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w * w t i m u i l o e w o n r ^ F ' ifta i a

as

loonoolcs is a study ef the National Wealth, how it produced and shared among the different individuals who the nation.

is

It la not always avldent that whether some people are and some rloh, whether some people work for others and othei raise their own sustenenoe Independently, In the final anal the eoonomio standing of eaoh individual bears some relation to the total wealth of the oountry. It is important for us get a comprehensive picture of how much our oountry has or produce if we are to be able to make olaims for any seotlon or individual in the country.

Now the National Wealth of any oountry is a result of three main faotors- Capital, Labour and Organisation. This resuJ~ is shared among the Capitalists- the employers, the dir .tors and managers and the labourers- There Is of oourse : a considerable Intermediate olass of people- Middlemen- who feature in the exchange of goods. For our sketohy outline, however, we shall conoentrate on the three fundasiental faotors of Production- Capital, including land and materials, labour and the organisation of the whale system of production.

One of the main problems of Economics is to devise a Just and equitable way of dividing the national wealth among the different seotions who have co-operated in producing it.

Prom these preliminary' remarks I ' wish to emphasise this important fact, that there is not a thing of value In society which has not Involved in its manufacture, the oo-operative effort of the capitalist, the worker and the organiser; whether that is a building of magnificence like the City Hall, whether it is a Departmental Store or whether It is mealies from a farm, or gold in the Reserve*Bank. These are products of Joint efforts in other words they really belong to the dirreflfnt people who produced them. Time will not allow me to develop this point and Illustrate It further, but to me it is a matter of great import. It furnishes, to me, one of the greatest reasons against Apartheid; for, the towns, industries etc. whloh e^e ’ t'eing claimed for the white people are in no sense white people1s property alone for they have all been produced by the brawn, sweat and life of the African no less then by the money of the whlteman. ,

The main souroea of wealth in South Africa may be divided into three departments- Agriculture, Mining and Manufacturing industries.

From an economic point of view South afrioa is a poor farming oountry and it continues to uocolmt for a smaller and smaller proportion of the National inoome each year. over 90% of the oountry is not arable, as a result of climatic condi­tions* Iven what part is arable is not in the main oapable of Intensive cultivation. On an equal piece of land Australia and the United States, by comparison, would produce three times ths amount of mealies that South Africa raises. Yet, over half of the total population of South «frica is engaged in Agriculture for Its livelihoodj to produce only about 14̂ f of the Rational Inoome %

Out of a total of 100,000 Europeans engaged in Farming the Social and Bconamic planning Council, 1946, reoorts that only about 33,000 had money income of more than f 200 r>er annum.

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— t0 thl* the fQot tba* the Government spend* aore than£6,000.000 per annum in aaaiatanoe to farmers. and it will be i elaar that Agriculture as it it preeently organised is not contributing enough to the welfare of the country. in faot it is m ateful, | *

far as uiie itfric^n lfl concerned, it is common knowledge that he is huddled up injoongeated and poor areas and inaoite of the fadt that afrioan oonaitute eo* of the country they oan aspire to occupation, in tribal, oommunal tenure, in only about 12* of the country, at best, Thia makes it impoaaible for the jifricQn to mQk8 q livelihood on fQPnlng* this sqtvqs conveniently to supply cheap migrant labour to the mines and other Industries.

It is olear, from the above, that .South african Farming, whetner it involves the Euix>pe€ta or the Hfrican* requires revolutionioation if th4 -people of South «frica, White and Elack, shall be raised from the depressed state in whioh they live. How depressed the african in the Reserves and the Farms is, .s well known to you and me. The Suropeun himself had

ned a chronio degree of Boonomic depression not so lone ag^., when the problem of "The Foor White" was besetting the oountry, ihe Government tackled the problem energetically but the solution was not really sound beoause it did not «o far enough in revolutionising the industry.

I f what has been said above Is true, it is diffioult to } government can seriously maintain that the

african should look to the rural areas- his so-called National home- for economic upliftment. 8 , 000, 000 people to hope fprsound economio existence if# 'o f poor land where the small proportion of 2 million whites has failed so lamentably on «o> or the land, with enormous Government assistance \

a realistic approach to this problem is that: -

(a) The Government should bring home to the farmer that he is not using the land to the best advantage- and

to see to it that wasteful practices are stopped *The

vot^thon 1 1s * evidently more interested in the Farmer’ s vote than in the national economy.

The productivity of the farms is low. jt requires

Jatl ° n mor® economic use and mechanisation J efficiency, which means fewer, *

tranced and better paid labour instead of the present.

(b) The Reserve economy also requires drastic changes

land 'at^heiJ li* ^ ople in the Reserves for the*j j f ! J* I* * lr *Poaal More land should be made avail-

nU les fo? ? trclning, assistance and opportu-1 V , belter returns given to the afrioan- on t w

other hand the policy of migrant labour should'be onanied through comprehensive wages in industry, capable of maintaining the labourer entirely on his wu^es nnl

hi9tfamllvin8A£«11?yit0 the labourer to llve^rtth^ frioun peasant himself will have to

la bo iu*" and - ivision’ of

(o) Legislation such as the Master and Servant laws

to moreUproduotivedindustriea^°OUrage m° bUlty ° f “

MINING/

wnrrwr'. r^ntrarv to popular view, the mlnea do not contri- bute the largest proportion *o National Wealth. We

have already seen that 6,000,000 people in South Africa out of « of 11 million get their livelihood from agrioulture.In 1950 the mining industry contributed leas than l£ than the

farming industry.

