehal'g~s the prosecution were furious brought against him, brought agaiust him. for tlle prosecution wcre furious that that accused had escaped; escaped; but afu'r after aI~ struggle by one one of the accllsed per Bram wa.~ wa, pe\'~ Berrang6, Berrangc, bail was allowed. The next day Bra.l11 suaded suaded to drive down with Mollie towards Cape Cape Town celebrate their daughter's twenty-first where where they were to celebrate daughter's twenty· first that and take a few days' rest before the ordeal birthday ancl bcf()I'!~ was bound to come. They never got there. A motor cyclist ear went over Brain swerved swerved. Bram $werved to avoid him. The elll' WeClt ovt'r a low bridge. Mollie was drowned. their Hilda Bernstein, Rusty's wife, one of rltrJl' Bram Bram asked Hilci<. speak at Mollies very old friends, a Party comrade, to speak MolUe'! l-lE MEN MEN

or

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A Life for Africa

cremation, since they did not want a religious service. She be IIa enl1tra· contra agreed, but then they found that this thL'! would 00 vention of her banning order; she would simply btl Ix !nTcsted, arrested, ventian deep was her and though at the time she didn't care, so dct!p love and grief, the others stopped her. Some three hundred Jove people, Africans, came to the funeral, ArricaIls, Indians rad and Whites, cnme speak to one many under bans so that they could not slX~ak that lYorse worse was wvas another. They left, knowing in their hearts UUtt to come. The crowds outside the court on the last day had held must not, would wuuld up banners banners affirming that the life sentences nm~t sung Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika: "God "God not, be served; they had sUllg protect Africa". But them Bu t that was eight years ago ttgo and these sentences ;wc btlrely sentences are still ooing being served; the (:,onditiOu.1 conditiowi are bardy less harsh than they were at first. 1964 the Special Special Branch Branch strtttkagilill struck. aguai At the end of June 1954 included all sorts or of p{~:ople ji.nple in Iia chain of raids; those arrested induded so far relatively depwruents, relatively immune, university university heads hea(L~ of o£ depm1menlJ!, journalists, intended to journalists, the respectable, respectable, those, those who had hadinlcnclcd ttl keep out of direct political involvement. Rusty BmlStdn bmke BIrntvin broke his bail and escaped escaped just in tim(~. through time, with his wife, throtgh Botswana; not recovered recovered from his spell in solitary; IlUlitat)'i Botswamlj he had had not a further prison prison sentence might have have been been the end. A few Cell' others oth(!rs escaped, escaped, though though some, who who had been becm caught caught in in the 1960 raids and had been given three-year sentences, 1960 !md three-year sentcllcca, camte cnfl1(~ out, to a more terrifying ambience and with the kriowlek terrifying ambience krlowled,gee that they were wid &tid were watched, that everything they thl!y did ami /laid would hrm'e omuld would be liable liab\(: to land then them in ilt the tame IIIUtlIl place. phtl:t. 'I1It:rc\\'Ou\d be no mercy now. Presumably Vorster, the Minister uf tif VOrlllcr, :Mini~lcr Justice, Justice, felt that he he ahnost IIImQllt had had the the whole whole thing under tmder con C(lJI· trol. There There were were only only a few more mol'c he had hnd to t.o catch. catch. 118 UB

The Next Strike Strike How many weeks? How many more months for Bram Brain??How increas a.~ that. Paul was becoming becoming il1CfCMIt was getting as close as ingly ill and Mollie was not there to fight for his life. One knows that Brain's Bram's family backed him with affection aITcl:tiOl1 and It was the. Rhodesian Patents case. It solidarity. He worked on the when going to the final court, the Privy Council in England, when Dram wa, full of extremely extremely Brain was opposing leave to appeal. It was intricate and difficult points of law. while we Let us look, then, at this man in his mid-fifties mid-fifties while. still may. Those who remember him best as an advOt:ate advocate say that he never made eloquent speeches lie often in court; he speeches ill seemed to hesitate, to think wl1i1e Yet while he was on his feet. Yet this sometimes made him the more convincing. What he thoroughness, did was to go over his briefs with immense immense thoJ'(Jugh!lc!\~, lea.ving exnc:tly leaving no small point unexplored. Then he knew exactly cross-examina what he had to bring out in examination or cross-cxamimlcon ion. He did this quietly, gently even, in a completely lion. completely controlled way appealing rather to the intellect of a judge than say that the emotions of a jury. All those I have spoken to any he was a great lawyer. But this lack of obvious brilliance bdlliancc was pedmps perhaps in the same same pattern pattern as that of the young man llIan Jurisprudence. who got a third in Jurisprudence. "rhat convinced Communist, That ie was also a completely He al'iO convinced Communist. appears to means acceptance acceptance of a basic philosophy philosophy which appelU'll make sense of current clIrrent history. I am not a Communist myself myself and never have been, but I have been closely in syinpathy sympathy them with Communists, and have worked amicably with th~m that MarxLt analysis It scenis clear to me at various times. variou.~ It scems Mlll'Xi!1t analysill appear and lIud criticism is always valuable, even when there aplWlll' to be other countervailing countervailing explanations.

has been been interpreted interpreted that Communism Communism 11M is quite certain that It is 119 119

A Lile Life for Africa Alrie!) differently different countries and historical di£Ierently in differcnt histul'ical periods. nimiings and diffement mClulingil translated, carry different Words and phrases, tranalatcd, firmly is a black proletariat, feeling-tone. But when WhCll there is proktarl!iI (kmutttnist, People becom(: courage to join the Party. Peoplt~ motives,; it seern~ seems to m(\ me that 11r.Un out of different motives; t.bat nnUll Of Im'c'. love. Put Fischer joined the Party out of logic and out (jut of what he together, the two fuse into a hard core. That was whllt had. nman. HI' 1h W;L~ waI, Il("ver never Yet this might have made madc him a hard man. felt that, 11<'(,~Ul'li(! wcauv that. He was strangely strangely optimistic. He He fcie country :md South Africa was such a beautiful bcautiful ,"ounll')' and iwecvtw, h<'t';mM' it was his own country, it must some five and (in1d h:l(lp)'. happy. some day be btl fn'c hi$ own pwrs.mal p"l'lOlnal Perhaps this was something to do with his happiness with Mollie; it is a rare and wonderful to ll11.ppincss wond~'rful thing bl and cumpit'ft'ly. conpkleely. Dllr* Dtir have two people who share share: so deeply Mel the ~Irrum~d avtitwcd ing the Treason Trial they used to ask batches batch('3 of duo people wlw who to supper in their Johannesburg house, hOllse, to meet pet)fJ~ frivivt were uncommitted, who had perhaps never neve'r met mel an A Arrkan itself In to Ilt)(!lpihlicxpi. socially before. It was a house which gave ltllde tality; it had been built by an architc.ct architect to thdr liflf:rifircasiveific. tions. Nobody else will ever be able to uw it as, thy cUd. didL tions. use il$ tht; It was hard work for Mollie, the hoste.'IlI, litctmm, lightly wOn!. worn. "n\t~ The It wts one of initnewto co irl ,•. atmosphere of those parties parties was immrltll
,l

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The Next Strike Strike dom which which he and his comrades worked, for was, for 1\a comrades worked time, reaL real. not just for And again. again, so many people came to him, U()t legal advice but because because there had been family quarrels, quarres, they worries, something they had to talk over. They knew the~' have would finel unfailing kindness and patience. He Imve might patietice. find to work nn hour into the night. That didn't matter. an extra hoil!, He listened to them; so did Mollie. Nobody came aWllY away unhelped, smicone llnhclpcd, even if it was only that they had found someone to listen to tlem, them.iHow How often, too, lie he would take tllke the trouble lcwations. It didn't African visitors back to their locations. didn't to drive African mattcr that it had taken an hour uf of his time, which would would matter mattered wa., was their somehow, What mattcred have to be made up for somehow. thdr treatcd as equals. feeling at the end that they had been treated Physically, Bram was suffering at lit this time from high blood plessure. pl·cssllre. His face was often suffused with ted. red, Those Thome who knew him best worried that, if ever he went und~l'· under ground, as they knew he intended to do in certain cel'l
A Life for for Atn'ca Africa admit that they had done wrong; they would go on serving their theil' unjust sentence, black men condemned by IIa white court, advocate and stones all clay. day, lind teacher put to breaking stone.s appeared that their appeals might be The others, though it appeared successfful, were certain be partly succ:es.'lful, cert,dn that, if so, they would be immediately indelinitely in prison. immediately re-arrested l'e-Rrrested and kept indelinitcly Kathrada was the most likely an appeal, bllt hut he Kathrada wa.~ tht~ likdy to win :\1\ others, They would not waste any avail. avail would not leave the others. help others. others, able funds, which might be used to hdp So that wa.s Bram and JolT JofTee said good-bye to the was that. Bran men they loved Javed and respected respected and took the ferry back from Robben Island to Cape Town, Town. At George, a small town on on the coast road back, the Fischer's F"ischer's car was hdd held up. Special searched them, their luggage and the car, for Branch men searched documents which the)' they tQ(lk four hours. They found some documents tooik away. A few days later the almost expected expe~~ted dawn dawn knock k!\Qck eame came search it. at the Oaklands house; seven specials came in to scat'dt it, Brain was taken away for questioning questioning Four hours hOlll'S of this and Dram where another search ws and then driven to his chambers chambers where. was Eastwood, Ise wvere going on. Ruth, now Mrs. Ea.stwood, lise and Paul were good-bye. How long would it be? waiting to say good.bye. bl~? The full ninety days? Where? Nobody knew. The specials gave no hint. The world press wa..q was as dark as everyone ever yone a.s much in the dal'll else. But three days later the family and and one or two friends friencs were in the house, desperately ent off, ott, desper'ately anxIouS, anXiOll'~j completely cut well aware by now of what could be done to people Itdd held on ninety days. Would they-could they--do they-do it to tl1.ill this prisoner? It was getting late, on the dark late. There was a knock knot.k tnt Bram. window. It was Dram.

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The Next Strike StHke Tile happened, l~nun Brun did not speak. guess what happened. One can only gucSIl spenk. anything Did the police question him? If so, did he answer anything or nothing? Did they perhaps let him know how much they copies of gueSlled? Did they show him copiell themselves knew or guessed? was documents? If so, what kind of warning wa.~ incriminating dOCllments? his political stop it? Did they think they could entirely polilical leave go-..to, lcave actions? Or did they conceivably conceivably want him to ga·-to the country? They must llave have realized that his Privy CClUn" Coun cil Appeal case was due to be heard in London within the nt~ver next month or two. Suppose Suppose he went to London and never Volk came back, Afrikanerdom might reunite as IIa V olk with its off and discredited, traitor son thrown off discredited. The Fischer name Yet Doubtleks could be wiped off. Y ct this is only guesswork. gUClISwork. D(lubtlell.q there arc are those who know, but they are not likely to say. say. family, with an old friend There was a little longer for the fumily, friend who was staying to help, to be together. Bram Brain worked on the patcnts doubtleSll got his other briefs into meticupatents case und and doubtless meticu necesary be taken up whrxf where lous order so that they could if necessary the day time he would be in chamcham he had to leave off. In tile bers, thr.n then again in his study. Saying good night, he would again ask if everyone bad an hac! everything they needed, a drink, all provisional aspirin, a sleeping pill. There There would be talk, a proviJIionnl facing of inevitable inevitable problems. Perhaps Brain's Bram's political achieve calm, ancestors' religious beliefs helped him to achiev(: calm, as his anccstol'll' religiou~ beliefs must have done in periods of other, equally wearing, stress something bigger than stl'eSIl and danger: at least to have sometlling the self, beyond the measure of individllallove individual love or 10llll. low, Hill, His, after all, was a comparatively comparatively simple, romantic Communism COmmunin aIter (and by that I mean, deep down, aa hopeful ideali!lm); idealisin); it wu W3.!! not, intellectua's, but the belief of common conmton nol, so to speak, an intelleclual's, man, man, the worker and peasant. He could get irritated irritated by 123

A Lite Li/ tor for Africa A questioning, however well-intentioned, well-intentioned, of its fundamentals anyone could see! He was no hair-splitting which, surely, imyone could see! hair-spliting Marxist Leinist Leninist Kremlinologist; it was the Party and M:tnIist analysis which mattered, He knew quite qtlite weU welt that if, in another context, this included, for instance, Stnlin. Willi Stalin, that was not important for the South African Communist Party. 1962, IIa man !:allcd called Gw'lld Gerald Meanwhile, some time round 1962, Ludi had been recruited by the Special Branch, who offered orfered for which he seemed him a particular job [01' se(~mcd suited. He had been at university, univ(:J'Sity, was in journalism, journalism, likl~d liked his comforts. he had already gone to London, Aloscow Moscow and a youth Since h(: "sympathizer", it w;~~ festival at Helsinki, as a "sympathizer", was nat\lr:ll naturad that young Jean Middleton felt able to introduce him to her th(! photograph phowgl'nph in his Party cell. If he was anything like the slack-mouthed and book of proud reminiscences,--weak, reminisccnccs---wcak, slack-llJouthed sixpence, but anxious--I wouldn't have trusted him with sixp<'ucc, certain charm whkh some who knew him say that he had a (:ertain which is abo abo he could turn on, especially with younger women. WOIlJ(:tl, It is not impossible that at first he was a genuine sympathizer. sympathizer, managed to find his W(!ak weak Si)\)t. spot. until, perhaps, the police managed However it was, Ludi remained part-time in his However remained palt-tinlt~ hL~ existing job (,Jaboratc spy routine, running a but was also, as part of his claborate sus taxi service which enabled him to keep tabs talX! on certain suspects. Again one wonders whether enough care was being wlu:the,r C:\I'C Willi being and whether there were not occasional loud-rmnouds taken ltnd loud-moU[llll. Some whites in the Ilcademic academic world, still could not help terms of freedmn freedom of specech. feels on~ oue $p(~ech. If one Oil!: r~d~ thinking in tern)! abmut is doing the right thing, it may be difficult not to talk Il.Lx)ut is the one thing which must not be lo- allowoo allowed to it. But that is Ludi, in lIuy any <:IU!C, case, gC)t got himself accepted a UOktn happen. Lucii, accepted as !I.~ t1. ('J\numunist Party membc,f, member, was trusted with documetUa documents and trod munisc

12+ 124

The Next Strike Strike secrets. He stole stoIc one of these documents, Time for Reassess Reassessmen t, analysing Communist Communist Party mistakes and the 1(~.'IS()n$ lessons of tactics to be learned from them; had it photostated and returned it, it. He also found out the code nam("~ names of most of the important people; Brain was Jan, for instance. And people; Bram probably he was accumulating evidence evidence which could be used to terrorize Com terrorize men like Beyleveld Beyleveld on the Central Committee. One of the ingenious Specill! Branch Branch did, ingenious things which the Special and will certainly certainly do again should occasion arise, was to take a flat next to one of the accused, in this case poor Jean Middleton. As these flats were built with electric fires at at opposite sides of party walls, it was quite simple to run run cable through and tape conversations, technique conversations. This is a tecimiquc which was often used to break down people who were being break questioned. One's own recorded voice often has a very unpleasant unpleasant effect, and supposing, for example, that the taped people were having an intimate, privatc private conversation, the replaying replaying of this could cou Id be a nightmare. Such evidence could also be produced produced in court. A thing said jokingly could, could, without the smile or the gesture that went with it, sound completely incriminating, Ludi got a lot round incriminating. Probably L1.1di of fun out of this kind of thing. According witnessed not only According to his own account he witncased revolutionary intentions, orders and actioos, actions, but also count a..l.!!O count· less scenes of sex orgy which he was later to describe in court These, COllrt as one of the main witnesses in the next trial. TheJle, of course, included breaches breaches of the Immorality Act, white women in "compromising "compromising situations" situatiol'ls" with black men, mell, nude bathing and so on. Two of the younger women accused had, accltlled bad, according to him, had abortions. Poor dcill' dear Ludi, having 125

