Overview of sa's economy (1910 -1948)  (Page 2/4)

This movement was founded in Bloemfontein in 1912 in an effort to unite the majority of the black population, and defend their rights and freedom.

Farming on the halves

After the second Boer War, especially, many white Afrikaners had no jobs. They lived on farms as peasants, where they cultivated some land for their own benefit.

Large areas of white farms, particularly in the Free State, were uncultivated because the farmers concentrated mainly on sheep and cattle farming. As white farmers were reluctant to switch over to grain farming, they gave some of the land to black farmers to cultivate, in exchange for part of the crop (usually one-third). The black farmers provided the ploughs, oxen and seed, enabling them to plough, sow and harvest. These black farmers were called share-croppers. They formed a big threat to the white peasants. The peasants were reluctant to obey orders and they were also unwilling to work on the lands together with the black labourers. Another important factor was labour. black labour was in high demand on the gold-mines.

e) Urban Areas Act

Squatter towns were fast spreading on the outskirts of the towns. These squatter towns were poorly managed by municipalities. Inhabitants did not receive much in exchange for the taxes and levies they were paying. There was a shortage of sanitary amenities, and serious diseases such as tuberculosis often broke out in the squatter communities.

General Smuts decided that it was the government’s duty to provide proper housing for urban blacks and manage the shanty towns in a proper way, otherwise it would put the white civilisation to shame.

Blacks, however, would not possess property in these shanty towns. The government regarded their presence solely as a labour force for the benefit of the whites. Once their labour became redundant, they were to return to the reserves.

By introducing these two laws the government of the South African Party lay the foundations of segregation.

f) Mines and Works Act 1911

From the beginning the labour force in the mining activities was divided into small groups of schooled and semi-schooled white labourers and a much bigger labour force consisting of unschooled black labourers. Many white labourers came from outside the borders of the country, and their remuneration was considerably higher than that of the white workers who were citizens of the country. The blacks, on the other hand, received a very low remuneration.

The goldmines followed the policy of replacing schooled and semi-schooled white labour with cheaper, unschooled black labour.

De Wet op Mijnen en Bedrijfen (1911) laid down certain working conditions and safety precautions. Unfortunately regulations regarding the issue of certificates of competence for certain occupations in the mines, also discriminated against blacks in the long run. The pact-government made no secret of the fact the interests of the white mineworkers were to be served above those of the black workers. When the act was amended in 1926 competence certificates were limited to certain occupations such as machinists, surveyors and dynamite operators amongst whites and Coloureds only.