The 1913 Natives Land Act in South Africa: Politics, Race, and Segregation in the Early 20th Century¶
Harvey M. Feinberg (1993). The 1913 Natives Land Act in South Africa: Politics, Race, and Segregation in the Early 20th Century. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1. Boston University African Studies Center.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | archival narrative |
| Period studied | 1910–1914 |
| Regions | Orange Free State, Transvaal, Cape Province, Natal, Union of South Africa |
| Themes | origins segregation, agriculture land, politics ideology elections, bantustans removals influx, mining migrant labour, business and state |
| Citation key | feinberg1993 |
Argument¶
Feinberg argues that the 1913 Natives Land Act is best explained by the political context of 1910-1913, not by hypotheses about capital, labour supply or poor whites. Botha's expulsion of Hertzog from the Cabinet in December 1912 left the South African Party fearing a split among Afrikaners and the loss of its Free State votes. A small group of Free State zealots led by Hertzog and Keyter pressured a reluctant government, headed on native affairs by the Cape liberal Sauer, into introducing the bill. Parliament passed it easily because almost all members agreed that the main aim was segregation through separate land ownership. He shows that squatting, labour supply, mining interests and uniformity were secondary or unsupported, using parliamentary debates, private papers, newspapers and church records.
Evidence and method¶
Hansard (House of Assembly Debates), Union Gazette, Central Archives Depot files (Native Affairs, Governor General, Botha/MEM papers), private papers and diaries (Merriman, Duncan, Stanford, Fremantle, Fischer, Smuts), contemporary English, Dutch and African-language newspapers, Dutch Reformed Church minutes, Chamber of Mines records, the 1911 census, and the Natives Land Commission report (UG 19, 1916). Also an undated typescript 'Hertzog Bill'.
Place in the debates¶
- Why the Natives Land Act was passed (segregation tradition vs. capital/labour-supply explanations vs. squatting, poor whites, uniformity) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Rejects the capital, farm-labour and mining-labour explanations as unsubstantiated. Holds that the stated aim was segregation, and that the Act was passed because of Free State pressure in a political crisis within the South African Party.
- Role of mining capital and farmers in the Act (cheap labour thesis, Wolpe/Lacey/Cell/Keegan) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Finds no evidence that the Chamber of Mines lobbied for the Act. Farm labour was mentioned by few MPs and opinion was divided on whether the Act would increase labour supply.
- Monocausal vs. multicausal explanation (Wickins) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Agrees with Wickins's caution about simple explanations but argues that his own wider evidence points to political pressure as the decisive cause of passage in 1913.
Findings¶
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The Act scheduled existing reserves, covering about 7 percent of the country, and barred Africans from acquiring land outside them except from other Africans. (p. 5)
The schedule brought under the coverage of the Act about 22 million acres of land (just over 7 percent of South African territory) within the four provinces of the Union.
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Because of Cape franchise protections, the Act could not be enforced in the Cape Province. (p. 6)
Thus, the Act, in effect, was unconstitutional in the Cape Province and could not be enforced there.
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The 1912 Cabinet crisis over Hertzog was not about native policy, since there was little disagreement on segregation. (p. 14)
This Cabinet crisis was not caused by African policy questions because little if any difference of opinion existed on the subject of segregation.
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Government's narrow majority and its dependence on Free State seats made it vulnerable to the Hertzog faction. (p. 16)
Thus, a switch by only seven members of the House of Assembly, less than half of the SAP members from the OFS, could bring down the government.
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Contemporary evidence points to Free State members, led by Hertzog and Keyter, as the main force behind the bill. (p. 34)
Strong evidence from informed contemporaries, regardless of their race or politics, supports the conclusion that the most pressure for the introduction and ramming through of the Natives Land Bill came from the Orange Free State
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The governor-general judged Free State pressure on the government irresistible. (p. 37)
pressure exercised by Free State members on Government in the matter, has, I think, proved irresistible.
