New Year message from Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, President of the South African Indian Congress, January 1, 1951
Grave problems of life and death face us and the peoples of the world in the coming year. In the international field the imperialist warmongers headed by the United States are engaged in feverish activities to mobilise war materials and manpower to drown the world in the blood and destruction of war.
But the people of the world say otherwise. They want peace, they want freedom and independence, they declare that subjection of every form, of one country by another, of one nation by another, of one race by another, leads to human conflict and disaster, and must be wiped out.
There is no reason why the peoples of the Socialist countries should not live side by side and in peace and harmony with the peoples of the Capitalist countries. There is no reason why atomic energy, the greatest invention of mankind, should not be used for the betterment of humanity unprecedented in written history, instead of being used as a most satanic weapon of destruction as hoped for by the warmongers of the world.
It is, therefore, the sacred duty of the peoples of all countries to fight for peace, for the outlawing of the atom bomb, for the elimination of racialism and for the recognition to every country of the right to self-determination.
Apartheid
In order to fulfil this grave and sacred duty it is necessary for every South African to oppose every aspect of the policy of apartheid pursued by the Nationalist Party Government of Dr. Malan. During the last two years this government has enacted many pieces of legislation repugnant to democratic ways of life. During the next session of parliament which opens this month, the Coloured people, and indeed all the peoples of South Africa, face the gravest threat to their liberties.
The Malan-Havenga pact which threatens the Coloured franchise, is not merely a threat to the franchise rights of the Coloured people who have the right to vote, but it is also a most sinister attack on democracy as such.
The 48,000 Coloured voters in the Cape may lose the right of the common franchise, but it also paves the way for a fascist State in South Africa.
End of democracy
To allow the Cape Coloured franchise to go would not only mean an end to the era of liberalism in the Cape; it would mean ma end to democracy as we know it in South Africa. It would mean not only one Witzieshoek, but hundreds of Witzieshoeks, where the legitimate demands of the African people for land and living space would be drowned in blood.
It would mean more and more forcible expulsion of the urban Africans to work as serfs and slaves on the farms of the Afrikaner herrenvolk. It would not only mean the greater oppression of the non-white peoples, but the slow but sure whittling away of the rights of vast sections of the European population. The rise in the cost of living not only affects the Non-European people, but the vast majority of the Europeans.
our tasks
And so our tasks for the coming year are clear.
1. In common with hundreds of millions of people throughout the world we must fight for peace, for the outlawing of the atomic bomb and all bacteriological methods of warfare, for the ending of all war propaganda, for the meeting of the big Powers for a peaceful settlement of all disputes.
2. The elimination of racialism and the abolition of all forms of racial discrimination in South Africa.
3. The abolition of the pass laws, police raids in locations, the granting of land for those who need it, the repeal of the Group Areas Act, the Population Registration Act, the Citizenship Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Immorality and Mixed Marriages Acts.
4. An end to apartheid tyranny, which includes discrimination of languages, citizenship rights and the establishment of a broederbond republic.
A Convention
To end apartheid tyranny in 1951 it is fundamentally necessary that a clarion call should go out from the African National Congress, representing vast sections of the South African population, for the calling of a National Convention in the immediate future; to bring together at a central conference representatives of all sections of the South African population, both white and non-white, in order to resolve on a programme which would oppose apartheid in every form, and work for the recognition of the human dignity and the basic human rights of all social groups of people in consonance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights.
This is a question which merits the attention and consideration of ail South Africans, and on this... will depend the future of South Africa.
1951 must see an end to apartheid tyranny. We fight for peace, democracy, and an end to exploitation of man by man on earth.