Pixley Ka-Isaka Seme, a leading fi gure at the launch of the South African Native National Congress, later renamed the African National Congress (ANC).
Black opposition also intensified. André Odendaal has argued that the South African Native Convention (SANC), which met in Bloemfontein’s Waaihoek township in March 1909 to consider means of protesting against the draft Union constitution, was intended to be a permanent organisation to represent blacks on a national basis under Union. The SANC continued to be active in 1910 and in 1911 and its members wrote to Louis Botha and to the press to urge the government to consider black interests.
The main initiative to transform the SANC into a more dynamic body to represent black people in all parts of South Africa appears to have come from Pixley Ka-Isaka Seme. Educated at a mission school in Natal and the universities of Columbia and Oxford, he practised as an attorney in Johannesburg. After a considerable amount of preliminary organisation, the leaders of various local political bodies, as well as chiefs or their representatives, met at Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912.
There were 25 delegates from the Transvaal, representing not only the Witwatersrand and Pretoria but also the northern Transvaal. No other province was as strongly represented and only a few, including the influential Dr Walter Rubusana, came from the Cape. Chiefs or their representatives from Basutoland, Bechuanaland and various parts of the Transvaal were present.
The meeting was opened by a number of clergymen including a white man, the Rev. Rose, who made a plea for the acceptance of European auxiliary members in the organisation. Sol Plaatje, editor of the newspaper Tsala ea Becoana (The Friend of the Bechuana), emphasised the purpose of the conference:
The white people of this country have formed what is known as the Union of South Africa – a union in which we have no voice in the making of laws and no part in their administration. We have called you therefore to this Conference so that we can together devise ways and means of forming our national union for the purpose of creating national unity and defending our rights and privileges.
The name South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which was to be changed to African National Congress (ANC) in 1923, was adopted but not without some disagreement. Plaatje thought the organisation should have an African name like Imbizo Yabantu (Bantu Congress). A special committee was appointed to draft a constitution. The five basic aims of the SANNC were spelt out in the draft constitution as follows
• The promotion of unity and mutual co-operation between the government and the black people of South Africa.
• The maintenance of a central channel between the government and the black people.
• The promotion of educational, social, economic and political upliftment of the black people.
• The promotion of mutual understanding between the various chiefs and the encouragement to be loyal to the
British Crown and to all lawfully constituted authorities and to bring about better understanding between white and black South Africans.
• To seek and to obtain redress for any of the just grievances of the black people.
Zulu politician John Dube was elected in absentia as president of the SANNC. Plaatje was elected general secretary and Pixley Seme became treasurer. Neither white newspapers nor Jabavu’s Imvo Zabantsundu carried reports of the inaugural SANNC conference. A constitution was adopted only in 1919.
After the 1913 Land Act, black politicians began to look to the outside world for allies – for example, with the South African Native National Congress delegation to England in June 1914. Members were (from left): Thomas Mapikela, Walter Rubusana, John Dube, Saul Msane and Sol T. Plaatje. The delegation tried to get the British government to intervene against the Land Act but the outbreak of World War I thwarted their hopes.
Dube was the 41-year-old son of a clergyman who was related to the Ngcobo chiefs. After studying at a mission school and in America, he returned to teach in South Africa and to launch and edit the newspaper Ilanga laseNatal. With Rubusana he had convened the South African Native Convention in 1909 and been a member of the delegation that went to London to protest against the South Africa Act.
A delegation of SANNC leaders saw the Minister of Native Affairs in Cape Town in March 1912 to voice their objections to the Natives Land Bill, without making any impact. The SANNC delegation also met leaders of the APO. A newspaper, Abantu Batho (The People), the official organ of the SANNC, was partly sponsored by the Queen Regent of Swaziland, Labotsibeni. In parts of the eastern Cape, however, the followers of Jabavu, who believed that blacks were best advised to concentrate on winning the support of white politicians in the parliamentary spectrum, hesitated to give full support to the new organisation.
The SANNC considered the Natives Land Act as such a threat that it sent a delegation to Britain, consisting of Dube, Plaatje, Rubusana, Thomas Mapikela (who had acted as chairman at the Bloemfontein conference of 1912) and Saul Msane (a founder member of the Natal Native Congress at the turn of the century). It was granted an interview in London at the end of June 1914 with Secretary of State for Colonies Lewis Harcourt. Plaatje subsequently said: ‘Mr Harcourt made no notes and asked no questions at the interview accorded to our deputation.’ Relying on the assurances of General Botha, the minister told the delegation that it had not exhausted ‘all South African remedies before coming to England’.
