A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1967¶
Muriel Horrell (1968). A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1967. South African Institute of Race Relations, Johannesburg.
| Type | report |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | descriptive quantitative |
| Period studied | 1966–1967 |
| Regions | South Africa, Western Cape, Transkei, Ciskei, Witwatersrand, Natal, South-West Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi |
| Themes | bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, manufacturing industrial policy, mining migrant labour, agriculture land, inequality poverty unemployment, business and state, unions strikes, education human capital, politics ideology elections, macro fiscal finance debt, sanctions divestment, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | horrell1968 |
Argument¶
This annual compilation by the Institute of Race Relations records the year's legislation, official statistics, parliamentary answers and press reports, with brief editorial comment. Its central picture is of intensified apartheid under Vorster: Physical Planning Act controls on industry, influx control tightened (especially in the Western Cape, with a 'Coloured labour preference' policy), removals of 'black spots' and displaced people to homeland resettlement villages, and a state-backed border-industry programme. It shows the contradiction between this and labour-market reality: shortages of white labour, African advance into skilled jobs, weakening of white unions and modest white-miner 'productivity agreements'. The Survey is not a thesis-driven analysis; its value lies in dated, sourced detail (Hansard, Bulletin of Statistics, departmental reports), with a liberal critical stance in places.
Evidence and method¶
Hansard replies by ministers, official Estimates (R.P. series), Bulletin of Statistics, Controller and Auditor-General reports, departmental annual reports, Bureau of Market Research household surveys, Permanent Committee on border areas report, and press reports (Rand Daily Mail, Star, Cape Times etc.), plus Institute memoranda.
Place in the debates¶
- Liberal vs revisionist on apartheid and growth (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Implicitly liberal: cites economists and business bodies arguing that racial job barriers, influx control and industrial decentralisation retard growth and fuel inflation, while noting government insists on its policy.
- Cheap labour thesis / role of migrant labour (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Documents low African wages, migrant mine labour and wages in border areas below urban rates, but does not theorise; the Black Sash and others criticise the migrant system's effects on family life.
- Viability of homelands and decentralisation (see Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals). Reports official admissions (BIC head Adendorff) that homelands cannot support even natural increase, and border industries absorb only 4.4 per cent of African labour-market entrants; sceptical of success.
- Sanctions effectiveness (see Sanctions, disinvestment and the anti-apartheid movement). Records UN calls for mandatory sanctions and Western reluctance; the UN seminar declaration claimed trade with the West encouraged defiance; no evaluation of effects.
Findings¶
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Border-area infrastructure cost per job was very high. (p. 132)
the cost of the infra-structure for border areas, up to May, had been almost R10,000 for every person taken into service in industry.
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Border-area clothing wages for Africans were far below those in Durban and the Witwatersrand. (p. 133)
a fully qualified African male machinist employed in a clothing factory at Hammarsdale (a border area between Durban and Pietermaritzburg) was paid just under R10.00 per week
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Mine wages by race in April 1967 show a huge gap between white and African cash earnings (with Africans also receiving part pay in kind). (p. 140)
R260.07 for Whites, R63.29 for Coloured and Asians, and R15.43 for Africans.
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Labour shortage and automation were eroding white craft unions' bargaining power in engineering and metals as Africans entered operative and skilled jobs. (p. 129)
African workers now outnumber Whites by at least five to one in the engineering and metal industries, while the electrical industry is said to have "virtually gone Black."
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Many Transkeians depended on migrant wages: most wage-earners were absent in the Republic. (p. 193)
In 1966 there were about 278,000 of them, constituting 85 per cent of the wage-earners.
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Poverty among urban Africans: Soweto survey found 68 per cent of families below the minimum subsistence level despite wage rises. (p. 119)
this proportion remained 68 per cent.
