The written history of modern South Africa is limited by the moratorium on archival material common to' all contemporary research, and the present study is intended, in part, to help fill this gap. It has a two- fold design: first, to point out some of the anomalies in the relationship between administration and policy and secondly, to show the extent to which they are interdependent in Dr. D.L. Smit ' s career. In the process, I hope to clarify and to comment on some of the mechanics involved in Native Administration.

Abstract in English, Afrikaans and IsiXhosa. / This study investigates the first national poll tax levied on African men in the Union of South Africa. Known as the “general tax”, it was enacted in terms of the Natives Taxation and Development Act of 1925, and was imposed irrespective of a man’s income or impecuniousness. The historical background to the Act is outlined, and debates and disputes leading up to its promulgation are considered. The difficulties underlying the application, interpretation, and enforcement of the Act, are also examined. Court case judgments involving men who denied their inclusion under the Act’s central, racial definition of “native”, are explored. The case of one individual whose descendants were brought to Natal as “liberated slaves”, is discussed in some detail. The Act’s definition of “native” affected not only individual men, but also a number of black groups whose racial and tax status was in some doubt. Responses to a Native Affairs Department directive, explicitly excluding “Hottentots, Bushmen and Korannas” from the ambit of the Act, are accordingly investigated. Problems surrounding the Griquas, whose tax status was initially ignored in legislation and in official circulars, are investigated. The taxation of farm labourers, among the lowest paid workers in the country, is also examined. Queries and complaints from magistrates, white farmers and from African men are recorded. The interpretation of the Secretary of Native Affairs on the relevant provisions of the Act and his responses to queries and objections relating to the taxation of those workers, are also investigated. / Esi sifundo siphanda irhafu yokuqala yesizwe eyayibizwa kumadoda ama-Afrika kweMdibaniso woMzantsi Afrika. Le rhafu kwakusithiwa yi“rhafu jikelele”, kwaye yayisekwe ngokomthetho owaziwa ngokuba yiNatives Taxation and Development Act wonyaka we-1925, kwaye yayifunwa kuwo onke amadoda nokuba ahlupheke kangakanani na. Imbali yalo Mthetho inikiwe, kwaye kuphononongwe neengxoxo neengxabano ezakhokelela ekuphunyezweni kwawo. Kuqwalaselwe kwakhona ubunzima obavela xa kwakucelelwa ukuphunyezwa kwawo, indlela yokuwutolika nokuwunyanzelisa. Kukwaphononongwe nezigwebo zeenkundla zamatyala ezimalunga namadoda awayesala ukubandakanywa nenkcazelo yalo Mthetho, eyayicalula ngokwebala, neyayisithi “iinzalelwane”. Kuxoxwe banzi ngetyala losapho lwenye indoda olwaziswa eNatala kusithiwa “ngamakhoboka akhululweyo”. Kuphandiwe ngendlela ababeziva ngayo abantu xa kwaphuma isinyanzeliso seSebe Lemicimbi Yeenzalelwane, esithi “Amaqhakancu, AbaThwa namaKoranna” awafakwa wona kulo Mthetho. Inkcazelo yoMthetho ethi “iinzalelwane” yayingachaphazeli nje amadoda kuphela, yayichaphazela namanye amaqela abantu abantsundu ababengaqondakali ncam ukuba baloluphi na uhlanga, kwaye sisithini isimo sabo serhafu. Ziphononongiwe neengxaki ezazingqonge amaGriqua, wona ayenesimo serhafu esingahoywanga, engananzwanga nangokuseMthethweni nakwiimbalelwano zoburhulumente. Okunye okuphandiweyo kukubizwa irhafu kwabasebenzi basezifama, bona babengabona bahlawulwa kancinci. Zishicilelwe nezikhalazo nemibuzo evela kwiimantyi, amafama amhlophe namadoda ama-Afrika. Ziphononongiwe iindlela zokutolikwa kwezilungiselelo zoMthetho, zitolikwa nguNobhala wemicimbi Yeenzalelwane nendlela lo Nobhala awayephendula ngayo imibuzo nezikhalazo ezazibhekiselele kwabo basebenzi. / Hierdie studie ondersoek die eerste nasionale hoofbelasting wat op Afrika-mans in die Unie van Suid-Afrika gehef is. Hierdie sogenaamde “algemene belasting” is ingevolge die Naturelle Belasting en Ontwikkeling Wet van 1925 voorgeskryf, en is gehef ongeag ’n man se inkomste of onvermoëndheid. Die historiese agtergrond tot die Wet word uiteengesit, en debatte en dispute wat tot die uitvaardiging daarvan gelei het, word oorweeg. Die probleme verbonde aan die toepassing, uitleg en afdwinging van die Wet word ook ondersoek. Hofbeslissings rakende mans wat hul insluiting onder die Wet se sentrale, rasse-definisie van ‘“naturel” ontken het, word bestudeer. Die saak van een individu wie se afstammelinge as “bevryde slawe” na Natal gebring is, word in besonderhede bespreek. Die Wet se definisie van “naturel” het nie net individuele