A Life for for Africa the higher pollce police morality, to bare his in the interests of tile is noble white penis in mixed company II But perhaps, after Politics can be proved: all, he had made the whole thing up? Polities sex, not. Yet do not let us be unfair. There i,s some suspicion suspicion that when Ludi himself WM was found in a compromising compromising situation with an Indian lady, it was not merely being done in tlle the interests of the job. It might have been a very handy hlUldy way for his superiors to put pressure 011 on him. lixn. All this came cane out a year later when the d()s.~iel· dossier WM was comcom plete, when the network of spying and intimidation had whj!n been neatly neatly tied together, and on September September 23rd, 1964, 1964, Brain Fischer with his old friend Eli Weinberg Bram Weinberg were arrested arrested and charged charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. They were remanded until mid-November, when they were accused who were arrested rather later, to join twelve other accuscd werc arrestee! some of them quite young, y.otIng, others in their forties or fifties. fiftim, Schernbruker, Nonnan Their names were Ivan SchermbmckC'J', Normlln Levy, Jean Barsel, Mollie Nfollie t)le, .Jean Middleton, Ester and Hyniie Hynlie Barnel, lk1ylt", Paul Trewhela, Duncan, AllllC Anne NichoL'lOu, NichoLson, Kon Paul Trewhela, Florence Duncan, Konstantinos Gazides, Lewis Baker and S)11via Sylvia Neame. Neame. Brain Dram had got his visa for the U.K. the week before and and had to be in London for the Privy the Privy Council case case within within tlJe next few days. He had originnlly originally been brie.fce! briefed in this e.ase case nine years before, and had it all in his head. He Htl applied applied urgently Afrikaner and urgently for bail, declaring declaring that he was Willi an Afdkaner would not leave his country becaus belief COllOon because his htl political bdtd flicted with those of the Government, Government. The police police opposed opposed as strongly strollgly as I\!l possible, poSllible, saying thts thL~ was aII dangerous man who might escape. Presunably dangerous ClIcapc. Pr('~umably by by now llOW they they had all Ludi's treatheries treacheries fully to hand. hanel. Brmt Bl'liID in in the witness witness box box explained explained with some some Indignation indignation that tllllt his 126 126

The Next Striko Strike TIle eighteenth, century and family came to South Africa in the eighteenth century Ilnd on, has his tele happens--he Is is harassed, now what happen&-he Illtra$.~ed, spied all, telephone tapped, he is watched and worried by the Special Branch and this has been going on for fifteen years year III All of tl'e world. this was reported in the rollin main newspapers newspapers oI the world, While the argument went on and the reporters watched watched and and other surmised, the London Times noted and reported othc.r vario\ls arrests, trials and sentences on black and white in various not, There parts of the country. Some were w~J'e open, some not. There: were, for instance, the secret trials at remote Somerset East, in the Cape, going all on during the next few months: montls - no public, there wa.q was a careful splitting no newspaper reports. In III these th~re charges so that membership of the A.N.C. (a banned harmed of charges organization), organization), also showed that the accused was guilty of .attending attending meetings, distributing leaflets or collecting money. offences, each carrying its own These were all separate oifcnc(!s, sentence. random, Dozens of Africans were picked up almost at rand11lC 1le interests of security". searched "in the intcl'ellts SI~C\Irity". In one C~ arrested bCl:IUJlIe lwcaste the accused, were IIrl'e~tcd of the witnesses, witnesscs, wives of tl1C wam quality of justice they now IIOW "knew too much". much", The qllllUty jUlitice WiIIJI going down.

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A Life tor for Africa to Nationalist Govemmcnt Government bother to Why, in fact, did the Natiollalist cleaper hold trials at all? Wouldn't it have been simple and ChNl.pt!f deten not simply to arrest a few on ninety ninety (later 180) days detention orders, but to imprison everyone everyone they suspected of any nny~ thing? Habeas Corpus was theoretically theoretically available, but forthcoming, the IlccIlsed accused might not unless legal advice was forthwming, have suppose one reason reAson was that be aware of it. I suppose thM it would hay!! of the Bar at home and tn to all those looked bad, both to most m()st ()f to people annoying Liberals who kept on yapping, and also tet noble SQuth South Africa, the abroad, the Communistic critics of nobk~ of pc()pk were capable oI defender of the Free World. These people making themselves themselves very unpleasant. So trials went w(~nt on, ()n, and sentence they at least the accused never knew exactly what scntcnrc would get. It was always possible p()ssible that the police might might annoy the magistrate 1Q() tcxo much. thousand pn1iticals politicas two tho\lsand There must have been well over oV(~r tW() before their in jail by this time. Many were held for months hdtm: their treated !t~ as ordinary ordinary cases came up and they were simply tl'eated are far 1lI0l'l: niore ,Uld and the prisoners. Of course by now there tlWftl a\'c tll(! nasty read· read. statistics of jail sentences sentences and whippings make l1a~Ly year wh(~n when thi~ this tdal trial W"'.~ was taking taking ing. I·'or For instance, during the yrar 79,033 ~trokcs strokes place, 16,887 offenders (mostly Africans) got 79,(l3!l Amend of the prison whip under the Criminal Sentences S\'ntt:nwl Alm'ndment Act. of court agreed lmel and Bmlll Brain Fiscler's Finally the comt Fischer's hail uf allowed for Eli WeinWeit £5,000 was paid paie! in. But no bail was aJl()w~d he Willi w;Li Brain left for London London;j hc he was berg. Brmn WM not well and Iw kind for Brain was of such a kinel Ikam wall ul 8uI'h alone. Yet perhaps not alone, fol' 4rme help having friends, le conslted that he could not lldp fdends. lie: (:nn~!llt('d Iklrne eas WUII was 00 m clear. of them in his spare evening time. The cllse d('iU"o managed with a cut that his clients could probably have hay.: nHln!lg~d 128 128

Strike The Next Ne:d Strike junior, but Brain them so long that they they Dram had been with them wanted him. It left him some free time and he wanted to make the most of what he half knew might be his last visit to a free country. This meant going to plays but he found most modem theatre not to his hill taste. Luckily one could almost always find Shakespeare Shakespeare in L<mdon. London. Like most ComCorn munists he was something of a square; cultural revolution when that isis what it is) is) has (even wIlen hIlS seldom seldom much real con connection with the political revolution. Certainly the timing political Brain without Mollie in the next seat, Shakeis out. But for Bram Shake speare must have been been deeply apposite: apposite: "time "time and the hour run through the roughest day." consciously, on his work. Dut No doubt his mind was, consciously, But how often there must have been the quick plunge back to October London, with Africa, to his love and hate, here in October with the cold ail' air from the Thames in Parliament Square and Parliament SqIHU'C Whitehall. There would be the quick glance at Big Ben, then along past the had already bewme become thell tlle Cenotaph which had part pal'! of the past, and round the Downing Street corner cornC'1' to the entrance of the Privy Council building. Past the swing doors the entrance is elegan elegantt and pretty entrance hall is pretty,I hut but the stone steps are worn down by generations of feet. Up the stairs to the first floor for Mr. Fischer Fis!'.her {mm thl! from the Johannesburg counsel. The robing room Johannesburg Bar and the other COt!nsc!. 'rhe \'Obing (doubtless like others from overseas, over as, he would have hirl'd hired (doubt1es.~ his robes) looks out over the bl'eadth breadth of Whitrhnll, Whitehall, the capital is it? He thimgh capital of a great power-or power-or ill H(! would come Lhrough ante-room, dignified and calm, with a pOl'trait xrtrait of to the ante-room, Westbury, Westbury, one of the great nineteneth-century llinelcncth-century jurists. jutiat8. But indeed the Law was well l'eprcRentcd represented Olt on the wall!!. walls. Tri III the main room behind counsel, but facing the judges, is my maitl beltind counsel, juclgell) ill 129 129

for A/rica A Lile Lifo for Africa of Cloan, Gloan, flie Halclane ill uncle Haldane the pale, intelligent face peering dremsing up out from a dark suit and a dark background-no background---no dl'c&ling for Haldanes. It was painted for the Haldane,~. painted by Stockdale Coke, Jor Council, Cassell, who gave it to the Privy Council. Bran's uncle had a great admirer in Bram's Oddly enough, my \mele Odelly autobiography as quite a "As a result I read father. "As read his autobiography lie said, as youngster. Still remember how he III:! Lord Chancellor, he used to plan his judgments judgments walking thro' the park, the that's the walking home after midnight. Always thought: tlmt's way to fill the unforgiving minute." unde, my brother, minute." My uncle, living which seem, in Brain: Dram: there are certain patterns patterns of Hving surroundings, to repeat themlelves. themselves, different sUl'roundings, forma, The main court room is very V(!ry beautiful in a fOlmru, walls 1md and at each side three European way, with panelled Wlllls October the great windows, properly proportioned. By late October their Trcasury Green Grren would be losing thc.b· plane trees in the Treasury the paitchy thenm swirling over leaVell, D\'(~r thl.: patchy London gusts sending them leaves, gustq grass. The case opened with Stuart Bevan Bcwnll of the th(~ English Johannesburg Bar oplxsing Bar and Abram Fi.'lCher oppo.»ing Fischer of the Johannesburg Guemt, Lord Pierce judges, Lord GU~,!lt, Leave to Appeal. The three judg~'ll, curve of a shallow ancl Lord sat behind the .~hall(jw curvc Upjohn, and polished, wooden table, made pll'.allant('I', pleaxanter, not only by piled mome of the Privy law books within easy reach, but by some PriV)' Council silver. silver, In frollt WIlli the til<'. Bar, but !h~ the table was front of the tltblt1 stme colwl"llIalional conversational speaker was on the same rostrum for the spt".akCl' level. cases arc atio are cunllUsly curiously informal, the atmoCouncil cases Privy CklUndl conversation; the red leather sphere is one of intelligent cOl1vel1lation; by tl.~ the comfort, All would be done h)' chairs are made for comfort. overseas make an tl\l~~lIJI Judicial Committee to Illllkc Registrar Registl'ar of the Juclicial counsel feel fed at home. Outside the ixplic'iiian polict'lmu\ amiably keep. counsel 130 130

Strike The Next Strike ing jng an eye on Downing Street comings and goings, would the kindly lI11anned unarmed British xbby only soon recognize him, tllC BritL~h bobby anxious to help and protect. But Bram was an Afrikaner. He had to go back.

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10 10 Intolerable System The Whole Intolerable

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re-opened in in November 1964. B. Brain came re-opened November 196<1. rllm CIl.T ..11.e back and into court in good spirits, ipirits, to be charged charged with the rest nmbers rCilt of the accused, with bein being members of Qf the banned banned Communist Party, taking part in its itll activities and furthering its aims. The prosecution alleged that Ita flood of Communist literature literature WM was coming into the COUlltry. country, often in disguise. disguise, corrupting society. Money. Money, too. too, wa.~ was flooding in, in, from Moscow and Peking. Peking, the old flesh-curdling technique. technique. The trial went on through the hot South African DecemDecem ber and January. Police witnmsse.s witnrJlSCIl were w(~re called and, although Berrang6 pulled most of their evidence a good gxol Berrang6 evid(~nce to pieces, pic<~t's. Ii deal of it stuck. Strange for him, to have hi" his old colleague colleague clock I The Spechtl Special Branch Branah no longer at hand, but in the dock ,iyone had by now become extremely recruiting IUlyone extremely dicient, efficient, I'ccl'uiting with good brains who would take thIllkincl this kind of job, j6b, lmd and paypay ing well; in fact, it was much more capable than the !(lntcme times rather innocent and starry-eyed accused nccu~.d had ever was no longer somet.hing somnething to be laughed laughed supposed it to be. It wa.., at, There were also the experts Profeior Murray Mtrray of at. expert.~ like P"o{cssor Cape Town University, who had already appeared (Ol' for the the State in the treason trial Stupid by by Statoe trittl and been b(!Cll made to looXk look ~lupid Berrang6 himself, He eKpll\.in(~d explained the nnWre nature of Berrange and Brain Branl himself. revolution and how armed violence was always nrn:lWU)' rimcry Willi alwlt>'lI for a CommunL~t Communist take-(lVm" take-over, how inevitably the acctmtse hl)w th~ ltcnl!ic"(l believed encouraged violence and destruction, believed in and encouraged c!{\1!lruction.

T

rIICAS. CASR HE E

132

The Whole Illtolcrable TIle IntolerableSystem submitted that this type of evidence was Although it was submittpd irrelevant, it had its effect. There were bound to be fairly heavy sentences sentences coming up. Perhaps now we should try to catch up with what else dse had been happening up to 1964 in the Nationalist (iovemGovern ment's attempt to ensure ment'a ensure that their bit of the world was exactly as they would like it to be, above all safe and virtually virtually unchanging, since they felt they had come to rest rest after many troubles on the rock of their own Covenant. Covenllnt. In a way, one might think that they would be in some solm: sympathy with the Zionists, who also felt they had come to sympathy thc al50 rest, since for both peoples, peoples, the unhappy truth was that their their final resting place was already occupied. occupied. And again, both both the Afrikaners and the Jews Jewa in Israel felt in their bones that they were in il1 some way special-Chosen P(~ople. Both People. Both invoked the same Book-the Book-the Old Testamcfit,-,-mld Testament .- and the same same per ecuted but had been been exclusive God. Both had been bl~en persecuted steadfast in their beliefs. beliefs, Should they not have fdt felt for one steadfast Afri another? But this was not so. On the contrary, the ACricaners were steadily and consistently anti-Semite; one has caners anti-Semite; ha.~ to blame somebody, and for some at least Ica.~t of their discomforts discomforts unfairnesses, one couldn't blame the blacks or even the or unfahnesses, English. It was awkward later on, to to awkward for the Nationalists, NI\tionnlist'l, lat(';r know which side to favour in the Six-Day war, since the Six-Day w!\.!'\ llinc(: Egyptians, Palestinians non Palestinian.~ and so on were wcr(~ undoubtedly nonwhite. world was changing changing and thi.~ thi iNis All round them the worl'l still, In the newly rather terrifying terrifying if one wants want, to stay still. independent African states, there were almost always independent statt'..\l, olmost troubles, considers that the lrou bles, sometimes civil war. When one cmlllidel'li confortned to rmalities, boundaries of these states slates t:oll{onned t{) no ethnic realiliell, 133 ISS

A Life for for Africa but were whatever the colomal colonial powers had managed to to that two f'lf or acquire or bargain for among themselves, so thlLt three nations with different languages and culture levels might find themselves enclosed together, with power always gathered up in a centre on which one of them tended to to over-represented, this was not to be wondered at. Nor be over-represented, must we forget that, for many of them, independence il\dependelle(~ tumed turned worked for, for, since the out not to be quite what they had work(~d economic strings were being pulled by the same old investors. economic investors. But in general general among the Euro-American Euro-American public and t''spe. espe. cially in SQuth South Africa and Rhodesia, anything dally (\llything which went exaggerated. All the emotive wrong was seized on and exaggerated. words, loot, rape, blood, were publicly and privlItely privately used to justify further fears and further oppression, opprsion, even when whell considerable amount of ititwas due to lllt'n:tmm'jes, nercenaries, usually a considerable white. But Europe and America changing, too. rInn the Amcdca were changing. U.S.A. irtead U.S.A, the MacCarthy MacCarthy madness madness had subsided, but ir~~t[~ad the colour struggle struggle was beginning and and spread elsewhere el~ewht'I'e whenever whenever the economic econ()mic situation made it acceptible. acceptlble. It i.,is terrible when you know terrible whe.n kn()\1' your opponent opponent a long way off off because he is black--or capitalist because black--cJr white. Cominunist C(lmmunist and capitnli:st can't identify matter can rich and Ixoor identify at once, nor for that malleI' poor and Catholic, meeting always do so. An Ulster Ulster Protestant Pl'otrslant Ilnd on neutral neutral ground, ground, may mlly not realize rcaii7.(! for aIl long time that dUll they are enemies--perhllpll enemies -perhaps too late, after Ilft!!l' they have h:lI'r got to t1l like one another. another, But ifyou distance of But if y()U can cM see the distluwe t)! aII thrown stone.-worse, bullet? stonc·-wOl'SC, a b\l11ct? And South Africa AfriclI. had hnd become become the tlu: centre cetlU'e of it, radiating mdinting hate and anger, which were picked up and hate lind anger, whid! were lIud magnified. magnlfit'd. Ordinary Ordinllry "moderates" "moderatlUl" in other other countries countries began to feel that that 134 134

