‘After being a man of the world, I have discovered there is no Zulu, Xhosa, Mosotho or Coloured, but all are and must be known henceforth as Africans’, JT Gumede, 1923.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter continues with the theme of the incremental transformation of Gumede’s philosophy. As his faith in the British sense of justice and fair play had repeatedly been shaken, he had already come to the realisation, where many of his fellow-leaders had not, that Africans’ appeals to the goodheartedness of the government were all in vain. Gumede believed that Africans would have to stand on their own feet and aggressively confront rampant socio-economic and political discriminatory practices. On his arrival on the Rand, Gumede observed a discernible swing towards a more radical mood in the Transvaal branch of the SANNC, especially after the 1922 Rand Revolt. Gumede witnessed that other organisations, in particular the ICU and CPSA had became important players in the battle to increase African membership. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the initiatives taken by Gumede to respond to socio-economic and political upheavals and challenges of the early 1920s. Gumede’s rise to prominence in the conservative NNC and ANC respectively will also be placed under the spotlight.

‘AFRICANS ARE NOT REGARDED WITH MUCH FAVOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA’

Gumede’s health had deteriorated before his departure from England.356 The return voyage gave him a well-deserved rest and time to reflect on his second political mission abroad. There were few achievements to celebrate. On a personal level, his deliberations with African nationalist organisations and prominent African intellectuals like Caseley Hayford and Bankole-Bright had exposed Gumede to the doctrine of the emerging African nationalist movement. Porter claimed that “in a way, (British) colonialism was breeding its own antidote”.357 Gumede’s regard for the British sense of justice was shaken by the attitude of officials (Amery, in particular) in the Colonial Office, especially their racial prejudice towards Blacks of the Empire. He had personally experienced the Colonial Office’s reluctance to address the plight of its oppressed and colonised subjects in the British Empire. Gumede had every reason to agree with Mr Dove of Sierra Leone, who claimed that “Africans were not regarded with much favour in the British Empire”.358 Gumede arrived back in South Africa at the beginning of April 1921.359 One of his immediate priorities was to inform Harris back in England of his safe return and warm reception by the Cape Town branch of the SANNC. Harris replied promptly:

I am glad to know that you have at last got back safe and sound, and that your people rallied to you in such numbers, and I do hope that your arrival back in South Africa will be helpful. I often think of you, and I can assure you that here we feel the deepest interest in Native questions, and recognise the serious disabilities and injustices to which you are subjected. The fact is that the APS failed to persuade the Imperial government to address these “injustices” in its colony. In Cape Town Gumede learnt that the ICU which was founded in 1919 as a trade union, had developed into a political party for the masses with branches throughout the Cape Province. Clements Kadalie, leader of the ICU, who had led some 400 dock workers on a strike at Cape Town harbour in December 1919, was starting to draw members away from the SANNC. Gumede realised that the exodus of SANNC members to the ICU had to be curbed. Thus instead of returning to Natal, Gumede set off on a tour throughout the Cape Province to report on his British campaign. A farewell meeting was held at Ndabeni on 11 April by the Cape Town branch of the SANNC and the Women’s League. Reaffirming their faith and regard for British rule, despite the failure of Gumede’s campaign, the audience concluded their farewell ceremony with three loud cheers for“ His Majesty”.361 Bennett Ncwana and Felton Mogwena, secretary and assistant-secretary of the Cape Provincial Native Congress (hereinafter CPNC) respectively, accompanied Gumede on his tour to the Eastern Province.

After visits to Paarl and Worcester, the three men travelled to Port Elizabeth. Gumede learnt about the disturbances which had claimed the lives of 23 Africans in October 1920.362 A very large and enthusiastic assembly of people attended their meeting in the Presbyterian Church in Korsten on 30 April 1921. Ncwana, paid tribute to the sacrifices of Gumede, in the face of considerable difficulties.

Gumede was the only delegate left to enlighten the British nation on our affairs. Through the indefatigable efforts of Gumede, single handed as he was (sic), their case today was known throughout the length and breadth of Europe. Overwhelmed by Ncwana’s tribute, Gumede stated that the former “had painted him with colours that were not in any shape or form deserving to be added to the little work he did on their behalf ”. Believe me it gives me great pleasure to find myself once more in my only native land. I have just returned from England, the country where all races, irrespective of colour, condition or creed, enjoy the blessings of the highest mark of civilisation. My colleagues who returned home reported on the representations your deputation made to the Prime Minister and Secretary for the Colonies, after we were refused to try our case before the Council of the world.

