The Politics of Passes: Control and Change in South Africa¶
Philip Frankel (1979). The Politics of Passes: Control and Change in South Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 17(2). Cambridge University Press.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | policy analysis |
| Period studied | 1780–1979 |
| Regions | South Africa, urban areas, Homelands (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu), Soweto |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, politics ideology elections, labour markets wages, origins segregation, business and state, resistance social movements, mining migrant labour |
| Citation key | frankel1979 |
Argument¶
Frankel argues that influx control (the pass laws) has become, independent of any economic function, a central instrument of white political control. It sits between brute coercion and ideological manipulation. It lets the state absorb black labour into the economy while denying urban blacks political rights, shifts their claims onto the Homelands, and instils fear and disorganisation. Pressures for reform come from industry, bureaucrats, police, the white opposition and the Homelands, but they are outweighed by agricultural and mining interests, ideology, bureaucratic vested interests and the priority given to control. The 1978 changes are cosmetic, and the pass system serves as an indicator that the regime is unwilling to move towards real reform.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature, statutes and Acts, SAIRR Survey of Race Relations, Black Sash reports, government commission reports (Smit, Viljoen), newspaper reports, opinion survey data (1976), and personal communications. No original quantitative analysis.
Place in the debates¶
- Function of influx control: economic (labour supply and allocation) vs political control (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Holds that, whatever its economic origins, it now serves primarily political control, independent of other functions, while recognising that it also serves labour-supply interests of agriculture and mining.
- Industrial capital vs the state on apartheid and reform (liberal vs revisionist on apartheid and growth) (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Notes that some industrialists see passes as an obstacle to mobility and productivity but says this is outweighed, and that during the mid-1970s recession they accepted influx control as a means of sending unemployment to the rural areas.
- Whether post-1971 reforms (aid centres, travel documents, 99-year leasehold) signal dismantling of the pass system (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Sceptical: the changes are cosmetic, the basics are unchanged, and the 1978 legislation threatens Section 10 rights.
Findings¶
-
Influx control has been elevated into a political instrument integral to absorbing black labour while maintaining white domination. (p. 3)
virtually independent of any other social functions they might serve, the pass laws are integral to the collection of instruments employed by the white minority to absorb blacks into the economy while maintaining political domination
-
Segregationist intellectual roots: the Stallard doctrine and the 1923 Act laid the legislative foundation of modern influx control. (p. 4)
the towns were white areas to which blacks were permitted entry only in so far as they ministered to the needs of the white man
-
Urban blacks' rights are treated as a privilege, which lets Pretoria divert claims to the Homelands and keep township services minimal. (p. 7)
-
Pass laws restrict mobility and depress wages by tying workers to particular industries or firms. (p. 8)
By requiring individuals to register for particular industries, companies, or occupations within firms, the system also depresses wages and retards progress to better paid and more highly skilled forms of labour.
-
Insecure urban status deters political and union activity and weakens workers' bargaining power. (p. 12)
seriously undercuts their economic bargaining power, inhibits black participation in trade unions and industrial action, and generally adds to the climate favourable to political demobilisation.
-
Business supports reform on mobility grounds, but agriculture and mining still rely on passes for cheap recruited and retained labour. (p. 18)
they remain an important means to recruit cheap workers from the 'reserves', for undercutting their economic bargaining power, and - in combination with the compound system in the mines - for preventing their desertion from service.
-
In the mid-1970s recession, industrialists backed influx control to push unemployment back to the rural areas. (p. 18)
with economic constriction during the mid-I97os they have tended to join the authorities in recognising the political importance of influx control in transporting the escalating black unemployment back to the rural areas.
-
The 1978 'reforms' leave the system essentially intact; travel documents are passes under another name. (p. 17)
they are, in fact, nothing more than passes under a more savoury name reminiscent of the introduction of 'reference books' under the legislation of I952.
-
The apparent decline in prosecutions does not reflect a waning system, since endorsements-out are now routed through aid centres and the police investigate more. (p. 17)
The apparent decline in the number of prosecutions in recent years is not in any case representative of a waning of the system
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Bureaucratic entrenchment is a barrier to dismantling: administering apartheid employs a huge, largely Afrikaner official class. (p. 19)
the more general administration of apartheid over the last 30 years has provided employment for a huge army of close on one and a half million officials, many of whom are redundant and of Afrikaner origin.
