Page 11 - Constitutional Model for a Democratic South Africa By Prof Vuyisle Dlova

It should be stressed however, that the big cities, especially those in the Transvaal, do not
follow the pattern described above; most of them are populated by people who come from
different parts of the country and who have been partially or wholly detribalised and therefore
see themselves foremost as Azanians/South Africans. This, of course, does not imply that
the rural people also do not see themselves in the broader context of a nation.

Unitary settler administration over the Africans

A related question to the issue of nationalities is whether the establishment of a Union of
White South Africa in 1910 did serve the cause of nation building amongst the indigenous
peoples. At a broad level, that is, in so far as the Union of the settlers necessitated an African
countervailing force of equal geographical proportion heralding as it did the birth of the Native
Congress and the beginning of national as opposed to nationality politics amongst the people
of indigenous descent, the answer to the question we have posed in this section is in the
affirmative. However, if we ask the question in a more specific sense and ask ourselves
whether the Union of South Africa meant unitary institutions for the African people, then the
answer should be in the negative. While the Union meant a centrally coordinated overall
policy over the natives, for the Africans themselves the policy was calculated to further
fragment them.

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The executive power over all natives was vested in the Governor-General of the Union. The
administration of the natives also, in accordance with the constitution, vested in the same
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man. The executive authority over the Africans was to be exercised, however, by a
Secretary of State for Native Affairs. The Secretary of State for Native Affairs was to enjoy
wide discretionary powers which included the power to issue proclamations relating to the
administration of Africans. He also was to enjoy the benefit of advice of a statutory group of
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“expert” advisors, on Native Affairs, in the exercise of his wide ranging powers. For
purposes of Native administration, South Africa was divided into six districts. The divisions, it
was said, were not to be ethnical, but insofar as they in practice approximated the territorial
spread of the major indigenous groupings, they definitely did take that turn. For example, the
Zulu people in the whole of the Natal, including the so-called Zululand, had their regional
administrative headquarters Pietermaritzburg. In other words, although overall authority over
the African people vested in the white legislature and the white Native Secretary of State, the
actual administration, which included issue of proclamation, was to be territorially based. The
whole system of Native administration, therefore, had the effect of perpetuating and
institutionalising separation of nationalities, in particular, the bigger ones.