Bantustans/Homelands

• Bantustans/homelands

  • "Separate but equal" policy
  • ‘better separated + poor than integrated + rich’
  • '55 Tomlinson Report
  • Propose increase B reserves, 13% country - identified '36 Land Act, as 'homelands'
  • Suggest gov put £100m+ in farming + industry
  • '59 Bantu Self-gov Act
  • 8 territories, govs in each - later 10
  • Each for specific ethnic group; Xhosa had 2
  • To be independent yet SA maintained control
  • W = now largest single-race group
  • Verwoerd's assassination, by mentally disturbed W man, '66 hinder establishment
  • Vorster led first to 'independence' '76; no country recognised
• Bantustan Problems

  • Many lived outside
  • 18% Transkei + 78% QwaQwa residents
  • Small, fragmented 'homelands' not rounded up
  • Huge gov funding
  • No democracy
  • Cizkei, poor
  • Built Bisho, 59mil rand city
  • Casino, shopping center, ministerial houses + established international airport (cost 25mil)
  • Pressure from W industrialists + farmers, prevent gov from investing in Bantustan industry + farming
  • Had independent symbols like flag + anthem, but SA gov still controlled foreign + defence policies
  • Stood up against global condemnation, W appreciate him for maintaining W supremacy
• Rulers

  • Made B middle class; depend on high wages + living standards
  • Transkei average month income, '70: 169 Rand
  • Governing Council members claim 12,000 rands annually + many gov official jobs created
  • Transkei: 2,446 '63 to > 20,000 '80
  • Teachers got good money
  • 189% pay raises '62-78
  • Same W curriculum
  • SA gov money to get W businesses to invest
  • B Ruling class well
  • Few jobs for ordinary
  • Sun City
  • Casino nightclub
  • By W businessman
  • Attracted 1000s of W SA + International entertainers
• Ruled

  • Life tough
  • High poverty, disease + malnutrition
  • Overcrowded, infertile land hinder efficient farming
  • More B migration from W areas
  • '60-80:
  • 1,129,000 B removed from W farms due to more machines
  • 1,616,000 from urban areas; Group Areas Act
  • Survival hung on work; all in W SA
  • Meant living in illegal squatter camps, evading law
  • Or travel long distances, some 6 hours daily
  • Huge townships near W urban areas
  • One's pop; 100,000 '80 to 300,000 '85
  • Buses went 50km daily
  • Bantustans made B life in cities even more difficult; now faced constant removal to 'homeland’ threat