The Whole Intolerable IntoleralJle System because of South Africall citibecause African oppression, oppresion, their own black cii zens were Yet werc beginning beginning to be more active and dangerous. Yet investments' opportunities grew and action was always investments' opportunities delayed or side-tracked. One curious thing was that the delayed Nationalist Government Government prided itself on bdng being Conservative. Conservative, although in many other countric's governcountries Conservative Conservative govern ments insisted that they were rcally really progrclISive progressive and, in fact, in some spheres, often were somewhat somewhat more st} Labour so than tham Labxur or so-called socialist governments. Thill This was p-tly of partly course to do with the massive Dutch Reformed Church influence; influence; the Rock of Ages pref prefers era not to be moved. What had th(~y they been doing to consolidate their COllcon servatism? They kept a steady advantl1gc advantage in the over ov(~r­ with. the deeply n!actionary reactionary small represented rural areas with famer voters. But evcn even in the towns their fmmcr thdr oppoments, opponC!nts, the United Dnited Party, were almost if not quite as racialist as they were, but affirmed afflirmed it in a more English way. There WIIS was alho allltl Broederbond; the year before, before, 1963, 1963, the Rev. lkyern Beyem the Broedcrbondj Southern Naude, Director of the Christian Institute of Smlthc!1'fI lifelong member Africa, who had himself been an I\.n almost Iifeltmg membrr of his deep perper of the Broederbond, Broedel'bond, had resigned re.~igtled because oI concern (hat "the Broederbond, contrary til to the sonal COllCel'll that "the Ilroccit'rboncl, cOlltrary (ht' Christ to further Scriptures, wants us to use the Church of Ch.r.iilt its own interests". was deeply concerned bccause of (llC the interelJts". He wa., com:c,mc,'d beC:llUliC whole apartheid especially !lOme %omeof the recent apartheid concept, conce.pt, espedaUy ren'nt Acts Arl:i which had in his opinkm opinion violated the Chdsti!tn Christian (:om:epts concepts of which llI1d of neighbourly [ove, love, jusdce ncighboudy justi(:e and mercy. His coUeague, colleague, Dr. Geyser, who had be~ll been convicted convicted of of heresy to apartheid, thollgh though thin this hel'esy because of his hill oppxosition opposititmt{) had subsequently been set Il.'lide, ttside, said of t.he the polit.icallcltCiet'S politica leadeli of the Broedet'bolld Broederbond that lhey they were making the Church, Chureb, 138 135

A Life for for Africa which isis the bride of Christ, the servant girl of politics, There discussion and a commission WlIB was was much turmoil and discussion. appointed to hold secret investigations. It came out with a report exonerating the Brocderbond Broederbond of anything except except and anti-Communism, anti-Communism, but this did I\()t not lead respectability lind this wn.~ was :la body b)dy which to any lessening of the certainty certainty that thi.l miost leading Afl'lkllncr Afrikaner Nationali~ts Nationalists;i its chairman chiairman included most also the chairman chairman of the Board of Oovemors Governors of the South is al~o Broadcasting Corporation; it stands for the polic.y policy of of African Broadcasting South Africa for the Afrikaners, in all sphcrr.s. spheres. It tIe('rns seems leaning1 likely, tlough though not proven, that it has sympathetic sympathetic leanings Mosley had towards various kinds of neo-Nazi nco..N;lzi movements. l\Josiey been over, not for the fi1'st first time, in 19(i4 b(~('n received received 1964 and been Broederlxnd ill in high political plat<'S. places. by members of the Broedcrbond Adolf von Thaddcn Thadden of the Gt~I'!n.a!l German N.D.!'. N.D.P. Wa.'! was another apparently welcome visitor, visito!'. More factories went up in the sixties, lUore more industries MOl'e industrit'S started, increasingly, the Afrikaner owned and started, and, increa,ingly, these were Afrikanel' owned amI the South outh operated. Capital Capital must lUllst be attracted, yes, yes, but thr. African capital was not by any means exclusively in English African WlIB !U1y exdusively r~llgli!lh or Jewish wm AfrlktUlcr Afrikaner 01' Jewish hands, not any longer. In fact, there w;\.' capital companies and capital in many of the large international international c(!mpa!\i~s cartels, bringing in interest inter~.!!t in more mort~ senses than one, one. The Afrikaners, in laager, Afrikane.rs, the poor pOOl' farmers flu'mers who camie came together ill who fought for and gained their independence, independence, were becom becoming rich, although, nltl10ugh, as a community, community, they had not quite incomes with the English. caught up on incomes English, And And yet there therl! wis W3.lI profound profound insecurity. The Tht~ murder murder rate throughout the Republic some fifty hangings Republic was remarkably remarkably high high:: 5Orm: hllllging$ at\ year. But the suicide rate WI\" was also unusually high and BlIt 1I11d the wuiide sllidde statistics do stalilititeS do not mIt include include Africans, AfriClUUI, even c,ven those tho!\\! who kilted killcd 136 136

The Whole Intolerable Intolerable System themselves in prison to escape further torture. There were defections defections from the Church; and some of the best writers in Afrikaans, Afrikaans, who could and should be the builders of the w,ere writing critically or bitterly about cherished nation, wiere increase. WIIS on the inc,reIUle. institutions and ideas. Sunday sport was So what was the answer? was more and ad more thought The Government Government answer WI\II control and more and more laws, all aimed at making the baaskap, secure State, the embodiment of apartheid apartheid and balJ..'lkap, against what it saw as its internal internal enemies. Many of these tllcsc laws have already been mentioned; others tightened up already existing ones or did away with possible evasions. Some were increasingly being put into practice. The actual old laws, incrcl\llingiy numbers are astonishing. In the 1963 Ses:uon, sixtt~en Acts Session, sixteen were passed, all to do with security and apartheid, PllSSCd, including the General Law Amendment Act whirh which hl\ll lha been respon bC1!l1 rc.'ponsible for the worst crimes crime:.!! against persons during their "detention". "detention". As Vorster VorstCI' himself said "It is not a very nice thing to see a human being broken". broken". No doubt if he could have attained his ends by milder means he would have done dune so; he is almost certainly not personally pCl'wnally a cruel man. But But he who wills the end, wills the means. In the 1964 SessiCln Semion there were four Acts, and in the 1965 Session Se8ion twelve. So it goes on. Meanwhile, the Group Areas Aren.~ Act of 1950, under which which people of the wrtmg wrong culuur colour could be turned tUl'ned out of uf their steadily applkd applied to more lind and more plllcc~ place., homes, was WI\II being steadHy in many of which families had been becn living for generations, gt~neratiOM, with homes, businesses, gardens and, often enough, frietuhi busine:l,~es, gardens fl"ietJ(m colour from whom they must [lOW now be spa,. of a different (!olour ilt'PIlrof the int~,nti(m. intention. Probably Probably the ated. In III fact this was part (If 137 137

AA Life for Africa most valuable property, in terms of rates, was that belonging compensation to the various Indian communities. communities. Nor isis the compensation offered anything near the value the owners put on it. In In 1964 Nr. Nana chairman of the Tran.waal Transvaal Il1Clian Indian 1964 Nann Sita, chailman refusing to leave leave Congress, was serving a jail sentence for refus.ing the home where he had lived for thirty-seven thirtY-Ilcven years. year~. The Johannesburg Indian community have not yet been Johrumesburg belm moved, muved, but when when they are m'(~ it will be twenty-two twenly-twtl mil(.'s miles ,lway away fmIll from the city centre, where many of them had businesses. In Cape communities which we!'(~ were ;\lid and aJ-e Town it was the Coloured communities ire still worst affected. affected. This includes the leaches \Jcach(~s where they traditionally picnicked and bnthed; bathed; childn~n have traditiolUllly and their children are now for whites only. more and more of these ar.e passed in W52, 1952, was The Native Laws Amendment Act, pass(~d "surplus" Africans This aimed at keeping "surplus" Africafl.'l out emt of the towns. 1'hl'se of course included the aged, widos, on, widows, children childl'('t\ and so Oll, the unproductive. In 1964, 1964, the Minister lVIini.'ltcr of Bantu Adminis AdminL<;tration told the House of Assembly that MH,726 464,726 Afriellns AfricaUs had been "endorsed "endorsed out" of the bigg(~1' bigger South African town. Afdcan towns during tllC the seven years previously. previously. But in in 1964 his I9Ci'l itself, hi..~ 15,000 women women figure showed that about 85,000 men men and 15,000 organization took had been endorsed out. The Black Sash orgnnizutioll the misery come of it. this up, detailing detRiling the. miscry that had emne The Suuth it, South outsiders who who African Government Government constantly constantly complain of outsidt~r!\ their problems interfere; the do not understand theil' pl'oblt'Al1s trying tf)'ing to inlcl'fc)1'; Black Sash are not outlliders. outsiders. Under the Bantu education system, it became Imrdrr harder and and harder adequate higher education. harde.l' for any African to get adcqUllt.C high(~r (~dm't\tinn. because of the low quality of primary educa This was partly bocause pl'iml\\'Y CdIlC,l\tion. It is cmious curious that all the Soutll South Africltn African Pl'Opllllill1da propaganda don. aU tbe material claims that thern his ham been an immcl1lle inimense im~rcru!e increase ill in tbe~ h1lll

138 138

The Whole .intolerable Intolerable System AfriCllll enrolment. But how many go on beyond African school cllrolment. the ielower primary school? Only about a quarter, and only three per cent go on to secondary, with the percentage percelltage form, The Church schools used to give dropping form by form. dosed ave been closed reasonably good education, but almost all 11have education. Per Per capita capita yearly or have had to accept Bantu education, expenditure tells its own story: whites-957.05, white.s-£57.05, African-. Africllrut--~' expenditure ludicrously unlike £6.75. The "ethnic Universities" are ludicrotlSly "eflimic Universities" Transfer universities. In 1959 the University of Fort Hare TransfC'1' Act changed changed a reasonably high standard standard of open university into a tribal college with staff carefully purged of all "liberal" tile same time it has become increas incrcn.,· "liberal" elements. At the for ingly difficult for any black South Africans to go abroad fur on was usually un end he was allowed it WllS educatioll. education. If in the cnd lin exit permit, so that he could never come back and corrupt an his fellows. amnbience. If once Inevitably, censorship censorship increases increases in this ambience. oller News ca.~y I Newsight, it would all be so easy everybody thought right, recommetnd papers and books get banned, teachers can only 1"C(!mnnwnd as if list, It is not even reading out of a narrowly narrowly proscribed proscribed list. evcm lUI many Africans had the money to buy a paper-back; pa!JCI·.back; they the most basic expenditure. And the outside arc are down to Ule world continues cotltinucs to point a finger at the Republic of South Africa, Africa. part of it, watched the latest trial world, or p,U't outside wodd, The olltside in The Hague case on in as there was a cn.'!C with interest, illterest, especially all South African rights in the Court, questioning International Cou!'t, International ql1(~sti()ning SOllth territoryof South Wist tClTitol'yof West Africa (Namibia) mandated to them that by the old League L(~aglle of Nations. It seemed to some people thAt given his he had But no, there, been shiould have Fischer FJschel' should havel beell there. gi.ven Ills trial, this December back, In U\UJ word as an Afrikaner Afrikmlcl' to come back. DecembrJ' tria!., 139 139

A Life for Africa the accused accused were a strange mixture of people, people, spanning spanning two generations and generations very different di.fTerent social backgrounds. Yet Yc.t these determination. had all merged merged into a particular particular view and detenninntion. was clear that Bram Brani This time they were were all white and it WM Fischer, perhaps with his old friend Ivan Schermbruker, would probably receive a heavy sentence; these two were looked on as the leaders. They must be put away, especially t'8pecially Bram. Dram. The usual kind of evidence court. evklence was laid before the COut't. Gerald Ludi; this must have b{'cn twen Much of it came from Gerald particularly painful for those who had trusted him and and his allowed him to have access access to documents. Some of oC hi., evidence WM was so clearly untrue that it was met by laughter laughter in court. Among those who had been arrested was one of the Central Committee, Beyleveld, a trade union orglllli7.t:I'. organizer. been put on tlf\er after Rivonia, He was one of those who had b~eCn the Springbok when so few were left, and an old member of th~ pressure Legion. Now he turned State witness, w.itnC!s.~. One sees the pn·s.mre statement, when asked which had been put on him by his stat()ment, wh{\11 asked prosecution: "I why he had elected to give evidence evielem:e for the pro.ceutiol1: released from the ninety-day detention, My wanted to be released ninety-day detention. liberty became very important to me. 1I can think of nothing l10thing but my liberty anel and I am prepared to forsake my life-Ioug lifong principles for it. I have no other principle principle but imt to obtain obtain my own liberty." liberty." He was wa, to testify again in further trials believe ~viden(:c evidence fmm fron against his old friends. But should one bdleve a man in this state? Brain was defended by Mr. HanJlOn, Harumn, but ass January went went Branl 11'1\8 e)ll, be cOl1victrd. On on, it b(:camc became clear that he was going to bx convicted. On January disappeared, eady early one JiUluary 25th 1965 he dillappeal'cd, (me morning. The family found letters by his I:x:d, bed, one to hill his daughter Ruth founel two lettel1l

140 140

The Whole Intolerable IntolerableSys/dm Sysedm TIle and the other to his counsel. He also arranged for his bail to be repaid to his guarantors, guaranltors, so that they sho\!Id should not Sldfe.t suffer financially. "By the The letter to Harold Hanson reads as follows: "By the this reaches you (the letter was addressed to the counsel counstl time who was defending him) rI shall be a long way from Johan Johannesburg and shall absent myself from the remainder remaindo' of the trial. But I shall still be in the country country to which which I said I would return when I was granted bail. I wish you to inform intended the court that my absence, though deliberate, is not intended be disrespectful. Nor is it prompted by any in any way wa.y to llc fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me, me. Indeed realize fully that my eventual punishment Indeed I rea.lize punishment may be increased increased by my present conduct. "I have not taken this step lightly. As you will no doubt understand, I have experienced experienced great conflict between betwetm my desire to stay with my fellow accused and, on the other other hand, to try to continue continue the political political work I believe to be essential. that w;cntial. My decision was made made only because because I believe belit~vc thllt it is is the duty of every every true opponent of this Government Government to remain in this country policy country and to oppose its monstrous monstrous poliey of apartheid apartheid with every every means in its power. That is what what Ir shall do for as long as I can. "In brief, the reasons which have compelled compelled me to take this step and. and which I wish you to communicate communicate to the court are the following: following: "There are already "There already over ov('j' 2,500 political prisoners prillOncNI in our prisons. These 'The.~e men and women are not criminals but the staunchest staunchest opponents opponents of apartheid. "Gruel, discriminatory "Cruel, discriminatory laws multiply each each year, bitternrx bitt(,J'II~ and hatred of the Government and its laws are and hatl'eel Government laM are growing growing 141

Lile for Afri(,a Africa A Life

outlet ful' for this hatred isispennitted permitted because because political daily. No outLet rights have been removed, natiunal national organizations have been been ol'ganizatim)s havt~ leaders not in gaol have been banned [loom from outlawed and lead(~rs Laws speaking and meeting. People are hounded by Pass LllW.'! controls. Tortmc Torture by soHtm'y solitary confmeconfine and by Group Areas ccmtl'Ols. parlia ment, and worse, has hM been legalized legalized by an elected parliament-surely an event tmique unique in hi~toI'Y. history. ment-surely "It is no answer to all this to say that Bantustans will be created, or that the country is prosperous. The vast majority country's of the people are prevented from sharing in the countt·y's wealth by the Colour Bar in industry and mining m)(l and by by weillth the prohibition against owning land save in relatively small oWlling rehltivdy parts of country where, in in any and grossly over-crowded over-crowded pllrts uf the cOllntry case, there exist no mines or industries. The kka idea that BalllulIBantus tans will provide any solution would decdvc deceive no onr one but but a White South African. "What "What is needed needed is for White South Africans Africans to shake themselves out of their complacency, complacency, aIi complacency complaccnt~y intenst imensi· themselves fled by their their present prese.nt economic economic boom built upon racial diO discrimination. crimil1!ltion. "Unless chianged radically "Unless this whole whole intolerable system system is is changed and rapidly disMter must follow. Appalling bloodshed and and and disaster Appalling bloodshed civil war will become long as is become inevitable inevitable because, as 10llg ,IS there there is oppression such oppression fought with oppre.ssion of a majority sllch oppression will be {()ught with increasing increasing hatred. becomes a supreme duty, particuparticu "To try to avoid this bcwme$ larly larly for an 1111 Afrikaner Afrikaner because because it is largely the lh~ reprownta. rcpmrenla· tives of my fellow Afrikaners for Afrikanetl! who have been responsible Cor the worst of these lhe.llc discriminatory dt~criminatory laws. laWll. "These "These are are my reasons for absenting absenting myself myself from fl'om court, If If by my fight I can can encourage encourage people to to think alxmttt, abollt, to ID 142 142

The System Tile Whole Intolerable Intolerable Systom

understand and to abandon abandon the policies they now so blindly follow, rI shall not regret incur. regret any punishment I may inc1.lr. attempted "I can no longer serve justice justic,e in the way I have attempted thirty years. I cin to do during the past thilty can do it only in the chosen. way II have now cIlDsen. you to urge upon the court to "Finally, I would like YOll bear if it does have to punish any of my fellow fellow bear in mind that jf ideas accused it will be punishing them for holding the ideal! today that will be universally universally accepted accepted tomorrow." And so, for a time, no more.

