I shall analyse, in this chapter, what became a complicated debate and its surprising result: a rare example of legislation concerning Africans which was introduced in the House of Assembly but failed to be enacted into law. The withdrawal of the Native Affairs Administration Bill, 1917 (hereafter the NAA Bill), that Prime Minister Botha vigorously supported, exemplified the success of determined opposition to a bill African leaders believed was against African interests.

State officials, members of Parliament (MPs), and African leaders knew that the 11.1 million morgen identified in the Natives Land Act, 1913 (hereafter the Land Act) was inadequate to meet the needs of the rural African population. Therefore, Section 2 (1) of the Land Act required the appointment of a commission to determine which land, in addition to the ‘scheduled areas’ the Land Act created, should be made available to Africans. This commission, the Natives Land Commission (NLC or Beaumont Commission), pursued its work for three years. Whites and Africans generally opposed its aggregate recommendations, to add 8.3 million morgen for Africans. Nevertheless, Botha and his ministers introduced the NAA Bill to enact into law those recommendations. Parliament followed proper procedure (unlike in 1913), debating the contents of the NAA Bill and then sending it to the Select Committee on Native Affairs (hereafter the Select Committee). The Select Committee failed to achieve a consensus, and Botha followed that committee's advice and appointed regional committees to continue the investigation. However, the work of these committees was also strongly condemned by critics, leading the government to withdraw the NAA Bill from parliament's consideration in 1918.

The Natives Land Commission

The NLC sat between 1913 and 1916 and submitted its report to the Governor-General on 2 March 1916. Commissioners travelled to various parts of South Africa and took testimony from 897 witnesses, including 562 Europeans and 335 Africans.