Donaldson Trust History
The Donaldson Trust was started in response to the draft bill of the Hertzog Government in 1935 which sought to deprive black Africans of the vote in the Cape Province. The founder, Lieutenant Colonel James Donaldson D.S.O., gave £500 to a delegation of leaders from the all-African Convention to enable them to go to Cape Town to lobby MPs and rouse public opinion.
The Institute acted as secretaries from its inception until 1983, and it administered the trust`s bursary scheme which involved the granting of student loans and which, during the Apartheid era, also involved providing bank guarantees to government to cover black Africans studying abroad. The bursary scheme was phased out in the early 1990.
Among the many inequalities which the Colonel, sought to rectify was the inequality of wages. He wrote “I am of the opinion that the whole profitable economic development of the Union has been made possible only by the underpaid labour of its native black people, and that their share of the benefits which have been, and are being distributed, is entirely incommensurate with the contribution which they have made towards getting them. I feel that the difficulties of harmonizing relationships between the two races at very unequal levels of education and civilization have been increased by the harsh legislative and administrative measures adopted by the ruling authorities in their dealings with the Bantu, which have resulted in the conditions under which the Bantu people live, particularly in towns, are seriously affecting their health and physical stamina and are increasing their poverty and misery.
The colonel also fought to have the pass laws abolished but was told that nothing could be done pending the report of the Fagan Commission. The commission was expected to advocate sweeping reforms and was headed by Ellison Kahn of the Institute of Race Relations (later President of the Institute) and included a very youthful Helen Suzman. He also played a leading role in the proposed incorporation of the mandated territory of South West Africa into the Union of South Africa This had been discussed in the United Nations Organization in January 1946 and the colonel wanted to send a delegation to South West Africa in order to ascertain the views of the black African population on the incorporation. He had discussed this with the director of Race Relations who had told him that he too had wanted to send a delegation with the idea of collecting information on the proposal to be published in a pamphlet, and that the Administrator of the Territory had already given his approval subject to the delegation not going before the Government`s consultation with the tribes had been completed in April.
With the Administrator`s agreement the director of the Institute had written to the Union Prime Minister (General Smuts) who had written back explaining that he was bringing the question of South West Africa before a United Nations meeting in the September of that year and that he believed it was likely to cause confusion if a delegation was making non-official enquiries at the same time as government`s official consultations.
He had added that Lord Hailey, the British Government representative and chairman of the Committee on Post-War Problems in the Colonies, had also suggested visiting the territory but that until the United Nations meeting had taken place, he would like all visits to be postponed.The Institute had decided therefore not to send a delegation, but the Colonel considered that the Union had an obligation to promote the welfare of all sections of the population, and so in the March of that year, the trust resolved to send a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hofmeyr (a member of the trust) asking him whether he felt that the delegation should still go despite General Smut`s request.
The director of the Institute still wanted to go in order to obtain information for his pamphlet and so both he and the Colonel wrote again to Hofmeyr. Finding that even he was unable to help, the director published the pamphlet regardless and the Colonel sent a copy to all the principal delegates of the General Assembly of UNO and to organizations interested in the welfare of black Africans in South West Africa. When the UNO meeting took place the proposal was turned down but the South African Government was clearly unwilling to abide by the decision and so, since the Colonel still wanted to gauge black African opinion on incorporation, and since the Institute still wanted to send a delegation to the territory, he agreed to support it.
The delegation was to consist of three members; the Colonel, another trustee and black African, Mr P R Mosaka, a member of the Natives Representative Council and Mrs Margaret Ballinger a well known campaigner for African rights. However, a letter was received from General Smuts stating that Mr Mosaka had been refused entry to South West Africa - no reason was given.
The trustees resolved that the Prime Minister should be asked to advance the reasons for this refusal and also whether another black African would be permitted to go in his place. And the director of the Institute met with Hofmeyr who told him that he had approved the delegation and that, although he regretted very much that Mosaka had been refused permission to accompany it, he advised against insisting that Mosaka go in case it antagonized the administration. The Colonel`s response was that his main purpose of sending a delegation to South West Africa was to advise the black Africans there to oppose incorporation of their country with South Africa unless they were granted suitable representation in parliament.
