State Control Over the Labor Market in South Africa¶
Anthony Lemon (1984). State Control Over the Labor Market in South Africa. International Political Science Review 5(2). SAGE / International Political Science Association.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1849–1979 |
| Regions | South Africa, Western Cape, Homelands (Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu), Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi |
| Themes | mining migrant labour, agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, origins segregation, business and state, demography urbanisation, politics ideology elections |
| Citation key | lemon1984a |
Argument¶
Lemon argues that South Africa controls its labour market to a degree unusual for a capitalist country, through race-based legislation, influx and efflux controls, and restrictions on farm and mine labour. He reviews the legislative framework, the farm labour market and the changing labour policies of the mining companies. He then reads the Riekert reforms (1979) as widening the gap between urban 'insiders' and rural 'outsiders' while keeping the 'regional settlement' goal of separate development. The emerging system is, in his view, a highly efficient adaptation of apartheid to the needs of capitalism, since it exports social costs and unemployment to the homelands. He treats the Marxist cheap-labour and apartheid-ideology explanations as partly coinciding rather than as exclusive alternatives.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature (Wilson, Morris, Lipton, Knight, Spandau, Horner and Kooy, Baldwin), statutes, the Riekert Report and White Paper (1979), the Du Plessis Commission, and Survey of Race Relations data on removals, wages and commuters. No archives or original surveys.
Place in the debates¶
- Cheap-labour/capitalist-needs vs apartheid-ideology explanations of labour controls (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Takes a middle course: the two coincide in many respects, with ideology modified where it conflicts with economic aims. His conclusion nonetheless stresses the system's functionality for capital.
- Explanation of state intervention in the farm labour market (Baldwin's ideology vs Morris's capitalist development) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Treats both as valid: the 'verswarting' concern was real, but state intervention restructured relations of production and permitted capitalist farm expansion.
- Does apartheid labour control hinder or aid economic growth? (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Job reservation and training restrictions are wasteful and lower efficiency. The migrant and homeland system, by contrast, lets the white economy use rural labour while shifting social costs onto the homelands.
Findings¶
-
Statutory job reservation was introduced in 1956 to protect whites fearful of semiskilled black competition, though mostly eroded since, with customary discrimination persisting. (p. 3)
job reservation was introduced in 1956, enabling the Government to reserve specified types of work for a given racial group
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The Native Laws Amendment Act of 1952 created the core machinery of efflux control and labour bureaus. (p. 6)
The act introduced the principle of efflux control and the practice of canalizing labor through labor bureaus.
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Black farm workers earned a small fraction of mining and manufacturing wages in 1976. (p. 7)
In 1976, the average annual income of black agricultural workers was only R 114.20 (Rl = £0.65 approximately), equal to 18.8% of their counterparts in mining
-
Large-scale removals of labour tenants and squatters took place in the 1960s and 1970s, with labour tenancy abolished in 1980. (p. 9)
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Mining wages were stagnant in real terms while foreign supply was falling, producing a domestic-labour crisis for the mines. (p. 10)
whilst mining wages had not changed in real terms since 1911 (Wilson, 1972a: 46)
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The gold price boom allowed the mines to raise wages sharply and narrow the racial pay gap. (p. 10)
the overall white:black pay differential declining from 18.6:1 in 1972 to 8.08:1 in 1976 and 6.72:1 in 1979
-
Mine labour turnover, training costs and conflict rose after the loss of experienced Malawian and Mozambican miners. (p. 11)
Training costs soared with much increased turnover, and many mines faced absolute shortages, despite the greater flexibility permitted by short-term contracts offered to urban blacks after 1974.
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Mining companies pursued limited stabilization, using Re-engagement Guarantee Certificates and early return bonuses to cut turnover while keeping migrancy. (p. 13)
They have succeeded in lengthening the average contract and shortening the homestay period, thus reducing turnover and recruitment.
-
Riekert-era reform widens the gap between urban insiders and rural outsiders, extending Western Cape-style preference nationally. (p. 15)
Rural blacks, whether living on white farms or in homelands, thus come at the end of the queue for access to the job market.
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Migrant wages below family-support levels and exported unemployment shift reproduction costs onto the homelands. (p. 16)
migrant laborers from the national states are paid lower wages than would be needed for family support, that is below the cost of reproducing the labor force.