143

III I A Matter Matter of Honour

TIXE

sentenced, most to between prisoners were sentenced, a year and three years. But Eli Weinberg and Ivan Schermbrucker got five~year five-year sentencCl!. Schemlbrucker sentences. It seems likely that Bram would have got the same. If it had been that he would have been out by n()\v. now, Perhaps it might have ie been longer, but even so, the end would be in sight. He must have known that what in fact he did was bound to to earn him a much stiffer sentence, sentence, and ht~ he can scarcciy scarcely have thought that he could avoid being caught in the end, with all the odds against him and the probability probability that he could be betrayed, either inadvertently inadvcrtt~lltly or 01' by terrible pressure someone, So, what happl!!lcd happened or what did being put onto someone. take to he think that made him break bail baH and Ulkt: ttl the life of a fugitive? Most of his colleagues colleagues at the Bar were deeply shocked and applied within days to have ll1we him disbarred, on the unprofemsional conduct. conduct, This must have been grounds of unprofellsiomll very painful aid, oddly, a surprise. surprise, He was r"th~r rather innocently and, odeUy, colleagues liked him :ta lot and he he aware that most of his hL, collcmgllcs Jot nnel so far as never thought politics could take them ItO !IS to hurt him deliberately. deliberutely. Nadine Gordimer, who is is not only a Smith South Afrknn, Afican, but Nucline intelligent and sensitive have felt a very intelligc,nt sellllitive novelist, seems IICc:'IHlI to hI h,w(~ fclt that he owed it to the people he had hwen bern working workillg for, that he had, as a1\ matter of personal integrity, 10 w1th to keep faith with 144

T

HE OTHER

Hlonour A Matter of 1/ A Matter ollour tlle fine point of honour of a small national natiofll\l them. Here was the hard group which had managed to survive through terrible hardships and trials, feci itself a people in a very special trials, to feel some honour of an Afrikaner and 80me sense; it was the point of honour day, perhaps, when historical judgments judgments do one of their their be topsy turvy rea~C8Sments, this time we should by which reassessments, topsyturvy used to, it will be understood by all Afrikaners and become is, I think, understood now by some aa matter for pride. It is, Afrikaners, especially those who have been tortured and is that imprisoned and have survived. What What is clear is tlmt his being out, on the run, meant a special kind of pride and delight, especially to the Africans, Africans, who had so little to delight thrm. them. lie managed to do much in It seems doubtful whether lle ill the way of actual political direction or even advice, nor did he open new channels of communication. communication. Part of the time he must have been enjoying enjoying the dance he was leading the Special Branch. under is possible that he It is llC never thought lie he could stay underground for as long as he did. If it was a gesture, a symbol have been of Afrikaner honour, a short time would llave been as good as a long time. If he had intended to produce any serious more prepara consequences it would have meant marc political political consequences preparation and better contacts, but this in turn might have meant meant had it deep in him that he was an absence absence abroad and he had not leaving South Africa. Most of the time Paul was away Johannes in England with his sister Ruth. The old house in J ohannellsnap raids. through on combed burg was constantly being used It must have been often a very lonely time for 11a man use.d to constant company company and regular work at his own desk and Bram with his own skill. It must have been very lonely for BI'11fl1 WiLh. out Mollie.

x It

145 145

A Life tor for Africa It should, however, be noticed that the official line from the Special Branch and, doubtless, the Government, was that Brain's escape "world wide Com Bram's r.scape had been a decision by a "world Communist network". Of course this tied in with the idea that AN.C. was a Communist front organization, in the A.N.C. ill fact, the the most important one in southern Africa. Whether tile authorities or not, whether authorities really believed this Of whether it was a piece imagination, on a par with the Calvinist image of imagination, image of "sin", the rest of us will never know. No doubt some people believed sometimes wandel' wonder whether this believed it sincerely. I sometim(,l1 net. favourite network image is not something akin to the net· works and rays which are so commonly envisaged as the enemy by schizophrenics. Frightened people arc are always near cnemy to the edge edge of insanity. It is almost worth looking at Ludi's account of how he thinks it was done..through done-"-through the Soviet network's "South Resid(~nt Director" "South African African Resident Director" who prepared an beautifully forged documents. And of course there was an unlimited quantity of "Moscow "Moscow Gold" aIn "attrac"attrac Gold" as well as an tive brown-eyed brown-eyed young woman" \v()lllan" who whu bought a house, opened a bank account, said her uncle unde would come and disappeared to wicked live in the house, and disappeared wicked old, permissive England. Cert<'llnly Certainly the lady odstcd-,and existed -and exist.~-·but exists--but her suggested are somewhat somewhat imaginary. imaginary. Once Bram, suggcsted affiliations !Ire Dram, Black, had moved in, he clian. disgui a!s her uncle, Mr. Black. disguisedd as channelled, according according to Ludi, the Moscow MOlIC(IW gold into the Com Com"allied subversive organizatitms--some organizations- some Party and its "allied munist Pal·ty through legal institutiun., institutions such m Chri.,thm ChrLstian Action through known !eftal lIuch 8Jj and the Defence and Aid Fund and some lICeret secret courier contacts." By tlus this time it Willi was becoming very impnortant cOl1tact~." imrx)rtant to to smear bodies such such lUI ('.hrilltian Action ill in the eyes of the as Christian respectable feJIpectable in South Africa.

146

onour Hlonour Matter of /{ A Malter Rusten clown to RustenWhat is, crunc down Brain came is, II think, true, is that Bram berg and stayed at the farm house of Dr. Raymond MidJinton, the rather eccentric eccentric lady who was the owner of Midlinton, the [aIm; and tied up the appearance anelded farm; here he altered his appearance necessary financial arrangements. Part of tllis this was by strict necemary health food dieting. Mrs. Mi(Uinton Midlinton was something of a hcalth devotee and no doubt supervised this: it had the effect of bringing down his blood pressure and so altering his whole physical set-up. Then he came back to the Johannesburg neighbourhood, neighbourhood, the family. where he saw some friends and members of thc or Naturally llC km:w or he had helpers. The Special Branch knew Naturally know about some, not about others. Sometimes they thought he had crossed the frontier or was about to. He wrote wrote letters lettel'll towns. Some which were posted in various South African towm. Special underestimated the SjX!dul intercepted. Perhaps he underestimated were intercepted, never BraIlch. Branch, Perhaps it is impossible for someone who has never been afraid to take on the reactions of a fugitive. On July that he intended 14th he wrote to the Bar Council, stating t.hat Hth dishar'ed. him to have disbarred. to oppose the application rest the .N:' It was tremendously exciting and encouraging for th.e Jlt some free, Was he !!Orneof us to know that he was still out, still free. where in the mountains? mountains? Was he in Botswana? We, there, stories and jokes circulated. It was a breath hoped so, so. Bram Dram storics air. There was a ten thousand rand reward for his of fresh air, clues;;itit false dues recapture, but it had brought nothing but fall!<: were police weN:' knew, But the polic~ meant nothing to those who knew. rshing here and there to up and l1lllhing constantly being rung lip Fiasche to be Mr. I"il«:h~J' arrest suspects or those who were thought 1:0 close relation of turned out to be a clolle in disguisej disguise; once this LlIrned in Dr, Yutar, Dr. Yular.

147

A Life tor for Africa Alrica slip-ups. He had been living But, inevitably, there were slip.ups. Jiving rather too openly, buying meat, groceries, milk and newsnews. papers in the Johannesburg Johannesburg suburb where he was Mr. Black. There were one or two crucial crucial arrests. On November November 2nd, struck his muuc name off the roll. Mr. 1965, the Supreme Supreme Court strud, Justice sub Justice de Wet said it was clear dear that he was guilty of sub"probably at the present time versive activity in the past and "probably is still engaged i~ engaged in such activity". It may be that the police found it less embamlssing embarrassing to arrest no at'l'e~t someone St)m(~OlH~ who was no cheered them up toto longer a Queen's Counsel; it certainly chc('l'c,d Earlier there think that now they had the Law on their thdr side. Earlicr had been plenty of criticism critici.'!Il1 of the tlle police police and the new laws Johannesburg Bar, but n()w now they seemed to be on from the Johannesburg on the same side. the=e They got him on November 11 1 Ith, Ill" and also found some incriminating papers, some in his pocket, incriminating papers, some iII his pocket, some on the back seat of the car. They should not have scM h,wi: been there. Other Mr. Black had lived. lived, things were found in the house where MI', attractive, brown-eyed The !.~ttractivc, brown-eyed young ymmg woman, finally tracked down and on OIl holiday in Europe, Eumpc, refused to come come back to to and become Ita state wilnCM. witness.. Hl~I' lIer rich suburban suburbim South Africa Africa lind relations were duly shocked. Among those arrested was the sc.venty"olle·ye~m·..()lcl seventy-one-year-old Mrs. Midlinton of Rustcnburg. Rusteriburg. A days earlier IVIidlintoll A few dl\y~ enrlicr it had been Mrs. Weinberg, husband was in prillOll, prison, and still Mrs, Weinbcl'g\ whose wlitl3C hUllb.md 8tm Mrs. Schermbrucker; husband, like Wein. another was :Mrs, Schcl'Illbrucker; her h~r hu~bilnd, Weinfive-year entence. !kith Both could l'Illve have freed thelll< themn. berg, had a fiVc. ... ycaf scntence. selves and pol!Ilibly possibly s1iortr.ncd shortened tht'h' their husbac' twettenees if se1Vt'l! hUfllllUlt.L,' scntences if been willing to give evidence at B.'run Brain Fischer's they had bcetl giv~ evidence trial. this was verylpt~uaivcly. trial. No Nt) doubt d()ubt thill WlUl put to them v~ry l:>el'llUluuvcly. They indefinitely und!~r under the ninety. realized that thllt they could he be held inddinitrly ninety-

148 148

A H o/lOur A Malter Matter of Honour

in many ways much worse than day conditions conditions which were ill when those of an ordinary ordinary prisoner, prisoner. What do children think when out both their parents parents are arc in jail and one of them could get out at once if only she would say something? something? Can courage and pride go on sustaining them? been very Some did speak, including people who had be(m close to Branl Perhaps only a little, but enough enough Brain politically. Perhaps to put the Branch on the right track. Can one tie Special Branch con since pitying implies a superior concondemn or even pity, sinee Perhaps some dition? It was simply too much for them, them. Pedmps was people felt that the whole thing had collapsed and it WM with no use going on. Everyone has a breaking breaking point. But witll some it remains a secret.

149

12 12 explain II must therefore explain 15 charges charges against Bram Bran Fischer under the Sabotage Act, the Suppression Communism Suppression of ('.ommunism Act and for various charges incurred whilst he was WM licence under a false "Mr. Black", Black", such as getting a driving Ikem:e name. His children children and relations were in the first row of the public gallery. There diplomatic observers and a fnll frill There were werc diplomatic. Press representation. All heard him plead "not guilty". He ie Pr<'A~ n:pl'cscntlltion. was looking worn and much for wa.~ lo()king I11m'h aged. Mr. Leibenburg Leibl'nhurg led lor the State, while Bram Brai listened c:u'duUy carefully and tx)k took notes. The prosecution witnesses witnesses were plrosecution wer'e clubl: called : Hlap;llIl~ Hlapane and Beylcveld, Beyleveld, both at one time genuine COl11l11uni~ts. CommunLsts, [Illd and our old acquaintance acquaintance Gerald Gerald Ludi. rather curious evicene There was wa.~ some rllther evidence atout about military training in Rus.~ia; Russia; it seemed least very odd that it should seemed at !ea.1t Should have been b(~cn conducted conducted with tht! incol11petenre described by by the incompetence the witncss~.s! witnesses 1 nut But it was all beautifully Will! b(~autiCuiJy deigned dt'liigned to bring bring in in as many other x)-called Clmmunist other names names as possible in the lIO-\~aUed Communist Network. frtom documents Netw()rk. There Tlwre was much quotation quotation from documcntl! which b(~n seized St~izcd at various vlll'i<)uB places. places" No doubt !lOme had been xme of these documents, like all political dUnl!l1Cnts, Polili(:nl docsuments docul1wn!S everywhere, were partly imie kind (Ie of response pm"tly hot hut air, ail', designed dCllignt!d to stir up oomc rt!$ponse ilill a lethargic can sluncl stand lethargic: audience. Iludienc!!. Few non-legal nutl.l~Rl documents dtlcurnenl~ eRn up to a skilled, bits";i they have to be lIkillr.d, legal "pecking "pl~cking to hits" be seen seC.ll in context. context. -

HERE wE-RE WI!RE

T

Hlapane Hlilpane under under

cna-oexuninatkin erolll-!lXlUninati{)f\

150 150

fim fl,(lll\

Kentridgp Kcntridgc

I must therefore exf1la!'11 explain

admitted that he apart lie "might have become confused". But apart from this digging into the credibility credibility of witnesses, witn Mses, including including exposed partly exposed been partiy evidence which had already bct~n Ludi, on evidence defence waited for Branl's during the earlier trial, the defence Bran's own and tele statement from the dock. Meanwhile, Mcanwllile, messages m~.lISage., Imc! tdegrains came in from various interested grams interested bodies, inducting including tie most reputable the mast reputable lawyers of Scandinavia Scandinavia and the Unitl~d United Kingdom who were all watching the trial closely. But all Arrielto these broke against the determination of the South African Government not to bc be deflected deflected {mill Government from their number m\c one enemy. Then, on March Bmm spoke fmm March 28th, U)6{i, 1966, Bram from the was dock knowing that it was his last chance to say who he W!lS and why. He had earlier smiled across at his daughters and and spoken light-heartedly light-heartedly with his counsel. cOllnsel. He ha.d taking had been taking trial, He wns was prepared for notes during the whole of the trial. the sentence. sentence. Now, Now, when he came to speak, it was from typed notes, much as done in the M he might have don(~ th(~ concluding concluding counsel in the same court. The rea.'l<.ln reasom he spoke spxoke address as counsel witnes-oIx from the dock was that tha.t if he had gone into the witne_box he might have found himself, under crms-eaminaton crO&'l-exarnimniotl, having to implicate other people, directly or indirectly, (If or to lie under oath. He either, He was not willing to do either. The speech took four and a half hours. Only m:(:n3iollally occasionally stating the bare. bare he paused for a sip of water. He began by ~tnting facts: : fact. "I am on trial for my political beliefs, and the conduct to which th()se those beliefs drove me. Whatever Whatever hlbels labels may he be attached to the fifteen charges brought against me, they all [0 charges againMt Lhey aU arise from my having Cowntrtxt lllwing been al1. member of the Communist Ptuty and from my activities as engaged upon Pm'ly Illy activitiell M a member. I cngllged those activities activitic., because because I believed that in the daagenus dllllpl'tfUl 151

