Passes and Police¶
H. J. Simons (1956). Passes and Police. Africa South.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | policy analysis |
| Period studied | 1797–1955 |
| Regions | South Africa, Cape Colony, Transvaal / Witwatersrand, Natal, Kimberley / Griqualand West |
| Themes | origins segregation, mining migrant labour, bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, agriculture land, politics ideology elections, resistance social movements, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | simons1956 |
Argument¶
Simons argues that the pass system has survived 150 years because it performs essential functions, not because it is a marginal survival. Passes have always served the white colonist's two opposing needs, labour and security. They became the core of the segregation and influx-control order once diamond and gold mining and then industrialisation drew Africans into towns. The author treats every African in town as a temporary "foreigner" under licence, and shows that mine owners, farmers, police, municipalities and apartheid ideologues each draw a different benefit from the system. He concludes that the 1952 "Abolition of Passes" Act, which issues a single reference book, is a more efficient "Master Pass" that will entrench migrancy. The argument is built from a chronological survey of legislation and a functional analysis of who benefits.
Evidence and method¶
Statutes, proclamations and ordinances (1797-1954); parliamentary statements by Verwoerd and Reitz; reports of commissions from 1885 to 1948; conviction statistics for 1950-55 supplied by the Director of Census and Statistics; Simons's own commentary. Songs are quoted as evidence of African experience.
Place in the debates¶
- Pass laws and influx control: security measure or labour-control device (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Holds that both aims run throughout, with labour supply and control central to the survival of the system and bound up with the colour-class structure.
- Official claim that the 1952 Act abolishes passes and gives freedom of movement (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Rejects it: the reference book consolidates passes, makes control more efficient, and leaves the residence, work-seeking and contract restrictions intact.
- Urban stabilisation of African workers versus migrancy (apartheid vs. industrial-economy logic) (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Argues that Africans will remain and multiply in towns as the only large labour reserve, while the state insists on migrancy to protect the master-servant relationship.
Findings¶
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Passes have throughout their history served the dual and conflicting needs of labour supply and security. (p. 4)
Pass laws have undergone many changes of both form and purpose, but throughout their long history they have been used primarily to satisfy the European's opposing needs of labour and security
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The pass system is structurally bound up with racial discrimination, so abolishing it would dismantle the colour order. (p. 4)
the system owes its tenacity to function, that it is not merely at the fringe of the society, but is so intertwined with the colour-class structure that to abolish it would destroy the pattern of race discrimination
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Pass-related convictions are very high in a society with a high general conviction rate. (p. 2)
even in a country where one person in ten (not excepting children and women) is found guilty of a crime every year
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Mine owners on the Rand demanded passes to control compound labour, and the Republican government legislated labour districts, work-seeking permits and registered contracts. (p. 6)
that divided the Rand into labour districts and introduced a system of permits to seek work and registered labour contracts
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The 1911 and 1923 Acts and the 1913 Land Act laid the foundation of the segregation model later copied elsewhere in settler Africa. (p. 6)
they laid the basis of the segregation policy that has been the pattern for every territory in southern, central and eastern Africa under the domination of White settlers
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The official view treats urban Africans as temporary labour units, as in the Stallard Commission's doctrine. (p. 7)
should only be allowed to enter urban areas, which are essentially the white man's creation, when he is willing to enter and minister to the needs of the white man
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Influx control through labour bureaux aims to match the urban African population to employers' demand. (p. 8)
With the object of reducing the number of Africans in the towns to the bare number needed by employers, use is made of restrictions and procedures
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Officials were empowered to banish Africans from urban areas at their own discretion, even those with section 10 rights. (p. 10)
Local authorities-in effect location superintendents-are given the power to banish any African
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The 1952 reference-book Act will make control more rigid and repressive rather than liberalising it. (p. 11)
It will introduce more rigidity and greater repression in a society already overburdened with bureaucratic controls and limitations on progress
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Integration of Africans into the urban economy and their segregation are two sides of the same system. (p. 13)
In the Union, therefore, integration and segregation are two sides of the same coin, and the pass laws serve to maintain
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Convictions of Africans under Pass and Allied Laws, 1950-1955 (table by offence category) | official statistical series | 1950-1955 | Shows the scale of African convictions under pass and allied laws, rising from 217,387 to 337,603 a year. |