These circumstances may result in a rapid and alarming growth among the Bantu people of a sense of being unjustly treated, and of antagonism to the ruling race unless conditions are altered for the better and quickly.” For him it was important for the black Africans to have a fair wage as it was for them to have political rights, and very early on in its existence (1938) the trust began to subsidize the organization of African trade unions. I
n 1940, in response to a plea from Professor Jabavu, it also started to give support to political organizations such as the African National Congress and to the All-African Convention. The support for the trade union movement was done through the Transvaal Council of Non-European Trade Unions. In 1947 the trust purchasing a site in Ophirton, Johannesburg where it built a meeting place for the various unions.Of the fifty affiliated unions, however, twenty three broke away to form the African Council of Trade Unions and the scheme had to be abandoned.
Non-the-less the support continued long after the death of the Colonel, rounding off in the late 1970`s when union staff were given bursaries for management courses at Wits Business School.The support for political organizations was not the only way in which the trust sought to obtain the political rights for which it was fighting. The Colonel wanted a more active participation.
After learning from Dr Alexander Kerr that none of the Fort Hare students applying for a Rhodes Scholarship had been successful, he wrote to the Rhodes Foundation wanting to know if there was a colour bar contained in the conditions of the scholarship. He received a reply assuring him that there was not. Similarly he championed an application for funds to publish a church newspaper for black African readers which had been turned down because there were no black Africans on the church`s editorial board. But where his consistency was most apparent was in his unremitting challenges to government to adopt a more accommodating policy towards black African representation.
He was acutely aware that the black African majority had patently unequal representation in parliament but he was assured that this had already been referred to the Institute of Race Relations and would be dealt with at a conference later on in the year. He advocated direct black African representation on town councils but was informed that there was a government commission which was gathering evidence and would report back.
The colonel also fought to have the pass laws abolished but was told that nothing could be done pending the report of the Fagan Commission. The commission was expected to advocate sweeping reforms and was headed by Ellison Kahn of the Institute of Race Relations (later President of the Institute) and included a very youthful Helen Suzman. He also played a leading role in the proposed incorporation of the mandated territory of South West Africa into the Union of South Africa This had been discussed in the United Nations Organization in January 1946 and the colonel wanted to send a delegation to South West Africa in order to ascertain the views of the black African population on the incorporation. He had discussed this with the director of Race Relations who had told him that he too had wanted to send a delegation with the idea of collecting information on the proposal to be published in a pamphlet, and that the Administrator of the Territory had already given his approval subject to the delegation not going before the Government`s consultation with the tribes had been completed in April.
The director of the Institute still wanted to go in order to obtain information for his pamphlet and so both he and the Colonel wrote again to Hofmeyr. Finding that even he was unable to help, the director published the pamphlet regardless and the Colonel sent a copy to all the principal delegates of the General Assembly of UNO and to organizations interested in the welfare of black Africans in South West Africa. When the UNO meeting took place the proposal was turned down but the South African Government was clearly unwilling to abide by the decision and so, since the Colonel still wanted to gauge black African opinion on incorporation, and since the Institute still wanted to send a delegation to the territory, he agreed to support it.
The delegation was to consist of three members; the Colonel, another trustee and black African, Mr P R Mosaka, a member of the Natives Representative Council and Mrs Margaret Ballinger a well known campaigner for African rights. However, a letter was received from General Smuts stating that Mr Mosaka had been refused entry to South West Africa - no reason was given.
The trustees resolved that the Prime Minister should be asked to advance the reasons for this refusal and also whether another black African would be permitted to go in his place. And the director of the Institute met with Hofmeyr who told him that he had approved the delegation and that, although he regretted very much that Mosaka had been refused permission to accompany it, he advised against insisting that Mosaka go in case it antagonized the administration. The Colonel`s response was that his main purpose of sending a delegation to South West Africa was to advise the black Africans there to oppose incorporation of their country with South Africa unless they were granted suitable representation in parliament.
