I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. What are you going to do? Will you come along with us, or are you going to cooperate with the government in its efforts to suppress the claims and aspirations of your own people? Or are you going to remain silent and neutral in a matter of life and death to my people, to our people? For my own part I have made my choice. I shall fight the government side by side with you, inch by inch, and mile by mile, until victory is won. I have had to close my business, to abandon my profession, and live in poverty and misery, as many of my people are doing. I have had to separate myself from my dear wife and children, from my mother and sisters, to live as an outlaw in my own land.
I have chosen this latter course, which is more difficult and which entails more risk and hardship than sitting in gaol. We have an important programme before us and it is important to carry it out very seriously and without delay. Any serious politician will realise that under present-day conditions in this country, to seek for cheap martyrdom by handing myself to the police is naive and criminal. I am informed that a warrant for my arrest has been issued, and that the police are looking for me. Why should we continue enriching those who steal the products of our sweat and blood? Those who exploit us and refuse us the right to organise trade unions?. We produce the work of the gold mines, the diamonds and the coal, of the farms and industry, in return for miserable wages. We furnish the sinews of agriculture and industry. People who live in poverty and starvation cannot be expected to pay exorbitant house rents to the government and local authorities. Those who are voteless cannot be expected to continue paying taxes to a government which is not responsible to them.
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