From Pass Courts to Deportation: Changing Patterns of Influx Control in Cape Town¶
Martin West (1982). From Pass Courts to Deportation: Changing Patterns of Influx Control in Cape Town. African Affairs, Vol. 81, No. 325. Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1954–1981 |
| Regions | Cape Town, Cape Peninsula, Western Cape, Transkei, Ciskei |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, demography urbanisation, origins segregation, resistance social movements |
| Citation key | west1982 |
Argument¶
West traces how the state enforced the 1955 Eiselen-line policy of Coloured labour preference in the Western Cape through influx control. He shows that pass arrests, summary Commissioner's Court trials and fines or jail created a large 'illegal' black population, which the state could not stop from returning. After lawyers at Nyanga in 1981 slowed the pass courts, the authorities turned to summary deportation of 'Transkeians' under the Admission of Persons to the Republic Act, which removed even the appearance of due process. He concludes that the attempt to make the Western Cape a showcase of apartheid has failed, despite heavy costs in money and human suffering. The argument rests on parliamentary statistics, court observation and advocacy-group records.
Evidence and method¶
Hansard (House of Assembly Debates) answers on arrests, fines and illegal residents; SAIRR Annual Survey of Race Relations; Horrell's Laws affecting Race Relations; the Blacks (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act and the Admission of Persons to the Republic Act; the author's personal observation of Langa Commissioner's Courts sessions in 1981; Black Sash and Athlone Advice Office court records; press reports (Financial Mail, The Argus); SALDRU working papers on squatter wages.
Place in the debates¶
- Economic rationale for Coloured labour preference in the Western Cape (see Coloured Labour Preference policy in the Western Cape). Sceptical. He notes that no evidence has been produced that black labour competed with Coloured workers, and that the Riekert Commission recommended scrapping the policy on economic grounds. He treats the policy as driven by political and ideological aims.
- Effectiveness of influx control as a tool of apartheid population management (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Argues it has failed to stem urbanisation. People and deportees simply return, so the policy yields enormous hardship but no durable control.
- Role of influx control in legitimating denial of political rights (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Sees it as a cornerstone of apartheid. It sustains the claim that blacks are not permanent urban residents, and it also distributes black labour.
Findings¶
-
The 1955 Eiselen policy created a Coloured Labour Preference Area in the western Cape, with a stated aim of eventually removing all Africans from it. (p. 2)
which would become a 'Coloured Labour Preference Area', and stated that it was government policy eventually to remove all blacks from this area.
-
Influx control served political as well as labour-allocation ends. (p. 2)
Influx control however is a cornerstone of the apartheid strategy in that it is used to legitimate the view that blacks are not permanent urban residents and therefore need not have political rights in 'white' South Africa.
-
Roughly half of Greater Cape Town's black population was illegal over the previous decade. (p. 4)
it has been generally accepted that roughly half the black population of the greater Cape Town area could be thus classified, at least over the last decade.
-
The Minister admitted in 1981 that a large share of the black population in the Cape Town area was illegal. (p. 4)
The responsible minister, Dr Piet Koornhof, admitted in August 1981 that no fewer than 85,436 of the estimated black population of 199,600 in this area were there illegally.
-
The state targeted women in the Cape Peninsula to prevent black family life from taking root there. (p. 7)
it is clear that there is a special assault against women in the area in line with government policy of preventing black family life from taking further root in the Cape Peninsula.
-
Pass court trials were processed at extreme speed, with little legal protection for the accused. (p. 10)
A total of 38 cases were heard in just over 90 minutes, at an average of under two and a half minutes per case.
-
The standard R70 fine was only a few weeks' wages, so paying it was often rational for those who stayed. (p. 12)
approximately two to three weeks' wages for unskilled workers
-
After lawyers overloaded the pass courts at Nyanga in 1981, the authorities summarily deported those deemed Transkeians. (p. 14)
In an unprecedented action, however, all those arrested who were deemed to be Transkeians were summarily deported to the Transkei without further proceedings.