Productiv ity per head is much higher here howgver, for tne industry empJofS only about 4 6 0 ,0 0 0 "orkers he average earnings are qbout £560 per European and about £45 per non-

European (184 7 .) .

Theae figoflea immediately alarm ua as to the disparity of the share of mining product given to the European 9^ ° y e®' on the one hand and to the African Employee on the other hand,and yet. that is atill nothing compared to the profita the mine Capitalist# realise in thia buaineaa. , ,

The T>olicv of the Chamber of Mines rests on cheap migrant labour of the ifrioan. The Mining Capitalists is determined to as little as he can for labour and receive in profits a- oh as he can.. Hence the appallingly lew wages of the

can the bad oompaund system and migrant labour system which breaks family life , depresses Reserve economy and renders the rural African a reservoir of cheap labour.

Here again as in the case of the farming commuhity, the mines have a very strong political power which influencea the rest of economic policy in the country. Were the nines to be committed to a more progressive policy; the all round develop­ment of this country would be changed materially to the <ood.Tnev have a good opportunity for one thing, for investing their larse profits in the industrial development of the country.But the mines are not a charitable organisation, an_, like all ether industries based on the profit motive, react oniy to pressure* yet politioal pressure in South Africa does not have its centre of gravity on National Economy so muoh as on "Ideology” and "Colour".

Thus the mines have become a "monopoly", insensitive to the demands of *frlcan labour and of industrial development in general. Partly due to the Compound System and partly due to the Labour policy of this country, little can Africans do to better their wage position through Trade-Unionism and tney are on the jother hand, by the Colour Bar laws precluded in the skilled and rer.urerative posts. The position is a great challenge to Congress.

The Manufacturing Industry presents a more hopeful picture. It is a young and growing feature of Afrioan life , but already contributes to National Wealth about 25^ of the total. About 400,000 non-Europeans earning on the average £120 per annum and about 200,000 Europeans earning about £440 p®** annum are employed.

These industries promise a great field of National Develop­ment in the future because South Africa is well provided with natural resources and raw materials in the form of base metals—

iron, coal, wool etc.

Here too, the Colour policy atill Relegates the afrioan to the poor posts but there are pointers tft the effect that it 3s from'this angle as a result of necaeaity, that the colour bar will break down.

I shall make only a few remarks with reference to the Conmerciil aapect of o^r National Economy.

(a) ^ h e A f r i c a n / . . . ,

»

A fricflflj b d l n f t h & o s 1 o r l t » n f f-K

e o o ^ i i r ± i r

S S T f f i action £

<b) #Ten a* h8 ls tsuated as a mere

opportunity 2ia«e If^to^trnie^Iven £ 2peo^ie. in moat municinal lo a a t ? ™ 5 f own

P ’ uclno0: : .

kert11S e d. ° PPOrt" ,itl“ ' » 4 p x S ^ 2 t ltS R a r V *

S L Z ™ b e t t e r the*,subject *hlch , e hove ^ S h a T u ^ ' l f ^ " ^ ’ , ? ' our

Economy i a ^ a o u n d ^ *ha o l i g a r c h i a l ^ ? frlcun NationalOomr jent over the whole "situnt^n J*11®®1*1301 minority seems

an nuasea w ™ f o r I w h n ^ « ™ « b?CaU8e T61™ them * re thethb joid hard inevitable raaulta of* t h S / T tilera aSa3-nat policiea. 1 results of their bankrupt Uccnonsic

National £oduc? w h i & ^ a l e ^ V ?81' 1̂ 9 « « « • of the from asserting M , 0t a i £ ^ o I ^ u t S L 01", ?nd la topped *he African muat just crm nH o m 71 Tra^e Jnion effort.

Trade Union privileges ta?e b e e n ^ u « i ^ t0! er ^P^lments. history, there is no other way? Ugilt for» tnroughfcut

Government Bgains^the r ic ita ^ f^th l f 10101 m” oMnation8 of the the following nots;- l8ilt9 of the ahoulJ refer to

(1) The Mines Torka act cf m i ,

(*) Industrial Conoiliation *ct of i 924h

(3) War Measures 14 51

(“*) Wage of 1925f

(5) Native Building Workers ,.ct of i95;>

(8) Slotous rtSaembllea A0t of 1930 eto.

country, Tha*- niV ? contribute fully tn t r ^ ' V ’ ̂ ert^ksn sowhetber t J v J J eXJ £ ° ,lal, and «rtlfloffi t a r X - a T i f ?ent ' tM a

U * 3 with i L jt^endatntaf nolltlooi°n .tU I ^ S

through every noaai hfa tcc° r^ pressuremust ??Wnm ent doea not

.f i i o i r ; : r n inoiim n*

*°od of our e o - S S S S ! " - ? ^«ie

Collection Number: AD1812

RECORDS RELATING TO THE 'TREASON TRIAL' (REGINA vs F. ADAMS AND OTHERS ON CHARGE OF HIGH TREASON, ETC.), 1956 1961 TREASON TRIAL, 1956 1961

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