mans beïnvloed nie, maar ook ’n aantal swart groepe oor wie se rasse- en belastingstatus onsekerheid bestaan het. Reaksies op ’n aanwysing van die Departement Naturellesake, wat uitdruklik “Hottentotte, Boesmans en Korannas” van die toepassingsbestek van die Wet uitsluit, word dienooreenkomstig ondersoek. Probleme met betrekking tot die Griekwas, wie se belastingstatus aanvanklik in wetgewing en amptelike omsendbriewe geïgnoreer is, word verken. Die belastingbetaling deur plaasarbeiders, wat onder die laags besoldigde werkers in die land was, word ook bekyk. Navrae en klagtes van landdroste, wit boere en Afrika-mans word vermeld. Die uitleg van die tersaaklike bepalings van die Wet deur die Sekretaris van Naturellesake en sy reaksies op navrae oor en besware teen die belastingpligtigheid van daardie werkers word ook ondersoek. / College of Accounting Sciences / M. Compt (Accounting Science)

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation constructs a social history of African women in Cape Town from the vantage point of their varied attempts over the last five decades to map 'home' in the urban setting: in the physical structures of their homes; the character of their social and kinship networks; and in the ways a notion of 'place' was re-worked. An historiographical examination of existing research has shown that, especially in the South African context, much scope remains for a regionally specific historical analysis of the urbanisation process, and African women's unique role in it. The use of oral histories and the adoption of a trans-generational interviewing strategy have helped fashion a textured account of African women's settlement strategies, and the underlying social and personal transformations that their design and use suggested. 'First-generational' women, who entered Cape Town at mid-century, led an uncertain and highly regulated urban existence, by virtue of their enforced marginalisation under apartheid. Until the late-1980s, Cape Town retained a distinctive demographic composition, and an historical association as the 'home' of the Coloured population. This made state and local efforts to control the entry and residence of the minority African populace more coercive and successful, at least in the first two decades of apartheid rule. Despite these restrictions, African women constructed and managed a dense set of strategies which affirmed their material livelihoods in the city and increasingly enmeshed their identities in the workings of a modern and commoditised world. However, first-generational women also actively contested these developments to some extent, evident particularly in their efforts to regulate the movement of and compel financial support from their increasingly mobile daughters and granddaughters. Evidence from second and third-generational respondents show a growing reluctance to utilise first-generational women's settlement strategies and the conceptual frameworks which underpinned them. For instance, associational links were increasingly organised along non-racialised lines. Third-generational women's desire to establish residence in other areas of the city, or in other cities entirely, was indicative of a similar dynamic. This was also reflective of their embrace of mobility as an expression of greater economic and social freedoms possible in a post-apartheid world. This dissertation constructs a social history of African women in Cape Town from the vantage point of their varied attempts over the last five decades to locate 'home' in the urban setting. It charts the experiences of a group of women who first moved to Cape Town in the 1940s and 50s, and their children and grandchildren. My focus is on the way in which succeeding generations of women developed differing strategies of settlement, in the context of sometimes dramatic social and political change. The social as well as the physical elements of locating home are key elements in the analysis, including the redefinition of kinship and associational networks, as well as the re-casting of identities and a sense of place. Until the late 1980s, Cape Town retained a distinctive demographic composition, and an historical association as the 'home' of the Coloured- population. This made state and local efforts to control the entry and residence of the minority African populace more coercive and successful, at least in the first two decades of apartheid rule. Rather than painting a comprehensive portrait of urban African life in the apartheid era (1948- 1994), this dissertation hopes to map a few significant dynamics which were manifest in the encounters between a select group of African women and the distinctive terrain of this city during the apartheid years.