-
The deportations used a statute meant for foreigners, which treated 'independent' homeland citizens as aliens and was beyond court challenge. (p. 14)
It was eventually established that action had been taken under the Admission of Persons to the Republic Regulation Act, No. 59 of 1972, which allows for summary deportation of foreigners, into which category all Transkei citizens now fall.
-
The Western Cape policy has failed to stop urbanisation despite its costs. (p. 16)
despite the huge cost in time, money and human suffering, the policy adopted has not succeeded in stemming the inevitable tide of Black urbanization.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| House of Assembly Debates (Hansard), No. 4, 1981, cols 230-1 (Koornhof on illegal black population of greater Cape Town) | parliamentary debates | August 1981 | Supplies the minister's admission that 85,436 of an estimated 199,600 blacks in the area were illegally present (42%). |
| House of Assembly Debates 1981 (Nos. 3, 4, 5) and 1979 (No. 6, No. 7): pass arrest figures for major centres and Cape Peninsula | parliamentary debates | 1978-1981 (Jan-June) | Parliamentary replies give arrest totals and women's arrests, from which Tables 3 and 4 are compiled to show the Cape's rising share. |
| House of Assembly Debates, No. 6, 1979 and No. 7 and 1981 replies on influx control fines, Cape Peninsula | parliamentary debates | 1978, 1979, 1981 (Jan-June) | Provides fines paid to the Administration Board by employers and individuals, used to estimate share of arrestees imprisoned for non-payment. |
| House of Assembly Debates, No. 7, 1981, cols 406-7 and 390-1, 395 (Nyanga arrests and deportations) | parliamentary debates | August-September 1981 | Gives the number arrested (1,472) in the August 1981 raids and the numbers deported to the Transkei. |
| House of Assembly Debates, No. 4, 1981, col. 156 (qualifications of Commissioners and prosecutors) | parliamentary debates | 1981 | Establishes the limited legal qualifications of Commissioners and prosecutors in the pass courts. |
| House of Assembly Debates (HAD) quoting a minister's speech on the Western Province as the area for apartheid policy | parliamentary debates | unclear (cited text truncated) | Shows the government regarded the Western Province as the area where apartheid could be implemented with greatest ease. |
| Annual Survey of Race Relations (SAIRR), 1979 and 1980 editions | secondary literature compilation | 1976-1980 | Source for police pass law investigations and arrests by police and inspectors (Tables 1-2) and for Professor Savage's estimates of arrests and costs. |
| Reports of the Commissioner of Police (pass law offences) | official statistical series | 1970s | Cited as an official source of police figures on pass law offences, noted as unclear in coverage. |
| Blacks (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act No. 25 of 1945 as amended (esp. Sections 10, 14, 22(3), 29) and Native Amendment Act 1952 | legislation gazette | 1945-1981 | Establishes the legal basis of influx control, including Section 10 residence qualifications, quoted in full. |
| Bantu (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act 1952; Bantu Laws Amendment Act 1964 | legislation gazette | 1952, 1964 | Documents pass-production requirements and the origin of Aid Centres. |
| Admission of Persons to the Republic Regulation Act No. 59 of 1972; Status of Transkei Act 1976 | legislation gazette | 1972, 1976 | Statute used for summary deportation of 'Transkeians' without recourse to courts, central to the deportation argument. |
| White Paper on the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Legislation affecting the Utilisation of Manpower (Riekert) | commission or official report | c.1979 | Cited to show that even the Riekert Commission found no economic grounds for the Coloured labour preference policy. |
| Personal observation of Langa Commissioner's Courts, 1981 | author survey or fieldwork | 1981 | Basis for descriptions of how pass courts operate: speed, lack of representation, interpretation, sentencing. |
| Athlone Advice Office court visitors' records and Black Sash files | union or movement records | 1981 | Provide two sample court sessions (38 and 47 cases) illustrating pass court outcomes. |
| Financial Mail, 12 October 1979 (Dr Jan Lombard/Langenhoven estimate on homeland vs urban earnings) | newspapers periodicals | 1979 | Supports the claim that illegal urban work is advantageous even with imprisonment. |
