Perceptions of and Responses to Transformation among people of Indian Origin in Post Apartheid South Africa: 1994-1999 By Anand Singh Submitted in part-fulfillment for a Ph.D. in Anthropology, Univenity of Durban-Westville. Dedicated to All the ethnic minorities in the world, for peaceful co-existence and multi culturalism, ." and to my mother, my wife Jaysbree and children Janitra, Jivesh and Lasila. ABSTRACT The theme of this dissertation is reflected in its title and was written to capture this particular . . . ... .. ". historical juncture in post-apartheid South Africa. It was inspired by a variety of fact-ors, including , . the harsh historical experiences of the Indian population since their arrival as indentured labourers in 1860, the current reassertion of ethnic identities and widespread ethnically based conflicts throughout the world, and the minority rights campaign that is gaining momentum in Europe. The significance of the last point is that West European countries generally enjoy the status as trendsetters on social policy issues, and the rest of the developing world often tends to follow suit. In this respect, this dissertation attempts to illustrate how the views of the Indian minority on transformation, in between the 1994 and 1999 democratic general elections, have been influenced and shaped. Their experiences were important in ascertaining their perceptions and responses to transformation. Research was carried out in the Greater Durban Area across class boundaries, covering suburbs such as Reservoir Hills, Clare Estate, Asherville, Overport, Phoenix and Chatsworth. The outcome of this effort is contained in 229 pages consisting of ten chapters. It is viewed in the context of the circumstances that prevailed just before the county's first democratic general election of 27 April 1994, up to the period of the next general election of 2 June 1999. Of central concern here were the dynamics surrounding the inevitable transfer of power from the White minority to representatives of the Black majority, and how the smallest ethnic minority i.e. the people of Indian origin, were reacting to this process. Research was carried out on the issues about which respondents felt very strongly. These translated into chapters on the history of violence against Indians in South Africa, the widespread impoverishment that is overshadowed by the visibility of the Indian middle and upper classes, their perceptions of informal settlements, Indian priviledge versus African empowerment in the public transport sector in Durban, finding new schools, and emigration - viewed as a solution to some and a dream to others. CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction 1 The Justification for the study 7 Contextualising class and ethnicity 12 The areas of fieldwork 13 Methodology 19 A synopsis of what lies ahead Chapter Two: The history of ethnicity and violence against Indians in South Africa 20 Introduction 22 Polity, Economy and Society 26 Indian immigration 28 Structural violence Physical Violence 35 The violence in perspective 40 Conclusion Chapter Three: Reproducing the underdass among Indians: Variation and Fluidity in household composition in Phoenix, Durban Introduction 42 46 The Indian joint family: history and experience Residential turnover: a brief appreciation 58 Residential turnover in Phoenix: a profile 50 The joint family as kinship responsibility 52 The joint family in the spirit of fostering Joint family as economic necessity Conclusion 59 Chapter Four: Confronting political transformation as an ethnic minority: cultural entrepreneurship and the culturalisation of politics Introduction 62 Contextualising the 'cuHuralisation' process 64 A brief history of South African Indian politics 68 From tactical co-optation to total immersion 72 From uncertainty to Minority Front 78 Conclusion 82 Chapter Five: On the ground: Perceptions of and Responses to change since April 1994 Introduction 84 A profile of the interviewees from 1996 to 1998 90 An analysis of the responses 96 Some predominant socio-political trends 105 Conclusion 107 Chapter six: Residents perceptions of informal settlements the situation in Clare Estate 109 Introduction 110 A brief insight into Canaan 114 Some early responses 117 Individual perceptions and organised responses 122 Conclusion Chapter seven: Small business opportunities and informal settlements 125 Introduction An insight into the unlicensed traders operations 128 Their relationships with African clientele 136 A few significant events and ambiguous ethnography 140 Conclusion 145 Chapter eight: Public transport in Durban - Indian priviledge versus African empowerment Introduction 147 The rise of the African taxi industry: 1977-1978 153 Indian buses and African taxis 157 Residents, buses and taxis 164 Conclusion 167 Chapter nine: Finding a new school in post-apartheid South Africa Introduction 169 The history of Indian education 170 The present state of schools in three areas 173 Looking out - White institutions as a solution for the best education 181 Networking - kinship, neighbourhood and friendship as resources 184 Conclusion 187 Chapter ten: Emigration - a solution to some and a dream to others Introduction 189 Understanding motivation for emigration 190 Analysing responses 191 Who did you vote for in 1994 and who will you vote for in 1999 198 Emigration - not an individual choice 202 Conclusion 206 Conclusion 208 References 220 CHAPTER ONE Introduction This thesis is about people of Indian origin in post-apartheid South Africa. It focuses on issues of historical and contemporary interest, especially within the population in several of the city of Durban's predominantly Indian suburbs. The work should be viewed in the context of the particular historical circumstances that have prevailed since just before the country's first democratic general election on 27 April 1994, up to the period of the next general election of 2 June 1999. The social, political and economic factors that have dominated this period have been of immense interest both nationally and internationally. The intrigue surrounding the inevitable switching of power from more than three hundred years of White political and economic domination to African majority rule was what caught the attention of the entire world (Sparks 1994). A central concern here was the position of the minorities in this emerging transitional democracy. The world would not have been surprised if the country deteriorated into a state of civil war and if the most powerful of its minorities, the Whites, engaged in a protracted war to claim their own territory and self-rule. Indeed