He argued that if the delegation did not include a black African member it would receive very little cooperation and there would be no point in sending it. Mosaka and Xuma agreed with him and the idea of the delegation was abandoned.
In the adjoining British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) the Colonel was trying to secure something more than basic political rights. He wanted to have a mineral survey done of the whole Protectorate. He, Rheinallt Jones of the Institute and Dr Ray Phillips, another trustee, discussed this with the Regent, Chief Tshekedi Khama, who welcomed the idea and said that mineral and industrial development was essential for welfare of his country.
The trustees agreed that, in the event of the trust financing the survey, the trust`s only claim would be for the costs involved, and Rheinallt Jones agreed to explore the possibilities and also to interview the British High Commissioner, Sir Evelyn Baring.The Colonel wrote again to Chief Tshekedi Khama, and also to the Resident Commissioner of Basutoland (now Lesotho) regarding the possibility of a mineral survey of that country as well. It was estimated that these surveys might cost anything up to £50 000, and one of the trustees, Mr G H R Edmunds (chairman of the Standard Bank) offered to discuss this aspect with Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. The Basutoland Government replied to the Colonel`s letter informing him that a mineral survey could not be permitted. The response from Bechuanaland, however, was still favourable.
Rheinallt Jones was not able to see Sir Evelyn Baring immediately but he did see a Mr Priestman of the High Commissioner`s office who gave him a sympathetic hearing and told him that a geologist from the colonial office was at present in South Africa for a water survey and that this might make cooperation with the trust feasible. Mr Priestman discussed the matter with the Resident Commissioner who was in favour of the survey and promised to consult with the geologist whom the Imperial Government had sent on loan to the territory.
In reply to a letter from the Colonel, the Resident Commissioner assured him that the High Commissioner was interested in his proposed survey and wanted to meet him personally. Before any meeting took place, however, the Colonel wanted to satisfy himself regarding the ownership of the mineral rights because the purpose of the survey was benefit the black African inhabitants. When the meeting did take place, the High Commissioner said that it might not be necessary for the trust to undertake the survey as there was the likelihood of this being done by the British Government. He did promise to submit a report to the trust on the outcome of future discussions, but these were protracted and the matter was eventually overtaking by events, namely the death of the Colonel and, also the advent of the apartheid government.
A committee was set up consisting of the Colonel, one representative each from the Department of Social Welfare and from the municipality, and Rheinhallt Jones representing the Institute of Race Relations. At its first meeting it arranged that Major Hogan from the municipality do an assessment and make recommendations for the furtherance of the scheme.Major Hogan was employed to do all the preliminary work which the scheme entailed. A full-time secretary/organizer, Mr S Ntombela was also appointed. A voluntary working committee was formed with Colonel Armitage as chairman.
The Department of Social Welfare and the municipality were asked to appoint representatives to the board of the centre and a constitution was drawn up. The name agreed upon was the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre (D.O.C.C.). The Minister of the Department for Social Welfare approved the appointment of Lady Albu as the department’s representative on the board of management and the Secretary for Social Welfare as its representative the board of trustees. The trust`s representative on the centre’s board of trustees were Richard Victor Selope Thema and Rheinhallt Jones. The Department for Social Welfare wanted an assurance from the municipality that, should the building not continue to be used for the purpose of the centre, its capital would be refunded.
The trust was in the same position but it decided against pressing for an assurance for fear of prejudicing the centre’s chances of future support from the municipality. It decided instead, to ask for an assurance form the board of trustees of the centre that, should the centre cease to be used as such, they would refund the trust any moneys received by them from the municipality in compensation.
