Conference on the History of Opposition in Southern Africa

Title: Conference on the History of Opposition in Southern Africa
Title: Opposition Leadership in Venda and Gazankulu: petty bourgeois frustrations and response
Creator: Dison, David
Subject: South Africa -- Politics and government -- Congresses
Subject: South Africa -- Social conditions -- Congresses
Subject: Local government -- South Africa
Date: 1978-01-27-30
Type: text
Type: book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/66567
Identifier: vital:28964
Description: It is certainly true that a number of the men who have sat in homeland representative councils live in white areas. Apartheid idealogues draw two inferences from this observation. Firstly, that as the policy of separate development unfolds, urban representation in homeland councils will be a continuing trend. Secondly, that the political aspirations of urban blacks can be fulfilled in the homeland political arena. (1) Both of these conclusions can be refuted at the empirical level alone. With regard to the first, Kotze himself inadvertently provides us with evidence to the contrary. Of the seven representatives " from white urban areas" whom he mentions, four of these men were forced out of the homeland political arena, in 1975 alone. Collins Ramusi and Mageza, having become "interior ministers" for their homelands (Lebowa and Gazankulu respectively) were forced to leave their positions towards the beginning of that year, and Barney Dladla, Executive Councillor for Community Affairs in Buthelezi's KwaZulu cabinet, was ousted as well. Baldwin Mudau’s Venda Independence People’s party suffered continual harassment and was thwarted in its attempts to hold elections in Venda. It was decided to examine the cases of Mudau and Mageza in greater depth to explain how the demise in their roles as ’homeland politicians’ occurred. This examination revealed the fallaciousness of the second and central inference mentioned earlier. It was shown that although these men lived and worked in the city, their electoral support did not come from the urban areas. Once it was established that their electoral base was in fact a predominantly rural one, the refutation of this second theme became complete. On a purely empirical level then, the contentions of Kotze et al were refuted. But to merely refute these ideological statements by providing evidence to the contrary does not answer the questions that have arisen as a result of the investigation.
Description: Opposition politics in Venda and Gazenkulu
Format: 11 pages, pdf
Publisher: (Students') Development Studies Group of University of the Witwatersrand
Language: English
Rights: University of Witwatersrand
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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