such attempts were made by right-wingers both among Whites and Zulus, but without much success. The periods of ethnic and racial tension were short lived and dissipated through careful maneuvering, especially through the leadership and charisma of Nelson Mandela. Both Afrikaners and Zulus considered themselves threatened minorities and articulated their fears in emotive rhetoric and acts of violence. Other minorities such as Indians and Coloureds reacted more passively to change. The options that were available to both these population groups restricted them to this type of reaction. Their minority statuses and marginal integration into the military structures forbade them from responding to transformation in the ways that Afrikaners and Zulus had done. A glimpse into how transformation has impacted on people of Indian origin is provided below. Five aspects will be covered in this introduction viz. justification for the study, contextual ising class and ethnicity, the areas of fieldwork, methodology (literature survey and fieldwork) and a synopsis of what lies ahead. The issues: Justification for the study In the late 1960s the Economic Commission for Latin America, dominated by the underdevelopment/dependency school which was inspired by Andre Gunder Frank (1969), came to enjoy predominance in explaining the position of peripheral countries in the world political economy. This school emphasized the unequal relationship between the that were the chief supplier of minerals and industrialized west and the developing raw materials. While their analysis was initially centred on economic explanations. they soon came to realise the character of their political leadership, the low levels of skills. and the class and ethnic composition of the Latin populace. This often way not just in Latin America but in Africa as well to ethnic conflicts, despotic and corrupt leadership, and even lesser commitment from the ruling elite to steer countries away from such quagmires. In addressing South Africa's imminent transition to democracy and focussing on policy perspectives for the future, Schlemmer (1991: 15) argued that politics in South Africa is often oversimplified and has weakened the capacity of South African social science to deal with the real complexities of change in the system. Often, the competition for political power is seen as a Black (African)-White divide that ignores the role and contribution of other minorities such as Indians in regional and national politics. Schlemmer added that the models for transition in Southern Africa are distinctly unappetising, especially when viewed against the background of the widespread problems in the region since independence. Post independence leaders in Africa misled themselves into believing that they could administer their countries adequately without the assistance of their White adversaries. Half of White Rhodesians fled Zimbabwe which was starving of foreign capital, Lesotho was under prolonged military Mozambique and Angola were implementing scientific social reeducation camps, and had crude East European equipment which could not be repaired. The consequences of all of these efforts were disastrous and had to be abandoned for lack of creative and responsible leadership. Other writers such as Good (1999) have supported this claim by illustrating how the rise of wealth and power within the cattle owning economy of Botswana has been accompanied by creation of poverty and weakness. Olivier de Sardan (1999: 28) unhesitatingly placed the failures in Africa in the 'corruption complex', because as he puts it "Corruption (that is to say the 'corruption complex') has become, in almost all African countries, a common and routine element of the functioning of the administrative and para-administrative apparatus, from top to bottom." South Africa too is showing similar directions of elitism, decline state capacity, embezzlement and predominance (as Good refers to the African leadership), is swiftly turning democracy into mere electoralism. Human, financial, organisational, and material resources have been dissipated on a very large scale. After the 1994 election, ''the government, in the assessment of the Minister of Public Service and Administration, decided 'unscientifically' on a target of cutting 300 000 civil service jobs in three years, and wasted RIOOO million on 2 programmes which robbed the bureaucracy of its best brains, but retained those, whom Zola Skweyiya said, 'you would like to have retrenched'" (Good 1997: 548). The failures in Africa prompted the late Mozambican President Samora Machel to say to President Robert Mugabe soon after he took over Zimbabwe: "Keep your Whites. " (Richburg 1997: 191). South African politics is also undergoing radical re-engineering along ethnic and racial lines, not withstanding the problems of the past. This thesis, while not unaware of the external environment in which South Africa operates viz. the global economy, focuses on the internal dynamics of South Africa's democratic transition. In particular its focus is on race and ethnic relations with particular reference to the Indian minority. For more than four decades since 1948, legislation required citizens to detennine their aspirations along ethnic and racial lines. The 1950 Population Registration Act which divided South Africa's population into four racial categories viz. White, Indian, Coloured and African, and which also identified Africans by ethnic group, provided the basis for differentiated access to economic and political opportunities. This gave rise to a significant degree of in-group solidarity within the racial and ethnic categories as each tried to either protect their privileges or oppose the constrictions that were imposed upon them. Out of this situation emerged cleavages that are bound to make the transfonnation process in post-Apartheid South Africa as sensitive to racial and ethnic issues as possible. This situation exists at a time when ethnic tensions in countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, Chechnya and Dagestan, among others, have flared up in ways that have been extremely costly to human lives and socio-political stability. The end of the Cold War has ushered in an unbridled build-up of anns in many of the strife tom countries as well as new kinds of political demands that are rooted in ethnic mobilisation. Understanding Indians perceptions of and responses to transfonnation would require some attention on the politics of the rest of Africa as well as those of South Africa, since these factors are instrumental in detennining the nature of such issues. An interesting comment by a