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Anti-squatting provisions were largely suspended or ineffective, so they were not the primary aim. (p. 42)
The anti-squatting provisions of the bill were not to take effect in the Transvaal and Natal until the Commission established by the Act reported
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No evidence that mine owners lobbied for the Act. (p. 44)
There is no evidence to support this assertion. A survey of the microfilmed Chamber of Mines records for 1912 and 1913 yielded almost no reference to the Natives Land Bill
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The Act was passed to preserve party unity and government survival, at the expense of African interests. (p. 46)
The government bowed to Free State pressure to achieve the goal of political survival: to maintain the strength and unity of the South African Party.
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Africans owned very little land in the Union in 1910. (p. 19)
Africans owned a mere 2,104,300 acres in the Union, and this land was occupied by fewer than
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union of South Africa, House of Assembly, Debates, Third Session, First Parliament, January 24 - June 16, 1913 (Hansard) | parliamentary debates | January-June 1913 | Establishes the content of the Natives Land Bill debate, speakers' stated aims (segregation vs squatting vs labour), and members' references to Free State pressure. |
| Union Gazette Extraordinary, May 5, 1913 (bill published) and December 6, 1911 (draft Native Settlement and Squatters Registration bill) | legislation gazette | 1911-1913 | Dates publication of the Natives Land Bill and the earlier squatters bill draft, showing haste and policy continuity. |
| Natives Land Act, Act No. 27 of 1913, with Schedule of Native Areas, and successive bill drafts (C 562-2-'13, C 579-(4)-'13, C 592-(7)-'13, C 595-(8)-'13, A.B. 36-'13, A.B. 36B-'13) | legislation gazette | March-June 1913 | Textual analysis of the Act's provisions and drafting evolution (Free State Section 7, Cape exemption, schedule). |
| Census of 1911 (as reproduced in Thompson, The Unification of South Africa) | population census | 1911 | Provides population totals by race and province to describe the African majority and Free State demography. |
| Report of the Natives Land Commission, 1913-1916, UG 19 (1916) | commission or official report | 1913-1916 | Source for African landholding in 1910 (2,104,300 acres) and its occupancy. |
| Central Archives Depot, Pretoria: Governor-General files (GG 333, GG 334, GG 1101, GG 1541) | state archives | 1912-1913 | Gladstone's confidential correspondence to London on the Cabinet crisis and Free State pressure; Justice Department opinion on the Cape franchise clause. |
| Central Archives Depot: Prime Minister's and Botha-related files (PM 1/1, MEM 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/19, 1/20) and Smuts Collection | state archives | 1912-1913 | Letters and resolutions to Botha (Boeren Bond, Preller, Beaumont, SAP Vigilance Committee) documenting Free State pressure and political anxieties. |
| Orange Free State / Bloemfontein Archives: Fischer Collection (59/7/6) and Steyn Papers | state archives | 1911-1913 | Free State caucus memorandum and Fischer letters show Hertzog's willingness to vote for Sauer's bill and Free State party dynamics. |
| University of Cape Town Archives: Duncan Papers, Stanford Collection/Diary | state archives | 1912-1913 | Private letters and diaries of contemporaries interpreting the bill as a sop to Free State segregationists. |
| South African Library: Merriman Collection/Papers and Burton papers; Cape Archives: Fremantle Papers (A.608) and F.S. Malan Collection | state archives | 1910-1913 | Correspondence and diaries (e.g. Fremantle: 'forced on him by Hertzog') as evidence of Free State pressure and political climate. |
| Hertzog Papers (CAD) and 'Hertzog Bill' typescript in W. Bissett Berry Collection, Queenstown Public Library | state archives | c.1912-1913 | Undated typescript shows Hertzog's segregation land plan with Native, European, Mixed and Reserved divisions as precursor. |
| Chamber of Mines records 1912-1913 (microfilm, A4836, 2314) and Transvaal Chamber of Mines 24th Annual Report for 1913 | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1912-1913 | Absence of references to the Natives Land Bill is used to reject the claim that mine owners lobbied for the Act. |
| Barlow-Rand Archives, Schumacher to Phillips, February 3, 1913 | company records or reports | 1913 | Mine official's statement that mines had adequate labour, undermining the mine-labour-shortage thesis. |
| Dutch Reformed Church records: NGK Synodal Commission Notule Boek (Germiston, March 4, 1913) and Handelingen of Federal Council (March 1913) | other | March 1913 | Church resolutions deploring land sales to Africans show outside pressure on the government. |