A Life for Africa circumstances which had been created in South Africa, itit circumstances was my duty to do so. MIS "When aa man man is is on on trial trial for for his political beliefs and "When actions, two courses are open to him. He tie Clul can either confess confes for mercy. mercy, or he can justify to his transgressions and plead fol' justify hiS beliefs explain why he acted as did. Were I to his beliefs and exphlin all he cUd. to ask forgiveness today I would betray my cause. cause, That course is not open to me. I believe ulat wlmt I did was right. that what right, I must therefore therefore explain to this iliis court what my motives were: were: why I hold the beliefs that I do, and why I was W,IS compelled accordance with them, to act in accordance them. is one reason why I have pleaded "My belief, bcIid, moreover, is not guilty to all the gUilty th~: charges charges brought against me. Though important allegations made, this I shall deny a number of important court is aware fact that there is much in the State aware of the {~\et court was entitled case which has not been contested. This mutt (mtitlec1 to have had before witnesses \1'110 who ttstified testified in chief before it the witnt'l!il(~S and under cross-examination cross-examination against me. Some of these 1I agaInst me. believe were were fine and loyal persons pers()I1.' who have h,we now (tll1led turned traitors to their cause cause and to their country, becauSe because of the methods used agaist against them by the State-vicious Sti\te--vicious and in. inhuman methods, Their methods. Their evidence evidence may may therefore, therefore, in important important respects, re.~pectll, be unreliable, unreliable. "There "There is another and more more compelling compelling reason r<:'asoll for my my plea and why accept the 1!<"lwrnl general rle why I persist in it, ie. Ir llC(:C'pt rule that for the protection protection of a, a society, laws should be br, obeyed. ubeyed. But when the laws themselves become immoral and tile themselves inunol:'lll Iwd require the citizen to take part in itl an organized organized system II)'stem of oppreion Oppl'c.'ll!ionif only by his silence or apathy-t hen I believe that !!lIenee ur Ilpr1thy~-then thnt a1\ higher duty arses. one to refuse such laws, a1'illell. This Thill compels c;ompei1l0flll re.£ulw. to reoognite I'llt:t1gni1A' sitch Inws. "The laws tinder ersecuted were "The law8 under which whi<:h I am 11m being bdng persecuted 152 152

therefore explain I must thus/ore enacted by a wholly unrepresentative unreprl'1Jentativl'. body, a body in which three-quarters of the people of the country ha.ve noV()ice voice have no three-quarters whatever. These TIlesI'. laws were enacted not to prevent the spread opposi of Communism, but for the purpose purpose of silencing the opposition of a large majority of our citizens citiz.en., to a government gcwernment intent upon depriving them solely 011 (lI their colour on account of colour of the most elementary InllTI, riginally presumably a.~ ht WM own field of science by its scientifically dernorl., drawn to his 0\\111 ha !l<:icrltlficlIHy dt'mon" strable trutlls. truths. These: These only becom(~ become apparent lAter. In my nppn.rcl1t hUeI'. mind, there rCl11ai.n remain two two clear reawon for my approach to cltnU' !'eIUlt1l14 li\ppI'IlM:h the Communist Party. The (inC one ill is the glaring which gilU'ing injustice irtjUlrtice whirh 153

A Life for Africa exists and has existed South African existed for a long time in SOllth society. The other a gradual realization, realization, as I became more and more deeply involved in the COnb'l't'A~ Congre& movement of of those years, that is the movement for frcl.~dom freedom and human rights for all, that it was always members die Communist members of the ('.ommt1n~t Party who seemed prepared, regardless rmgardlem of cost, to sacIificc sacrifice most : to give their best, to face the greatestl dangers in the most: greatest danger/! struggle struggle against poverty and discrimination. discrimination. "The glaring injustice is is there for all who are not blinded "The by prejudice to sec. see. There Thcre isis not even a question of the degree of humiliation or misery inlsed by by humiliation or poverty poverty 01" mi~cry imposed discrimination on one section of the community. Hence, it discrimination seetiOIl cannot be justified by comparing non-white standards of of education in South Africa, with thos(~ those in OIhel' other parts living or education of the Continent. It is is simply and plainly that discrimination deliberate policy, solely should be imposed as a11 matter of deliherate because of the colour which a man's skin happens to be, irrespective merits as irrespective of his m(~rits DB a man, a worker, worker, a thinker, a father or 11a friend. "Yet the injustice of the system does not, IlOt, in itself, explain it, Tile The vast my conduct. All white South Africans can see !K:C it. vast majority of them remain unmoved unmoved and unaffected. They its cruelty condone are either oblivious to it or despite dr.spite all im it on the assumption, whether admitted or not, that tie the non-white of this country is is an inferior being with ideals, lion-white ftom ours. ours. hopes, loves and passions pa.'lSions which are different from tacit or open assumption th:lt that he need Hence the further tadt Hem:e human being, i.e. that it isis not be treated as a complete complete htlmlUl carry a pMll, pass, to prevent him him from not unfair to make him ClUT)' owning land; deprivations which, if applh:d applied to whites, deprivations whk,h, horrfy all and cause overnight."H would horrify cause all. revolution overnight.

154 154

therefore CXplaitl explain II must thorefoTe After Mter this Dram Brain told the court of his experiences experiences as lIS a child and a young man, including his early attmnpts [0 attempts to ameliorate African conditions without the idea of altering back to the days of literacy thought back them completely, He tllOught classes location at Bloemfontein Bl()(:mContcin where "I "I came to caine to elasses in the old location irrational understand that colour pl'ejudkt~ WIll! a wholly iwational p)rejudice was understand phenomenon and that true human friendship could extend phenomenon prejudice W~lJI was over· over across the colour bar once the initial prt:judice come, No. 1 on my way to the think was Lesson No, come. And that I thlnk Communist Party which has always refused to accept any belid, on the belief, firm em colour bar and has always stood finn itself 2,000 years old, of the eventual eventual brotherhood of all men." men," practice of Communist Party He then spoke of the actual pmctice the ones who would put their members, who were always the whole heart and enel'gic.q energics in helping in every way, not only feeding politically but with things like night schools and Ice.ding "It was, schemes, Apart from the white members, "It WllJI African African schemes. Apart their the k~'18 loss of their arrest or the. Communists who constantly risked an'cst Communists some gain or retain 30me jobs, or even their homes, in order to gaIn whetheaof regardles was c;u-ricd carried on re-gal'dlellS rights, and all this wal rightll, wheth~' it would be popular with the authorities or not. Without always fearlems adherence question this fearlcs.~ adherence to principle prindple must aiwilya part in exercise a strong appeal appeal to those who wish to take tl1ke I.!lUi in of in the hope but politics, not for personal advantage, IIdvllntagc, uf in ll ar in contribution. The making some positive positive contribution. Thll court t~mrt wiU wiU bellI' stage and mind that at that stllge Ilnd for many years yclU'Il aftvrwiuwds, nftcl.....'IU1U. the thr which ~to{)d stavx party whkh loliticid piu'ly Communist Party was the only p<:llil.icru teen Thils could have heen for Cor an extension extension of the fratchise," franchi:le." Thill at leat Party WtlfC were lit fact that the Liberal qualified by the fa.ct Libel'lll Pllrty lel\~t of them trd some fighting to retain the old Cape franclise franchiac and lOme 155

A Life for Africa would certainly it, But in general cC,l'tainly have wished to extend it. general itit was t1'tlC, true.

not only why rI joined the "But I have to tell this court llot Party when it Wits was It a legal party·--whcn party--when at times Communist P;u'ty representatives in Parliament, Parliunent, the Cape it had l'epl'csclltativesin Cltpe Provincial Council and the City Council of Johannesburg: Joharlncsburg: I must also explain why I continued continued to be a member after it WM was declared declared illegal. This involves what rI believe believe em on the one hand to be the gravely dangerous dltngeJ'ous situation which has been created created in South Africa from alxlut aLmut 1950 onwards and on on the other, the vital contribution contribution which socialist thought can make towards its solution. I shall slmll start with the latt~J'." latter." resumt- of the Marxist At this stage he began a resume r.farxist historical analysis, including two basic basic protpsitions, is that the propositiolls, "One is

ssumes is is incompatible economic form which one society ru;sumc.!l with that of the society which preceded it or with that which whicll form of economic will succeed it. The second second isis that a new fontl society cannot finally establish imclf itself unless it nlso also develops form which can allow it to develop to its a new political political foml its full extent." extent." After historical illustrations he went on, Aftel' giving hi3torieal therefore arc are ass inevitllble inevitable as the "The political poUtical changes changes thcl'dore changes amI and ulti.mlltely ultimately both d{'prnd depend (lll on that slow, economic chal1ge.~ accelerating proCClIS process of the change in methods of of but ever evet' accelerating which in in Marxist production. It is i~ these political politiClll changes changes which language are known as 'revolutions', 'revolutions', whether they place language arc tlll:Y take plnce peaceful means, and thi!! this again depends by violent or by peaceful circunistances at any given swgc. stage of histtlry. history. IItt is on the drCtm1stllnt:es is not difficult to illustrate this proposition either if Ollt! one merely illustrate thill propollition dlhe\' evolution of the compares the French Revolution with the evulution Capitalist democracy in England during the nineteenth

156 156

therefore explain I must therefore • it also c"xplains explains why one type of society must, century ... of necessity, give way to a new and highar higher form. he "History, becomes something which can be "History, therefore, becomes rationally understood understood and explained. explained. It rt ceases ceasc,s to be a meaningless agglomeration of events or a mere .\ccount mneaningless account of wandering in hapha:l.ard acros.~ its stage. haphazard fashion across great men wandering Similarly, modern society itself assumes a me
AA Life for A/n'ca Africa Here he reminded his listeners li~tcners of the war years, when the Soviet Union took tOl)k the brunt of the Nazi attack attnck and then imperialism and the went on to define capitalism, leading to te) imperialism scramble "for scramble for Africa. Arden, Then he reminded J'cmindcd his hearers that "for the Vll.~t vast majority of men the system isis based upon fear, unemployment and poverty. is so in the older fear of unemployment poverty, This is industrial countries. It is particularly so in the colonies is more partkulariy and ex-colonies and in South Africa Africn it is is a fear which is is is an an accentuated by the colour bar. At heart the problem i, economic becomes (mly only too apparent in South economic one which becom~.s Africa, when one takes note of the reactions which, even in in period of apparent prosperity, follow any attempt to to a pedod permit of pennit non-whites to perform skilled work; in the back of every white man's mind lurks a fear of losing his job. This whitt~ fear is is always with the white m~m man in this country, be he he nonminer 01' or bricklayer, steel worker or bus driver. For the non position is is intolerable, intolerable. He knows he will always white the l)osition be the first to suffer loss of employment. He realizes that so little concern is is shown £01' for him that in Sou South Africa the the th Afdca. is never ev~n even counted or or number of unemployed Africans Afl'ics.1l8 i.~ known. is a fertile fertile "Now it is is the fear bred by this system which is "Now soil for producing racialism and intolerance. It was a similar fear which in EUJ'()pe Europe enabled Hidel' Hitler to propagate his monstrous theory of race superiority whic:.h which led to the mO!ll!trous extermination of five million Jews JOWl! in Germany. Gemlany. It isisthis tbis fear which provides seope scope for the ready acc~ptanc.e acceptance by whiles whites in in South Africa of many distorted ideas; that Africans are not South Afl'icli idclI.'i A£rlCIUlS x)for many gen~mtion.l; generations; civilized, that they cannot Iecome become 00 are not our fellow citizcllll citizens hilt but really our that they arc om' enemies and hellce hence must be ruled by extreme police state methods

158 158

therefore explain II must therefore

and must be prevented from having any organization organization of their own; that their theIr voice should be heard only through slould mouthpieces selected selected by our all-white government; that their permanently on Robben Island, Island. As leaders should be kept permanently far Africa isis concerned, concerned, it is is the economic fear for as South Africa which is is the greatest evil which OUl' system has produced, produced, our system lor it has hag severed severed all contact between between the twt) races two main rn(!~~ for of the country country and it is is daily making it more difficult for those two races to get together, to work out by discussion and not by violence a method wh('.rcby whereby they live together in prosperity in this grent ours, great country of ours. inpeace and prosperity is also directly "What hnd to say about Marxism Marxism is "What I have had relevant to the indictment. I am chru'ged pei'fol'ming charged with performing acts calculated calculated to further the object of Communism, to wit, system of Africa of a despotic s)'lltem the establishment establishment in South AfriCl~ proletariat. government based on lh(~ dictatorship of the proletariat, the dictatorship government mis-statement of my aims and those of my This is is a gross mis-statement govern at IIa despotic system of governparty. We have never aimed aimcclal establishing ment. Nor were any efforts ever directed to the establishing is country, It is proletariat in this country. dictatorship of the proletllriat of a dictlltorship necessary, necessary, therefore, for me to explain explain what we have worked for. ultimate remedy for the "It is is true that we say that the ullimate evils which evils I have described described and the many other l':vil.~ whkh exist L%IIa S(xialism ill system. Sodalimn today, lies in a change to a socialist system, by owned are production de meal1l means of production system under which tlle owncd b~ system production takes the people. Under that systt',m takm place, pIIlC!!, not as 1\a whole, and for profit, but for the benefit of elf the people I\~ not the efore flot ii accordance with Iia planned in accordance planned economy. econorny. It isis thru-eCore capitalist of a cllpitalillt fluctuations t)f downs and the f1uctulttitmll subject to ups and dowlls and employment at alll times and ensure full enlployrnent economy. It can cl1Iurefull

159 159

A Life Life for Africa derefore abolish feru: fear •... .... All this we maintain goes will tllerefore an democracy and aid an hand in hand with an ever widening democrat:y increasing degree of individual ever increa.~ing individual freedom and participa. tion in the control of the country. But, as far as South Africa which the future will settle." is concerned, these are matters which is "We have never put forward socialism as our He went on, "We immediate immediate solution. What we have said isis that immediate refer to as a dangers can be avoided, by what we always refc\' democratic revolution. is, by bringing our national democratic revolutiou. That is, by state to this stage and into line with the needs nc<:ds of today by abolishing discrimination, extending cxtl~nding political rights and then he peoples to settle their own future." allowing our p(~oples future." Here he programme, with it.q its hope quoted from the Communist Party programme, oppressed and demo "All sections and classes of oppressed of uniting "AU demopeople" and which went on to demand free and cratic people" impleimentation of immediate implementation urgent discussion, not for the immediat!~ of democratic state. socialism, but for the building of a national dtm1ocl'atic increase in South African He then rcfen'cd referred to the enormous enormous mcn'l\.\iC military expenditure, which by 1965 wa.~ was twelve tim('s times what us a system "History shows lL~ it was twenty years before. "History breaks at that point at which it displays its greatest breaks down just j~lSt lIt doubt that in the past few weaknesses weaknesses and there can be no c\(mbt decades the greatest weakness in the prcli(!nt premnt s>'stcm system has been which in which sector in that sed!)r sector : i.e. dmt imperialist sector: displayed in the theimpedalist doninate another. This is is dIe die one people tries to rule and domina!!: point at which it has already broken down. yeam, the weakest "Over the pa.~t past twenty or thirty years, "Over wcakc.~t link has been its inability to deal Witll wid in the Imperialist system hall been illl has bl'ed bred its own omn the wants ()f of the colonial peoples. There 'There it htL~ mass povel1y poverty downfall because on 011 the one 0111\ hand it created lUruI!! and economic econmnic irstability instability and on the other, developed 160 160

I must therefore therefore explain intense feelings of nationalism. nationalism. What imperialism imperialism succeeded Iluct:eeded in doing in the colonies of the Twentieth Twentieth Century was to in produce the worst evils which which the Industrial Revolution pro. proproduce dllced duced in England in the early Nineteenth C,cntury, Century, pIns plus a deep sense of national consciousness. consciousness, I-knee Hence in those parts of the world-India, Africa and the East-the so-called so-called revolution has taken place, but in different fOlms. forms. Four Four empires have had to dissolve themselves have been comthemselves and hav(~ com pelled to grant political independence indept:ndence to some thirty or Of forty states just as Britain wns compelled to give the vote to the was compelled so-called so.called 'lower' class last century. But with three or foul' four notable exceptions, these states have h}we achie,ved achieved their indeinde pendence pendence peacefully peacefully and without having to resort to any fonn of violence. fann "South Afric.an African state propaganda propaganda suggests tlmt that this was mystical dCl~adence decadence in the West. due to some mystic[\l West, Nothing could be further from the truth. tmth. Britain, France, FI'unce, Holland and Belgium have not, in a couple of decades, become soft or or decadent, Far deeper forces have come into play, which decadent. COIl1(~ pIny, alternative but to do what they have done. The left no altcnlative combination of the new nationalism nationalism and the urge to take control of their own economic economic future, proved proved in the new irresistible. states to be irresistible, "It should, indeed, not be difficult for South Africans Afl'icatls to In one sense, we Afrikaners understand this process. process, III Afrikaners were WCJ'C the rcarguard rearguard of tiLs thi~ liberation liberation movement movement in Africa. Of all former colonies, we displayed the greatest resistance to fanner greatest rCldlllance imperial conquest, a resistance which a handful resistance :l h,~nd(ul of freedom freedom fighters carried on for three yearn, against the yCI\n!, agttil1lit the greatest Empire of all times. We failed then. then, A few decades decllddl later, without having once to resort to arms, gain. al1'lU, we succeeded in In gainL L 161

