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 / Revue internationale de science politique, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Freedom and Boundaries). Sage Publications.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1849–c.1980 |
| Regions | South Africa, Western Cape (Eiselen line), homelands/national states, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Natal |
| Themes | mining migrant labour, agriculture land, bantustans removals influx, labour markets wages, origins segregation, business and state, demography urbanisation, politics ideology elections |
| Citation key | lemon1984b |
Argument¶
Lemon argues that South Africa controls its labour market to an unusual degree for a capitalist country, through race-based job reservation and above all through influx, efflux and pass controls on African movement. He traces the legislation from 1849 to the Riekert-era reforms, then looks at farm labour, mining-company recruitment and stabilisation policy, and the effects on source areas. He concludes that the post-Riekert system splits black workers into urban insiders, frontier commuters and a large outsider mass of homeland and farm dwellers. This is a 'highly efficient adaptation' of apartheid to capitalist needs, because social costs and unemployment are shifted onto the homelands. On the ideology versus capitalism debate he takes a mixed position: ideological and economic aims often coincide, but some controls are economically wasteful.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature (Wilson, Morris, Baldwin, Lipton, Knight, Spandau, Horner and Kooy, Nattrass, De Wet, Smit), legislation, the Riekert Commission and 1979 White Paper, the Du Plessis agricultural commission, Survey of Race Relations statistics, and two maps (Eiselen line; frontier commuters). No original archival or survey data.
Place in the debates¶
- Cheap labour thesis: Marxist capitalist-functionalist vs racial-ideological explanations of labour controls (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Notes both views and sides mainly with ideology as paramount, modified where it clashes with economic aims. He accepts that the aims often coincide, and concludes that the new system is 'a highly efficient adaptation' to capitalism.
- Causes of state intervention in farm labour (Baldwin's apartheid ideology vs Morris's capitalist development) (see Agrarian transition to capitalism and the fate of the African peasantry). Treats the two as compatible. Anxiety about 'verswarting' of the platteland was real, but the removals restructured production relations and permitted capitalist agricultural expansion in white areas.
- Does job reservation and labour control reduce growth? (see Liberal vs revisionist: was apartheid functional or dysfunctional for capitalist growth?). Argues that job reservation and training failures are economically wasteful, while migrant and influx controls reinforce the capitalist system by cheapening labour and externalising its costs.
Findings¶
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The 1952 Native Laws Amendment Act introduced efflux control and labour bureaus, systematising the channelling of African labour. (p. 6)
The act introduced the principle of efflux control and the practice of canalizing labor through labor bureaus.
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The coloured labour preference policy west of the Eiselen line began in 1962 and was extended in 1971. (p. 7)
This policy began to operate in 1962 and was extended to a further 22 magisterial districts in 1971.
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Black farm workers earned a very small fraction of the pay of mine and manufacturing workers in 1976. (p. 7)
equal to 18.8% of their counterparts in mining, 13.2% of the average wage in manufacturing, and only 15.2% of the average for all nonag-
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Removals of labour tenants and squatters in the 1960s were very large, as the state worked to end labour tenancy. (p. 9)
the policy of eradicating squatters and abolishing labor tenancy went ahead in the 1960s, when 340,000 labor tenants and 656,000 squatters were removed
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Mine reliance on Malawi and Mozambique was heavy before the 1974 suspension of Malawian recruitment, while domestic African mine employment had slumped. (p. 10)
In 1972, Mozambique and Malawi alone supplied 53% of all gold mine labor.
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The gold price rise funded sharp mine wage increases that narrowed 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
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Higher wages and relaxed recruitment rules cut the foreign share of mine labour. (p. 11)
reduce the foreign component of their labor force to only 35.7% by mid-1979.
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Mid-1970s compound conflict on the mines was deadly and costly to owners. (p. 11)
resulting in 178 deaths in 65 incidents between September 1973 and June 1976
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Government restrictions kept stabilisation of gold-mine workers minimal despite the mines' interest in it. (p. 12)
in practice, less than 1% of black miners had been stabilized by 1970.
