State against the Market in South Africa: Prelude to Crisis¶
Stanley B. Greenberg (1987). State against the Market in South Africa: Prelude to Crisis. Paper drawn from a chapter of Legitimating the Illegitimate: State, Markets and Resistance in South Africa (Berkeley, 1987); original place of publication not stated in the text.
| Type | book chapter |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1900–1982 |
| Regions | South Africa, Bantustans (Transkei, KwaZulu, Lebowa, Gazankulu), Witwatersrand, Southern Rhodesia (comparison) |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, inequality poverty unemployment, mining migrant labour, agriculture land, business and state, manufacturing industrial policy, origins segregation |
| Citation key | greenberg1987 |
Argument¶
Greenberg argues against the view that South Africa's labour control framework (pass laws, labour bureaux, influx control, bantustan recruiting) is an effective state abrogation of the labour market. Control has repeatedly threatened to break down because workers resist it and because the economy itself generates forces that undermine it. Control has produced labour surpluses, a dammed-up rural population and a widening urban-rural income gap, and these create incentives to circumvent the system. Each failure has drawn in more state regulation and more cost. Meanwhile the original constituencies for control (farmers, mines, manufacturers) have withdrawn their support, leaving an increasingly incoherent state. The case rests on interviews with labour bureau and TEBA officials, official reports and secondary quantitative estimates.
Evidence and method¶
Interviews with labour bureau and TEBA officials in Lebowa, Gazankulu, KwaZulu and Transkei (April 1982), student field research on rural labour control, state reports (Dept of Native Affairs, Van Rensburg Committee 1967, Economic Development Programme), Simkins, van der Merwe and Loots unemployment estimates, the Buthelezi Commission, SAAU and Chamber of Commerce submissions, and van Onselen on Rhodesia.
Place in the debates¶
- Effectiveness of the apartheid labour control system (state as all-controlling vs. breakdown) (see Influx control, pass laws and African urbanisation). Rejects the critical consensus (Magubane, Budlender, his own earlier work, and the state's self-image) that the system effectively abrogated the market. He argues it was incomplete, unevenly enforced and self-undermining.
- Liberal 'growth hypothesis' vs. revisionist views on markets and racial controls (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Footnote 9 says the tension between control and markets is not a reformulated growth hypothesis, because it generally produces more frenzied efforts to elaborate racial domination rather than moderation.
- Scale of the labour surplus and unemployment (see Unemployment: causes, measurement and labour market institutions). Notes that van der Merwe, Loots and Simkins disagree on size but agree that unemployment rose through the 1970s. Greenberg favours the higher estimates (Simkins 22.4% in 1977) and sees a structural surplus.
- Business interests and the labour control framework (see Why apartheid ended: reform, transition and elite bargaining). Argues that capitalist farmers, mining houses and manufacturers, once champions of control, have withdrawn support and pushed for reform as their labour requirements changed.
Findings¶
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The labour control system is internally contradictory and prone to breakdown despite its scale. (p. 2)
this is a system that historically has repeatedly threatened to break down and that now, with the increasing scale of market processes and the increasing scope of control today, tends increasingly toward breakdown
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The state's growing role stems from the inadequacy of control measures rather than their success. (p. 3)
not because control measures have proved effective but because these measures have continually proved inadequate to the developing forces tending to circumvent them.
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Unemployment estimates for the late 1970s were very high, with Simkins counting underemployment. (p. 6)
Charles Simkins, incorporating measures of agricultural underemployment, places overall unemployment at 22.4 percent in 1977 - 2.3 million people, almost all of whom were black.
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The bantustans ceased to support their populations long before the 1970s. (p. 6)
Simkins estimates that since 1918 the African reserves have never supported more than a third of their inhabitants, and by 1960 they were supporting fewer than 20 percent.
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Manufacturing's capacity to absorb labour declined, linked to capital deepening. (p. 7)
While manufacturing employment grew by 5 percent a year between 1958 and 1967, it dropped to 3.3 percent between 1968 and 1977.