Gumede hammered away at the old theme: Africans’ desire for British protection, the return of the crown lands and demands for direct participation in their own administration. Dwelling on the Union Government’s repressive race and class legislation, Gumede called for African unity and urged his people not to rest until they had gained peace and “a real democracy which would no doubt give happiness to all members of the human family”. However there were no visible signs that the Government was even considering granting political rights to Africans throughout the Union. On the contrary, Smuts’s opposition party in Parliament believed that the policy of segregation contained all the solutions to the country’s racial problems.

Not a Parliamentary session passed without Hertzog criticising Smuts because his Native Affairs policy was anti-segregationist. For the Nationalists segregation “was a matter of life and death for White civilisation”.365

SANNC’s appeals for redress of their grievances fell on deaf ears. Gumede had hardly been back in his native country for a month when the Bulhoek massacre, in which 163 Africans were killed, stunned the South African people. Gumede severely criticised Smuts for his handling of the Bulhoek incident. Seven years later when Gumede was president of the ANC, he referred to the “slaughter” at Bulhoek.366 At the centre of the Bulhoek tragedy was the significant impact of, what Walshe labelled, “a confused form of Garveyism” - the belief that thousands of Garvey’s Afro-Americans were coming in ships and aeroplanes to liberate the oppressed Africans from foreign (European) domination.367 This doctrine was strongly propagated in the Transkei by Wellington Butelezi who admired Garvey and urged his followers (Wellingtonites) to embark on a boycott of European schools and churches and stop payment of taxes. Initially Garveyism did not appeal to Gumede.

On the contrary, his speeches on his tour through the Transkei contained criticism of the Garvey beliefs and practice. Addressing members of the Ethiopian Church in Queenstown in July 1921, Gumede dwelt upon the “Back to Africa Movement”: The Back to Africa American Movement (would) in the long run prove futile, and it was a mere dream. Hence the Bantu races would do well not to pay heed to that childish and silly movement, as the American Negroes would not treat them better than the White man, because those people in America had never stretched out their hand to help them in anything, and how could we expect them to come and deliver us here from oppression by the White man.

These sentiments revealed how much Gumede had been influenced by Dr Aggrey, a member of the Phelps Stokes Education Commission, with whom Gumede shared some platforms in the Transkei. However, Aggrey and Gumede’s anti-Garveyism carried little weight. Garveyism never lost its attractiveness in South Africa throughout the 1920s. Upon his arrival at Johannesburg, Gumede found the Transvaal leadership still deeply divided over the issue of militant agitation. Although African mine workers were engaged in numerous strikes and riots as a means to secure a fair share ‘in the profits arising from the joint efforts of capital and labour’,370 Makgatho, SANNC president clung to his vision of peaceful, but inevitable political evolution. Makgatho was eager to win Gumede over to his side:

Your advice will always be welcomed by me. I have been following you ever since you landed and have the pleasure of telling you that had all our delegates acted as you did, I am certain Natives under Union Government would be united within the coming three years. May I if allowed suggest to you that it is my desire to propose you as an Organiser throughout. I shall be obliged if you accept the position. Gumede arrived at Pretoria on 27 September to report to Makgatho and the executive of the SANNC about the deputation. Thema and Mvabaza were also present. High on the agenda was the embarrassing financial state of the organisation. The SANNC owed £129 to the APS. An additional ?33 was owed to the Committee for the Welfare of Africans in Europe, being money paid for Gumede’s passage and railway fares. Harris had drafted many letters to the SANNC appealing for “clearance of the debt before the end of the APS’ financial year in March 1921".372 Consequently, Gumede had been approached by Makgatho to “tour the whole Union and appeal for funds”.373 This strategic appointment as General Secretary of Branches offered Gumede an ideal opportunity to try and revive the finances of the organisation. At the same time, Gumede could use this new position to his own advantage in his pursuit of a higher position within the NNC and later SANNC. As will be shown later, he had little, if any, success in bringing about an improvement in SANNC’s finances, let alone settling its overseas debt. When Makgatho left office in 1924, the SANNC’s finances were still in an embarrassing state.

Back in Pietermaritzburg, Gumede’s priority was to report about his deputation to his local NNC branch. The many police reports on Gumede’s political meetings clearly reveal that he soon resumed his active role in the affairs of the midland branch.374 The poor economic circumstances in Natal and Zululand convinced Gumede of the desperate need for the economic advancement of Africans through industry, commercial and self-help projects. The lessons of London’s African petits bourgois’ economic schemes were not lost on Gumede. He realised that Africans’ economic position in Natal was desperate.

