'An Experiment in Native Self-Government': The Alexandra Health Committee, the State and Local Politics, 1916-1933

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Periodical article

Title:	'An Experiment in Native Self-Government': The Alexandra Health Committee, the State and Local Politics, 1916-1933
Author:	Nauright, John
Year:	2000
Periodical:	South African Historical Journal
Issue:	43
Pages:	223-243
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	local politics townships Politics and Government Health and Nutrition History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470008671914
Abstract:	From 1917 to 1933, Alexandra, with its officially sanctioned local self-government for Africans and Coloureds, was unique among the Rand's African urban areas. Political possibilities denied to Africans elsewhere in South Africa were tested in Alexandra in the form of an elected Alexandra Health Committee (AHC). Location outside of the control of a municipality, coupled with the failure of the Provincial Administration and the refusal of the Native Affairs Department (NAD) to assert control over local affairs, meant that this 'democratic experiment' continued into the 1930s. This article shows that the AHC was an instance of control by blacks over their own local affairs, but even more of black and white cooperation. Notes, ref.