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Physical Planning Act empowered the state to curb growth in African employment in metropolitan factories. (p. 181)
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hansard (House of Assembly, Senate) 1967 parliamentary questions and debates | parliamentary debates | 1966-1967 | Ministerial replies supply most statistics (classification, security detentions, banning, pass laws, education, pensions, housing) and the debates on Acts. |
| Statistical Year Book 1966 (tables H81, H82) and Bureau of Statistics Report 01-27-01 | official statistical series | 1964 | Supplies sample-survey wage data for construction and commerce workers. |
| Reports of the Controller and Auditor-General 1965-6 (R.P. 46/66, 47/66, 48/66) incl. Transkei accounts | commission or official report | 1965-1966 | Provides Trust land holdings, state expenditure on Africans, taxes paid by Africans, and university costs per student. |
| Report of the Department of Bantu Education, 1965 (R.P. 55/66) | commission or official report | 1965 | Source for African enrolment, teachers' qualifications, school boards, double sessions. |
| Reports of the Transkeian Education Department 1965 and Annual of the Transkeian Government 1967 | commission or official report | 1965-1967 | Supplies Transkei school, teacher, employment and development data. |
| Report of the Permanent Committee for the Location of Industry and Development of Border Areas, 1966 | commission or official report | 1960-1966 | Source for applications, assistance, employment and investment in border industries. |
| Reports of the Department of Coloured Affairs (R.P. 22/67) and Education Council for Coloured Persons (R.P. 14/67) | commission or official report | 1965-1966 | Describes Coloured reserves, expenditure and teacher dissatisfaction. |
| 1967 Acts of Parliament (Population Registration Amendment Act 64/67, Physical Planning and Utilization of Resources Act 88/67, Terrorism Act 83/67, Suppression of Communism Amendment Act 24/67, etc.) | legislation gazette | 1967 | Terms of the statutes are described and analysed. |
| Bureau of Market Research (UNISA) household income studies: Pretoria 1960-65; Port Elizabeth-Uitenhage | household or labour survey microdata | 1960-1965 | Supplies African and Coloured household incomes and budgets. |
| Institute of Race Relations memoranda, statements and 'RR' papers (e.g. RR 52/67, 27/67, 62/67, 122/67) | secondary literature compilation | 1966-1967 | Used for descriptions of banishment, school costs, welfare segregation and other topics. |
| Author's own calculations from official lists and tables (listed/banned persons, criminal statistics) | author survey or fieldwork | 1966-1967 | Counts listed and banned persons by race as at 7 December 1967. |
| Transkeian Official Gazette and Transkei Government statements/budget (Legislative Assembly, April 1967) | legislation gazette | 1967 | Budget, electoral registration and Transkei administration details. |
| Journals and periodicals (Bantu Education Journal, Bantu, Alpha, Race Relations News, SA Digest, Transkei Liberal News) | newspapers periodicals | 1966-1967 | Supplementary data on enrolment, examination results and policies. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Annual chronological survey compiled from Hansard, official reports, bulletins of statistics and newspaper reports; the author re-tabulates official figures, occasionally calculates totals, and offers brief critical commentary. No formal analysis or causal inference is attempted.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Apartheid was intensified in 1967 through stricter race classification, physical planning controls on industry, and tightened influx control. (p. 1) | Descriptions of the Population Registration Amendment Act, Physical Planning Act and ministerial Hansard statements. | Partial data |
| Group Areas removals imposed financial and social hardship on non-white communities, with compensation inadequate relative to market conditions. (p. 193) | Minister's figures on appreciation/depreciation contributions, municipal reports and local case descriptions. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Security legislation (Terrorism Act, Suppression of Communism amendments, bannings) widened executive power, with many persons banned or listed. (p. 39) | Texts of Acts, Hansard debates, ministerial figures and the author's lists. | Systematic data |
| Mine workforce was heavily dependent on foreign African labour, with African cash wages far below those of whites. (p. 126) | Bulletin of Statistics wage data, WNLA labour composition and Leistner estimates. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author flags that data are often missing or non-comparable: no recent figures on farm labour or African pass-law admissions, no life tables for Africans, rough South-West Africa population estimates, revised sample bases, and estimates based on assumption or 'guesswork' for African taxation and education expenditure.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The Survey largely reproduces ministerial replies and press reports, so it lacks independent microdata on wages, employment, removals and household welfare. Sources such as unpublished departmental files, census microdata and systematic surveys of resettlement villages would test the claims better; many of these existed only in government hands then and are partly available in archives now. Racial breakdowns of apprentices, job-reservation exemptions and influx-control admissions were explicitly withheld, limiting assessment of how policies operated in practice.
Replicability: Data public and well described.