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Capital intensity rose in the 1970s, as shown by the capital-output ratio. (p. 7)
The average capital-output ratio also grew between mid-1971 and mid-1977, from 2.17 to 2.67.
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Mines shifted toward re-engaging experienced miners, closing recruitment to novices. (p. 8)
In Lesotho, the percentage of re-engaged experienced miners rose from 30 percent in 1976 to 60 percent in 1979
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A very large urban-rural wage gap made evading controls rational. (p. 9)
By the mid-1970s, the ratio of African urban to rural income - 8.3 to 1 among wage earners - was beginning to take on the appearance of European-African inequalities.
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Even jail terms did not remove the incentive to migrate illegally to Johannesburg. (p. 9)
an African from Lebowa can take up work illegally in Johannesburg, spend three months out of the year in jail, and still improve his or her personal income by 255 percent
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Influx control held urbanisation below its expected level. (p. 9)
the percentage of the South African population urbanised would have increased from 49.6 percent in 1960 to 55.3 percent in 1970, to 56.7 percent in 1980, leaving South Africa underurbanised by 9.4 percent
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Rising costs and resistance eroded the political base for labour control. (p. 10)
As the costs of maintaining control have risen, as the system has become more unwieldy and contradictory, and as Africans have mobilised against it, the constituencies for control have withered.
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Mining, farming and manufacturing interests distanced themselves from the labour framework. (p. 11)
The mining houses, capitalist farmers, and manufacturers have put distance between themselves and the state labour framework, as labour requirements have changed
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interviews with labour bureau and TEBA (mine recruiting) officials in Lebowa, Gazankulu, KwaZulu and Transkei, April 1982 | interviews oral history | April 1982 | Official testimony on job queues, collapse of recruiting, closed labour markets and the changed stance of TEBA is the main evidence for labour surplus and breakdown of control. |
| Student Rural Labour Control Project interview documents (Sterkspruit Tribal Labour Bureau, ACRO official), University of the Witwatersrand | interviews oral history | c. 1980s (not stated) | Corroborates the pattern of empty tribal bureaux and the abandonment of ACRO and TEBA recruiting networks. |
| Aninka Claasen, Field Research Report and interview documents (Mapumulo offices) | author survey or fieldwork | not stated | Supports reports of ending labour recruiting in KwaZulu districts and of the rush of work-seekers at recruiters' announcements. |
| Greenberg and Giliomee, 'Labour Bureaucracies and the African Reserves', South African Labour Bulletin 8 (Feb 1983) | secondary literature compilation | 1982-83 | Earlier published account of the 1982 fieldwork, cited for TEBA/ACRO abandonment of agents and the ISCOR job-request rush. |
| Maasdorp and Gordon, 'Unemployment in the Transkei' (University of Natal, 1978), and other research on Transkei tribal bureaux | secondary literature compilation | 1978 | Cited for the similar pattern of empty bureaux and static manufacturing recruitment in the Transkei. |
| Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Control Measures (Van Rensburg), 1967 | commission or official report | 1967 | Shows officials themselves lamenting illegal residence and work and the 'workshy' unemployed in white urban areas. |
| Report of the Department of Native Affairs 1952-53 | official statistical series | 1952-53 | Quoted for the government's own image of a smoothly working labour bureau network. |
| Dr W W M Eiselen speech before the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce (1958) | other | 1958 | Quoted to show official belief in an efficient system for distributing labour. |
| UNISA Native Administration II, Study Guide 6 (1973) | other | 1973 | Quoted as an example of official textbook imagery of a complete and coordinated control system. |
| Industrial Commission of Inquiry testimony (Crown Reef Gold Mine), published by Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines, 1897 | commission or official report | 1897 | Evidence that African mineworkers deserted in large numbers even under early compound and pass systems. |
| Republic of South Africa, Economic Development Programme (1978-87) | commission or official report | 1960-1987 (projections) | Supplies unemployment estimates and projections, manufacturing employment growth, capital-stock-per-employee and capital-output ratio trends. |
| 1970 population census (as used by P J van der Merwe) | population census | 1970 | Basis of van der Merwe's 'minimum' estimates of unemployment on white farms, in urban areas and in the bantustans. |