A Life for Africa ing our independence independence because it was impossible to stop us. And we did not say then, whichever date one chooses to as the date when we achieved in regard lIS aehieved freedom (whether in 1907, 1910, 1931 or 1961) 1961) that we had 1907, bad obtained freedom because the Wet;t West had become decadent. decadent, We knew that we tlmt we could not be resisted. Now, as we Communists see -ie it, those who rule South Africa are trying to do just Africa aretl'Ying jU$t those things which imperialism could achieve in the Nineteenth Nineteenth Century, are impossible in the second half of the but which ate (1\t: Twentieth. The attempt must lead inevitably to disaster." disalltcl':' Next, he spoke of the necessity foJ' for acting against existing Next, "1 suppose laws. "I suppose it can never be ca.qy easy for the llonna] normal citizen of a state to break the laws. It is usuall usuallyy only amongst those bt'cakers are who are mentally sick ot' or warped that law breakers )cial creature, found, for the normal normal healthy citizen is is IIa social bred to respeet respect the rules of his society. If, ill in addition he he has been trained (~~ as a lawyer as I have, his instincts are hM reinforced by his training, training. For him to m:lke make the departure is doubly difficult. Only profound and compelling reasons can call lead him to choose such a. It course. reisons have "In my view, such powerful and compelling compelling reasons been been brought into existence t')\L~tencc in South Africa, Africa, during the past fifteen years or more, and they have, -s a., I shall show when many thousands of South I deal with the indictment, led mall)' African ciLizens, citizens, including many of country's kindliest ()f the <:ountry'skindlie.st and wisest and in nmmal normal circumstances circumstances most mClIIt law-abiding transgre&4 against unjust litws laws ..•• .... There has citizens, to transgrell8 'Ulel'c always, alw,ty~, since the days of slavery, been racial discrimination in South Africa. rI suppose at the the: beginning when people coeic into contact enjoying a more advanced civilization, dvilization, com!: intermingle with those not so fortunate, this thisis and iIlte.rmingle is inevitable, 162 162

I must therefore therefore tlxpla'in explain though according to the tenets of true Chrlstilmity, should Christianity, it should parts not be so. Today we know from experience ('.xpcrienc(~ in other part~ is possible to make illiterate people of the world, that it is 'civilize' them in one, or at most two, generagenera literate and to 'civilize' tions, provided provided those who hold the state power are prepared to devote devote sufficient resources to that object·--even object--even if that entails sacrifices in other directions. That course South hesitated. Then, the Africa never took. For 150 years it hesitated. white rulers chose a road which led in an entirely opposite 'civilization' one would think it direction. To preserve 'civilization' prudent prudent to spread it as rapidly as possible. Instead, Instead, our rulers elected, elected, as far as possible, to retain it as a white monopoly. "Deliberately "Deliberately we chose the path of segregation segregation which, whatever appellations we may give to it, was, and whatever changing changing appellations is, is, a policy intended to keep the non-whites in a state of pelmanent subjection-an inferiority which which permanent inferiority inferiority and subjection-an is in itself constitutes a is political, social and economic. This, hi grave menace." menace." apar Here he began to picture for his hearers, a kind of apartheid system aimed not at Africans, but at Afrikaners: Africans, Afrikaners: Iff they were condemned to a homeland in, say, the Orange Free State, carefully carefully shorn of its and coal Any it~ gold lutd emu mines. Anywhere where else, they would have no rights, would would never own their own homes, would always be poor and insultecI. insulted. One only wonders whether in fact any of this got through to the imagination opponents. Probably not. imagination of any of his opponent.,. oppremson of this He asks what the Afrikaner answer to oppression kind "the answer should be obvious. obvious, kincI would be, and ane! goes on "the But what does not seem to be obvious to the white people docs obviolls of thill this country cotmtry is that the attempt to implement implement their present 163

A Life for Africa policy is onc one which is fraught with wifl peril. Here too., too, argument is one's imagination imagination is superfluous if for one moment one uses <me's application to one of the. the white races in this this and pictures its application country. The situation created would immediately be explosive and would lead ovemight overnight to extrem(\ extreme unrt~st unrest and Co'!.plosive violence-as indeed violence-·--as indeed much milder policies have in the past led ... that similar reactions all on the part of the llon-white non-white ... reactiolls is no have not been produced produced during the past fifty lifty years, is tribute to the policy of segregation, bllt but rather to the tolerance, understanding and infinite goodwill of the . African. The only surprising thing is that it has produced produced nothing more violent than some highly controlled controlled and But there arc are cil'cumstant;es circumstances which make restricted sabotage. Bllt the policy of segregation segregation far more dangerous in the 1950's been in earlier decad(~s. decades. South Africa than it would have bCfn this twcntieth twenticth {:enlury century as a has chosen the 50's and 60's of thi.~ steam al)(~ad ahead for point of time at which to signal the full sll~am period approxiapproxi these policies. Historians Historians will point to that Ihnl peritld mately as the end of the colonial has been in cojcmial system. It hns these decades that political independence independence has spread through mnere chance, Africa and Asia. And it has spread not by mere because of some so-called decay of the imperial or because imp~rial powers, or of the West. It has spread because historically, imperialist Of because historiclIi!y, domination has outlived its purpo e and Ls now about 10 to be pUl-pOse t~ replaced Consequently, fonner former replaced by something different. C',onseQUflltly, obtain indeitde colonial peoples are today able to demand and ohtain pendence-something they were quite un,lble unable to do pendenc(?~~something clo even twenty-five years ago. "This has far-reaching consequences for "Thi.q far-reaching conm:quencc.8 [m' South Africa effect, trying to establis ht II 'cn\rmhtl' 'colonial' system of of which is, is, in e~ffect, CIItabli!!l:\ its own brand at this stage of history, <:omplclc complete with indirect it.!! 16+ 164

I must therefore therefore explain IIxplaill

rule and even with a I'c-eBtablishment re-establishment of tribalism. tribalis. This can can

never succeed, for one can never ncv(~' move backwards backwards in history, "I am not trying to dramatize dramatize this situation. I am stating nothing but plain, simple fact. It is is there for anyone to see--for is not totally obscured by see-for anyone whose vision is African. the myopia of the white South free cver-gmwing movement movement for free. "There is a strong and ever-growing "There is dom and for basic bask human rights amongst the non-white people of the country.--Lc, populacountry--i.e, lImong among four-fifths of the popula whole of supported, not only by the whc)ie tion. This movement is supported, Africa, but by virtually the whole of the United Nations as well-both West and East. well-both "However indifferent white SOUtll South Africa Africa and indifferent "However complacent (md carl never n(,ver be ])(' stopped, may be, this movement can stopped. In th!! the end it must triumph. Above nil, all, those of of us who are Afrikaners experienced Oll\' our own succesful and who have experienced s\lcecssful struggle for full equality equality should know this. "The sole que.stiol1!l questions for th(~ the future of all of tiS, us, thcl'dure, therefore, are not whether the change change will come, but only whether whether without the change can be brought alxout about peacefully and without the position of tht' the white man L~is going bloodshed; and what th(\ f(lliowing on. on the cstllblish· establish immediately following to be in the period immediatdy ment of democracy-after democracy--after the ye-rs of t:rucl cruel discrimiiation mentof YC'<\l'S (If discrirnimltioll and oppression and humiliation whicl he has humiliation which haa imposed on
A Life lor for Africa possible of different races to live and work together possible for men e)f together in harmony harmony and peace-to peace-to co-opcrate 11.11." co-operate for the good of all." He H-e detailed how one after the other all the bodies which strove for these two ideas had been outlawed outlawed !Uld and banned and thousands of people jailed, banished and driven into does not "The police state docs exile. "The nelt create real calm or induce any genuine acccpta:nce haled policy." policy." Then back to to acceptance of its hated joined the legal legal Communist himself, "I "I believe that when I joined course Party that South Africa had set out on a cou rse which could could kimi, whether whether in in only lead to civil war of the tie most vicious kind, provided the perfect perfect ten or fifteen or twenty years. Algeria Jlrovided example of tliat. I believed, moreover, and still historical example believe, that such such a civil war c~n Wim by the can never be won whites of this country. They might win some initial rounds. balance of forces is is against them both both In the long run the balance inside and outside this country. In Aigeda, Algetia, l1.a dose histoI'ical historical army of half a million soldiers, backed parallel, a French llnny backed world's great industrial powers could 110t not by one of the wodd's of civil war succeed. But win or lose, the consequences consequrnces (If permanent. Clearly, horrifying and pcnnanent. would be honoUying Cleat'ly, it isis imperative truth, civil that an alternative alternative 'solution' 'solution' be found, for in truth. civil war is no solution at all. Ill!. sucialism in the "Here I believed, and still believe, that socialism "Here relationslong tenn term has an answer to the problC'Jl1 problem of l'uer: race I'clatiol1sother immediate that is a11 socialist state. But by negotiation negotilltion otlle,r not be imposed must, howel'(~I" however, lIot solutions can be found. They mU5t, Com but worked out in co·operation co-operation and tlml that is is what the Com· munist Party has stood for." nmnist I)al'ty in It a society Ile alternatives to to violence ill H(; spoke of all the altenlativcs socIety where all races could live and worktogcthel' work together in harmony. yem "Had our white political leaders during the last "rIlld politicalleadel'll llll!t thirty years 166 166

I must therefore therefore explain preached the possibility of inter"racial eo-opl'ration instead preached inter-racial co-operation instead of using every means of destroying destroying allY any belief in It, it, we might have already reached a position of safety. safety, South Africa Africa leadership would certainly by now have achieved achieved a unique leadership among the States of Africa and would have undoubtedly undol1btt~dly the Continent and and influenced the history of the whole of tlle the future of the white man's position in it." speech was adversely This part of Bram's speech adversely commented on Communist writers and speakers. For them it was by some Communist a case of "Ecrascz "Ecrasez l'infame". l'infame". He had slipped aside from the the country more true doctrine. For a moment he had loved his Coulltry than his principles. In fact, the thl~ action he had taken was in not a sense "patriotic" "patriotic" and therefore wrong. He should not have even wanted to save the South South African state in any form. Well, he was paying for it now. co le went on to ask "Who was He Will! there to preach this cooperation Communist Party? operation but the Congresses and the Communist If one believes that these things can only be achieved by party was there to join but the illegal political means, what parly ideals are not achieved Communist Communist Party? More-over, MOl't'Over, such icleals achieved convince people, one must put them by theorizing theorizing only. To convince decades, it has into practice. Over the past two or three decade.~, Party and the Communist been the Congresses Congresses P!U'ty who have and women of different demonstrated demonstrated in practice that men nud clifferent dificulty em on Ole the ha.,is basis of races can work together without diflkulty complete democracy, and wh() produced leaders pre pre. who have produced complete their lives ..to achieve everything-even pared to sacrifice sacrifice everything---evcn Ih!!i1' livc!t····[o achieve this ideal-people who have actually hammered out l\a policy, terms of which there will be room the Freedom Charter, in termS no one thew lcaderll, leaders, 110 for all to exercise their rights. With UW,Se I speak from be 'driven into the sea'. nced fear that he will need 'driven !!ell'. 167

A LITe Life for Africa practical practical experience. I have worked with every Congress alterna leader in South Africa. With these beliefs I had no lliternaIcacler tive but to break the law." law." an ever-increasing Then he spoke with !tn ever-incre.asing passion, pru;:;ion, baring his soul to tlle chance to get the court, kn
8Xplaill I must therefore therefore explain demands also that Afrikaners themselves should shmlld protest discrimination, Surely, in such openly and clearly clearly against di.'lCrimination. circumstances there circumstances there was an additional duty cast on me, that at least one Afrikaner should make this protest prote.~t actively and positively, even though as a result, I now face fifteen charges instead of four. "It was to keep keep faith with all those dispoSSt',sscd dspossesed by apar "It was to faith with all those apartheid that I broke my undertaking court, separated separated undertaking to the COUl't, myself from my family, pretended I was someone someone else and and accepted the life of a fugitive. lowed I owed it to the. the political accepted prisoners, silenced and l1l to those under priloners, to the banished, hunishc.d, to the silcnc('c! arrest, not to remain a spectator but to act. I knew house atTest, fdt rt~spork~ible, what they expected of me and I did it. it. I felt responmible, not are indifferent to the sufferings to those who arc suffedngs of others, but but to those who are concerned. concerned. I knew that by valuing above all their judgement, I would be condemned condemned by people pt~ople who themselves as ;s respectable are content to see themselvc.s respe.etable and loyal citi citizens, I cannot condemnation that may follow zens. cannot regret any ccmdcmnation me." least one Afrikaner must dum So this was it. At lellst then be pt'epre pared to stand up and as always in human history to give his life for his people. After that ex-Q.C. Fischer tore to pieces in detail with all his legal ability much of the evidence given by Hlapane. Hiapalll~. attempts by aU all the He went over again, all the ntte,mpts tllC various political bodies to bring about pc;w:ful peaceful legal chang(t. change. No use. usc. Next came the Defiance Defiance Campaign, the formal and of laws. Still no use. non-violent breaking or \I1lC. The Congress of Congress of the People. The Freedom Charter. Still nothing moved, only m(lved, Government RirIe. side. It w!u\ was as increased violence from the the Government though one spoke to aII stone. The 1961 AIl·in All-in Gonferc:o:ttc.e, Conference, 169

A Life for Africa arrest. The Jaw law followed by further Curdler repressions repressions and mass arrest, "In these circumstancCll/ circumstances, history not was being abused. "In hL~tory will w:illno! or anothcl', another, blame those Congress leaders, who in some way Ol' devised a schemie came together in July of 1961 and dt:viscd lIC.heme by exis which the Spear Spear of the Nation was to be brought brought into existence under the control of one of its ablest and most respon responMandela." sible leaders, Nelson Nelson Mandela," what were the tie alternatives? "To do nothing and So whl\t uncon simply accept apartheid would have luwe meant total and unconwhich were, and still are, intensely ditional surrender to ideas ideas whieh hated. To proceed to personal whites or personal violence against wllitcs been to negatt! negate all the CongrcssCll Congresses white leaders would have bem had ever stood for: the establishment of racial harmony and co-operation. "Therefore, there was devised a plan which it was hoped "Therefore, the required result without injury might help to achieve the: viz, the [ontlalion to persons persons or to race relations: viz. formation or of a multi-racial organization organization which would small, closely knit multi-radiI! practise sabotage against carefully selected targets, targets or limb which could be attacked without endangering life ur tie but which, because of their nature, would demonstrate the apartheid. For this purpose, hatred of apardleid. purpose, therefore, targets were to be Government installations and preferably those which Government installations preferably thelse disrupt the process of governgovern if successfully attacked, would disl'llpt ing. "Two further fmther ideas were of importance importance in this acheme. IlChcmc. of Umkonto gave the as.surance One was that the leaders leaders oE assurance limitations that it would not depart from its self-impcwed self.imposed limitatiolls political movement. without prior reference to the political movement. In III the circumstances the AN.C. and the Communist Party took circumstlll\ce8 Communist llllrtytook no steps to prevent their members joining Umkonto. 170 170

1I must therefore therefore explain

to "The second was that the organization W!\I! was not only to trolled by men selected by be secret, but was to be self con controlled Mandela, was to finance its own own affairs and was to be kept entirely separate and distinct from the Congresses and This was of equal importance. The dle the Communist Party. '11ils Congresses and and the Communist Party still had important important political functions to fulfil as several exhibits clearly indicate education and organization, -the functions of political CdUClltioll -the organization, of making use of every political opportullity prcs(,J1.tcd opportunity which presented itself to advance the cause of freedom and democracy. wish Communist Party did not wish "The Congrcsses and the Communt~t "The Congresses to have their membership held liable for every act of sabotage, nor-and this WI\.., was of crucial political importance -did tlley want their thcir members to gain the idea that once -did they This sabotage commenced, political work should cease. eeaw. This organizations was always maintained. rI had separation of organi7.atiolls hltd no separation hand in the founding of lJmk{mlo !H:vcr a Umkonto and I was never rJ(isten(:e and I did (lid not becamne aware of its existence member. I became disapprove. change in fundauental (:hange "It was never llCVt~r believed that a fundamental ,e brought about by sabotage South African Afrbm policy could be who devised the plan was alone. What was hoped by those whe) ever-growing dissatisfaction that it should dillSatisfactiol'l and should highlight the eV('I'-growing Com that steady political work by the Congresses and the Communist Party would have to continue to try to bring about a change." change." C(ommunist Party had always Again he stated that the ('.,Qmmunillt alwnys of vwolence. opped to individual acts been "rigidly opposed violence. Such as acts terroism which Conmiunists IllI acts are regarded regarded by hy C~mllnunists ac.t.II of tcnl'lri5m suggested also achieve nothing." nothing." He 5uggested nlllO that the pharwd plMned was lhe the most Urkonto Willi sabotage sabotage of Umkollto mOlit likely way of stopping

