AWG Champion and township politics in Durban in the 1960s and 1970s
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Date
2012-06
Authors
Tabata, Wonga Fundile
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State
Abstract
This article will consider the often contradictory role of Arthur Wessels George Champion (AWG)
Champion, former leader of the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) in the African
National Congress (ANC), as a local politician serving on statutory Urban Bantu Councils. Champion
was an elected member of the Ningizimu Urban Bantu Council from 1968 to 1975. He was still applying
the political strategy of the 1930s and early 1950s where statutory Native Advisory Boards were
used throughout the country by African leaders as platforms to fight for daily needs in the locations/
townships. The 1960s was however a period of strict apartheid when the National Party-led government
also tightened its control over local government through the establishment of Bantu Administration
Boards to administer African residential areas and control Urban Bantu Councils. The policy of
“separate development” (apartheid) also stressed ethnicity as it linked all Africans with homelands.
From 1970 up to his death in 1975, Champion advocated links between the Zulus in Durban and the
statutory KwaZulu Traditional Authority in the Zulu “homeland” under its Chief Executive Officer
and later Chief Minister, Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, Champion stressed Zulu unity and the use
of statutory bodies as counterweight against policies of apartheid (“separate development”). This
made him a controversial figure in the ranks of the government as represented by local officials of the
Port Natal Bantu Administration Board, black independent trade unions, the Residents’ Associations
sympathetic to the African National Congress and the “underground” ANC in Durban. Champion
worked very hard to represent his constituency as a councillor in the Urban Bantu Council system
but failed to use statutory bodies to oppose apartheid and achieve equality and human dignity for his
people. The powerful apartheid state had tightened its control over black political activity during the
1960s and 1970s.
Description
Keywords
Champion, Arthur Wessels George, Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU), Urban Bantu Councils, Native Advisory Boards, Bantu Administration Boards, Zulus, Ningizimu Urban Bantu Council, Residents associations, African National Congress, Separate development
Citation
Tabata, W. F. (2012). AWG Champion and township politics in Durban in the 1960s and 1970s. Journal for Contemporary History, 37(1), 1-19.