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The new labour control system is an efficient adaptation of apartheid to capitalist needs. (p. 19)
The new labor control system which is emerging thus appears to be a highly efficient adaptation of apartheid policies to the needs of the expanding capitalist economy.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilisation of Manpower (Riekert Commission), RP32/1979 | commission or official report | 1979 | Establishes the stated government objectives in the labor market and doubts about whether frontier commuters can qualify for Section 10(1)b rights. |
| White Paper on the Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilization of Manpower, WP T/1979 | commission or official report | 1979 | Documents the government's concessions on family rights, job mobility and transfer of Section 10 rights, which underpin the claim of widening insider/outsider gap. |
| Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Du Plessis Commission), RP 84/1970 | commission or official report | 1970 | Cited for the recommendation that white agriculture be made less dependent on non-white labour, as evidence of ideological motives. |
| Natives (Urban Areas) Act 1923 and Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act 1945 (Section 10) | legislation gazette | 1923-1945 | Provides the legislative framework of influx control and residence qualifications described in the historical review. |
| Native Laws Amendment Act 1952, Natives (Abolition of Passes and Coordination of Documents) Act 1952, Population Registration Act 1950, Illegal Squatting Act 1951 | legislation gazette | 1950-1952 | Establishes the postwar apparatus of efflux and influx control, labor bureaus and pass-law consolidation. |
| Labour and group legislation: Industrial Conciliation Act 1924, Wages Act 1925, Mines and Works Amendment Act 1926, Group Areas Act 1950, job reservation 1956, Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act 1970, General Circular No. 27 (1967) | legislation gazette | 1924-1978 | Used to trace statutory race-based control of labor, residence, trade and homeland housing. |
| Ministry of Indian Affairs statement on interprovincial movements of Indians, Fiat Lux, June-July 1975 | commission or official report | 1975 | Supports the claim that Indians are excluded from the Orange Free State and parts of northern Natal. |
| Wilson, Migrant Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969 (data on mine wages) | secondary literature compilation | 1911-1969 | Supports the claim that mining wages had not changed in real terms since 1911. |
| Spandau (1980) data on black mine wages, white:black pay differentials and stabilization | secondary literature compilation | 1972-1979 | Supplies the wage figures showing the narrowing white:black pay differential and mine wages relative to manufacturing, and the recent housing agreement. |
| Chamber of Mines labor and recruitment figures (unattributed series) | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1962-1979 | Used for numbers of South African black miners, foreign supply shares and Mozambique/Malawi share, though the source is not cited directly. |
| Horner and Kooy (1976), Conflict on South African Mines 1972-1976 | secondary literature compilation | 1973-1976 | Provides the count of deaths and incidents of mine conflict and explanation of causes. |
| Knight (1977), Labour Supply in the South African Economy, and Gordon (1981) SAIRR Survey of Race Relations 1980 | secondary literature compilation | 1960s-1980 | Supply figures on cane cutter wages and numbers of labor tenants removed; Baldwin cited for 1960s removals. |
| Lipton (1980), Men of two worlds: migrant labour in South Africa, Optima | secondary literature compilation | c.1980 | Supplies percentages of stabilized labor at Phalaborwa, Kimberley and Rand Mines coalfields and hostel improvements. |
| Agricultural wage data 1976 (average annual income of black agricultural workers vs mining and manufacturing) | official statistical series | 1976 | Shows low agricultural wages relative to other sectors. |
| De Wet (1980) study of land betterment in a Ciskeian village; Nattrass (1976) migration rates | secondary literature compilation | 1970s | Used for evidence of population growth, landlessness and high migration rates among educated homeland residents. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Synthetic review combining legislative history with secondary-source statistics and interpretive argument, taking stances between Marxist and ideological explanations; no original data analysis, mainly descriptive reasoning supported by selected figures and two maps.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The 1952 Native Laws Amendment Act created the basis of state control over distribution of African labor between town and country through efflux control and labor bureaus. (p. 193) | Statute text and Morris (1977) characterization. | Partial data |
| Black agricultural workers earned a fraction of wages in other sectors in 1976 and wage pressure came only where mines recruited. (p. 194) | 1976 wage figures (unattributed) and Knight (1977) on Natal sugar wages. | Partial data |
| In the 1960s state removals eliminated hundreds of thousands of labor tenants and squatters from white farms, restructuring farm labor. (p. 196) | Baldwin (1975) and Gordon/SAIRR (1981) removal counts. | Partial data |
| Mining companies shifted from foreign to domestic labor in the 1970s through wage rises enabled by the gold price, narrowing racial pay gaps. (p. 197) | Spandau (1980), Wilson (1972a), Chamber of Mines figures, gold price. | Partial data |
| Government stabilization of mine labor was restricted so that less than 1% of black miners were stabilized by 1970. (p. 199) | 1952 concession limit and Spandau (1980). | Partial data |
| Post-Riekert reforms widen the gap between urban insiders with Section 10 rights and rural outsiders, extending preferential access policy nationwide. (p. 202) | Riekert Report and 1979 White Paper provisions, interpreted by the author. | Asserted |
| Labor controls shift social costs of reproducing the labor force to homelands, creating frontier commuters and rural overcrowding. (p. 203) | Wilson (1972b), Smit (1979), De Wet (1980), frontier commuter counts. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes only minor uncertainties, such as whether Section 10 concessions can be inherited by children, and does not discuss data quality.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument leans on secondary compilations and unattributed figures, with no direct use of Chamber of Mines or Department of Statistics series, or archival evidence on how labor bureaus functioned. Claims about reproduction costs, wage levels below family subsistence and the 'cheap labour' function would need household budget data and homeland income surveys, which existed in part (e.g. poverty datum line studies). Evidence on enforcement of influx control (prosecutions, pass-law arrests) and employer practice would test claims about customary discrimination and the effects of reform.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.