Inspired by Aggrey, Gumede acted as an important spokesperson for the “conciliatory doctrine of African “economic empowerment” through the promotion and establishment of African commercial and business ventures in Natal.375 By 1921 there were clear signs that other Zulu nationalists like Dube, Petros Lamula and Rev S. Simelane were engaged in a serious power struggle to secure the backing of the Zulu royal house for their commercial schemes. Gumede’s son, Archie, recalled that his father had to spend one night outside the royal house before he was allowed to report to chief Solomon kaDinizulu on his visit to England.376 It may be possible that Gumede also laid his proposed business ventures before the chief, hoping to secure the latter’s approval and backing. Evidence for this claim is based on the fact that on Dingaan’s Day, 16 December 1921, during the course of Dube’s absence overseas, Gumede announced the founding of his new organisation, called Inkatha.377 Through Inkatha Gumede hoped to establish a nominal fund of ?50 000 which would be used to establish African enterprises that would provide Africans with employment and a training in business skills.

Prospective members had to pay a subscription fee of ?1 - clearly too much money for Natal’s small African petit bourgois. Although couched in a language which reflected the increasingly Africanist ideological trajectory of national policies (Let’s us establish ourselves fellow countrymen!), Gumede’s Inkatha openly appealed to Zulu sentiments and solidarity through the mobilisation of a cultural symbol intimately associated with the Zulu royal house and popular longings for the restoration of an autonomous Zulu state. This appeal was embodied in the use of the Zulu symbol `Inkatha’, referring to the woven grass coil which contained the insila (body-dirt or spiritual essence) of the Zulu king and members of the Zulu royal house.378 However, Gumede’s scheme was too ambitious an undertaking for Africans at the time and never came to fruition. Poverty and unemployment amongst the Africans was of course widespread in Natal. Each passing crisis, in particular the droughts of 1919 winnowed the African urban and rural poor. By June 1922 Gumede was forced to seek an amalgamation of his Inkatha movement with Petros Lamula’s self-help organisation, Ukuzaka Kwabantu. The amalgamation signalled the start of a strong bond between Gumede and Lamula, the latter being labelled a militant by the Police.379 Addressing a meeting in Durban in 1923, Gumede’s tribute of “Long Live Rev Lamula” produced an ovation which reverberated like thunder through the Hall.380 La Hausse has shown that both Lamula and Gumede had seen their economic schemes failing to take off.

Gumede was also the prime mover in the creation of a SANNC fund and the running of a number of trading stores. The stores were to remain the property of the SANNC and profits were to return to its coffers, but they were to be managed by individual members who would benefit from the respectable employment and business experience they gained.381 It was during this time that he set himself up as a general storekeeper in Pietermaritzburg. Unfortunately Pietermaritzburg suffered from a surfeit of shopkeepers and Gumede and his family faced an uncertain economic future. His SANNC fund scheme also proved too ambitious and never got off the ground. In political terms, the collapse the SANNC fund scheme was a costly endeavour, severely damaging the standing of Congress in general and Gumede in particular. Failure in settling his oustanding debt to the APS had resulted in Gumede being accused of financial incompetence. “We have to recognised”, wrote Howard Pim to Harris (APS) “that in money matters these people are almost helpless”.382 Gumede’s inability to prove Pim wrong, perpetuated the above perception.

In 1922 a Revolt erupted on the Witwatersrand. There is no need to get caught up in the vortex of detail and complexity of the debates on this event here, except to say that the Revolt subjected Gumede to a severe test: would he heed the appeal made by the Socialists in Scotland, namely to wrest power from the capitalists and to establish the African Soviets, or would he rather support Makgatho, who appealed for restraint and warned African workers that striking was dangerous? Since little, if any support for the economic plight of African miners was forthcoming from the newly-formed Communist Party, which instead identified the white proletariat as the key component in the struggle for Socialism, Gumede had reason to remain suspicious of the movement. CPSA policy in 1922 did not bring them closer to the black worker or SANNC leadership. Obviously Gumede would remain antagonistic towards future attempts by the CPSA to forge closer ties with the SANNC.

In Natal and elsewhere, Africans, at the start of 1923, were “hemmed in on all sides by the most reactionary legislation”,383 in this case, the Natal Natives’ Education Bill of 1923. The new Bill made provision for Africans to be levied with an additional tax to be used for their own education. Gumede knew that the Natal Government was not prepared to provide the necessary funds from the budget of their Department of Education for African education. With at least two boys, namely Garnett and Archie, respectively 8 and 9 years still at school, Gumede’s economic position was far from secure. Consequently he started to convene protest meetings to vent his anger and frustration with the White educationists’ reactionary attitude towards the education of Africans.

