Ek haal aan uit Jan Smuts, An Illustrated Biography deur Trewhella Cameron:
From 1912 to 1919, Smuts made no comment in the South African Parliament on ’native Policy', but in May 1917 he addressed a joint meeting of the Imperial Institute and various South African societies at the Savoy Hotel in London, and stated that the Commonwealth and South Africa in particular had a 'civilizing mission' to perform in Africa. He cited two fundamental axioms for the definition of black-white relationships: 'There must be no intermixture of blood between the two colours,' and whites must build their conduct on the 'granite bedrock of the Christian moral code'. He said that 'a practice has grown up in South Africa of creating parallel institutions - giving the natives their own separate institutions on parallel lines with institutions for whites. In land ownership, settlement and forms of government we are trying to keep them apart.
His ideas were received with enthusiasm by his audience ...
Wat hy volgens bostaande kwytgeraak het, is maar eintlik niks anders as apartheid nie.
Nog ’n interessantheid is dat dit nie net wit Afrikaners was wat ongeneë was om die stemreg aan swartes te gee nie. Die kwessie is bespreek tydens die Nasionale Konvensie voor Uniewording en Sir Henry Moore van Natal het geweier om te aanvaar dat stemreg aan swartes gegee moes word, en Botha het dieselfde gevoel oor Transvaal. Ek haal aan uit dieselfde boek:
... Although Smuts still believed that franchise rights should not be extended to blacks, he saw the necessity of compromise. In a letter to J.H. Hobson in July 1908 he outlined the compromise which the National Convention made later, that the franchise laws of the colonies remain intact. At the convention, the Cape delegates suggested that the qualified Cape franchise be extended to the other provinces, De Villiers and Sir Percy Fitzpatrick proposed a 'civilization test ' for blacks, and Botha and Sir Henry Moore refused to accept that blacks should have political rights in the Transvaal and Natal ...
Uiteindelik is die kompromis toe aanvaar en in die grondwet opgeneem.
Dit is belangrik om daarop te let dat swart mense glad nie geraadpleeg is oor die hele aangeleentheid nie, en hulle en die Indiërs het sterk afkeur gehad aan baie van die bepalings van die grondwet.
Groete
Varkspek