(Published in The Star)
Three natives, who, to a great extent must be regarded as responsible for the present local movement among their compatriots in town and on the Reef called at "The Star" this forenoon with the object of submitting their case to the public. They were Horatio L. Bud Mbelle, a Fingo, who had been educated at Lovedale, and who came to the Transvaal in 1912; J. W. Dunjwa, a schoolmaster, with nine years' residence in Johannesburg, and P. J. Motsoakae, a Baralong, from the Free State. They stated that their object in initiating passive resistance was not to challenge the Government in any way. There was no disloyalty on their part, and they owed absolute allegiance to the King and the British Constitution.
Asked why they had resolved on passive resistance, Mbelle said they had tried to get redress through making representations from time to time for the alleviation of the grievous difficulties under which the natives in the Transvaal laboured, but all their efforts had been without avail. Asked what their principal grievances were, the deputation stated that apart from many minor difficulties connected with the administration of the pass law in the Transvaal, their grievances could be grouped under two heads:
In the course of general discussion, the natives said that, for instance, a native in the Transkei led an honourable life, he respected his Magistrate, and in turn was respected by him and by every white citizen with whom he came in contact. Although horn in South Africa, the same native on entering the Transvaal had to report to the Pass Office, had in the generality of cases to wait hours upon hours in the glaring sun before he was received by an official, and when he had gained admission to the office, was not received with anything approaching courtesy.
Asked what their programme was, they said they would insist on order being maintained by their people. They had formed a group of special constables to collect sticks, and every weapon which any of the natives may be possessed of, and from every platform the natives would be told that there were to be no shouts or threats or anything that would incite public feeling. In case of arrest, the natives were told that they must submit quietly, and must go to gaol. No picketting had been authorised, and the natives had simply been invited to stop work.
Yesterday a sack full of passes and exemption papers which were collected as the result of the meeting on Sunday afternoon were taken to the Pass Office, and in handing them over the officials were told that the natives had resolved to resist the Pass Law. "We hold", said Mbelle, "that the Pass Law is nothing more or less than a system of slavery." He had, he said, always been taught in his boyhood days that the British Government was the most liberal and most freedom-loving of all Governments, and he had seen it in the days of Queen Victoria and King Edward, but those days seemed to have finished and the fathers of Joseph are dead. Last night a native at Jeppes, Mbelle added, was set upon by three Europeans and very seriously injured. The natives would do nothing to molest any white person, and they asked in return that the white people would not interfere with them.
Questioned as to the extent to which they propose to carry the movement, the deputation said they simply invited all natives, whether working in stores or in houses to stop work, and invitations were also being sent to the natives working on the mines.