British colonial segregation continuities (Christopher, 1983)
Native Land Acts
apartheid proper: National Party 1948
legalised and institutionalised race discrimination and
segregation in SA introduced from 1948 onwards
Group Areas Acts of 1950 and 1966
Population Registration of 1950
ethnic mobilization of Afrikaners
white workers and farmers fear of
Oorstrooming 'overrunning of the cities';
undercutting of wages
electoral platform
homelands for blacks; 'parallel
development' (1970) for coloureds and
Indians
1984 'Own Affairs'; belated exercise in co-option
'petty apartheid': transport, post offices, benches, toilets, beaches
ideological; inefficient but cost reduced by passing Reservation of
Seperate Amenities Act in 1953 (separate not =)
Native Laws Amendment 1952
reinforced existing controls on
labour movement; permits required
'friction theory'
assumes physical means to spiritual goal (Paton)
attempt to maintain white political and economic power in
'legitimate' way; not just based on ideas of racial
superiority
liberal vs. Marxist critiques
presented as triumph of the frontier over economic rationality (Legassick, 1980) - was it?
Bantustan education
Edgar Brookes
(1968): 'the only
education system in
the world designed to
restrict the
productivity of its
pupils'
changing economic base
mining to manufacture
manufacture and service sector became more skill and capital
intensive - increasingly demand a free and mobile labour force
increasingly saturated domestic market
exports were rendered uncompetitive by protectionism (Lemon & Gibb, 2002)
1982 - poss highest subsidies for decentralisation in the world
job reservation
artificially high wages and undeserved job security for whites
few incentives for blacks to work hard
state interference in labour productivity outweighed any
benefits of reduced labor costs (Natrass, 1991)
unemployment rose consistently under apartheid from the mid 1960s due to
declining absorption capacity of formal sector (Rogerson, 1995)
Moll (1991): manufacturing exports fell
steadily from 1955 to 1985 explained by
apartheid super structure
seriously inefficient use of black workers
Fine & Rustomjee (1996): manufacturing
sector in prolonged state of stagnation,
dependent on MEC core
direct costs: internal and external
security; sanctions
disinvestment, loss of potential interest,
refusal of the banks to lend
external more expensive following
Portuguese revolution in 1974
O'Meera (1983): 'NP gov after 1948 secured the political conditions for rapid
accumulation by all capital'
ANC - communist leanings - very broad way in which apartheid
maintained capitalist state albeit one that interfered with the normal
process of capitalist accumulation
migrant labour system: intensified exploitation of black workers
migrant workers made up 98% of the mine labour force
mining wages in 1970 had not changed in real terms since 1911 (Wilson, 1972)
reserve production enabled employers to force down wages (Wolpe, 1972)
reserve production a myth (Lansdown Commission 1943)
labor of women and children req for reproduction of labor force
Chamber of Mines opposed rigidifying labour
force helped to maintain supplies of labour
BUT req that miners be 'repatriated' hindered recruitment from local area
transport subsidies needed to bring in black
workers from periphery; KwaNdbele where subsidy
to Putco bus company was higher than entire
GDP of homeland (Lelyveld, 1987)
mining >> manufacture
domestic balck working in mines fell from 1962 peak of 157,000
to 86,500 in 1971 (Lemon, 1987)
more dependent on foreign labour in mines
restricting geographical distribution of labour and occupational distribution through
job reservation >> violated one of the central principles of captialism