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Conclusion: the regime prioritises control over reform, so the value of retaining influx control exceeds the risk of abolishing it. (p. 20)
the value of perpetuating influx control far exceeds the risks of its elimination.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Surveys of Race Relations (A Survey of Race Relations, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1977) | secondary literature compilation | 1966-1977 | Supplies details of influx control rules, Section 10 qualification, arrests/convictions, exploitation by employers, aid centres and travel documents. |
| Black Sash, Memorandum on the Application of the Pass Laws and Influx Control (1971) | other | 1971 | Cited for application of pass laws, effects on urban blacks and contract labourers. |
| Johannesburg Advice Office, Black Sash, Report for the Year Ending 31 January 1977 | other | 1976-77 | Quoted to show police use pass laws to arrest people for political control. |
| Native Laws Amendment Act 54 of 1952; Native Urban Areas Act 1923; Native Laws Amendment Act 1937; Bantu Urban Areas Consolidation Act 1945; Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act 67 of 1952 | legislation gazette | 1923-1952 | Establishes the legal architecture of influx control, Section 10 rights and reference books. |
| Bantu Laws Amendment Acts 1964 (Nos. 42 and 52), 1970 (No. 19), 1977 and 1978; Bantu Administration Act 1971; Bantu Labour Regulations 1968 and 1973 | legislation gazette | 1964-1978 | Documents endorsement-out, extension of officials' powers, increased penalties, travel documents and prescribed-area reduction. |
| Government Gazette, 20 May 1977, Government Notice 867 | legislation gazette | 1977 | Cited for adjustments introducing aid centres and travel documents. |
| Transvaal Provincial Report of the Local Government Commission (1922) (Stallard Commission) | commission or official report | 1922 | Source of the Stallard doctrine on towns as white areas. |
| Smit Commission (1942) | commission or official report | 1942 | Cited via Welsh for commenting that rising pass convictions strain administrative resources. |
| Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Events of the 20-22nd November 1962 at Paarl (1962) | commission or official report | 1962 | Cited for corruption in administration of influx control. |
| Viljoen Commission: Commission of Inquiry into the Penal System of South Africa (1976) | commission or official report | 1976 | Links influx control to prison congestion and township crime; recommended decriminalisation of pass laws, ignored by government. |
| Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society, Report of the Law Commission (1972) | commission or official report | 1972 | Cited on administration and justice problems of influx control. |
| Transvaal Chamber of Mines, Annual Report, 1895 | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1895 | Evidence that the Chamber pressed Kruger government to enact pass legislation. |
| Newspapers: The Star, Rand Daily Mail, Sunday Times, Post (Johannesburg) | newspapers periodicals | 1968-1979 | Used for reports of Government announcements, reforms, Homeland opposition, police and officials' attitudes, and arrest statistics. |
| Mark en Meningsopnames, Meningspeiling vir Rapport (1976) opinion survey | household or labour survey microdata | 1976 | Survey data cited to show significant numbers of whites favour altering the pass system. |
| Francis Wilson, Migrant Labour: Report to the SACC (1972) statistical data on pass law arrests/convictions | secondary literature compilation | c.1920s-1970 | Source of long-run statistics on arrests and convictions under the pass laws. |
| Personal communications (unnamed officials/police sources) | interviews oral history | c.1970s | Support claims about bureaucrats' and police attitudes toward influx control. |
| P. J. van der Merwe, 'Die Bantoearbeidsmark in Suid-Afrika', PhD dissertation, University of Pretoria, 1971 | secondary literature compilation | 1971 | Cited for analysis of the labour bureaux. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Qualitative political-science argument based on legislative history, official and commission reports, press reports, NGO publications and a handful of confidential communications; no systematic dataset analysed. Claims about control functions and reform prospects are established by interpretation and assertion.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Influx control since 1952 is a political instrument of control, not just labour or urbanisation regulation, via documentation, police checks and threat of removal of Section 10 status. (p. 199-200) | Legislation (1923, 1945, 1952, 1964 Acts), Black Sash statements, press reports; interpretive argument. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The pass system depresses wages, hampers mobility and undercuts black bargaining power and union participation. (p. 205) | SAIRR Surveys, van der Horst, Houghton; asserted rather than measured. | Asserted |
| Pressure for reform comes from industrialists, bureaucrats, police, white opposition and Homeland leaders, but reforms since the mid-1970s are cosmetic and the core system remains unchanged. (p. 213) | Press reports, Viljoen Commission, personal communications, 1977-78 legislation and Gazette notices, opinion survey. | Partial data |
| The decline in prosecutions and convictions since 1971-2 does not signal a weakening of the system. (p. 214) | Assertion based on aid centre referrals, police practice and post-1976 disturbances; no figures presented. | Asserted |
| Business, mining and agricultural interests remain ambivalent or supportive of influx control, valuing cheap labour, the compound system and the return of unemployed to rural areas. (p. 215) | Transvaal Chamber of Mines Annual Report 1895 for historic origins; the rest is assertion and Kahn's historical chapter. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Pass laws generate hostility towards state authority and communal solidarity among urban blacks, and serve as a focus for resistance. (p. 206) | Secondary sources (Jabavu, Marquard, Edelstein, Carlson); no direct attitudinal data presented. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Reform is constrained by a large, mostly Afrikaner bureaucracy dependent on administering apartheid and by white political culture, so control outweighs reform. (p. 216) | Single Sunday Times report (16 July 1978) on official numbers; remainder is argument. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
Notes that it is difficult to make aggregate determinations of who is legally resident in urban black communities and speaks of an 'inestimable number' of illegals; otherwise no explicit caveats about sources.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument about political control and reform pressures rests on press reports, NGO statements and anonymous communications rather than systematic data. It would be better tested with the series of pass-law arrests, convictions and endorsements-out by year and area (partly published by SAIRR and in Hansard, and available in archives now), plus employer association and Chamber of Mines records and Department of Bantu Administration files. Attitude claims about blacks need survey or interview data, which existed in part (e.g. Edelstein) and is now accessible in archives.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.