| P J van der Merwe, 'Black Employment Problems in South Africa, 1960-1977' (unpublished paper) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1977 | Source of unemployment figures (252,000 in 1969 to 528,000 in 1976) to show rising surplus labour. |
| Simkins unemployment estimates (Measuring and Predicting Unemployment in South Africa 1960-1977, in Simkins and Clarke, Structural Unemployment, 1978) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1977 | Estimate of 22.4 percent overall unemployment in 1977, including agricultural underemployment, as evidence of growing surplus. |
| Simkins, 'The Demographic Demand for Labour and Institutional Context of African Unemployment in South Africa 1960-80', SALDRU Working Paper 39 (1981) | secondary literature compilation | 1918-1980 | Source for declining capacity of reserves to support inhabitants, remittance share of bantustan income, farm-employment figures, urbanisation counterfactual and removals totals. |
| Lieb J Loots, 'A Profile of Black Unemployment', SALDRU, April 1978 | secondary literature compilation | 1970-1977 | Alternative, higher estimate that urban unemployment rose from 9.5 to 23.1 percent. |
| Bromberger, 'Unemployment in South Africa: a survey of research', Social Dynamics 4 (1978) | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Survey of employment-survey and underemployment estimates, also cited for the capital-output ratio. |
| Maree and Graaff, sample survey of African workers in Cape Town 1975-76 | household or labour survey microdata | 1975-76 | Finds 40 percent of migrants had no arable land and 50 percent no cattle, showing the decline of bantustan subsistence. |
| Buthelezi Commission, The Requirements for Stability and Development in KwaZulu and Natal, Vol II (1982) | commission or official report | 1960-1976 | Source for labour-export earnings as a share of KwaZulu GNP (54.3% in 1960 to 77.8% in 1976). |
| Colin Murray, Families Divided: the impact of migrant labour in Lesotho (1981) | secondary literature compilation | 1970-1976 | Data on remittance share of Lesotho income and on re-engaged experienced miners. |
| Surplus Peoples Project, Forced Removals in South Africa: The Transvaal, Vol 5 (1983) | secondary literature compilation | 1960-1982 | Source for 400,000 farm evictions and 400,000 relocations in the Transvaal and 74,276 relocations in 1980. |
| Michael Savage's influx control arrest and prosecution data | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Source for the 4.5 million influx control prosecutions in the 1970s cited as the system's scale. |
| Nattrass, 'Towards Racial Justice' paper, SAIRR 50th Anniversary Conference, July 1979 | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Apparently the source for urban-rural African income ratios and the fourfold rise in urban industrial wages. |
| Bekker and Cilliers, Die Arbeidsituasie van die Swartman in die Wes-Kaap (Stellenbosch, 1980) | secondary literature compilation | 1980 | Cited for the exclusion of African women from factory employment in the Western Cape. |
| W J P Carr, 'Influx Control as seen by an Administrator of Non-European Affairs', SAIRR, 1961 | other | 1960-61 | Contemporary official observation that urban African families form a favoured class and Johannesburg draws every work-seeker. |
| J Lange, Financial Mail, 12 October 1979 (quoted in Savage, 1983) | newspapers periodicals | 1979 | Source of the estimate that illegal work in Johannesburg, even with jail time, raises a Lebowa African's income by 255 percent. |
| Minutes of the Conference, SAAU and Minister of Native Affairs, Pretoria, 15 September 1944 (D L Smit Papers, Albany Museum) | state archives | 1944 | Documents SAAU demands for labour controls, such as expelling 'redundant' Africans and the rural/urban legal division. |
| SAAU written evidence to the Commission of Enquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilization of Manpower (Riekert); SAAU Report of the General Council 1973-74 | employer association records | 1973-1979 | Shows farmers' only perfunctory support for labour bureaux by the late 1970s and their shift to land consolidation. |
| Confidential 1982 memorandum by a major manufacturing business organisation to the government on the Orderly Movement and Settlement of Black Persons Bill | employer association records | 1982 | Evidence that manufacturers publicly opposed the new influx control bill. |
| Orderly Movement and Settlement of Black Persons Bill (1982) and Riekert Commission recommendations | legislation gazette | 1982 | Cited as the new control legislation that business opposed, indicating a withering of support. |
| Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development (1980), pp 202-07 | secondary literature compilation | 1960 | Earlier account of business associations' 1960 call to reconsider pass restrictions. |
New data¶
Author-conducted April 1982 interviews with labour bureau and TEBA officials in Lebowa, Gazankulu, KwaZulu and Transkei (with Giliomee), supplemented by student-project interview documents; no systematic dataset is described.