Addressing a meeting of Africans on the Market Square, Pietermaritzburg, on 28 January 1923, Gumede condemned the new Natives’ Education Bill and urged Blacks in Natal not to pay the new tax which the Government intended to levy. Gumede assured his followers that “if they followed the action of the natives on the Rand, they would not be shot”.385 His agitating did not go unnoticed. The Natal authorities began to regard Gumede with growing suspicion and closely monitored his politics.386 Yet, the Natal government refused to repeal, let alone alter the new Education Tax, leaving Gumede outraged.

In May 1923, Gumede travelled to Bloemfontein to attend the annual conference of the SANNC which was held on Empire Day (24 May). Successive speakers spoke out against Smuts’s new Native Urban Areas Act. After extensive deliberations over two days, Congress unanimously passed resolutions expressing their true conviction that the Union Government was committed to keeping the African in a state of slavery.387 Congress resolved to send a deputation to Cape Town to convey the feelings of the SANNC to Parliament and to appeal to the Governor-General to withhold his approval of the Bill and refer the Bill back for re-consideration.388 Gumede was included in the ANC delegation which travelled to Cape Town on 30 May to present their demands to the government.389 But, despite their expectations, Congress, now officially known as the ANC, ran into Smuts’s antagonism. Smuts’s stolid attitude towards the mission of the ANC was most discouraging. After listening to their case, Smuts pointed out that the pace of African political development should not be hurried; that the ANC “was not representative of the country’s natives, and that it consisted of a body of intellectuals”.390 Smuts was right.

The ANC was clearly not yet a mass organisation. Meanwhile Gumede used his visit to Cape Town to address the issue of racial prejudices. Speaking at an ANC meeting in the Cape Peninsula, in a clear nationalist tone, he claimed that:

I used to pride myself before to be called a Zulu, but after being a man of the world, I have discovered there is no Zulu, Xhosa, Mosotho or Coloured but all are and must be known henceforth as Africans. Clearly Gumede has his eyes set on uniting the different tribal groups within the ANC. And while the majority of the ANC executive remained hesitant and suspicious of Garvey’s vision of Black self-government at the local level, Gumede became more convinced. Evidence for this claim is to be found in the nature of his report back at Pietermaritsburg. Gumede reminded his NNC followers of a promise of Queen Victoria, namely “that the Natives would eventually be allowed to rule themselves”. Referring to local politics, Gumede urged his followers to fight against the new law that would allow a magistrate to inflict a sentence of three years’ hard labour. A resolution was passed calling on Africans to fight for a Native jury of ten men in cases where the trial of a African was concerned, as the African “at present does not receive a fair trial”.

In his capacity as representative of the NNC branch in Pietermaritzburg, Gumede spent the past two years attending various meetings of the SANNC in Bloemfontein and travelling to Cape Town as a selected member of the SANNC delegation. As for the position he occupied at branch and central level, Gumede needed some form of transport. Police reports of 1923 brought to light the disagreement within the Pietermaritzburg branch of the NNC over Gumede’s decision to purchase two cars “with money which the members had collected”.393 Indications are that the dissident group felt that the SANNC should provide the transport or funds for Gumede’s cars. Their attitude is revealing of their loyalty to the SANNC. Gumede had gone out of his way to assure his followers that their money was not misspent. His subsequent election as the president of the NNC in Natal in 1924 bears testimony that the dissident group had put the case to rest. Gumede’s “financial misstep” did not sabotage his popularity in the province.

Gumede was becoming increasingly frustrated at the standstill in their negotiations with the Smuts’s government. He was convinced that the Imperial Government were not prepared to support their emancipation from the difficulties and hardships which confronted them. Addressing the NNC meeting at Pietermaritzburg on 15 July, Gumede moved a motion of no confidence in the British Government. He called on the meeting to unite in the common cause to overthrow British rule:

We are tired of the British Rulers and in August at the SANNC Congress we will decide who shall rule us and I am ready to die for the cause. Whilst the radicals rejoiced, Gumede’s anti-British judgments must have alienated many of Natal’s White liberals who knew that he had in 1919 figured as a Crown witness of the “good boy” type in the 1919 Bolshevik trial.395 Natal’s White liberals had themselves destroyed Gumede’s confidence in British rule. Editorial comments in the White press showed that most of Natal’s White liberals, with a few exceptions, defended Smuts’s Native policy enthusiastically.

