Guided Tour of Apartheid

...The rate of childhood and infant martality in South Africa, though one of the lowest on the continent, is so high that every family expects at least one of their children to die.' I asked the young woman if she minded telling me how much she paid for rent...

...We've planted 42,000 trees so far, 15,000 of them along the streets, and are shooting for 8,000 per annum...

...Dube was the model suburb of the African townships, a small area of some 2,000 houses where Africans could build their own homes on plots of land rented from the city for 30 years...

...at $13,692,081, a profit of $11 for the year...

...About half a mile from the "shopping center" we drove through an iron gate and were met by the pungent smell of malt...

...There were four mediumsized windows...

...We get a profit of about $1.5 million a year, all of which goes back into running the native area, of course...

...But," he went on, scowling, "there's no reason, you see, why I shouldn't be able to live in even better conditions and still have a vote, and freedom, and self-respect...

...She explained quietly that her husband was a furniture finisher in town, and pointed to the photograph on the wall of their child who had died when she was three...

...When you come right down to it, all I've got is a brick box, and believe me that isn't enough...

...Both homes were sparsely, but carefully, landscaped...

...One fellow over in Mofolo told me he banks $8,000 every two days...

...And the vote...

...I asked...

...If Dube represents "giving in," it is difficult to know what to make of Pimville, the final spot on our tour...

...There's a lot of resentment under the surface—against pass laws, against the reservation of the best jobs for whites...

...I checked the official booklet: "The bulk of the people are poor the most common wage is $9.10 a week...

...But those of us who feel, and there are more than you would think, are hurt deeply, every day of our lives...

...Violence, after all is about the only weapon the African knows...

...Now these wires are for electricity, which we've got in about 10 per cent of the native area," Fouche went on...

...They simply didn't have the money...

...Together with the local information chief, two camera-carrying Japanese businessmen (who didn't say a word the whole trip) and a maidenly woman college professor from England (whose sociological questions suggested that she taught home economics), we squeezed into a doughty Packard and began the journey...

...where empty men sit on boxes all day long, spitting into the dirt and watching horse-drawn wagons slithering through the mud...

...These South African communities were peculiarly aseptic...

...Now this is the beerhall," Fouche explained with an odd sense of pride...

...He was a bright fellow, slow-speaking but earnest and passionate, and helped me put the day's tour in perspective...

...What will they—you—do about it...

...It thinks there is a fairyland for the blacks separate from, but of course equal to, that of the whites, if the blacks would but work for it...

...Fouche, a secure, moustached, fact-quoting official from the city's politely titled Non-European Affairs Department, which runs the native areas...

...Skimming through a propaganda booklet Fouche had given us, I learned that the Southwestern Native Area comprises 24 townships—bearing mellifluous names like Jabulani, Mofolo, Chiawelo—and a population of 435,000...

...Our destination was the Southwestern Native Area, a 26square-mile sprawl of land well outside city limits which the South African government and the city of Johannesburg set aside for the Africans who come to the country's largest metropolis...

...But surely you must prefer the way you're living now to what you had when you were a child...

...They stared with blank, pitiless eyes...

...Another maze of monotony...

...One of the nicest, owned by a long-time African leader, Dr...

...In South Africa that rebellion may come soon, and if it does it will be violent...

...But they've got the land —and the whip...

...Used for both Street and house lighting...

...Assuming that the average rent is $7 a month— though some go as high as $12— that means that the bulk of the people have $29 a month, or $7.25 a week, for food, clothing, transportation, taxes and other necessities...

...In 1939 we had 240,000 Africans and fewer than 9,000 houses...

...Behind the house in the dirt yard there was a neatlooking outhouse—the city runs a sewage system for most of the homes in the area—and a water spigot...

...There's one shopping center," and he pointed to a group of five stores—a butcher shop, a grocery, something marked "Lucky Bazaar and General Dealer and Fruit Shop" —in one-story buildings slightly larger but no more inviting than the houses surrounding them...

