Seretse & Ruth by Wilf Mbanga

Author:Wilf Mbanga
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Merlin Press
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

The Harragin Debacle

Cabinet having agreed to the commission of inquiry, it now fell to the Commonwealth Relations Office to come up with the terms of reference for it, and appoint the commissioners. Noel-Baker informed his energetic parliamentary under-secretary, Patrick Gordon-Walker, in mid-August that he was putting him in charge of this delicate operation. Gordon-Walker was undaunted by the task. A challenge like this would give him a good opportunity to show what he was made of and, hopefully, advance his career a notch or two – but his superior had a grim foreboding that this was a conundrum nobody could solve. And it was not going to make any of them look good. Quite the reverse, in fact.

Gordon-Walker went to work at once. He set up a committee of senior men and outlined the key issues at stake. The inquiry had to give the government the result it needed – a good reason not to recognise Seretse as Chief of the Bamangwato. The real reason was, of course, extreme pressure from South Africa and the imperative need to keep that nation within the fold of the Commonwealth, while preventing an armed incursion and annexation of the Protectorate by Malan’s government. And the reason the South Africans were taking such a strong line was that the would-be chief had married a white woman and proceeded to live with her in neighbouring Serowe under the very noses of the architects of apartheid. However, the real reason could not be stated. Therefore, the commission had to find some other excuse to enable the British government to withhold recognition – ensuring that the economic blackmail by the South Africans was kept a secret.

In addition, Cabinet was adamant that the specific issue of the marriage, and even general issues of interracial relationships must be completely excluded from the scope of the inquiry. For two months they pondered the matter and dug into reference documents, searching for precedents and new ideas, while Gordon-Walker continued to wrestle with the inherent risk of the commission coming to the wrong conclusions. He had to ensure that the final decision was retained by the CRO – it was simply too risky to allow the commission the freedom to make its own findings. He was hamstrung, however, by the terms of the legislation Buchanan had unearthed – Proclamation No 32 of 1943. This provided for a judicial inquiry to be held where it was alleged that the chief was ‘incapable, unworthy or not a fit and proper person’ to rule the Tribe.

Officials were set to work trying to dig up evidence in other parts of Africa that liberals of all races were opposed to the marriage. It was hoped that such evidence could be used to persuade the British public to change its mind. However, apart from a few friends of Tshekedi’s in high places who predictably condemned Seretse, there was no evidence of general disapproval of the marriage to be found anywhere in Africa – outside of the racist south of course.

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