page 153 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_153.jpg]

the membership together. Their removal could create the ideal condition for the growth of the crippling evils of factionalism and regionalism, dangers which repeatedly loomed on the horizon as more and more persons were ordered to resign. To allow such a situation to continue was to surrender to the enemy the right to determine who our leaders should be and to allow the enemy to get out of the way those he considered a threat to his position. The answer was found in a plan which made it possible for the official and banned leadership to work together harmoniously and to allocate tasks to everybody on merit. The plan was implemented before serious damage was done and once it was put into practice the bans were no longer as paralysing as before. Above all, the return to actived duties and the contribution of functionaries who were previously immobilised by the enemy, strengthened the leadership and put the organisation on its feet again.

The dirst major test of strength for the ANC and its allies after the Defiance Campaign was the removal of the so called "blacks spots" of Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare in Johannesburg with a population variously estimated between 60,000 and 100,000 Africans, a few Coloureds, Indians and Chinese. Official estimates tended to stress the lower figure but in actual fact there were large number of people who had no permission to live in the area and who thus kept away from the censors.

The excuse given by the government for removing these townships was that of slum clearance. To be sure there were many slums, much congestion and rents were exhorbitant. Tenants would certainly benefit a great deal by moving to relatively spacious houses with a garden patch and which