...The young housewife, embarrassed yet gracious, showed us around with a mixture of pride (for it was, in fact, a clean, neat and above-average home) and humility (these white folks were snooping into how she lived and she knew perfectly well the kind of comparisons they were making...

...The house had five rooms, sparsely but comfortably furnished...

...The effect of Pimville stuck with me and didn't begin to wear off until evening, when I had drinks with an African who lived in the area...

...A. B. Xuma, is as handsome and modern as any modest home in Westchester, with a sparkling two-car garage, broad picture windows and a pleasant ranch-house air...

...In the official booklet there was a note that "at least a further 40,000 children should attend school," but a different explanation was given: lack of facilities...

...Makes up for rents in arrears, too...

...The rent itself was only a fifth of the salary but, counting transportation costs, there was only about $35 a month—under $9 a week—for all other expenses...

...he has met it every day of his life...

...All I can say is that something is bound to happen...

...Next to it was another, even more striking—a big twostory affair with large windows and a modern-looking garage...

...I've got the money...

...a kitchen with a coalburning, pot-bellied stove (9' × 8...

...The workers had obviously just plastered bricks in a simple rectangle, divided it into eight rooms, slapped on a roof and then quickly moved 10 feet away to start the whole process over again before they forgot it...

...The lady professor asked if the city couldn't have trained two teams, each of which would build a different style house, alternating down the road, "so that the town would be more esthetically pleasing...

...the rush and whir of even the sleepiest African village was nowhere to be seen...

...For under South Africa's policy of apartheid, which envisions the eventual partition of the country into virtually separate, self-sufficient areas that will isolate 3 million whites from nearly 13 million Africans, coloreds and Asiatics, it is a sin in the eyes of God for Africans to live in the same cities and under the same conditions as whites...

...Bloodbath, maybe...

...Don't think they're being benevolent...

...if you listen to their hearts you'll hear the jangle of a cash register...

...I was beginning to understand a story I had read in that morning's newspaper about Africans in Johannesburg owing the city $1.2 million in back rents...

...Still, Dube is oddly impressive...

...LETTER FROM SOUTH AFRICA Guided Tour of Apartheid By J. Kirk Sale Johannesburg Reddish-grey early morning smog still clung to the tall buildings in the west as we set out from downtown Johannesburg along the smooth macadam highway...

...A mile further down the road, we came to a sudden break in the endless rows of houses...

...Of course, man...

...Kaffir beer" (kaffir is one of the South African's favorite derogatory terms for Africans), "which is not like European beer...

...Aware that South Africa prides itself on giving its Africans a better material standard of living than any country on the continent, I had expected to see solid, colorful, twostory apartments similar to those the Belgians had given some of the Africans in Leopoldville...

...Only 70,000 school children for a population of 435,000, I asked...

...And a lot of people are beginning to feel it isn't enough...

...Within the limits of what it believes to be the problem—that of hanging on to a country where whites are in the minority, where they have created the prosperity, where they must live since they have no other home to go to (as the British and French had)—it is doing the best it knows how...

...As we moved through the meager but neat "front lawn," along a cement path the owner had obviously made himself, Fouche said to me: "Now this house is somewhat above the average, I want you to understand, but you can get an idea anyway...

...But I wanted to see what kind of living conditions Johannesburg's 389,690 whites (1960 census) had provided for its 622,830 Africans...

...City owns and runs this hall, and 14 others like it...

...Beer costs them a shilling, 14 cents a gallon, and is very nutritious: 2 pints of this kaffir beer has more calories than a half a loaf of bread...

...You can't buy people's souls—and a lot of us have souls, you know—with four rooms and running water...

...Pimville is a half-a-square-mile slough of some 33,000 people with exactly 133 city-built houses and an estimated 1,137 "occupied sites," a euphemism for anything from a large cardboard packing box to a hut of straw reeds...

...Directed by our Horticultural Section, you know, which has done all the fine landscaping out here...