| Contemporary newspapers and periodicals (The Friend, Tembuland News, Ilanga lase Natal, Tsala ea Batho, Izwe La Kiti, Harrismith Chronicle, Bloemfontein Post, Farmers Advocate, Farmer's Weekly, Christian Express, De Vriend des Volks, Natal Mercury, etc.) | newspapers periodicals | 1911-1913 | Editorials and reports document perceptions that Free State pressure drove the Bill and shifts in political opinion. |
| Votes and Proceedings of the House of Assembly, 1913 and Senate Debates, June 13, 1913 | parliamentary debates | 1913 | Confirms motions, amendments and Senate remarks about the Bill. |
| Estate records of Free State MPs | other | early 20th century | Used to indicate wealth of some Orange Free State delegation members. |
| Transvaal African farm registration returns (Lands Department, Fischer's answers and corrections) | official statistical series | 1887-1913 | Tabulates African farm purchases by period, showing acceleration after Union (179 in 1910-12). |
| Published collections of correspondence and biographies (Hancock and van der Poel, Selections from the Smuts Papers; Lewsen, Merriman Correspondence; Solomon, Molteno Correspondence; Dictionary of South African Biography) | secondary literature compilation | 1910-1913 | Supply contemporary letters and diary entries on cabinet factions and attitudes toward the Act. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Archival narrative political history: process-tracing of the 1912-13 Cabinet crisis and parliamentary campaign, triangulating hundreds of diaries, letters, newspaper editorials, Hansard speeches and archival memoranda to attribute responsibility for the Act to Free State members. Alternative explanations (labour, mining capital, squatting, uniformity) are rejected by counting Hansard references and checking the Chamber of Mines records for absence of evidence.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The principal pressure for introducing and rushing the Natives Land Bill came from the Orange Free State parliamentary delegation led by Hertzog and Keyter, as the government sought to avoid a split in the South African Party. (p. 97) | Triangulated private letters and diaries (Fremantle, Gladstone, Duncan), the Free State caucus memo, Hansard remarks by eight MPs and newspaper editorials. | Partial data |
| There is no evidence that the mining industry promoted the Act or that the Act aimed to supply mine labour. (p. 107) | Survey of microfilmed Chamber of Mines records 1912-13 (three items in the file), the 1913 Annual Report and Hansard. | Partial data |
| The Botha government faced real political danger in 1913: a small shift of Free State SAP MPs could bring down the government, and Hertzog had substantial support among Afrikaners. (p. 79) | 1910 election seat counts, the April 1913 no-confidence vote (68-42), party congress resolutions and 1915 results. | Partial data |
| Preparatory work for land and squatting legislation existed in 1911-12 under Burton and Hertzog, though no official Hertzog bill has been found. (p. 91) | Native Affairs circulars and magistrates' returns, the 1911 draft bill, the undated 'Hertzog Bill' typescript. | Partial data |
| Why Free State whites were more prejudiced than Transvaal whites cannot be explained by demographic or land statistics; the answer lies in attitudes. (p. 103) | Census-type comparisons (share of South African-born whites, white-owned farms, African landholding) and quotations from Duncan and Merriman. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Transvaal African land purchases were accelerating after Union, as shown by corrected registration figures. (p. 93) | Lands Department memoranda correcting Fischer's parliamentary answer; tabulated farms by period. | Systematic data |
The author's caveats¶
Notes that no Cabinet minutes were kept and there are no ministerial memoranda confirming internal motives; Hertzog's speeches survive only in newspaper reports of uncertain accuracy; the Hertzog Bill typescript is undated and its authorship cannot be definitively proven; the Free State congress resolution may have been packed; there are no extant Sauer papers; evidence on regional prejudice is insufficient.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The causal claim rests on perceptions recorded by contemporaries rather than on Cabinet records or systematic data on farmers' or mining capital's lobbying, and the Chamber of Mines argument is an argument from silence in a limited file. Vote-level analysis of the divisions, constituency data on farm tenure and labour conditions, and farmers' association and Native Affairs records (partly existing in archives then and now) would test the Free State thesis against the labour/capital explanations. Evidence on the actual effects of the Act on squatting and labour supply after 1913 is not examined.
Replicability: Data described but not public.