In July 1923, Gumede received another letter from Harris, appealing for an immediate settlement of his long outstanding debt.397 A year earlier, Harris had impressed upon Gumede the fact that the delay in payment had “made a very bad impression amongst a number of our and your friends”. Complaining to his co-secretary, Miss Werner, about the SANNC’s handling of this financial matter, Harris expressed concern that the “very best friends of the African are becoming disheartened and even disgusted”.399 Embarrassed, Gumede shifted the blame to the ANC. In a lengthy reply, Gumede spelt out Congress’s unsuccessful bids to collect the necessary funds. He informed Harris that Congress had asked Makgatho to tour the country and collect funds, “with which to wipe out these debts and remove this disgrace”. Makgatho was expected to address a proposed non-European conference of “Natives, Indians and Coloureds” in Pietermaritzburg in August.400 Unfortunately, this meeting never took place, since Makgatho was knocked down by a car in Pretoria and was hospitalised for several weeks. In an effort to address the financial problems of the ANC, Thema invited all the organisers to an executive meeting in October in Johannesburg. Gumede was unable to attend due to illness. Referring to Congress’s forthcoming election of office-bearers in March 1924, Gumede wrote:

I hope we shall be blessed with leaders who will take more interest in our affairs and make it their first duty to pay off all debts”. These words would come back to haunt Gumede. In his capacity as elected vice-president in 1924, Gumede was unable to raise even a small amount. It appeared as if Harris’s assurance of the continued support of the APS was aimed at restoring his lost hope in British liberalism. A central theme of Harris’s letters to Gumede was his plea “to refrain from bitterness, and to cultivate patience, tact and goodwill”.

In this regard, Harris had limited success. Gumede’s address of 30 September 1923 contained a sense of urgency:

The laws of Queen Victoria had (sic) been hidden. Natives should fight to regain them and to stop the new Laws that were now being made. South African Police (hereinafter SAP) reports of the NNC meetings clearly reveal Gumede’s influence on the growing radicalism of the Pietermaritzburg branch during 1923. Contributing factors to Gumede’s militancy remained the taxation on African earnings, the Pass Laws, dispossession of African land, and Magistrates’ prejudices against African trespassers. Even Natal’s conservative Black leaders like the Revs. Dube and J. Calusa complained that“ the position ... was unsatisfactory and that the Native was being generally held back, especially in respect to owning land and property. The above grievances destroyed Gumede’s remaining faith in the possibility of a British“ rescue of the native”. Speaking to a large audience in November, Gumede claimed:

Europeans of South Africa hate the Black race, they say the country is theirs whereas it is our Country. Join together and do not let a European go between you. Let us join and fight them with Law. You go about like dogs which have collars round their necks. The passes are on your heads, the sun goes down and you go to sleep, because you are shut up like dogs, and the foreigners can go until they are tired. Wake up and let us see to this. Underlying these political sentiments, was the undisguised influence of Garveyism.404 Like Garvey, Gumede wanted to restore pride in being Black for people who had little else. His latest ally was a Black American called Holan who, in contrast to Dr Aggrey, urged Blacks to unite against the Whites:

I have come here to induce you to leave these silly ways of yours, working under another race. You should learn to help yourself. When you have combined, we will come to you and send millions of Natives to teach you to rule yourselves. We have our own name in America and we let no White man go between us. Holan’s message of hope and solidarity was adopted by Gumede and repeated at later meetings. Gumede impressed upon his hearers the importance of Holan’s speech “showing how the Black men prosper in America”.

Holan was later questioned by a native Detective, Magande, who claimed that the former worked on the ships and had also addressed meetings in Durban. Gumede’s agitating within the NNC inevitably brought him into direct opposition to members of the old guard, namely Dube and Ndhlovu.

Following his toppling from the ANC, Dube et al. tried their best to prevent Black politics in Natal following the same militant route taken by the Transvaal branch. But all their efforts were in vain, for a palace revolt within the NNC was inevitable. At the annual meeting of the NNC in April 1924, at Estcourt, the core of the NNC “old guard” was ousted. Dube, William Bhulose and W. Ndhlovu were not re-elected to the executive. Gumede was elected the new president of the NNC. “In the space of the preceding year”, claimed the SAP in Natal, “Gumede had risen to become the most prominent speaker in Native meetings in Pietermaritzburg ... an extremist (whose) utterances disclose a bitter hatred of the European”. Police officials were quick to claim that Gumede “enjoyed little popularity among the older men”.

Another radical elected to the NNC executive committee was Alexander Maduna, who had been noted for his fiery speeches alongside Gumede during the past year. Reporting back to the Pietermaritzburg (main) branch of the NNC after their election, Maduna announced that Dube had been thrown out and Gumede was now supreme. The SAP maintained that Maduna had called on their followers to “get their money ready as the government would now be attacked and told what the Natives wanted”.409 In his presidential address at the NNC meeting in August 1924, Gumede emphasised his organisation’s duty to help the newly-formed branch of the ICU organise Native Labour in Natal and Zululand. He also announced that the NNC would pay attention to the question of land alienation in Zululand and to assisting Inkatha.410 At the same time he tried to give concrete expression to most of his ideas on Black advancement.

