Reality: a Journal of Liberal Opinion

Title: Reality: a Journal of Liberal Opinion
Subject: South Africa -- Politics and government -- Periodicals
Subject: Politics, Practical -- Periodicals
Subject: Political rights -- Periodicals
Date: 1969-1972
Type: text
Type: book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/76071
Identifier: vital:30499
Description: Here the agreement between these two Ministers comes to an abrupt end. For while Dr. Koornhof says categorically that the only honourable way in which to do this, is by developing the resources of the homelands, Mr. Froneman states equally categorically that it is no part of the white man's duty to do so. Dr. Koornhof speaks of the moral and altruistic elements in the policy of separate development. Mr. Froneman speaks in the harshest and most callous terms of millions of "surplus" Africans, who must be sent back to their homelands, no matter what awaits them there. He says that African labourers in "white" areas must not be burdened with "superfluous appendages", such as wives, children, and dependents who could not provide service. These two men are in the same Cabinet. If one has been rebuked, it was done in private. And if it was done, it was no doubt done in a semi-jocular manner — "Fronnie, old boy, we all know what you mean, but you must learn to talk prettily." These two men do not represent two irreconcilable wings of the Nationalist Party, they represent the two essential elements of the policy of separate development. And these two elements are essential to each other. Either by itself would be dangerous. Either by itself would be unacceptable. Neither Mr. Froneman nor Dr. Koornhof has reached the stage when one cannot bear to be in the same Cabinet as the other. Although each of these two elements and each of these prototypes, is essential to the other, they do not co-exist in perfect harmony. The one is a naked baas, the other is a bass clothed in soft raiment. The first thinks the second is a sissy, the second thinks the first is a barbarian. They do not say so publicly, but their newspapers do, and that is not good. In the absence of any official pronouncement we must assume that they have been told that the sissy and the barbarian are essential to one another. The sissy will get the barbarian into nice company, the barbarian will protect the sissy if the nice company turns nasty. Why is it that although the barbarian and the sissy do not co-exist in harmony, they are (in spite of the dreams of rift-seekers) essential, the one to the other? Why do the callousness and the altruism not go to civil war? The answer is that neither of them is a fundamental. They are both imposed on something that is fundamental, and that is the preservation of white supremacy (which can be more gently called self-preservation, a soft word that turns wrath in some circles). Neither the callousness nor the altruism is part of the deep monolithic core. The cracks can show, the paint can peel, the fragments can flake off, but the core remains untouched. In times of ease (such as the present), one sees and hears and reads much of the cracking and the fragmentation. In times of danger (which will come), one is conscious of the monolithic core, which is like an ironwood heart in a softwood tree. If we accept the view that Mr. Froneman and Dr. Koornhof have something deep and fundamental in common, is there therefore nothing to choose between them? Or are Dr. Koornhof and his kind, bearers of hope for the future? For Mr. Froneman and his kind certainly are not. Their dream of the total separation of the races, if one chooses to dignfiy it by the use of such a term, is a dream which must be realised at whatever cost, and the cost will be the bitterness, and inevitably the hatred, of millions of Africans towards the white masters who make such heartless use of their power. It is claimed by our rulers that such bitterness does not exist except in the imaginations of sentimentalists and agitators, and it is true that the patience of Africans appears to be infinite. It takes a train disaster to strip the mask from the smiling face. Are Dr. Koornhof and his kind, bearers of hope for the future? Like Mr. Froneman, Dr. Koornhof believes in the policy of separate development. He does not attempt to conceal that this is to be done in the interests of self- preservation. If the homelands are developed, then more and more Africans will leave "white" South Africa to return to the places from which they were driven by the need for work, money, and food. Although Dr. Koornhof did not say so, it is justifiable to infer that he believes that white South Africa will be more secure if it sheds itself of its Africans, surplus or otherwise. There will be no competition in the labour market, no crime by rootless young black men in the beautiful white suburbs, and most important of all, no night of the long knife. But Dr. Koornhof wants this transformation to be made with justice. There must be work and food and hope in the homelands, and they must be helped to achieve autonomy, political and cultural and economic. It is the economic autonomy that poses the greatest difficulty. Even if it does not mean economic independence, it should mean a healthy economic relationship with "white" South Africa. This is where Mr. Froneman parts company with Dr. Koornhof. And this is where REALITY parts company with Dr. Koornhof too. The recognition that there can he no political and cultural autonomy unless there is at least a healthy relationship with “white” South Africa, is for REALITY a recognition by its political opponents that there are moral considera' tions which transcend those of naed self-preservation. These considerations were blue-printed (inadequately) by Professor Tomlinson in the ninteen- fifties, inexplicably ignored by Dr, Verwoerd (his biographer may one day explain why), and are now, in 1969, alternately honoured and dismissed by a two-tongued Cabinet. In any case REALITY rejects the Tomlinson or any other similar blueprint. The wealth of “white” South Africa was created by all of us jointly, and it belongs to all those who created is.
Description: Journal includes vol. 1 no. 2 to vol. 1 no. 6 ; vol 2 no. 1 to vol. 2 no. 6 and vol. 3 no. 1 to vol. 3 no. 6
Description: Vol. 2 no. 3 is missing
Format: 322 pages, pdf
Publisher: Reality Publications
Language: English
Rights: Reality Publications
Rights: No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from the publisher

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