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The post-Riekert reforms widen the insider/outsider gap and push rural blacks to the back of the job queue. (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 fall below the cost of reproducing labour, shifting social costs to the homelands. (p. 16)
Thus 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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Frontier commuting from homeland border townships grew rapidly in the 1970s. (p. 17)
These dormitory towns housed over 700,000 "frontier commuters" in 1979, an increase of 147% since 1970
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The emerging control system is read as functional to capitalist growth. (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 | Supplies the stated government objectives in the labor market and the doubt about whether frontier commuters can acquire Section 10(1)b rights. |
| White Paper on Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Legislation Affecting the Utilization of Manpower, WP T/1979 | commission or official report | 1979 | Establishes the government's concessions on family rights, job mobility and transfer of Section 10 rights, and the new condition of non-availability of local workseekers. |
| Second Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Agriculture (Du Plessis Commission), RP 84/1970 | commission or official report | 1970 | Quoted to show that official policy aimed to make white agriculture less dependent on non-white labour. |
| Native and urban-area legislation 1923-1952 (Natives (Urban Areas) Act 1923, Consolidation Act 1945, Illegal Squatting Act 1951, Native Laws Amendment Act 1952, Population Registration Act 1950, Group Areas Act 1950) | legislation gazette | 1923-1978 | Narrates the legislative framework of influx and efflux control and its tightening over time. |
| Labour legislation of the 1920s (Industrial Conciliation Act 1924, Wages Act 1925, Mines and Works Amendment Act 1926) and job reservation 1956 | legislation gazette | 1924-1956 | Describes statutory racial job protection as the original principle of labor-market control. |
| Ministry of Indian Affairs statement 'Interprovincial movements of Indians', Fiat Lux, June-July 1975 | newspapers periodicals | 1975 | Source for exclusion of Indians from the Orange Free State and parts of northern Natal. |
| Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1980 (L. Gordon ed.) | secondary literature compilation | 1970-1979 | Source for the 305,000 labor tenants removed in 1970-1979. |
| Baldwin (1975) 'Mass removals and separate development' | secondary literature compilation | 1960s | Source for numbers of labor tenants, squatters and black-spot residents removed in the 1960s. |
| Knight (1977) Labour Supply in the South African Economy, SALDRU Working Paper 7 | secondary literature compilation | 1969-1976 | Source for cane-cutter wage rises and for black use in open-cast mining jobs. |
| Wage data for black agricultural, mining and manufacturing workers, 1976 (unattributed in text) | official statistical series | 1976 | Shows black farm workers' very low pay relative to other sectors. |
| Spandau (1980) 'A note on black employment conditions on South African mines' | secondary literature compilation | 1972-1979 | Source for the declining white:black pay differential, mine/manufacturing wage ratio and the stabilization agreement. |
| Wilson (1972a) Migrant Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969 | secondary literature compilation | 1911-1969 | Source for the claim that mining wages were unchanged in real terms since 1911. |
| Chamber of Mines-affiliated mine employment and recruitment figures (unattributed series on foreign and domestic labor) | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1962-1979 | Documents the shift from foreign to domestic labor and the fall and rise of South African black mine employment. |
| Horner and Kooy (1976) Conflict on South African Mines, 1972-1976, SALDRU Working Paper 5 | secondary literature compilation | 1973-1976 | Source for counts of deaths and incidents of mine conflict and its attributed causes. |
| Lipton (1980) 'Men of two worlds: migrant labour in South Africa', Optima | secondary literature compilation | c.1980 | Source for percentages of stabilized labor at non-gold mines and hostel upgrading. |
| De Wet (1980) study of land betterment in a Ciskeian village | secondary literature compilation | c.1980 | Case evidence of landlessness and rural dependence on migrant labor after betterment. |
| Nattrass (1976) 'Migrant labour and South African economic development' | secondary literature compilation | 1976 | Source for the 90% migration rate at a given education level. |
| Frontier commuter statistics, 1970-1979 (Figure 2) and Smit (1979) squatter estimate | official statistical series | 1970-1979 | Quantifies growth of frontier commuters and squatters in homelands abutting white urban areas. |
| General Circular No. 27 (1967) | legislation gazette | 1967-1968 | Documents the policy requiring government approval for new black housing schemes in white areas. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Narrative and interpretive synthesis: a historical survey of legislation, combined with sector discussions (agriculture, mining) that rely on secondary studies and scattered figures. The main claim is argued by logical interpretation of policy, with no formal testing.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The state has controlled the black labor market through influx and efflux controls, labor bureaus and Section 10 rights, building on legislation from 1923 through the 1952 Native Laws Amendment Act. (p. 193) | Statutes (1923, 1945, 1951, 1952 Acts) and Morris's characterization. | Partial data |
| State removal of labor tenants and squatters restructured farm labor relations, producing a smaller stabilized workforce but with little improvement in wages or conditions, and farm workers remain among the lowest paid. (p. 196) | Baldwin and Gordon removal counts; unattributed 1976 wage comparison; Du Plessis Commission; Morris. | Partial data |
| In the 1970s mining companies shifted from foreign to domestic labor by raising wages and relaxing recruitment, narrowing the white:black pay gap and cutting the foreign share of labor to 35.7% by 1979. (p. 198) | Chamber of Mines-type employment figures, Spandau wage series, Wilson, Knight. | Partial data |
| State restrictions on stabilization of mine workers (3% limit, repatriation requirement) impeded mechanization and skilled-labor needs, whereas non-gold mines stabilized much more labor. (p. 199) | Spandau and Lipton figures on stabilization; general discussion of Anglo American's aims. | Partial data |
| The post-Riekert reforms widen the gap between urban insiders with Section 10 rights and rural outsiders, who are placed at the end of the employment queue. (p. 202) | Riekert Report and 1979 White Paper; interpretive reading of their provisions. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Homelands and frontier commuter townships absorb the social costs of the labor force (housing, education, unemployment) while the white economy captures the benefits, with migrants paid below the cost of reproducing labor. (p. 203) | Wilson's argument, De Wet case study, Nattrass migration rate, frontier commuter counts, General Circular 27. | Partial data |
| The emerging labor control system is a highly efficient adaptation of apartheid to the needs of capitalist expansion, dividing black workers into three groups. (p. 206) | Synthesis of the preceding sections; no direct empirical test. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The author flags few data limitations. He notes uncertainty over whether Riekert concessions will be inherited by children, and he treats the 1976 commuter figures as estimates (e.g. 'an estimated 1976 squatter population').
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument rests on secondary studies and scattered statistics, with no systematic series on wages, migrant flows, or enforcement of influx control (pass-law arrests, labor bureau placements). Evidence on how far employers and farmers actually complied with the new rules, and on real wages by sector, would test the claims better. Chamber of Mines recruitment records, Department of Bantu Administration statistics and census data existed at the time and are now accessible in archives, and could support quantitative tests.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.