Gumede and Lamula planned to establish the self-help labour Union and Organisation of Non-European Races of South Africa.411 Earlier, in March 1924, Gumede had been nominated by the NNC as one of 15 candidates eligible for attending the third annual Native Conference in Pretoria on 27 October 1924.412 Despite his position as president of the NNC, the Committee for Native Affairs took delight in excluding Gumede from the Conference. Gumede’s political record obviously did not meet the approval of the new Hertzog government. Instead, the government invited Dube to Pretoria.413 To Gumede, the Union government’s political initiatives held little promise. Writing to Harris in 1924, Gumede had lamented the betrayal of past trusts, unjust land allocation, the economic colour bar and Britain’s refusal to interfere. “We are at a loss”, he claimed, “we do not know where we are and what is going to be the position of the landless people”.414 He anxiously awaited the outcome of the 1924 Native Conference held in Pretoria. At the top of the agenda was the Government’s policy of segregation and the new African Taxation Bill, which made provision for a general tax of £1. African speakers objected to the lack of land available to them. Dube objected to the Government’s approval of the division of Crown lands in favour of poor Whites.

Coinciding with the Pretoria Native Conference, Gumede convened a NNC meeting in Pietermaritzburg. A comprehensive set of resolutions was passed which was to be forwarded to Hertzog. Firstly, the meeting expressed its concern about the government’s latest land-grabbing initiatives in Zululand and appealed for the return of that land; secondly, they objected to the manner in which the Committee for Native Affairs selected Africans to their conferences without consulting the African constituency; thirdly, they appealed for locations for those chiefs who were ejected from White farms. Fourthly, they appealed for a subsidy of £1 000 for the purchase of additional land and the funding of industries on farms, reserves and locations. Fifthly, the NNC appealed for the repeal of the Act on Native Beer and the Land Tenure Act of 1918. The last resolution dealt with Hertzog’ “policy of civilised labour”. On this, the NNC expressed its utmost concern and shock at the selfish decisions of the Chamber of Commerce, the Railways and other organisations to replace Africans with Whites.416 The meeting expressed its discontent having learned about Africans who had already been laid off and those who had received notices to that effect. Hertzog’s policy of civilised labour was vigorously denounced as leading to starvation and non-payment of taxes.

Hertzog’s Colour Bar Bill became the main theme of many public meetings which Gumede addressed in 1925. In December 1925, Hertzog laid his proposed African legislation before the Native Conference. Hertzog’s Bills comprised the Coloured Persons’ Right Bill, which proposed to remove Africans from the Cape common roll; the Native Franchise and Representation in Parliament Bill, which provided for seven European MPs (with reduced status and voting powers) to be elected by chiefs, headmen and other prominent Africans nominated by the Governor-General; the Union Native Council Bill, which proposed to formalise the existing Native Conference by establishing a council of 50 members, and the Native Land Amendment Bill which provided for additional land for African occupation. Hertzog stressed that the four Bills were to be considered solely as one piece of legislation and that no particular Bill could be passed by itself.

Gumede condemned Hertzog’s Bills in no uncertain terms. He protested that the Union government discussed African affairs without consulting and soliciting their opinions. Referring to the annual Native Conferences, he repeated his earlier complaint against the Government’s nomination of certain African delegates, “some of whom are completely unknown to the Africans”. Gumede had no good words for Hertzog’s proposed legislation:

It is not a small thing for any nation to be “a matter” in his own country. Hertzog’s politics would destroy the British politics in favour of the restoration of the constitution of the early Transvaal Republic.

Gumede continued and appealed, rather optimistically, to the Prime Minister to convene an informal “Africa Conference, under the chairmanship of four British judges, to be attended by representatives as far as Egypt, in order to find a solution to the Native problem”. Dubow concluded that it was rare to hear segregation condemned outright as Gumede had done when he declared that the Africans recognised no good in any of Hertzog’s four Bills which were designed to implement his native policy.419 Gumede argued that Africans looked at segregation with suspicion and would never accept it. At the same time, he challenged his followers:

Awake out of your sleep. Our land has been taken away, cut up into pieces and given to Europeans. The present native-reserves and locations have been taken away, mission reserves have been changed to Government reserves for the exclusive use of the European voters. Because of our division, the Parliament of the two ruling nations was given a chance to misuse our weakness. Let us stand united to claim our rights and privileges.

