Page 28 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

Delegates represented at the 1908 Convention. /Hulton Archive via Getty Images Dr Abdullah Abdurahman. /Alamy John Tengo Jabavu. /Alamy
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Towards the Union of South Africa
From the outset of the Vereeniging negotiations, Prime Minister Chamberlain indicated that peace should result in unity among the white population. The emerging entity would swear allegiance to the British Crown. Four quasi- independent territories − the Cape, Natal, Free State and Transvaal, previously known as the ZAR − were the outcome.
In 1908, the leaders of the four territories held a convention to discuss policies relating to labour and the relationship between Britain and South Africa. The makeup of a unified South Africa, whether this would take the form of a union or a federation, featured prominently. The constitutional structure of a united South Africa was debated. A balance of power among territories and groups – the British and the Afrikaners – was sought. Neither territory, nor group, could emerge more powerful and dominant than the other. The exclusion of black South Africans was a certainty.
In 1909, the British Parliament passed the South Africa Act. The Act gave expression to the decisions reached and agreements struck during the 1908 convention. Black South Africans would be denied the right to vote, a decision that did not go unopposed. Dr Abdullah Abdurahman and John Tengo Jabavu led the ’Coloured’ and the ‘African’ delegations respectively, opposing the denial of franchise, but their appeals and objections were snubbed.
The most important consideration for the British government was that the new Union of South Africa remain loyal to the British Empire. The franchise for black South Africans was inconsequential.
Louis Botha was the founding Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. On 31 May 1910, South Africa gained Union status, which came with an expressed exclusion of the majority of the population. That decision unleashed further turmoil until 1994. Notably, Rhodes, for so long an architect of the economically driven social and political turbulence of the preceding two decades, was no longer in the picture. Rhodes died on 26 March 1902, missing the Boer surrender by a matter of weeks.
The Union of South Africa eliminated borders among the four colonial territories and created a nation-wide legislative force that had not previously existed. This power also resulted in legislation such as the Land Act of 1913. This Act officially dispossessed black South Africans of their land, which led to organised resistance. The founding of the SARB in 1921 indicated the acceleration of a national economic management structure.