1970¶

Literature › Primary sources


Kind	commission or official report
Producer	Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture
Coverage	1966-1972
Works using it	13

Debates¶

Debate	Works
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control	8
Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves	5
Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?	3
The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation	3
Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry	2
Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals	2
Agricultural policy, productivity, farm size and land reform	1
Data reliability and econometric method	1
Unemployment: causes, measurement and labour market institutions	1

Works using this source¶

Work	As cited	Period	How used
Africa (1976)	Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture, R.P. 84/1970	1937–1969	Provides farm labour, casual labour, tractor/morgen and capital expenditure series (Tables 8, 10, 11) used to argue that the regular labour force stayed constant despite mechanisation.
Atkinson (2007)	Marais-Du Plessis Commission (1971), De Lange Commission (1981), Farm Labour Committee 1937-9 and Farm Labour Commission 1939 (via Gordon/Greenberg)	1937-1981	Shows official recognition of poor farm worker education and training needs.
De Klerk (1984a)	Commission of Inquiry into Agriculture (Marais), Second Report, RP 84/1970	1970	Quoted for the claim that farmers adopt implements that make tasks or life easier before considering economics.
De Klerk (1984c)	Commission of Inquiry into Agriculture (Marais Commission), Second Report, RP 84/1970	1970	Quoted to support the argument that ease of control, not only profit, motivates farmers to adopt machinery.
De Klerk (1990)	RSA Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Marais Commission), Second Report, RP 84/1970	1970	Cited for early recognition of over-mechanisation in commercial farming.
Hendrie (1976b)	Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Du Plessis Commission)	c. 1966-7	Cited as evidence of data gaps: the Commission did its own primary research and used unpublished departmental files.
Knight (1976a)	Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Marais Commission), RP 84/1970	1970	Gives benefits-in-kind ratio for farm labour and evidence on scope for agricultural mechanisation and labour economising.
Lemon (1984a)	Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Du Plessis Commission), RP 84/1970	1970	Quoted to show official intent to reduce white agriculture's dependence on non-white labour.
Lemon (1984b)	Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Du Plessis Commission), RP 84/1970	1970	Cited for the recommendation that white agriculture be made less dependent on non-white labour, as evidence of ideological motives.
Mazower (1990)	Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Marais Commission), RP 84/1970	1970 (on wartime developments)	Used to characterise the wartime agricultural expansion.
Nattrass (1976a)	Marais (Second) and du Plessis (Third and Final) Reports of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture, RP 84/1970 and RP 19/1972	1970-1972	Taken as reflecting official policy shift toward capitalising agriculture and sharply reducing non-White farm labourers.
Nattrass (1976b)	Marais Commission, R.P./84 1970	1970	Wage rates (low-wage sector at 43% of high-wage sector) used to estimate remittances as a share of KwaZulu GDP.
Nattrass (1976c)	Marais Commission, R.P./84 1970 (wage rates)	1970	Wage-rate data used for estimating remittances by sector (low-wage rate taken as 43% of high-wage).