...a bedroom (9' × 8...

...Well, we don't have compulsory education here, as we do in white areas," Fouche replied...

...Fouche continued: "Now that school there was built 22 years ago, one of six high schools and 106 schools in the whole area...

...As the road led out of the city the buildings became smaller and the factories dirtier: This was the all-important "buffer area...

...Still, we're going ahead with the program...

...the Bantu are such bad drivers, you know...

...Well, it's about $7.30 with water, but my husband only makes $47.60 a month and he has to spend $5.60 on transportation...

...Most of them didn't bother to look up when we came in, and those that did returned to their drinking without reaction...

...How do I know...

...The removal of this right ranks second only to the question of rents in the urban African's list of hatreds about his native area...

...You know," said my African friend, "many of the people out there don't mind the conditions they live in, and certainly there is good reason to be happy with even the meager, though sufficient, homes which the city has provided...

...So we really couldn't worry about esthetics...

...We passed into a newer African township, called, for no visible reason, Meadowlands...

...Say what you will about the slums of Sophiatown, at least there Africans could own the land...

...To satisfy my curiosity, the South African Information Service, in a gesture of kindness and caution, offered me a free tour—along with Mr...

...where a ruthless (African) landlord will rent out a single two-room corrugated iron shack to two 10member families for as much as $15 a month apiece...

...The fear-ridden Government honestly believes that the Africans must be treated like children, provided for and housed, but kept away from all political toys that might prove dangerous...

...They know it...

...Another feature of most African cities also was missing: the ubiquitous markets, with stolid "market mammies" behind rude roadside stalls and bustling women with babies on their backs and the day's shopping on their heads...

...These home-owners, many of whom could afford homes in any area of Johannesburg, have resigned themselves to sizable investments in segregated living...

...and a storeroom (8' × 7...

...Of course, we had a problem," Fouche tried to explain...

...What troubles Dr...

...Total cost of $7.7 million...

...Fouche hopped out and led us through a brick portal into an open-air, brickwalled courtyard where nearly 100 men were sitting impassively, drinking something out of gallon-sized plastic pots...

...Why don't we stop and go in one of them...

...Driving away from the house I noticed little knots of people all around the neighborhood watching us...

...There is no point in wholesale denigration of what the Government has done...

...of course he owns a lot of businesses and that's not anywhere near his profit, but that's still doing very well, I should say...

...Prefer their coal stoves and kerosene and candles...

...A law passed in 1951 for the first time provided for Africans to be trained on the job to build the homes, so that we could get more of them done...

...This has become a strong and rich country in large part because of our backs, our sweat, our willingness to work for pennies...

...Run by the Government—though there are three private church schools—and staffed entirely by natives, most of them men, because it didn't use to be proper for women to teach...

...Now let me be perfectly honest with you: I don't think I'd like to live in some of those slums in West Africa, just to be able to vote...

...Then he pointed to a rather sadlooking sapling by the side of the road...

...Having only recently come from the stomachturning combinations of filth, dirt and corrupated iron in the slums of Freetown, Accra and Lagos, however, even these dull boxes were a step up...

...I asked Fouche about the absence of markets and he replied jauntily, "Oh, we have shops here, but they're mostly off the road...

...I've got to face the fact that I like living conditions as good as I can get—who wouldn't...

...Don't seem to grow well...

...Here in the native area the Africans own their own businesses, no whites or Indians are allowed, and we have something like 6,400 traders...

...The total cost since 1927 has been $70 million, most of it spent in the last seven years —a figure which represents barely one quarter of the working profits from the country's gold mines in 1960 alone...

...But only about 40 per cent of these people use the electricity, even though it costs less than $2.80 a month...

...There's one lower primary school —first four grades—for every 800 houses, with more than 500 children per school, about 70,000 students in all...

...The 1960-61 city budget allowed the Non-European Affairs Department $13,692,070 and estimated its income from taxes, rents, etc...

