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HOME
 
 
 

The life 
& times 
of
Warren Swil
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

V 1

 

 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Eight out of 10 African men working in commerce and industry earn less than R100 ($18) a month - below starvation level!

Wage increases over the past year have all but been swallowed by inflation, rising at 17 per cent a year. Food prices, which rose by nearly one-fifth between May last year and May this year, are still rising, and the cost of other essentials such as electricity, coal and glass have risen by more than one-tenth in the past five months.

According the University of South Africa's Bureau of Market Research an African urban household of five or six members needed a minimum of R99 ($17) a month for the bare necessities in February. But they estimate that that figure is going up 1.8 per cent a month, so the minimum income now would be R102.

The University of Port Elizabeth says a family of six in Soweto needs at least R111 to survive. But Miss Sarah Chitja of the National Union of Clothing Workers, said this week it was impossible for an African family to survive on less than R130 a month. “Everything has gone up in price - no family I know of could survive on R102 a month.”

Mr. Robert Kraft, economist and assistant general secretary of the Trade Union Council of South Africa, estimates that about 80 percent of African men now employed in commerce and industry earn 1ess than R100 a month. “That means thousands of families, where the man is the sole breadwinner, are living below the starvation level. One cannot even call R102 a civilized wage - nor is the Supplemental Living Level of R124.66, which includes money for recreation and extra food. It does not meet the many commitments people in urban areas have to meet.

“Wages should cover not only basic physical survival but should meet the requirements for basic psychological satisfaction as well. This would include provision for savings and recreation. We demand that urban workers conform to urban standards of health, dress and behaviour, but because of their low wages they are forced to make sacrifices in other essentials to meet those standards.”

According to Mr. Kraft, the gap between white and Black wages does not appear to be closing. 

The president of the Trade Union Council of South Africa, Mr. Tom Murray, said in Pretoria yesterday: “Wage increases are not keeping pace with inflation. And in a situation like that, there can only be one result – a dangerously dissatisfied labour force.”

All basic foods except bread – mealie meal, milk, butter, cheese, condensed milk and powdered mile – had gone up in price with Government approval in the past two months. African workers now spend most of what they earn on food. They were having to buy less and therefore eat less, Mr. Murray said.