| The Argus, 4 September 1981; Rand Daily Mail, 6 March 1979; Work in Progress 20 (1981); South African Outlook Sept 1981 | newspapers periodicals | 1979-1981 | Used for reports on deportations, legal critique of the commissioners' courts and accounts of Nyanga events. |
| SALDRU Working Papers (Squatter settlements survey; Graaff and Maree No. 12, 1977; Maree and Cornell No. 17) | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Provide evidence on unskilled black wages to compare the R70 fine with weekly wages. |
| Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Wits) study / Monama and Dugard, 'Defencelessness of the Undefended' | secondary literature compilation | 1979 | Cited for incompatibility of commissioners' court procedures with standards of criminal justice. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Descriptive case study of Cape Town influx control: legal analysis of statutes, compiled arrest and fine statistics, participant observation of the Langa pass courts, and a narrative of the 1981 Nyanga events, with back-of-envelope estimates of imprisonment for non-payment.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Roughly 42 per cent (about half) of the black population of greater Cape Town was legally 'illegal', a likely conservative figure. (p. 465) | Minister Koornhof's 1981 Hansard reply (85,436 of 199,600), plus Wilson's 1974 estimate. | Partial data |
| Pass arrests of women in the Cape Peninsula rose sharply to about 30 per cent of arrests of women in major centres, indicating a special assault on black family life there. (p. 468) | Table 4 compiled from SAIRR Surveys and Hansard replies, 1978 to June 1981. | Systematic data |
| Pass courts process cases in minutes, mostly undefended, with guilty pleas and fines of about R70 or 70 days, denying fair hearing. (p. 471) | Author's observation of Langa courts in 1981 and two Black Sash/Athlone sample sessions; CALS report. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Some 30 to 40 per cent of those arrested are imprisoned because they cannot pay fines; 10,683 arrests in 1979 meant at least 175,000 days of imprisonment. (p. 473) | Table 5 fines from Hansard combined with Table 3 arrests and an assumed average fine of R50. | Partial data |
| Legal defence organised at Nyanga overloaded the pass court system, prompting the authorities to switch to summary deportation of Transkeians under the Admission of Persons to the Republic Act. (p. 474) | Narrative from Hansard, press reports, Athlone Advice Office involvement and legal reading of the Act. | Partial data |
| Despite huge costs, the Western Cape influx control policy has failed to stem black urbanization, as deportees and fined offenders simply return. (p. 477) | Cumulative argument from arrests, fines, reported returns of deportees and cost estimates; no systematic tracking of returnees. | Asserted |
| Coloured labour preference in the Western Cape was justified without economic evidence, with government intending ultimately to remove all blacks from the area. (p. 464) | Eiselen's 1955 address, Horrell, Cilliers and Bekker, and the Riekert White Paper; some points flagged as speculative. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
Notes that it is difficult to estimate the number of people living illegally, that arrest statistics must be treated with caution (police and Administration Board figures kept separately, unclear treatment of arrests without prosecution), that no figures exist for fines in 1980 or for the proportion unable to pay fines, and that 1981 figures are partial and likely to rise. Some information on motives is described as speculative.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument would benefit from systematic court records (Langa Commissioner's Court registers) to measure outcomes, fines, and imprisonment rather than two sample days and rough estimates. Data tracking deportees and returnees, and consistent unified arrest series from Police and Administration Boards, would test the claim that policy failed; some of these records presumably existed in Administration Board and Justice Department files. Evidence on the economic rationale of Coloured labour preference (employer and labour bureau records) is also absent.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.