student was made one day on the politics in Africa. In March 1997 when I took an M.A. class in Social Policy that had mainly African students, a debate emerged around the topic of the role of the state and international aid in developing countries. This was the period during which Mobuto Sese-seko was facing finn opposition from the Laurent Kabila led forces in what was then Zaire - presently renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the students were emphatically against the international "donor" agencies. Enthusiasm among them to bash the International Monetary 3 Fund and the World Bank for its role in Africa reached high and emotional levels, especially with reference to what little economic and political stability was achieved in Zaire. Their accounts of how Sese-seko was co-opted and neutralised by these institutions and their surrogate multi-national corporations, as they plundered the economic resources of the country, demonstrated a high level of political consciousness. They clearly wanted to see a South Africa free from the alliances with exploitative international agencies, trusting that the ANC led government was going to steer clear of them. But their enthusiasm was dampened and brought to an abrupt halt by an incisive response from a Nigerian student who retorted: "listen my South African brothers and sisters, the problem in Africa is not with the external powers. The problem here is that African leaders are weak and they have sold us out. Do you know if you have a referendum in Zaire to-day the people will ask for the French to return, and if you have a referendum in Nigeria today, they will ask for the British to return. That is because most of my country's oil revenue has been stolen by the Nigerian army generals who have put all the money in the Swiss banks - more than four hundred billion U.S. dollars! I am telling you, the Nigerian leaders have put my country five hundred years behind time .... If you look at the problem facing your own country today, it is going the same way with corruption. You will learn very soon .... " In a sense, the student's statement enjoyed resonance with views that were generally associated with conservative thinking during apartheid, although he was certainly not influenced by it. His disappointment emerged out of his experiences in his own country, which had the misfortune of several coup d'etats in less than ten years. The political emancipation in most African countries after colonialism has been stifled by lack of vision, systematic plundering of state resources and mismanagement of the positive financial reserves and functional infrastructures that were left behind (Hyden 1983; Hill 1986; Good 1986; Carmen 1996). A classic case in point is provided in Hill's (1986) coverage of Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party's attempt to acquire support in the 1950s by providing cocoa farmers with official grants for replanting of their cocoa farms after they were devastated by swollen shoot disease. There was no account of how these funds were actually used and no threat of fanns being expropriated if the grants were not repaid through increased production, until years later when a commission of inquiry discovered that farmers were putting the money to other uses. A widespread practice was to devote the cash to building houses in Accra for letting, leading to a sharp reduction in cocoa production and consequently to a reduction in state revenue. Similarly, Good's (1986) investigation into the 4 massive annual losses of maize in Zambia in the 1980s, led him to discover a virtual absence of proper planning and massive pilfering of funds in almost every government Ministry. Every year there was insufficient fuel, no spare parts for transport vehicles, insufficient jute bags to store the maize, no grading of roads - making it difficult for trucks to collect the maize during the rainy season from farms away from the main road, among a range of other problems. In Zimbabwe as well the central province of Gokwe continue to suffer isolation from the rest of the country because of the lack of proper infrastructure that should allow for dual movements of supplies in and out of the region (Breslin 1994). While the farmers sell their produce to the neighbouring towns and cities there is no in-flow of goods to Gokwe that allows for ready access to basic goods and immediate needs. This has produced a desperate situation that has led people to eating dogs and adding grass to their maize meal in order to stretch its lasting capacity. Farmers have also been forced to sell their implements to buy food and pay for their children's education in order to break their reliance on agriculture. Such situations across Africa has led Hyden (1983: x), in his search for alternative forms of governance in the continent, to comment: As most of Africa's new states are reaching the age of a human generation, very few can look back on a period of real progress ... To many foreign businesses eager to find new markets and new wealth, Africa has become a pit that swallows their money with little or no return. This is a judgement that applies not only to 'socialist' or 'Marxist-Leninist' regimes but also to those characterised by a 'free' economy, for example Nigeria, Sudan and Zaire ... In spite of receiving colossal amounts of aid, they argue, countries Uke Tanzania and Zambia show no progress; instead their economies show signs of moving backwards .... Soon after the end of colonial rule Whites, who were the most privileged in the civil service and who were selectively trained to operate it, emigrated in droves to the industrialised countries. This migratory movement created a vacuum in administrative positions that made it difficult for the newly independent countries to effectively continue with the functioning of these institutions in sustainable ways. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa the state has all but lost its role as the instrument for development and political stability. In other countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia, the state has been instrumental in fostering political instability and the breakdown of civil society (Richburg 1998). This has given rise to ethnic conflicts of genocidal proportions in some countries, which in turn led to a virtual breakdown of the infrastructures in others. Interviewees for this project were aware of these situations and were generally critical of them. The expUlsion of the Indians from Uganda in 1974, the restrictions imposed by the governments of Malawi and Tanzania on Indians to freely engage in commercial activities, and two 5