Rights and Protest :Apartheid Practice Q 15 Comp/ Contrast

Source O

The conclusion arrived at by the Commission is that circumstances demand a speedy, definite and unambiguous decision. The Commission is convinced that the separate development of the European and Bantu communities should be striven for, as the only direction in which racial conflict may possibly be eliminated, and racial harmony possibly be maintained. The only obvious way out of the dilemma lies in sustained development of the Bantu Areas on a large scale. This is the first stage in the process of separate development of European and Bantu.

The Commission is convinced that there is no mid-way between the two poles of ultimate total integration and ultimate separate development of the two groups.

5

Looking at it from the narrower point of a regional development programme, the Commission recommends the development of the Bantu Areas on large scale because it will bring about the following:

More productive utilisation of Bantu labour

Provision of more opportunities for free development of Bantu in the Areas

10

Raising of the standard of living in the Bantu Areas

Preservation, as far as possible, of the cultural assets of the Bantu

Logical implementation of state policy as laid down in 1913 and 1936

Creation of a greater diversity of economic activities for the Bantu in the Areas

Demonstration of the good will on the part of the European population

15

Creation of a basis for the political development of the Bantu

Source  P
he apartheid regime has tried to enforce strict territorial segregation. The greater part of the country has been declared ‘white’. People are forcibly evicted from their homes where these fall within a zone assigned to another group. Most of those moved have been Africans forced into the 13 per cent of land allocated to them. This area consists of numerous fragments grouped into ten units called ‘Bantustans’, most of which are made up of several bits of land. Every African is assigned to a Bantustan, chiefly on the basis of language. The forced removals and resettlement policy has led to a huge increase in the number of people in the Bantustans.

The Bantustans contain few major mineral deposits compared with the rest of the country and few commercial and industrial centres. They cannot support the populations assigned to them. There are few jobs inside the bantustans for their residents, who are needed to work in the rest of the country, in industry and down the mines. The aim has been to allow the homelands to develop greater self-government. However, the Bantustan authorities, lacking legitimacy and popular support are kept in power by the central government and the voting rights of Africans are limited to the Bantustan structures

At every level of life, black South Africans have resisted white rule. The movement for national liberation has always been led by the Africans, who were deprived of their land and who are affected most adversely by the apartheid system.