The most contentious Act passed by the first Union Parliament – and the one that was to have the most far-reaching implications – was the Natives Land Act of 1913. The bill, initially drafted by J.B.M. Hertzog, who succeeded Burton as Minister of Native Affairs in June 1912, was in conformity with the segregation proposals of the Lagden Commission (1903–1905) and the 1912 report of the Native Affairs Committee headed by Burton. By December 1912 Hertzog was no longer a member of the cabinet, and yet another Minister of Native Affairs, J.W. Sauer, piloted the bill through Parliament. The Act provided for the purchase, leasing, ownership and occupation of land by blacks and whites in the Union of South Africa and defined the nature of black land tenancy.
These stipulations were to have important repercussions on labour conditions for blacks in rural and urban areas. A schedule to the Act declared which land was to be regarded as ‘native areas’. These scheduled areas – all existing reserves, tribal locations and black-owned farms – comprised a total of some 8.9 million hectares or less than 8% of the Union’s land area, with the promise that Parliament, advised by a commission, would subsequently make provision for more land for black ownership and occupation.
Except with the approval of the governor-general, no person other than a black person could acquire any land or interest in land in the scheduled areas. A black person was not permitted to purchase or lease land from a white person outside the scheduled areas. The Act further stipulated that all black tenants were to be defined as ‘servants’.
The Act was not to be applied uniformly throughout South Africa. As it had not been passed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of Parliament sitting together, it could not be enforced in the Cape Province, where it impinged on the constitution. The franchise clause was entrenched and any curb on the right of people regardless of colour to own property would negatively affect the ability of people to qualify for the vote. In the Transvaal and Natal it was intended that no action would be taken against black tenants until extra scheduled land had been made available. In the Free State black sharecropping would immediately become illegal and black tenants could stay on white farms only if they or members of their family provided labour or services.
What were the forces responsible for the Act? There was pressure from white farmers from the Transvaal and Free State for the government to enact legislation to prevent further purchases of land by blacks in what were considered to be ‘white areas’. This practice, often made possible by a number of blacks pooling their resources, was believed to be on the increase. It was seen as a threat to white supremacy on the land. The Natives Land Act was also an attempt to secure a supply of cheap black labour on the platteland and in the towns by checking the development of an independent black peasantry.