But, after being confronted with the multiplicity of the problems and their extent and complexity, he concluded that the solution would require time and patience as well as money, so he changed his mind. Since then his donations to capital had reached £180 000 and the trust was funding a number of small black African welfare organizations but was also committed to some big projects, notably the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre, the Trade Union Centre in Ophirton, and the Donaldson Wing of the Stewart Hall at Fort Hare for which he laid the foundation stone on the 19th September 1946.
There was, ostensibly, no reason for the trust not to continue as before after the Colonel had died: his readiness to augment the capital would be missed, and so too would his readiness to challenge government and government representatives on any issue affecting the rights of black Africans and their welfare. He had also built up the capital to an effective level, and his fellow trustees were all men of calibre, all capable, and all equally committed.
The immediate problem lay in that government was claiming Succession Duty, which was a claim on a percentage of the capital and was difficult to pay; the trust’s capital was tied up in a large industrial company on the West Rand called Superconcrete Pipes Ltd which, although a public company, was not quoted, so that there was no ready market for the shares, which meant that the necessary capital would have to be raised mainly through dividends and that the grants would have to be severely curtailed.
A far more serious setback for the trust however, was the unexpected victory of the pro-Apartheid, National Party in the 1948 elections. Great hopes had been placed on Fagan Commission which had been set up at the end of 1946 by the Smuts Government to investigate the rapid increase in black African migration into urban areas during World War II, and to make recommendations on the feasibility of a more liberal application of the strict migratory laws of the time. In February 1948, just three months before the elections, the commission presented its findings which were that the black African migration into the urban areas was irreversible and should be facilitated rather than discouraged, that the “pass laws” should be applied more leniently, and that black African women should be allowed to join their spouses in urban settlements.
These findings boded well for all those who hoped that a return to power of General Smuts and his liberal minded and eminently capable deputy, J H Homeyr, would usher in a new era that would set the country on the road to integration. The reaction, however, from the opposition party, which was committed to segregation, was to set up a rival commission, the Sauer Commission, which made recommendations that were completely opposite to those of the Fagan Commission, and, in the process coining the word “apartheid”.
There was an enormous difference between the two commissions. The Fagan Commission was charged by government to do a thorough examination of all the relevant facts and report back with impartial recommendations. Its chairman, Judge Henry Allan Fagan, was appointed a judge in 1943 and, in later years, from 1957 until his retirement in 1959, he was Chief Justice of South Africa. He also became an eminent writer in Afrikaans, winning the Hertzog prize for literature and writing several successful plays and novels. And he invented an improved system of shorthand. He had, at one stage, been a member of the Hertzog Government and was not known to be particularly liberal, but he had been appointed chairman of the commission, not because of his political leanings, but because, as a judge, he could be expected to give a report that was factual and dispassionate.
The Sauer Commission, on the other hand, was set up by a political party. It was headed by Paul Sauer, a politician and leading member of the opposition, and his brief was to find whatever arguments he could to contradict the findings of the Fagan Commission. He could be expected to produce a report that was aimed at accommodating the fears and prejudices of the mass of opposition supporters who were as determined as their leaders not to make any concession.
The defeat of the Smuts Government in May 1948 sounded the death knell of all the hopes and expectations that were vested in the Fagan Commission. Its recommendations had already been made to parliament, but now they were valueless, and all the carefully laid plans, the years of patient negotiation, all that those dedicated to reform had striven so hard to archive, all the reforms that had been proposed (and accepted), were dismissed with a smirk by the new, apartheid government whose avowed intention was to reverse any equality progress.
The immediate effect was shock; followed by trepidation and speculation. And then came the shock news of J H Hofmeyr’s death on 3rd December in that same year. Jan Hofmeyr’s moral support had been invaluable. In the Smuts Government he had, at the same time, been Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Education and Minister of Finance. He was the trust’s friend in government and had been with the trust in spirit from before his acceptance of trusteeship in August 1940. For the trustees, the loss of both he and the Colonel within a space of two weeks, in the aftermath of the Apartheid Party’s victory, was a powerful blow. It was not long before they had a foretaste of the crippling effect that apartheid policy was going to have not on their future but on their past, activities. The first casualty was the Donaldson Orlando Community Centre (DOCC).
