Pass Laws and the Disorganisation and Reorganisation of the African Population in South Africa¶
Michael Savage (1984). Pass Laws and the Disorganisation and Reorganisation of the African Population in South Africa. Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa, Conference Paper No. 28. SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town.
| Type | conference paper |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | descriptive quantitative |
| Period studied | 1916–1982 |
| Regions | South Africa, Bantustans/homelands, Witwatersrand, Western Cape/Cape Peninsula, Pretoria, Durban |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, demography urbanisation, origins segregation, inequality poverty unemployment, methods data sources, politics ideology elections |
| Citation key | savage1984 |
Argument¶
Savage argues that pass laws and influx control have served to disorganise and then reorganise the African population. Africans were pushed into and expelled from the 'white' economy and sorted ethnically into Bantustans. The laws balance an 'exclusionary' need for political security against an 'inclusionary' need for cheap labour. Their emphasis shifted from channelling labour into white agriculture and industry (to c.1950) to relocating Africans into the Bantustans (after 1950). He builds a series of pass-law prosecutions from 1916 and sets it against census and population-distribution data. He argues that the sharp fall in prosecutions after 1968 does not mean relaxation, because enforcement moved to housing, contract labour, Aid Centres, deportations and Administration Boards.
Evidence and method¶
Annual Reports of the Commissioner of South African Police, Union Year Books and House of Assembly Debates question columns (prosecution and arrest series); census data and Simkins's corrected population distribution figures; Survey of Race Relations; commission reports (Stallard, Fagan, Riekert, Viljoen); government circulars; Surplus Peoples Project reports; press reports and secondary literature (Horrell, Kane-Berman, Greenberg and Giliomee, West).
Place in the debates¶
- Reform vs continuity in influx control (Riekert-era 'reform') (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Treats Riekert-style reform as a tightening of controls plus privileges (not rights) for a select group of urban 'insiders', leaving the distribution of power unchanged.
- What the falling pass-law prosecutions after 1968 signify (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Rejects the view that they indicate relaxation or deterrence from higher fines. Attributes the fall partly to Aid Centres and mainly to new enforcement through housing, labour bureaux and contract labour, and deportation of 'foreigners'.
- Pass laws as cheap-labour control vs exclusion (revisionist reading of apartheid) (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Holds that the laws serve both an inclusionary labour-supply function and an exclusionary security function, with the balance shifting after 1948 and especially in the 1960s.
Findings¶
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More than 26 million prosecutions under pass, tax and trespass laws in 1916-82, concentrated in 1960-67. (p. 20)
over the period 1916-82 more than 26 million Africans have been prosecuted under these three Acts of discriminatory legislation
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Pass-law purpose changed from channelling labour into the white economy to expelling people to the Bantustans after 1950. (p. 4)
the thrust of the pass laws and their administration (up to at least 1950) was to encourage flows of labour into 'white' agriculture and industry and to allocate labour into geographical areas where it was needed.
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Prosecutions peaked in the 1960s after migrant-labour and urban-residence controls were tightened. (p. 35)
increased pass law prosecutions to their highest level this century, raising them from 401 thousand in 1964 to 694 thousand in 1967
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Census data show a large post-1950 shift of the African population into the Bantustans. (p. 24)
since 1950 there has been a massive shift in population location towards the Bantustans, where population after dropping slightly between 1950 and 1960
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After 1960 urban African growth fell below total African growth, indicating net out-migration from towns. (p. 21)
after 1960, urban population growth rates decline below population growth rates, indicative of a net migration from the towns.
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Prosecution figures understate the numbers affected; other removal mechanisms account for further large numbers. (p. 14)
one calculation estimates that 668,000 removals have been carried out since 1960 under such legislation
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Official policy treated Africans as temporary sojourners in white areas, to be sent back to the homelands when no longer needed as labour. (p. 31)
It is accepted government policy that the Bantu are only temporarily resident in the European areas of the Republic, for as long as they offer their labour there.
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Aid Centres explain part, but not all, of the post-1968 decline in prosecutions. (p. 36)
This calculation, set out in Table 7, indicates that Aid Centres can be said to account for some of the decline in pass law prosecutions since 1968.