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Interpretive argument built on qualitative official interviews and anecdotes, set against statistics from other researchers and government plans (unemployment estimates, removals, capital deepening, remittance shares) and archival or memorandum evidence on employer-association positions. The argument is a theoretical claim about the internal contradictions of state labour control, not a test of it.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The labour control framework is incomplete and unevenly enforced, and its successes generate pressures that push it toward breakdown, which then require more control. (p. 2) | 1967 Inter-Departmental Committee complaints of illegal presence, plus the author's interviews and quotations from officials. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Large surplus pools of work-seekers queue at labour, tribal and TEBA offices while rural areas get few or no job requisitions. (p. 4) | April 1982 interviews with TEBA and bureau officials, student project interview documents, Claasen's field report. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| African unemployment rose steeply through the 1970s, with estimates varying widely by researcher. (p. 6) | Compiled estimates from van der Merwe (1970 census), Loots, Simkins and the Economic Development Programme projections. | Partial data |
| The bantustans can no longer support their inhabitants, who depend overwhelmingly on wages and remittances. (p. 6) | Simkins estimates, Maree and Graaff Cape Town survey, Buthelezi Commission KwaZulu data, Murray on Lesotho, and official anecdotes about drought. | Partial data |
| Mechanisation and consolidation of white farms displaced African labourers and tenants, and farm employment fell by the late 1970s. (p. 6) | Farm-employment figures via Simkins and Surplus Peoples Project removals data for the Transvaal. | Partial data |
| Declining labour absorption in manufacturing and mining (capital deepening, re-engagement of experienced miners) narrowed the legal labour market. (p. 7) | Economic Development Programme figures, Bromberger, Murray and Maasdorp-Gordon data on re-engagement shares, and TEBA officials' statements. | Partial data |
| The urban-rural income gap gives Africans strong incentives to evade controls, and influx control held urbanisation below its expected level. (p. 9) | Simkins's counterfactual urbanisation estimates, wage ratios (Nattrass), Lange's income estimate for Lebowa migrants, and the 1960 Johannesburg official's observation. | Partial data |
| Farmers, the Chamber of Mines and manufacturers withdrew their traditional support for strict labour controls by the 1970s and 1980s. (p. 10) | 1944 SAAU minutes, SAAU evidence to the Riekert Commission, TEBA officials' interviews, 1960 business petition and a confidential 1982 manufacturers' memorandum. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that the unemployment estimates diverge (van der Merwe's is a 'minimum', and Loots's is made 'tentatively') and calls the quantitative studies and personal impressions 'just snapshots'. He gives no formal discussion of the representativeness of his interviews.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The breakdown thesis needs systematic time-series data on influx control arrests, labour bureau registrations and placements, and illegal urban population estimates to show actual enforcement failure, rather than interview impressions from four bantustan areas in 1982. Archival records of the Department of Native Affairs, administration boards and the Chamber of Mines on cost, staffing and policy debates would test the 'rising costs' and shifting-constituency claims. Much of this existed in government and archival form then, and much is now accessible.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.