| Senator Verwoerd's estimate of the number of pass-type documents Africans must carry | parliamentary debates | c.1950s | Used as a reliable figure for the number of documents Africans must carry (27 or 28). |
| Verwoerd's 1952 admission of departmental expenditure on pass clerks' salaries and forms | parliamentary debates | 1952 | Quantifies part of the administrative cost of the pass system. |
| Senate statement by Minister of Native Affairs Denys Reitz, March 1942 | parliamentary debates | March 1942 | Official admission that pass laws cause irritation and hatred, supporting the claim of long-standing criticism. |
| Series of government commissions and committees on pass laws (Cape Native Laws and Customs Commission 1885; SANAC 1903-5; Native Pass Laws Committee 1920; Native Economic Commission 1930-2; Committee of 1942 on Urban Africans; Native Laws Commission 1946-8) | commission or official report | 1885-1948 | Cited collectively as authority for the long record of official criticism of the pass laws. |
| 1942 report of senior civil servants headed by Dr Smit, Secretary for Native Affairs | commission or official report | 1942 | Shows that senior officials urged abolition of the pass laws in 1942. |
| Proclamation of 1797; Caledon proclamation of 1809; Ordinance No. 50 of 1828 (Cape pass and vagrancy legislation) | legislation gazette | 1797-1828 | Traces the origin of the pass system in security and labour needs. |
| Proclamation 14 of 1872 (Griqualand West diamond pass system) | legislation gazette | 1872 | Shows the pass system in the diamond fields was intended to check diamond theft. |
| Voortrekker, Natal (1840) and Transvaal Republic (1849) instructions and laws on African residence and passes | legislation gazette | 1840-1880s | Shows that quotas on African residence on farms and pass controls date from early settler states. |
| Transvaal Republic pass and labour-district laws, 1885-89 | legislation gazette | 1885-1889 | Shows the Republican Government enacting pass laws in response to mine managements' demands. |
| Union statutes: Native Labour Regulation Act 1911, Natives (Urban Areas) Act 1923 (and 1937 amendment), Native Land Act 1913, Native Trust and Land Act 1936, Native Resettlement Act 1954, Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act, Native Service Contract Act 1932, Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act 1952 | legislation gazette | 1911-1954 | Provides the legal framework of influx control, urban residence, and the reference book, analysed provision by provision. |
| Transvaal Local Government (Stallard) Commission, 1921 | commission or official report | 1921 | Quoted to show the official doctrine that Africans are temporary sojourners in urban areas. |
| Native Laws Commission 1946-8 recommendation on identity cards, and SAIRR recommendation | commission or official report | 1948 | Used to show that the 1952 Act went against the recommendations of both bodies. |
| Verwoerd statements to the Assembly/House of Assembly (April 1950, June 1952) and on the 1952 amendment | parliamentary debates | 1950-1952 | Quoted to show government intent on freedom of movement and the farm-versus-city relationship. |
| Tomlinson Commission projection of urban African employment | commission or official report | c.1955 | Used to show four million Africans will still work in White urban areas by century's end. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Historical-institutional argument tracing the pass system from 1797 to 1950s through legislation, official commissions and ministerial statements, with one statistical table of convictions. The claim that the system serves functional ends for particular white groups rests on legal analysis and interpretation.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Convictions of Africans under pass and allied laws were large and rising in 1950-55 (217,387 to 337,603 a year), though they understate pass offences. (p. 2) | Table supplied by Director of Census and Statistics; caveat that pass offences cannot be isolated in the criminal statistics. | Systematic data |
| The pass system originated in colonial needs to balance labour supply and security, and was extended by mine owners to control compound labour. (p. 4) | Cape proclamations and ordinance, Republican laws and Proclamation 14 of 1872, read narratively. | Partial data |
| Official commissions have consistently condemned the pass laws, yet the government restored the full load after the war. (p. 4) | Series of commission reports, the Reitz Senate statement and the 1942 Smit report. | Partial data |
| Statutes since 1911 and 1923 (urban areas, influx control, labour bureaux) make Africans in towns tolerated temporary sojourners under licence. (p. 7) | Direct reading of the statutory provisions, the Stallard Commission and Verwoerd's statements. | Partial data |
| The 1952 reference-book Act will not abolish but intensify pass controls, creating a more efficient 'Master Pass'. (p. 11) | Analysis of the Act's provisions and Verwoerd's parliamentary statements; the claim of a steep rise in tax revenue is asserted without figures. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Abolishing the pass system would destroy the pattern of race discrimination, because it is intertwined with the colour-class structure. (p. 4) | Functional argument drawing on the history and legislation above. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that pass offences are difficult to define and impossible to isolate in the published criminal statistics, so the conviction table is not a complete record. The number of documents is uncertain, and he relies on the minister's estimate.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The article lacks systematic evidence on the cost of the pass system, on enforcement (arrests versus convictions by region), and on the labour-market effects asserted for mines and farms. Magistrates' court records, Native Affairs Department files and labour bureau returns, which existed then and are in archives now, would test the functional claims. Historical claims on the Cape, Natal and Transvaal rest on summary rather than cited primary documents.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.