THE CHRISTIAN AFRIKANERS - The Works of F. N. Lee

various Provinces (or States) within South Africa -- the Cape, Natal, the Orange Free State, and theterritory comprising the old "South African Republic" (which was now called the Transvaal) -- allsent their representatives to this National Convention for the purpose of discussing the creation ofwhat became known as the Union of South Africa.Most of the representatives at the Convention were pro-union. Those who were anti-union and proindependence-- especially for the independence of the previous Orange Free State Republic and theSouth African Republic -- by and large stayed away from the Convention. They did not want to cooperatewith it, though some went there and fought the idea of union.There was a lot of talk at this Convention as to whether the relation of the several Provinces shouldtake on the form of a union (as in the United States of America today), or whether it should take onthe form of a confederacy (as in the original USA of 1776, and as in the "Dixie" Confederate Statesof America at the time of the War Between the States). After a great deal of talk, the people at theconvention decided on union rather than on confederation.Looking back, that was a most unwise move. Yet it was made by both sides. The two BritishColonies (viz. the Cape and Natal) on the one hand and the two Afrikaner Ex-Republics (theOrange Free State and the Transvaal) on the other hand all had to make concessions towards theidea of union.They decided on two official languages, English and Afrikaans. From then on, all legal documentsin all of the Provinces would be published in both of these languages. This was to be so even in aProvince such as Natal where hardly any Afrikaans was spoken, and even in a Province like theOrange Free State where hardly any English was spoken. So this bilingual policy -- at least onpaper -- was enacted and spread throughout the land.A second difficult decision that needed to be made, was the matter as to which legal system tofollow. In the Cape, of course, there had been massive influences of English Law. EspeciallyBritish Statute Law had been superimposed upon and even replaced large segments of theCalvinistic Roman-Dutch Law which had preceded it there. It was finally decided that the systemof Roman Dutch Law would prevail throughout the whole of South Africa -- even throughout theformer British Colonies of the south. However, the whole of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedurein South Africa was, from this point on out, to be derived from British Law rather than fromRoman-Dutch Law (even in the Free state and the Transvaal). So really, what you have in SouthAfrica today -- and in Rhodesia [alias Zimbabwe] to the north of South Africa is basically Roman-Dutch Law. Only in the area of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure is British Law followed.There were also difficulties in arriving at an agreed educational program. After a great deal ofdebate at the National Convention, it was felt that education would be on a confederate basis ratherthan on a federal foundation. So to this day, South Africa has no uniform public educationalsystem. The Transvaal has one system of education, the Free State another, and so forth.Incidentally, the Transvaal Province -- to this day, by far the most powerful and richest "State"(where most of the gold is mined) -- has refused to allow evolution to be taught in the curriculumof the primary or the secondary Public School System. So there were these differences ineducational approach -- and disparities in the extent to which bilinguality was achieved, in thevarious different portions of the country.They also wrestled to a tremendous degree at the National Convention with the racial situation inSouth Africa. Perhaps not so much as previously, they wrestled with the relationship betweenWhite Afrikaner South Africans on the one hand and the White English-speaking South Africans