The Establishment of Responsible Government in Natal 1887–93 The Legacy of Apartheid

Abstract

The granting of responsible government to Natal in 1893 ended nearly five decades of imperial control over African policy in the colony. During this period the British government had maintained the location system asa means of segregating the races within the colony, and had prevented the colonists from interfering with the bordering tribes: particularly the powerful Zulu. Although humanitarian concerns played a part in the establishment of this policy the primary aim was to oppose the colonists'ambitions to exploit the Africans as a means of avoiding tribal uprisings and thus secure imperial interests in southern Africa. Consequently, to ensure imperial priorities and British government had created. established, and maintained a system of racial segregation in Natal. By the 1880s this method of preserving imperial interests was to change dramatically as the failure of confederation and the rebellion of the Transvaal had convinced the British government that its involvement in South Africa was expensive and unproductive. Subsequently, retrenchment became the basis of the British government's South African policy designed to devolve the control, as well as the liabilities, over local affairs to the colonists. This shift in imperial policy was particularly advantageous to the pro-responsible government supporters in Natal because it encouraged them to believe that the British government would make concessions on the issue of African policy. However, when the opportunity for constitutional change was offered to the colonists in 1882 it did not include the anticipated authority to control the Africans and consequently had been unacceptable to the colony. In 1887 the movement for responsible government as renewed and during the ensuing negotiations between the Colonial Ofice and Natal's Legislative Council it became apparent that. as a means of expediting its policy of retrenchment, the British government was prepared to transfer its control of the location system to the colonists.