171

tor Africa A Life for the extremists "whose numbers numberi and influence were growing growing extremists "whose pl'cc.iseiy that kind of at an alarming rate from undertaking precisely terrorism have always sought to prevent". terrorism which we luwe Again he referred to details of Hlapane's evidence evidence and also of the chargcs charges of "forgery", "forgery", but he spok(\ spoke also of how and distorted humnn human pCI'SOnalipersonali police methods had twisted ami ties like those of Beyleveld Hlapane. And then he spoke tics Beylcveld and Hlapant~. a little more about himself and how, even as a child, he had lie had "never been an Afrikaner Nationalist Nationalist and how he doubted doubted that a policy of segregation was the only solution to this country's problems, until the Hitler theory of race mce superiority began to threaten the world wilh with genocide and with tile the grtatcst greatest dillaster disaster in all history". history". But doubts camc came to the young man. "One "One night while I was driving an old A.N.C. leader leader to his house far out to well the west of Johannesburg, I propounded propounded to him the well· separate races you diminish tlle the worn theory, that if you sepm'ate point at which fdction friction between them may occur and hence between answer was the Cli!lenc() ensure good relations. His an.,wer essence of sim· sim country in in lwo two camps, plicity. If you place the races of one coulltry contact between them, them, tho.~e those in each said he, and cut off (,,entact other !trc are ordinary ordinry camp begin to forget that those in the otJlcr lives and laughs ill in the same way, human beings, that each Hvr.s experiences joy or son'Ow, sorrow, pride or humiliation that each experiences humiliauon auspicious of for the same reasons. Thereby, 'Dl(!l'(:by, each becomes bccorll(~ auspidnu& the other and each eventually fears the other, (ears ot.her, which isis the basis of all racialillm. racialism, ba.~is believe that no one could more effectively allm Sunt up the "I bclieve today, Only CO!ltact contact between the South African African position poaition today. between Ule can eliminate eliminate suspicion lind and fcltr. fear. Ollly Only t~ontact contact Ilnd and races ClUl co-operation can bfllcci breed tolerance and understanding, co-operation underala!lcUng. Segre Scgre·

172 172

therefore explain 1I must musttherefoTe genuinely believed in, can can gation or apartheid, however genuinely <woit!: inter il1ter~ produce only those things it is supposed supposed to avoid: racial tension and estrllngement, intolerance and raceestrangement, intolerance race hatred. "All the conduct with which I have been been charged, charged, has been directed directed towards m!lintaining undermaintaining contacts and under it standing between between the races of this country. If one day it may help to establish establish a bridge across which white leaders non-whites can meet to settle the and the real leaders of the non-whites destinies of us all by negotiations and not by force of arms, I shall be able to bear with fortitude any sentence sentence which this thiLs court may impose on me. It will be a fortitude strengthened stnmgthened by this knowledge at least, that for twenty-nve twenty-five years I have even by passive acceptance, in that taken no part, not even hideous system of disl~rimination hiideous discrimination which we h~lVe have erected in this country and which has become a by-word in the the civilized world today. great "In prophetic words, in February Febrmuy 1881, IBB 1, one of the g1'eat Afrikaner leaders addressed addressed the President and the Volksraad of the Orange Orange Free State. His words word, are inscribed on the base of the statue of President Kruger in the square in front of this court. After great agony and suffering, after two wars, they were eventmllly eventually fuIri1!ed fulfilled without force or violence for my people." people," Brain Fischer quoted the words in Afrikaans--his Bram Afrikaans-his own native language. It is equally valid in English: "With equally confidence Whether confidence we lay our OUI' case (;a.~, before the whole world. w()rld. Whe,ther we win or whether will whelhe,I' we die, cUe, freedom w iII rise rillc in Africa, like the sun from the morning morning clouds." was whell when the Bocrs, lors, the t!tty tiny stubborn stubbani Afrikaner Afrikaner That Willi nation were facing the whole British Empire and its great

173

A Life for for Africa Brain Fischer won, Dram strength. strength. We know the history, history. They won. Fischer ended his speech. "In the meaning which tlse. thl!Se words bear 1881. My as they were in 1881. today they are as truly prophetic prophetic liS clone, has been to prevent a repetition motive in all I have done, of that unnecessary unnecessary and futile anguish which has already been suffered suffered in one struggle for freedom," And with that his speech ended.

174

13 An Mrikaner Afrikaner Keeps Faith Faith

p

made a final speech attack REDICTAnLY LElBENDERO made a final speech attacking his old colleague. A typical sentence: "I believe whatsoever; the les.~ less I Bay say that he had no principles whatsoever; about his convictions the better." better." One important piece of damage had been donc; done; one of dIe the ex-party members had said that salaries of Communist Party officials were paid out out of the Defence and Aid Fund. This line was to be extremely extremely useful Vorster, when lie useful to the Minister of Justice, Mr. VorBtel', he came to ban the fund in in South Africa later on, and thus make (usually an African) make things harder for any poor person {usually on a political charge and for their families. I suppose it was more than the government could cO~lld bear to think that the children of persons in jail or detention should receive the luxury of food and education, education. Brain Fischer had been found guilty on fiitcc,l1 fifteen counts. Branl Mr. Justice Boshoff spoke at considerable considerable length before is clear that the main consideraconsidera coming to the sentence; sentence; it is tion was puhlic public safety as he understood it, "The offences," it. "The offences," he said, "were "were committed because of the moral beliefs heliefs of of the accused and he himself expected convicted expected other convicted release to play their essential essential part in Communists on their rdease C, mniunisrn. The reformative working for the cause of Communism. rt:fortnative :no cotlllidcl'ation consideration In in aspect of punishment is therefore thererOl~l of no punishmuent, The retrihutive retributive aspect aspect assessing the measure measure of pUnislUlll!nt, 175 175 REDICTABLY LEIDENBERO

P

A LIfo Life for lor Africa A apply." That leIt left him presumably also does not seem to apply." aspect. with the deterrent asj)cct. on, "Having "Having regard Mr. Justice Boshoff went on: regard to all the circumstances the accused is is sentenced sentenced on the sabotage circumstances t1le imprisonment; on tl1e the first Suppression of of charge to life imprisonment; Communism clause to eight years' imprisonmentiunder imprisonment; under the tie Communism remaining Suppression of Communism chargc.~, darges, eight years remaining SupprC',ssion on each count, sentences to nm run concurrentlYi concurrently; on the alterna. alternasentence on each charge a fine of twenty tive fraud charges, sentence imprison rands and on default of payment, one month's imprison· ment. All these sentences to be served concurrently conculTently with the sentence imprisonment." sentence of life imprisonment." Brain Br= accepted this with the fortitude expected of him. Possibly his counsel were mote more distressed distremsed than he was, having preparation. He looked <\aoss, across, smiling at his had less inner pr(~paration. children up in the gallery. He lifted his hand in the denched clenched fist salute of the Third International. Then he shook hands tl1e Intcrnat.ional. bands by the with his counsel. And after that he was led away hy Special Branch. People stared at the childrcn, children, Ruth and lise Ilse and Paul. They did not allow themselves to break down. The gates of the prison were locked. No news was Sooner or later, however, the supposed to go out or in. Sooner whispers get by. The next six months wcre were the worst, in a tile worst, mats (0 to sleep all, on, a pot lxt and a small cell with two thin felt mat.~ water jug for all other needs, with an Afrikaans Bible and wl~tcr two books chosen arbitrarily each week by wardt:rs warders for There was, for instance, reading matter. That was not all. Thcl'e fOI'instnllcc, Rhodes Iltholar q.holar had that old knee injury which the young Rhodc.s got, playing foothill! football for New Cl1l1~ge College;i it was W!\li discovered that so tllll.t kneeling on a hard floor was particularly painful, 110 176

An An. Afrikaner Afrikaller Keeps KMI)S Faith Faill! the cUrty dirty cement on hands this crlminal crhninal was set to scrubbing scnlbbingtlle and knees. It was also pleasurable to force someone who proftsion, but whose had not only been at the top of his pror~ion, whose life compared with that of the warder, had been one of the nasty cleanliness, to .scrub scrub out the riches and finicking c1eanlincs.Q, rag. If prison latrines with Ita tiny toothbrush or a piece of rug. see him they could humiliate or break him-if they could sec him and a proof of broken-that broken-that would indeed be a pleasure nnd victory. Colonel Aucamp ce,rtainly thought so, ;~nd the and ~llso also tie Aucarnp certainly Brain was. B. J. du Precz, Preez, in whose power Dram warder, B. W:I.~. But one can be in the power of evil and yet survive. At first it was solitary with no privileges. privileges, A warder can make his prisoners ft~e1 l(mg way feel wors(~ worse by easy techniques a long short s110rt of torture. For instance, by violent actions, door and the slammings, threats, insist!~ncc insistence on quick obedience (tIld s1runmings, are locked in and sit alone through externals of respect. YOU You arc in IUJd sink back the night reliving it, not able to ~ink hack into forgetfulness. forg(\tfulness. All this happened to Brai. BI'f1n1. as B1'Iu'l\ Brami and was a slight casing of condititln$, conditions, all Later there Latcr II ca:;ing from D grade which allows the other politicals poIiticals moved tip up fwm half-hour visit CV(!I'Y every six only one letter and one half·hour aix months, three months. whicl allows the same thing every t.hree through C wldd\ cutside, ami and elhap-down on IWII'S news froim But an all absolute cl,Ullp·down fl'mn out.'!ide, are c!mdu(;tcd conducted through a remember, these half-hour half·holll' visits art! sitting in boxes with IIa warder perspex grill, with both parties siuing PCI'Spex wllrdrr seems to Blip slip in. cad it if a bit of news ready to break in and end new!! s~ems cnd Braun's alnost complete The main thing perhaps to end Hmm's almost (omplc.te ixdlitical prisowner came when all the white politit:al isolation c.ame prL·lonc.l'll were or means all A.N.C. pr together. They were by no brought togethcl'. 110 mellllll to bl;! 1:w done with thern? Communist Party. Pllrty. What was tC.1 them? A and put put state, since if they were sparated problem for the problem foJ' III'pal'llted lind hi

177

A Li/ Africa Lifo for Afrt'ca with non-politicals contaminate so-to-spcak so-to-speak non-politicals they might easily contaminate innocent murderers, burglars and wife-bashers. The crafti crafti· ness of these politicls infinite and few of them broke, politieals was infinite though most of them had been given a very serious going over at the first questioning aCter after arrest. One, for example, example, had been kept on his feet from Thursday Thul'sday morning till tUl Saturday evening. Finally, the authorities decided to put put them all in together. Denis Goldberg was Wall there already, serving his life sentence from the Rivonia t1'1al. trial. communication, but much At first there could be little communicati()ll, depended on the humanity or venality of individual warders. had high, dark, The prison yard where whel'e they exercised lInd imprisoning enclosing walls. You remember Van Gogh's impri'lOning wals perhaps; they give the idea. And yet it became walls became tolerable for newcomers, newcomers, as one expressed expressed it "By the courtesy fellow-prisoners". These young ones and kindness of my fellow-prisoners". hardest and nallticst nastiest of the prison tried to spare Bram the hard(~st prison chores, but it was difficult. Brami Brant insisted on taking his desperately alone. share. But none of them any longer felt desperately on occasionally a bit of news got through. tlmmgh. When on Very occasionally awarded the Lenin Peace April 30th 1967 Bran Dram was awarckd Peace Prize, another prisoner prismer had blurted he knew because a visitor to arlothr.r it out and been hustled away, but not before it IVa., was heard. The whole group felt theJnselves themselves pJea.'led pleased and honoured. The Prison and politicals who were in the Central Prillon nnd still with the ordinary criminal prisoners, abxout the assasination ptisoners, heard heal'd about a.<"!llt"i.~inatiol1 of of Dr. Verwoerd within minutes Dl'. Verwocl'd minutes of the warders hearing of it, and they passed the tllle news on to :arRm lrai when they joilled joined him. "politicals" tWdk amollgllt amongst thcl'l1sclves themselves The "poll ticals" also began to talk during the houl'S hours when they were together. They They were an long-tie members of the interesting group, ranging ranging from long-time tlle 178 178

An Afrikaner Keeps Faith FaWI

Communist Party through some well-read well-read Marxists Maists who had been Trotskyists to radical younger whites who were critical of much of the older Stalinist ideology, but were even more conditions in South Africa. It was in many ways critical of conclitiollS a peculiar situation; ideological dilferencc.q dis differences did not disappear, but they did not prevent very frank discussion. This was what happened happened in prison. Ordinary everyday news items were prevented prevented from coming in by the vigorous censorship. What llews news did tilter filter through was literally snatched out of the air in stray gobbets. But if there was no news, the daily irritations that accompany accompany news were also one had to defend or explain dubious policy missing. No Olle decisions. decisionll. In such an atmosphere, men were driven back to cases extensive, of the country, mallY casr.s in many their knowledge, ill became again again and to their sense of history. Marxist opinions beclUlle \lseful nonuseful tools for analysis. Criticism of the regime by non. Marxists proved valuable Mar:xists valuable to everybody. Talk centred on the history to explain re-interpretation of South African hislOry possible re-interpretation prison. the situation that had brought so many people to pl'ison. Talk also centred on 011 the future. It was not the immediate bags and scrubbing floors future: that was prison and mail bag:; and years of hard slog. It was the further future of the national liberation of the country. No prisoner could talk of how he himself could help with this. That would have been not only painful but futile and illegal; the warders sipoke of could, or did, listen to everything. Instead, they spoke belief how it was to be used in the time of achievement. This belief was, afttl' after all, the bond which united in national liberation WIlli, in positions which might ideological poo.itiOrul everybody far beyond the ideological evet'ybody have divided divided them. differences counted against But somehow none of the differcl1c('.$

179

A Life for Africa the great fact of comradeship comradeship first fil'llt in the field of action action and now in the more difficult and trying discipline of acceptance. And all the time, Dram's Brani's Communist faith acted acceptance, acted as a Rock of Ages for all. M alL They often thought thO\lght of their African friends on Robben Island having, as they must lUllst have guessed, a much worse time physically physically and mentally. This went M as far as the rare letters which the African Africllll prisoners to write, write. I myself saw a letter of condolence condolence were allowed to explanation from Nelson Mllllde1a, Mandela, where every essen and explanation essenhad been blacked out by a malevolent malevolent tial or important important word llad prison Cel1.'IOf. censor. Can they, too, survive in the power POWC\' of even even greater evil? One doesn't know. If only all the political have been together! together ! But apartheid prisoners could luwe apartheid held even even more strongly in prison. pri.'IOn. Occasionally there thcrt~ would he be some little .little treat, when accorded the finally, long after ordinary ordinary prisoners were arc()rc1ed politicals were allowed to purcha.~e privilege, some politkala purchase from the canteen. This would, of t~ourse, course, be shared. There There was an prisoners, desperate occasion when one (me of the prl~onel'll, desperate to shorten sIj()ttcn his sentence, sentence, had given givelt State evidence. He appeared appeared as a witness for the. clc.aling with prison conditions. He the prisons in all. case dealing cross-examination, and while forfeiting his did not survive cross-examination, fellow prisoners' comradeship, comrade.<;hip, lie he did not secure his release, either. His comrades, comrades, having already suffered at the hands of informers and State witnesses, witnesses, wouldn't speak to him. Then when wh(~n the treats treatq started, Brain Bram shared with this man and when the rest protested, protested, said to them that lie he was now suffering deeply; auffcJ'ing deepJy; it would he be wrol1g wrong to make it worse, worse. All of them above ItU Dram, to tell him all wlltlted wanted to talk to Brain, helper position of belpcl' strangely back in his old positiol1 things. He was strd.ngdy as one of them said "living "living ethel' other people's and comforter, comJol'(cr, lIS

