Madiba - a six part review of the past 95 years. Part 2

We would like to celebrate Madiba's exceptional life and achievements with a 6 part series written by Steuart Pennington.

Madiba - Part 2
Sunday, 30 June 2013

by Steuart Pennington

In this section we deal with the events that forged Madiba becoming a “Comrade” and ultimately becoming President of the ANC.

Johannesburg in the 1940’s was a vibrant and cosmopolitan place. Blacks were restricted to living in certain parts of the city, as the authorities tried to balance their need for migrant labour with their desire for white domination. Township life was both vibrant as well as developing a growing political culture. But it was also precarious, there was no electricity, limited housing and poor water supply.

Madiba’s first job was to guard a mine gate. The sign read, “Beware, Natives Crossing Here”. Soon after arriving in Johannesburg Madiba met Walter Sisulu who introduced him to the ANC and other young people who were beginning to challenge the policy of white domination.

With Sisulu’s help, Mandela enrolled for a Law degree at Wits and secured a position as a part-time articled clerk with Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman.

The 1940’s was a time of turbulent political events which I have summarised below.

1942 Meets Walter Sisulu – articles at Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman. Makes first white friend in Nat Bregman. Lives in Alex – no amenities. Thrown out of bus with Indian friends. Bus driver accused of “carrying a kaffir”.

1943 Bus Boycott over increase in fares succeeds, Madiba experiences the power of civic action.

1943 Attends SACP meeting with Nat Bregman, meets Anton Lembede introduced to philosophy of Africanism

1943 Enrols at Wits, meets Ruth First, George Bizos, Harold Holpe, J N Singh, Ismail Meer, Harry Shwartz.

1944 Marries Evelyn Mase. 4 Children. Very disciplined, jogs every morning, makes family breakfast.

1944 ANC Youth League launched. Lembede president, Tambo Secretary, Sisulu Treasurer. Full time at Wits living off Evelyn salary.

1946 SA Indian Congress launched the Passive Resistance Campaign in protest against the restrictive property rights of Indians, based on Gandhi’s 1913 'peaceful protest' campaign

1947 Lembede dies, succeeded by Peter Mda

1948 'Apartheid' officially launched as General Smuts loses the election to the Nationalist Party. DF Malan sets about passing a range of laws to ensure the separation of races in all aspects of social life and specifically to control the movement and economic activity of blacks.

“Afrikaners face a new trek – to the city. There black and white compete in the same labour market. The task is to make SA a white man’s land” DF Malan.

1950 Communist May Day strike (which was opposed by Mandela) results in banning of SACP, but Police brutality in the crushing of the strike shocks him.

1950 Hendrik Verwoerd appointed Minister of Native Affairs.

Oliver Tambo laments, “Today it is the Communist Party that is banned. Tomorrow it will be our trade unions, our Indian Congress, our African People’s Organisation, our African National Congress.”

1951 ANC meets in congress, launches the Defiance campaign to defy apartheid laws, in partnership with the SA Indian Congress.

1951 Coloured Voters removed from the Voters Role by DF Malan

1952 Madiba joins up with Coloureds and Asians in SACP

1952 Urban Areas Act passed, pass laws

1952 Defiance Campaign (Pass Laws) transformed the ANC from an elite group to a mass movement. Membership grew from 7000 to close on 100,000. Madiba serves a six month ban for his role in the Campaign. From then on never free from the attention of the Special Branch.

This marked a decisive shift in Madiba’s definition of a comrade. This was further broadened when the non-racial Congress Alliance and the Freedom Charter were launched in 1955.

1952 Opens law offices, becomes affluent, has a keen sense of dress. Most often wore a three piece suit. Used the same tailor as Ernest Oppenheimer.

1952 Becomes President of the Transvaal Branch on the ANC. Draws up a new plan for political action, advocating a radical departure from the methods previously adopted by the ANC. Becomes known as the ‘M Plan’. ANC split into cells at street level, zones and wards at township level to facilitate improved communication.

1952 Chief Luthuli summoned to Pretoria and given an ultimatum: either resign from the ANC or lose your chieftaincy. Luthuli refused and was dismissed as chief.

1953 Verwoerd decides to remove black education from the Mission Churches (90% of black schools were in the hands of the Church, only half of black going school children attended school) “People who believe in equality are not desirable as teachers of Natives – what is the use of teaching a Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice”.

1953 Bantu Education Act introduced, church missions given the choice of turning their schools over to government or continuing them as private schools with diminishing subsidies. Control of schools remained with the department of Native Affairs. “Natives are to be taught from childhood that equality with Europeans is not for them”.

1955 ANC under Chief Luthuli calls for a ban on schools, Verwoerd threatens to ban school children who participate from schooling - for life.

1955 Sophiatown is the first in a series of forced removals.

Madiba increasingly radicalised by the growing Apartheid ideology and practice.

White opposition politics in the form of the Liberal Party and the Congress of Democrats begins to start connecting with the ANC with many difficult ideological arguments and debate.

Conclusion

With the increasing restrictions placed on blacks by the Apartheid Government the stage was set for a showdown between an aggressive form of white rule and the rising political consciousness of urban blacks and their allies. In the early days the ANC was made up of largely educated, middle-aged African men, who believed that the struggle for change should be carried out with dignity. Their protests were largely comprised of letters, petitions and appeals to those in authority. With the launch of the ‘M Plan” it seemed inevitable that a more militant approach was in the offing which would increasingly draw on the powers of the masses.

Next: Part 3 – Mandela as a Leader.