During the intervening years the centre went through a tough time financially, with much of the equipment which the Colonel had put in, including billiard tables, being sold to defray expenses. But the community it served regarded it as their own, and despite the lack of government support, or perhaps because of it, the centre grew in popularity and became the hub of community life in Orlando. It was home to the Orlando Pirates Football Club for many years, and was the training ground for many of the country’s top dancers and boxers. It was the venue for any number of activities, and events were held there such as beauty competitions, talent contests, plays, meetings, church services and even funerals. Some of its famous personalities include Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie
For the trust the application of apartheid ideology meant that any hope of securing greater black African participation in either the political or the economic life of South Africa was doomed to fail.
Moreover it had to be careful not to become involved in politics. Insofar as the political sentiments of the trustees were concerned, the purpose of the trust was a political statement in itself (the advancement of the status, the improvement of the conditions and the removal of the disabilities), and with this they had to be content. The trustees had to make sure that, in practice, its activities were essentially charitable. Not to do so would be to risk being classified as a political organization and risk being banned. And, where a gathering of more than three people could be termed illegal not to mention the fact that it was illegal for the multiracial board of trustees to have a drink together after meetings, the threat of being banned was harsh reality. In addition, the board of trustees included openly anti-government political activists including Dr Alfred, president of the A.N.C. 1940 -1949.
One such project involved a German educational adviser and science teacher, Mr Bruck, who was working in Soweto for the Centre of Continuing Education. Bruck wanted to start a Teacher In-Service Training Centre so Ian Haggie and Pat Lewis visited a high-ranking official called Jaap Strydom in the Department of Education who told them that in-service training for teachers was low on the government’s list of priorities but assured them that he personally felt that it was necessary. He proceeded to secure a suitable site in Soweto on the Potchefstroom Road opposite the St John Ophthalmic Centre, and persuaded government to appoint a Director of In-Service Training which meant that teachers would now have to attend training instead of it being voluntary. Bruck said that he had approached the German Chamber of Commerce who had promised a more money and had undertaken to pay teachers’ salaries. The trust then increased the original grant from R25 000 to R80 000. Strydom remained with the project from inception in 1979 until its completion in 1981.
The Urban Foundation, which had become involved through the interest shown by Anglo American at an early stage, combined forces with the German Chamber of Commerce and together they shared all the remaining costs. When the centre, which was called the FUNDA Centre, was opened by the German ambassador two years later, they had each contributed about R3 000 000.
This was to set the pattern for the trust’s future policy: to act as a catalyst. The big corporations had far greater resources than the trust and were able to disperse much greater sums of money. But the trust, because it was not accountable to shareholders nor hampered by any rigid company policy, had a flexibility which enabled it to give sufficient support to new initiatives which then attracted larger sponsorship from the big corporations.
It persuaded an educationalist, Professor van der Vyver, to work with governing bodies and teachers of local schools, which he did so successfully that one these schools achieved a 100% matric pass rate. Professor Dawid van der Vyver had been professor of linguistics at Stellenbosch University and had resigned his post in order to head up the 1 000 Schools project in LimpopoHe remained in Limpopo when the 1 000 Schools project came to an end, and when he came to work in Sekhukhuneland he was so well thought of by the local community that, when he announced that he would have to leave because he could get no more sponsorship, they wanted to raise funds for him to stay.
The biggest project that the trust undertook in Sekhukhuneland, however, was labour intensive road-building which it did in collaboration with Wits University.Spearheaded by the current chairman, Benjamin Donaldson who formed a non-profit company called Labour Intensive Engineering and Training Ass Inc, the purpose of which was to provide employment and training. It made utilized the skills of final-year Dutch students who did their internship with LITE in Sekhukhuland..
Moreover, there is always a need, in every country, for organizations that can offer a life-line where government is unable to help and also to identify a need before government addresses it.And so it seems that the Donaldson Trust is set to continue for a long time.