1953 Anti-Pass Campaign: Langa

On 4 January 1953, hundreds of Black women assembled in Langa Township outside Cape Town to protest against new pass laws. The apartheid regime’s influx control measures and pass laws were what women feared the most and reacted to most vehemently.

Their fears were not unfounded. In 1952 the Native Laws Amendment Act tightened influx control, making it an offence for any African (including women) to be in any urban area for more than 72 hours unless in possession of the necessary documentation. The only women who could live legally in the townships were the wives and unmarried daughters of the African men who were eligible for permanent residence.

In the same year the Natives Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents Act was passed. In terms of this act the many different documents African men had been required to carry were replaced by a single one – the reference book – which gave details of the holder’s identity, employment, place of legal residence, payment of taxes, and, if applicable, permission to be in the urban areas.

The act further stipulated that African women, at an unspecified date in the near future, would for the first time be required to carry reference books. Women were enraged by this direct threat to their freedom of movement and began their anti-pass campaign, which was one of the most vociferous and effective protest campaigns of any at the time.

Protests began as early as 1950 when rumours of the new legislation were leaked in the press. Meetings and demonstrations were held in a number of centres including Langa, Uitenhage, East London, Cape Town, Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

In the Durban protests of March 1950, Bertha Mkhize of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) was a leading figure, while in Port Elizabeth Florence Matomela (the provincial president of the ANCWL) led a demonstration in which passes were burnt. By 1953 there were still sporadic demonstrations taking place and these accelerated when local officials began to enforce the new pass regulations. Reaction was swift and hostile.

On 4 January 1953, hundreds of African men and women assembled in Langa, the oldest African township close to Cape Town, to protest against the new laws. Delivering a fiery speech to the crowd Dora Tamana, a member of the ANC Women’s League and later a founding member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), declared:

“We women will never carry these passes…We have seen it with our men. Who will look after our children when we go to jail for a small technical offence – not having a pass.”

In June 1952 the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Indian Congress (SAIC) initiated a joint protest initiative known as the Defiance Campaign. Radical tactics of defiance were to be employed to exert pressure on the government. This was in line with the ANC’s declared ‘Programme of Action’ of 1949.

Volunteers from the ANC, SAIC and the SA Congress of Democrats (COD), mainly members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) that had disbanded in 1950, began to publicly defy discriminatory laws and invite arrest, filling the jails and over-extending the judicial system.

Women were prominent in many of these defiant incidents. Florence Matomela was among 35 activists arrested in Port Elizabeth and Bibi Dawood recruited 800 volunteers in Worcester. Fatima Meer, an Indian woman, was arrested for her role in the unrest and was subsequently banned.

Another woman to come to the fore during the Defiance Campaign was Lilian Ngoyi, who later became president of both the ANCWL and FEDSAW. The Defiance Campaign made her realise that only by adopting a more aggressive and militant approach would the government be fully aware of the commitment of women to the national struggle for freedom. Women’s involvement in the Defiance Campaign certainly proved to be an important stimulus in their political development across the board.

“We women will never carry these passes! Wathint’ Abafazi, wathint’ Imbokodo, uzokufa!”

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!