ISO 180

Faith An Afrikaner Keeps Fttith warder, too, too) lives". Nor was this only his fellow prisoners; a warder, may have legal or family problems. Yet the rest of the the prisoners, even while they 8.\t sat around sewing sacks, won'ied worried pI'isonel'S, Prison diet and prison a good deal about Bram's health. Priscm exercise, or lack of it, are not the best for someone who has had a longstanding longstanding arthritis and blood pressure condi condition. His eyes gave him trouble. But the exercise pr()bJem problem was somewhat somewhat solved by a version of cricket they managed managed to devise. By now the warders had developed a certain warders developed certain group, with respect for the whole gJ'Oup, with their courage and gaiety and ingenuity. When the shorter sentenced sentenced prisoners left left strengthened and in a sense, they felt that they had been strt~ngthened privileged privileged through their contact with this white-haired man, the same Bram Brarm Fischer, not certainly certainly as strong and fit as he made mnde himself out to be, but with an inner inne!' strength which he gave out to all who were with him. All the time others remembered. I used to think about about Brain Botswana with anger Bram Fischer in B()tswnna anger and frustration, and yet knowing that because of him the white image in black knowing eyes was a better one. Nothing had been been in vain. After a time he h(~ was allowed allowed the privilege of working in In the garden of the new prison block built specially specially for potidcals. He was now an A group prisoner political~. group prisoner and can can get get no further, is allowed further. The Tilt) A group of criminals is allowed newspapers, radio and contact contact visits where where a prisoner prisoner and his visitor are actually A political is allowed actually in the same room. But But an A allowed no newspapers newspapers of any kind, no radio, only three tluee letters letters a month, to and fro, strictly limited to 500 words month, strictly ttl words with no "news" in them. He "news" in them. He can can have have aa visit from two people at a tine Lime for two half hours hOUl'S a month, ll\OnLll, or one hour, in in the boxes, through the separating boxes, through separating gril, grill.lHe He can can expect nothing 181

A Life for Africa more, Rcmembel', Remember, this is more. is someone who has always been especially his own family and deeply involved involved with people, especially before the visit, thinking children. One builds up for weeks beIol'c how to make the most of it, but it can never be even briefly satisfying. The Special Special Branch Branchl have their own little ways with the political Goldberg's children political prisoners. When Denis Goldbcl"g'S fath(~r again after so long and were flown out to see their father were allowed only three-qumters three-quarters of an hour with him, Bram Brani brought Denis flowers so that he would have something to children. And again when ill in 1971 Paul diel~ died, give to his dlildren. but Bram could not be released for a few hours to attend of-that the mere sight the funeral (what were they afraid of-dUlt sight of him would do something something unforeseen unforeseen to some people ?), he roses : the rose Peace. There was able to send out a bunch of roses: Thcrt~­ ban un on sending out flowers. after there was a complete blln How('I1!. Most of all, perhaps they want him to be not only powerpower less but forgotten. :Memorics Memories are, of course, courSe, short, short. The the. S(~l'Vants whose Ilwmnrics beautiful house lIus ineiores servants whose. has been sold, the have been pensioned off, the family is ioy:ll loyal but were long ha~e scattered. there is aa. political trial, as with \vith scattered. But every time tllcre the 1971 trial of the Dean of St. Mtlry'S, Mary's, and wilh with other trials as inevitably they go on coming up, memories will ",111 be fortified. How does Bra1l1 Braii Fischer survive in good Ilt~al't? heart? As we. we Fischer 8urvivt, should know by now, people in prison or detentioll detention camps belief. survive if they have a reasonably simple and optimistic bdid. It may be religious or political; it may not stand up to to argument strong, tin dn argument or even the facts of history. But it is strong.

festie Burg. 3urg. teste Let me Brain's own words: "Have we the mc quote from Bram's "Hnvewc strength to abolish white domination? dOluination? 182 182

An Afrikaner Keeps Faith Atl Faith "At times, looking at the problem froim within Ollr problem from our police power of the state, the task would seem to tC) be beyond the IX)wcr oppres.~ed people. peopJtl, Today tht~, people's rot'c~,s tf Irces and organizaorganizva the pt!(lple's oppressed appeaw- to be scattered scattered and disnrmed. disarmed. Many leaders are tions appeal' serving long prison sentences; sentences; many are arc house arrested, banned and banished; many are in exile. Police powers are used freely to destroy new llew organizations, to spirit people away, to detain them indefinitely, inctefinitdy, to torture them, often to death, or to drive them to suicide. suicike. certain European powcn, "The State, with the help of certllin powers, is is arming arming at the rate of R300 million a year. "Despite all this, I believe that to take ~La pessimistic view of the present prescnt situation would be a mistake. An oppressed people is compelled to to people bows at first before be[on'. its oppressor. It is Oppression may also bring do so by his superior power. Oppl'l.~ssion the oppressed, particularly )articularly when it about division amongst t11<: purpose. But oppressed oppressed isis designed in part precisely for this Jl~\I1){)St.\ people bow down clown only up to a point. Beyond thltt, that, sooner sooner comes a time when desperation desperation cancels danger, or later, latel', there come.s drives out retlr fear and crc,ttes creates Ita when the will to sacrifice sacrilice dl'ivr$ willingness to die for freedom. Bt'.YOlld Beyond this P()int, point, il1Btead instead of wi1lingllCs.~ division, oppression creales creates unity. suffering, South Africa is is rapidly "In its long history of Buffering, Brave men and womell women are acting, reaching this tht~ point. Brave: of the governgovern despite the dangers that face all opponents elf policies. Imprisonment Impri-omment lm,~ hw-s become honourhonour ment's mad race polici('s, able, Even torture can be faced when the immediate goal isis fully understood: understood: the goal of the destruction dc.~trllction of white domination. "The people may not yet have the ansi, ItnnS, but they have decades of struggle and of behind them the experience of de<:ades

183

AA Life Lite for for A/rica Atrica organiation. ever-growing will to win. win, And organization. They have the ever-growing counts for more than immediate military in die the long run, this COlmts strength, an strength, especially when the people are buoyed up by an overwhelming international SUppOl't, support, a!~ degree overwhelming degree of international which is perhaps unique in the, history of freedom struggles. is the strugg!t'.8. heart. The vast "Therefore, let no one lost lwart. va.~t majority of South Africa's three-quarters SOllth Africa's 21 million people-more people,·~more than three-quarters of them-know therm-know what they want and know they will get it. They will finally abolish white Supt'croney supremacy from this rich rich land of ours and so take an immense immensl~ step st{~P forward towards ending white exploitation exploitation throughout throughout Africa. <mdillg "And then? Relationships races will not <:ease cease to Relationships between rac\~s exist at that moment. How will they fare (lu'e thereafter? thereafter? The problem is not finally solved solved by the destruction destrU(:lioo of white supremacy. supremacy. "It is here that our second task arises. And for this we must again make use of the knowkdg(~ Scmth knowledge gaitwd gained from South African African history. of a long period "First and foremost, there is the experience experiwc~ of.\ period of struggle of our poo(lle people Btruggle carried on by the great majority elf against the evil of racism racial equality. against racL~m and /or for a society society of rada] Nobody should under-estimate ]lower of an ideal---and idc.\t··~,al\d Nobody under-estimate the px)wer we in Soutl Africa know that the South Africa ideal of or striving for a non-discriminatory society is non-discriminatory multi-racial SOci{;ly is.aa powerful one Ol\l~ that has sustained tht) Africa the freedom mOVCll\l'llt movement ill in Stllllh South Africa sufferings. It has welded non through many suiTerings. wddcd together our IWOwhite races and whites. It htL~ has thrown up ,lod inspired many whitt:s. great leaders. It wi!! will not come conic to a sudden sudden end when whell victory is won. is "In fact, it is guarantee that white South AfricalL~ Africam is the only guarantee have.little victory 'nttll~~, comes, have--·1ittle as they deserve it-othat, it--,that, when vic;\I)I'Y 184 1B4

An Afrikaner Keeps Keells Faith Faith discriminated against merely bec<\use because they they will not be discriminated are white. "But victory over white domination alone is not sufficient. sufficient. Ideas in the long run are shaped shall cd by cnvironnlont environment and I am cOllvinced convinced that the fie history of South Africa. Africa shows beyond beyond multi-racial society to doubt that it isis impossible in a multi-racial establish harmonious race relations permanently pemlammtly as long as system prevailing the ~ystem prevniling in the country isis one which depends upon the use of labour for profit. As long as one entreentre prencur can fight his way into a market or can defend his preneur market against the onslaught of others by inc:reasing increasing the exploitation labour, there will always be an excuse excusc for exploitation of laboul', lowering wages and degmding degrading workers. While tifs this is possible in a multi-racial country-when country-when indeed the entreprelleut entrepreneur can often ensure ensure his continued existence existence as an entrepreneur entrepreneuX' only by cheapening labour-then there exists a perpetual, reason why race should be uscd used as an excuse for driving reaSDIl cheapening labour and hence for disrimination. cheapening Jabour discrimination. "It is therefore therefore essential for future race relations in South South Africa ion of the basic economic Africa that the people peopk take poses po.'lSession structure country and that 1\a nOIl-profit-making non-profit-making co· co structure of the coulltry operative operative system should be established in which all can work together for the benefit and for the rising standards of all. In such a society work will not depend on profit~ profits or on the cheapness cheapness of labour but btlt upon planned production, and in that planned planned production production there can never be fear of recession recession or a scarcity jobs-both factors which produce 01' of Jobs-both produce the most virulent racism. "Many, especially Africans, may especially amongst white South Africans, face the alternative: dislike this reality. rtmlity. If they do, do, let let: them fllce alternative: a country country perpetually perpe,tually torn tom by hatred and strife, in which a

185

A Life Lifo for Africa Arrha few will grow rich and the vast majorty live in the shadow maj()l1ty Jive shadow of poverty and police t('.11'or-as terror-as exists exits in South Africa Ardeu today. lesson to be \eumcd learned from "I have no doubt that this is is the lesson adoption South Africa's experience. I have no doubt that the ad()ptiol1 of socialism would have far-reaching consequences, socialism wo\lld f~u'"reaching eons<~quenees. not only for South Africa, but for Africa and the world as Iia whole. socialism South Africa can ci "By abolishing racism racism through socialism become become a leader amongst the ex-colonial countries of the world. It can make a vital and lasting contribution to the solution of the race problem that plagues plagucs many countries people. and which brings deep suffering to many millions mill.ioIlS of pcople. "More this : the abolition of raeism racism in thL~ this way will "More than this: role at last enable South Africa to play the continental continc~ntal rolt~ which, as the most advanced industrial country in Africa, .l\fl'ictl, it is her duty to play. By using the skill of 21 million people is in this country-instead million--massive country-instead of that of only '41- million·--m.\..~iv!! economic economic development can be achieved within :la few years. Then there will be no limit to the growing aid-true ai[-true aid,·-aidthat South Afdca Africa can give to her neighbours and othel' other statCl! states of Africa. .l\frica. "At present its entrepreneurs, under the pretence pretence of aiding states. In some, Africa, are extending their hold into other statc:s. cost;j in others, Ilgl'iagri they exploit minerals at a minimum of cost culture, forests and raw materials. From some they import nothing but cheap labour-some labour--some of the world's chClIpt!st. cheapest. In yet others, they take pride in contribution contribution to "dcvdop "develop .. ment" ment" by building hotels hotds with night-clubs and gambling dens for white South African tourists who, there, there, arC, are only too happy to step over the colour-line. colour-line. "This emergence, in "This is not aid for Africa. This is the first emergence, 186 186

An Afrikaner Kilt/IS Keeps Faith Faith South African crucible, crucible, of a new imperialism. It does exploitation-and, in future, not spell aid. It spells naked exploitation-and, "protected" against young when vested interests have to be "protected" nations struggling struggling despet'ately desperately to raise the standards of living and of education education of their own people, it means war. entirely "And this is why the nations of the world are entirely "And some Africa's policies" policies, not as some· justified in regarding SOUtil South Ardea's thing internal internal which concerns concerns South Africa Africa alone, but as a question of vital interc.~t interest to the whole of Africa Afrlca and the threat of conflict for world-a question which contains the tl1reat world-a question all Africa Africa and for the world. "Here, then, isis the choice which is placed placed before us by South Africa's experience. We can go forward to a new and brilliant future--or we can fall fl,ll ever deeper into the strife brilliant futurc-·or and hatred of racism. "I know where the majority of South Africans "I Africans stand. They which history presents to will not let slip the opportunity whkh them. Whatever the cost, tlley they will play their part in the abolition of oppression. They will go on to achieve the brotherhood of all races and of noblest goal of all: the brotherhood all men." our OUI'

Is this altogether altogether too starry-eyed? It may seem so, but very strange things have happened in history and may happen yet. Self.interest Self-interest is is not the only motive. Materially military a police state with modern mod(~rn arms and a soaring mi.litary budget for defencc-·against defence-agairst whom ??.....nay ..~.may be invulnerable. smay be over. But that The days of revolutionary uprisings uprillings nillY is not all. What moves the human spirit is still unclear, undear. But to re-enact themselves there are certain stories which appear CCl't.LiIl atmies appeal' to seems and to have the same kind of impact impact every time. It SCc..'ll'IB

187 187

A Life Lif for Africa Afric/& possible that Brain Bram Fischer has re-enacted fe-enacted one of these stories through done so and because, and because he has donc because he has gone thl'OlIgh forgiveness pain and humiliation and loss, certain kinds of f()rgiven~ may be bc generated generated and certain other very terrible things may not after all happen.

HIS

Postscript Month after month month the logic of a police state develops in in South are marc more arrests, more investigations, South Africa. There arc more fear and anel an ever-growing ever-growing army of informers in any association, including the Churche~ Churches and iand the Universities. Laws become more stringent; so does tJleir fleir enforcement. enforcement. Afrikaner youth not to be Great moral pressure presstll'e isis put on Afrikam1f corrupted fi'om the outside: COITuptCel by books, television or ideas from outside: instead a special new indoctrination indoctrination courm "youth prepre course of "youth paredness". paredness". All the same, people an~ are qm:stioning questioning the structm'c structure samt!, young pcoplt! of the apartheid apartheid state, so far the means employed rather than the underlying philosophy and and end. It is increasingly difficult for an intelligent person, young or aIel, old, not to see the indignities and injusticcs injustices inherent in baa.'lkap. baaskap. PI'OfesProfes sional and women are more and more monal and businessn business men amI solutiorLs. The GovcxuGovern worried, though few can face the real solution.'!. ment is well aware of thi.~., this, attacking NUSAS, the student student Press, which, in spite of organization and, increasingly, the Pres..q, of severe restrictions on its freedom, does struggle to give some l'('.strictions it, fl'cedom, unslanted unslantcd news and allow some criticism. critici.'1l11. Some members at least of the Har Bar and Bench try to keep up the ()Id old standards. Holes Holcs appear in the iron curtain of sport, mostly from tht: the sportsmen themse.lvcs, themselves, but are often again, often plugged again. Meanwhile there are a few posible African Meanwhile thel't) possible platforms for ACdcan and Coloured. These are respectable, designed only for show. and These lU'C show. !B~9 lB9

Postscript Posscript and determined people can use them, and are But brave a.nd doing so. We do not know what the shape of things:in things in the Republic of South Africa will be in five years' time. time, We ca.n can only sec see mounting tension. We can look {or for precedents, precedents. Political institutions have never neV't~r remained the same, and our's is is a century of very rapid change. Perhaps we are not even aware of the beginnings beginnings of what is, is, inexorably, going toto happen.

190 190

MERLIN PRESS MERLIN

N ERLINW MEIU.IN

, £3·95·! ",." .''''''"'' -' .. ,

J

Brain Brarn Fischer Fischer

Mitchison Naomi Mitchzson .

.

condemn apartheid. We all We all condemn condemn the cruelty and stupidity of the South South African Government, which treats those with a different different skin colour as permanent inferiors. Here is the story of an Afrikaner, Afrikaner, one of the governing class, class, who looked looked another way, as other brave and intelligent South Africans Africans are out doing. This is why he ii singled out for special punishment punishment and like so

is

many of his black South AfriClln African friends is now aa prisoner, se.tving serving a1\ life sentence. Naomi Mitchison Mitchison brings to this thill study and scholarship scholarship the same accuracy a.od which are found in the historical historical background background of her novels and stories. Although a prohibited immigrant immigrant in South Africa and Rhodesia, she is Southern familiar at first hand with Southern their aspirations. Africa, its people, people, theirospiratioll8.