As usual, a buzz of outrage from Natal’s pro-government press followed Gumede’s speech. The Natal Mercury accused him of jealousy “for not being invited by the Government to the Native Conference at Pretoria”.421 On the whole, Hertzog’s African policy provided an important rallying point for Africans throughout the country. The “Cabinet” of the ANC met in Johannesburg at the end of October 1926 to discuss Hertzog’s four Bills. The chair was occupied by Gumede, the acting president who “impeached the intentions of the Government” and declared that the Bills would have the effect of creating a large landless and impoverished African community. Gumede held that:

One of our most serious grievances is in regard to the landless chiefs, who before the White man came into this country had property of their own. These areas have since been cut up into farms, and no provision has been made for the chiefs who suffered. The result is that many of these chiefs, with their followers, live on Europeans’ lands, and in some cases they were not treated sympathetically. The attitude of the Government in taking it on themselves to appoint chiefs for tribes is strongly resented. Gumede concluded that the Africans could not recognise any good points in any of the four Bills.Other speakers also raised their objections to the Bills, claiming that the Representation of Natives in Parliament Bill was a highly controversial and ungodly measure; an insult to the African race, and a crime against humanity and an attempt to evade the moral obligation to lift up the indigenous peoples.

Gumede was instrumental in convening further protest meetings in Natal. An extraordinary annual meeting of the NNC was held in Durban on 22 December 1926 to discuss Hertzog’s segregation Bills.424 Fuelled by Gumede’s arguments, the NNC decided to fight the Bills tooth and nail. A set of ten resolutions was adopted, which inter alia, objected against the proposed repeal of the political rights of natives in the Cape; appealed for the abolition of the Native Land Act of 1913; opposed the recommendations of the new Liquor Act which made provision for the formation of governmental canteens for the sale of cheap liquor to Blacks; appealed to the British government to determine the status of Blacks in the union; called for the Wage Act of 1925 to be applicable to Blacks also; called for fair taxation and lastly, stated their preference for the Union Jack as national flag.

In Natal, Gumede forged closed ties with a ‘family member’ who was to dominate politics in the region for the next four years, Allison Champion. Readers who are unfamiliar with Kadalie’s autobiography will not know that it was Gumede who invited Kadalie to open an ICU branch in Natal, a decision which Gumede perhaps might well have regretted later.426 The spread of the ICU under the leadership of Champion was electrifying and a lesson for the local ANC leadership. Champion had officials out on the streets, in the labour hostels, at the docks, selling memberships cards at two shillings and sixpence a time. Within two years of his arrival in Natal, Champion’s branch was Kadalie’s most successful one, with a reported membership of 26,000 out of an African working force of 35,000. As Champion had won a few victories in court against Durban’s curfew and trading laws, his rising star, watched by Gumede, soared towards its zenith.

Yet Champion and Gumede were of a similar stamp: ambitious and anti-Communist at this stage of their lives. More important, it was at this time that the CPSA, in accordance with the Comintern’s long-term socialist goals, had launched a campaign for a “proletarian united front” in South Africa. The ICU, with its impressive working-class following, as well as the radical branches of the ANC were targeted by CPSA workers. Champion’s and Gumede’s apathy towards Communism was hardly surprising. Both men were business orientated and landowners with little appreciation of the communist calls for ‘share and share alike’.428 Addressing a large gathering in November 1926, Gumede gave a clear indication of his anti-Bolshevism attitude.

Concerned about the membership-drive of the CPSA among the Africans in Natal, he maintained that the Africans were not only labouring under disabilities, but also under a “new danger (Bolshevism) which threatened the very existence of their chief ”.429 Gumede was not alone in opposing the spread of communism in Natal. Bennet Ncwana, secretary of the Cape Native Voters’ Convention strongly supported Gumede and added that “Natal had capable leaders in Gumede and John Dube and there was no need to import leaders from elsewhere who were selling them to Amsterdam Bolsheviks”. Ncwana argued:

The so-called Bolshevik leaders were a danger to both Natives and chiefs and their presence among the Native here was a menace. (Cheers). The duty of the Zulus was to follow their own recognised leaders of the ANC.430

At the heart of Gumede’s onslaught against the CPSA lay a concern for the existence of the chieftainship and Zulu royal house in Natal and Zululand. Evidence for this argument is based on Dube’s claim that the rise of communism ‘would mean the breaking down of parental control and restraint, tribal responsibility and our whole tradition - the whole structure upon which our Bantu nation rests’.431 It is thus clear that Zulu intellectuals like Dube and Gumede were unwilling to cut their ties with Zulu tradition. And as the state itself came to support its variant of ethnicity in terms of Hertzog’s segregationist policies, this gave Gumede and Dube further impetus and leverage. In their‘ politics of the tightrope’, Zulu intellectuals appealed to more than one audience simultaneously.