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Control shifted to manipulating housing and employment, so the fall in prosecutions does not mean weaker influx control. (p. 42)
forms that consciously manipulate access to housing and to employment as instruments with which to control and limit the entry of the African population to urban areas
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Declining prosecutions are explained by new enforcement methods rather than relaxation. (p. 43)
The decline in pass law prosecutions over the period 1968-1981 is not surprising in the face of the use of new forms of tight influx controls.
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Official statistics on pass offences and population are unreliable and in some cases manipulated. (p. 8)
top officials had manipulated figures on pass law offences in order to avoid unfavourable publicity
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Influx control generates a self-reinforcing dynamic that exports poverty to the Bantustans and pushes people to violate the controls. (p. 51)
The more efficient influx controls become, the more necessary it has become for people to violate them.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Reports of the Commissioner of South African Police (pass law, tax and trespass prosecution figures, 1916-1982) | official statistical series | 1916-1982 | Main series for the annual number of Africans prosecuted under pass laws, tax and trespass laws, used to build Tables 1-3 and Figure 1. |
| Official Year Book of the Union of South Africa (Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 22) | official statistical series | 1916-1940 (selected years) | Fills gaps in the prosecution series for early years when Police reports lack figures. |
| Union Statistics for 50 Years (Bureau of Census and Statistics, 1960) | official statistical series | 1910-1960 | Supplementary source for prosecution figures; its 'Bantu Control' conviction series is judged unusable. |
| House of Assembly Debates, question columns (1980/1 to 1982 pass law prosecutions, arrests in urban centres, women arrests, Cape Town deportations) | parliamentary debates | 1955-1983 | Supplies post-1980 national prosecution figures and the 1974-82 arrests in 11 urban centres, and parliamentary evidence of endorsements out and deportations. |
| Population census figures 1911-1980, Department of Statistics, and Unit for Future Research (Stellenbosch) 1980 estimate | population census | 1911-1980 | African total and urban population denominators for Table 4 and the share of the African population prosecuted under pass laws. |
| Simkins, corrected census-based African population distribution series (Table 1, pp. 53-56) | secondary literature compilation | 1950-1980 | Source of Table 5 on the shift of the African population into Bantustans and of the 1950-80 migration estimates. |
| Annual Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (SAIRR), 1972-1982, and Horrell's Surveys 1955-57 | secondary literature compilation | 1955-1983 | Source of Aid Centre figures in Tables 6-7 and of reports on endorsements out in the 1950s, as well as the Viljoen Committee housing backlog. |
| Reports of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development / Cooperation and Development (Aid Centre figures) | commission or official report | 1972-1981 | Cross-checked against parliamentary replies on persons referred to Aid Centres; discrepancies between the two are noted. |
| Minutes of 1974 Pretoria meeting of police and Bantu Affairs Commissioners, via Sunday Times (Johannesburg) 13 July 1980 | newspapers periodicals | 1974/1980 | Evidence that officials manipulated pass law offence figures to avoid unfavourable publicity, casting doubt on official data. |
| Riekert Commission report (Commission of Inquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilization of Manpower, RP 32/1979) | commission or official report | 1979 | Evidence of current reform direction: efficient influx controls plus privileges for urban insiders, and recommendations on housing/employment-based control. |
| Stallard Commission (Transvaal Local Government Commission, T.P. 7, 1922) | commission or official report | 1921-22 | Source of the Stallard doctrine that Africans may be in towns only as long as whites need them. |
| Report of the Tuberculosis Commission (U.G. 34, 1915) | commission or official report | 1914-15 | Evidence on the condition of urban native locations. |
| Report of the Native Laws (Fagan) Commission 1946-8 | commission or official report | 1946-48 | Evidence on the permanence of urban Africans and the alternative policy of stabilization rejected after 1948. |
| Secretary for Bantu Administration and Development, General Circular No. 25 of 1967 | commission or official report | 1967 | Documents official policy that Africans are only temporary residents of white areas and non-productive Africans must be relocated. |
| Legislation: Natives (Urban Areas) Act 1923, Native Laws Amendment Act 1937, Urban Areas Act amendments 1952 and 1978, Bantu Affairs Administration Act 1971, Admission of Persons to the Republic Regulation Act 1972, Orderly Movement of Black Persons Bill 1982 | legislation gazette | 1923-1982 | Traces the phases of pass law policy and their link to prosecution trends. |
| Surplus Peoples Project, Forced Removals in South Africa, 5 vols (1983) | secondary literature compilation | 1983 | Evidence on removals and conditions in resettlement camps in the Bantustans. |
| Removal estimates: Hare (SAIRR 1980), Horrell mimeo, and Kane-Berman (Social Dynamics 1981) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1979 | Estimates of removals from farms, urban areas and black spots, to show influx control reaches beyond pass prosecutions. |
| Smit and Booysen, Urbanisation in the Homelands (Univ. of Pretoria, 1977), Appendix C | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1975 | Urban population growth in Bantustans from 33,486 in 1960 to 984,271 in 1975. |
| Newspaper and periodical reports (Rand Daily Mail, Argus, Die Burger, New York Times, Frontline, Sunday Times) | newspapers periodicals | 1980-1983 | Evidence on the 1982 Bill's drafting, Minister's statements, and conditions in the Bantustans. |
| Greenberg and Giliomee field research report on labour bureaucracies; Stewart honours thesis (worker quotation) | interviews oral history | 1981-1983 | Illustrative evidence on commuting and contract labour conditions, and a black worker's account of influx control. |
New data¶
The author collated a 1916-1982 series of African pass law prosecutions from Police Annual Reports, Year Books and Hansard (Tables 1-2), tax and trespass prosecutions by decade (Table 3), 1974-82 arrests in 11 urban centres and by sex (Appendices 1-2), and an Aid Centre counterfactual (Tables 6-7).
