Mavuso Msimang’s article in Daily Maverick opens with what he describes as a “teeny bit of history.” Unfortunately he gets his history wrong.
The article begins with a brief discussion of why, when the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, London did not insist that all its people – irrespective of colour – were given the vote. “Having won the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) Britain, through its Parliament, passed the South Africa Act 1909 which established the Union of South Africa in 1910. A not-often-told fact is that Britain stipulated that South Africa should be governed by people of European descent,” he writes.
The problem with this is that Msimang gets his agency wrong. It was not Britain that sought to deprive Africans of the vote – it was white South Africans.
When the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith finally pushed the Bill through the British Parliament, against the opposition of the Labour Party and senior members of his own Liberal Party, he made clear his regret that race had been inserted as a criterion for voting and standing for Parliament:
“It is not to be understood – it would be a totally false impression if it were suggested – that as regards all the provisions of the Bill there is unanimity of opinion in the House. In particular, as regards some of the clauses which deal with the treatment of natives and the access of native Members to the Legislature, there is, as everybody who has followed these Debates will have seen, not only no difference of opinion in this House, but absolute unanimity of opinion in the way of regret that particular provisions of the Bill have been inserted.” [Hansard 19 August 1909, Vol. 9 Column 1656]
These were more than mere words. They accurately reflected the British position. The problem with Msimang’s position comes from his belief that London had “won” the Anglo-Boer war by inflicting a “defeat” on the Afrikaners. The reality was far less clear cut.