...The newer houses were, if anything, slightly less solid and more tedious than the others...

...They are cheap to build, about $560 with African labor for a single family house, and they don't take long...

...But here there was an obvious display of pride in the dwellings themselves, for the lawns were nicely tended and the houses had a bright, well-cared-for look...

...We had to do the most practical thing and these houses were the answer...

...a living room with a huge table and a single easy chair (15' × 11...

...It now has about 11,000 houses, more than any other city-built area...

...So far, however, only about 40 per cent of the street trees have survived—in some areas not even 10 per cent...

...a dining room with a small table and a cupboard (approximately 10 feet by 10 feet...

...Here the children were impassive, old with distrust and dislike...

...Fouche smiled sympathetically...

...He got out of the car and entered one of the houses to ask if we could come in...

...Facing us was an odd-shaped dwelling, small but distinctly different, with a big picture window, a colored roof and a porch...

...And she was above average...

...But when the adolescent finds that he's treated like a threeyear-old, he's bound to rebel...

...Most of the houses cost about $5,000, which goes an awfully long way in this country, and several cost $25,000...

...By 1946 we had 400,000 Africans and we had to find somewhere to put them, so we built as fast as we could...

...Johannesburg, assisted financially by the national Government, has provided some 55,000 homes for these people, and the Government itself has built nearly 18,000 others...

...Who knows...

...The dilemma my friend expressed is fundamental in South Africa...

...The greatest resentment is against being treated like cattle, no matter what benefits are thrown in...

...They simply figure we've got to be kept from dying off— which we're doing in those shantytown slums—in order for them to keep on making profits...

...When we came to the first township Fouche proudly announced, "This is Orlando, one of the oldest townships, which we started building in 1930...

...They were low, two-family brick buildings with corrugated iron roofs, about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, set back 30 feet from the road and divided from it by a low, threestand wire fence that stretched on for nearly a mile...

...There was a slovenliness, a hopelessness, a degradation about Pimville that was worse than anything I had encountered in Accra and Lagos...

...In every other country I had visited on the Continent the famous African exuberance had always shown itself in the smiles and giggles of children...

...Instead, I saw rows and rows of four-room brick boxes, 10 feet apart at most, that stretched down the road in a parade of monotony...

...I looked out at the patchy grass, scraggly trees and dusty yards, remembering the beautifully landscaped and tended grounds of the city-owned water station we had passed a few miles back...

...They lease the land from us, build their own shops with money of their own or that they borrow from us...

...The only good word to be said for this area is that the crime rate is not unusually high, probably because there's very little worth stealing and the men are too lethargic to fight...

...Here was not only naked resignation, but what seemed to be total and utter defeat—of a different, much worse kind than Dube...

...One woman waved as we moved off, but the little children playing in the dirt neither waved nor smiled, even when I flashed at them what I hoped they would take for a friendly grin...

...This is Dube," Fouche said casually...

...We've built 33,000 houses here in the last seven years—that's about 13 a day, though at one point we were building 60 a day—and we've got to build another 38,000 houses in the next 10 years...

...J. Kirk Sale, a former associate editor of The New Leader, is currently traveling through Africa...

...A lot of these parents don't care if their children don't go to school and a lot of children drop out when they can start earning money...

...Sure, a farmer will take care of his pigs because they are a good source of income for him—and we know the Government thinks of us in these terms...

...They are simply being economical...

...These houses have been built since 1954, when we started our major building program to offset the postwar influx of natives coming to urban areas...

...Like many another visitor, I had been impressed with Johannesburg —its size (second only to Cairo on the African Continent), its bustling pace, its modernity (drive-ins, Broadway shows, even frozen custard...

...As in all the other townships, the houses were packed together with meager areas for front lawns, no streetlights and only a few trees by the side of the road...

...It is a sinkhole where cars skid, and children walk, in excrement...

...Xuma and many others in Dube is that it is impossible for him to own the land on which he has invested so heavily...