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Time-series description of pass law prosecutions set against census population distribution and a chronological account of legislation and policy phases. The author offers an Aid Centre adjustment as a counterfactual and uses temporal coincidence of legal changes and prosecution shifts to infer causes, with no statistical testing.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| More than 17.25 million Africans were prosecuted under pass laws and influx control regulations over 1916-1982, with a peak in 1967/8 and a rapid decline afterward. (p. 9) | Commissioner of Police annual reports, Year Books and Hansard, collated into Tables 1-2 and Figure 1. | Systematic data |
| Prosecution figures understate the numbers affected by influx control because of removals, endorsements out, deportations and tax and trespass prosecutions. (p. 14) | Secondary estimates of removals, parliamentary answers on endorsements, and Police tax/trespass series (Table 3). | Partial data |
| Since 1950 there has been a massive shift of the African population into the Bantustans and out of white rural areas, while African urban growth rates fell after 1951. (p. 24) | Simkins' corrected census distribution (Table 5) and Department of Statistics census totals (Table 4). | Systematic data |
| Prosecution trends track legislative and policy phases: increases follow tightening measures after 1948 and in the mid-1960s, while the wartime boom saw a decline. (p. 34) | Chronological matching of the Police prosecution series with legislation and commission reports. | Partial data |
| The post-1968 fall in prosecutions reflects partly the Aid Centres and mainly new forms of control (housing, contract labour, workplace enforcement), not relaxation of influx control. (p. 39) | Aid Centre figures (Tables 6-7) from SAIRR Surveys and Hansard, housing backlog from the Viljoen Committee, and the shift of arrests to Administration Boards. | Partial data |
| Enforcement varied by place and group: Pretoria's prosecutions dropped when the 72-hour rule was suspended, Cape Peninsula enforcement targeted women, and women were about one in five of those arrested nationally. (p. 50) | 1974-82 arrests in 11 urban centres from Hansard (Appendices 1-2) and Koornhof announcements. | Systematic data |
| Pass laws served both to exclude Africans from the central economy and to include needed labour, thereby disorganizing and reorganizing the African population. (p. 51) | Interpretive synthesis of prosecution figures, census shifts, legislation history and policy documents. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The author states that reliable statistics on arrests, prosecutions and convictions are impossible to obtain, that no official definition of a pass exists, and that the census undercounts Africans (e.g. 1960 revised from 9.9m to 12.1m; 1970 missing about 50% of Soweto). Independent homelands are excluded from official statistics from 1976, officials manipulated figures, and data on endorsements out and admissions of guilt are missing. Official statistics are to be treated as flawed orders of magnitude.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument cannot separate enforcement intensity from changes in reporting, Administration Board arrests and Aid Centre diversion, so causal links between legislation and prosecution shifts are inferred from timing alone. Needed are endorsement-out and admission-of-guilt records, individual-level court or Aid Centre files, and urban area-level data on illegal residents, some of which exist in Administration Board and Bantu Affairs Commissioner archives. Conviction series and household or labour surveys would test the claim that control moved to housing and workplaces.
Replicability: Data described but not public.