When at the end of 1926 Kadalie turned down an invitation from the German League Against Imperialism to send a delegate to the first international conference of the League Against Colonial Oppression and Imperialism to be held in Brussels, they (CPSA) had never dreamt that the ANC instead would accept it. The main reason why the ANC accepted the invitation was their claim that their faith in the British Government had been destroyed by the latter’s sanction of the Balfour Declaration at the 1926 Imperial Conference. Evidence for this claim is based on the deliberations at the ANC meeting held in Bloemfontein on 3-5 January 1927. Mahabane, president, raised his voice fervently against Hertzog’s constitutional success in terms of the Balfour declaration which recognised for the first time the equal status of the British dominions. Clearly the Balfour declaration was seen by the ANC leadership as a real threat to Africans’ political future in the Union. Mahabane contested that:

Britain has withdrawn herself from any responsiblities towards the disenfranchised masses. The significance of the Balfour Declaration is that we can no longer turn to the British Parliament with our grievances against the Union Parliament.

Mahabane’s attack on the British Government and his specific reference to causes of the Russian Revolution opened the door for the rank and file in the ANC to press for the acceptance of the invitation to Brussels. The ANC nominated three delegates, namely Gumede, LT Mvabaza (Transvaal) and Dr Sishuba (Cape Province) to represent them.433 A lack of funds was preventing all three from travelling abroad. The German League Against Imperialism forwarded an amount of £100 towards Gumede’s travel expenses. The CPSA viewed the Brussels Conference as a “one of the greatest events in world history and the opening phase of a new epoch as regards the age-long struggle of toiling humanity”. They claimed that the Conference was of particular importance for South Africa “where four-fifths of the total population were groaning under a burden of untold suffering”.

Nothwithstanding Gumede’s very recent denouncement of Bolshevism the CPSA felt confident that he “was thoroughly capable of outlining the exact state of affairs prevailing in the country”. Several members of the old guard within the ANC executive had severe doubts about the wisdom of “fraternisation” with the communists.435 Gumede recalled that the capitalist press tried to frighten him about the dangers of Bolshevism.436 A few days before Gumede’s departure, Selby Msimang raised his reservations about the ANC forging ties with the CPSA. Msimang insisted on the following prerequisite for closer co-operation between the two organisations:

If the Communists were to drop some of their revolutionary ideals and concentrate upon peaceful methods ... a large section of Native intelligentia would join their ranks and become one with them. I hesitate to think that there can be one honest and intelligent Native who can subscribe to a proposal that Natives should participate in an industrial upheaval which would spell national disaster. Gumede had two priorities in mind, namely to present the “injustice perpetrated against the African by the State” to the international audience and to gain personal experience of Bolshevism.438 Gumede was accompanied by Jimmy La Guma, CPSA member and expelled general secretary of the ICU and secretary of the ANC branch in Cape Town and Dan Colraine of the SA Trade Union Congress.439 A big crowd of working class militants gathered at Park Station in Johannesburg on the evening of 12 January 1927 for the departure of Gumede and Colraine on route to Cape Town.440 Unlike the situation he had encountered with his travelling documents back in 1919, Gumede departed for Europe with no such problems. Undoubtedly, this was one of Gumede’s most important political missions. His political philosophy would never be the same again.

CONCLUSION

This chapter reflects on a militant period in Gumede’s life as he confronted the racial and class legislation of the Pact Government. His commercial and business ventures to address the question of African unemployment and landlessness came to naught and the ANC remained in the embarrassing position of being unable to settle its overdue debt to the APS. Furthermore, Gumede’s calls on the Pact government to provide the African with education and employment opportunities had fallen on deaf ears. Gumede had witnessed that the Pact government was eager to promote and safeguard white labour, regardless of the SANNC protests. Within the space of three years following his return from England, Gumede had risen to become the most radical president of the traditionally conservative NNC. Under his leadership the NNC had become openly radicalised. Though he was more strident and aggressive than ever before, Gumede was initially wary of the attempts at closer cooperation by the CPSA after the latter’s ‘betrayal’ during the 1922 Rand Revolt. Significantly, Hertzog’s successes with the Balfour Declaration in 1926 had resulted in a swing to the left within the ANC. Consequently Gumede was commissioned to represent the ANC at a communist-front conference of the League Against Imperilaism. Gumede’s search for answers for Africans’ salvation was not yet over.