'Development' in the Transkei, 1886

169 Pages·2015·1.27 MB·English

Development as Unfreedom: the role of mine migrant labour institutions as agents of
‘development’ in the Transkei, 1886 – 1980s

Michael Glover
(glvmic002)

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the
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degree of Master of Arts in Historical Studiews
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Faculty of the Humanities

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University of Cape Town

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COMPULSORY DECLARATION
This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree.
It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from
the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced.

Signature: Date:
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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No
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quotation from it or information derived from it is to be

published without full acknowledgeement of the source.
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The thesis is to be used for private study or non-
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commercial research purposes only.

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Published by the Universit y of Cape Town (UCT) in terms
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of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.
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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Riette Zaaiman from the University of Johannesburg’s Special
Collections library for enabling my time there to run smoothly. Thanks also to Riette
for kindly freighting me from Melville to the Doornfontein campus.
I want to thank the UCT librarians at the African Studies Collections and Rare Books
and Government Publications, especially Laureen Rushby and Sue Ogterop.
I extend thanks to Graham Herbert and Kevin Cotterell for the progressive and
forward-looking spirit with which they allowed me to conduct research at the TEBA
head office archives in Eloff street extension Johannesburg in 2013.
Thanks to the Mandela Rhodes Foundation for funding most of this project, and to
Jonathan and Janice Glover for financial support.
I would like to thank Anne Mager for her dedication to this project, and for
penetratingly reading numerous earlier drafts. Thanks also for the many long and rich
conversations surrounding this project.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... i
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. iv
List of abbreviations .............................................................................................................. v
List of figures ....................................................................................................................... vii
Chapter 1: Introduction, migrant labour, Amartya Sen’s development as freedom 1
Migrant labour institutions and their relationship to development ............................. 3
Beyond the South African historiography, institutions and capabilities .................... 16
Development as freedom ................................................................................................. 18
Chapter 2: The Native Recruiting Corporation as an institution of unfreedom, 1886
– 1920....................................................................................................................................... 27
The formation of the Chamber of Mines, 1886 – 1900 ...................................................... 30
Rand Native Labour Association and the creation of WNLA, 1890 – 1912................ 35
The NRC and key shifts in the migrant labour force after 1912 .................................... 49
Labour recruiters, management of credit, advances ......................................................... 51
Drawing chiefs and rural elites into the NRC system, 1912 – 1920s ............................ 53
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 56
Chapter 3: Labour supply: deprivation, capability-destruction, and agency, 1920s –
1970s ........................................................................................................................................ 58
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 58
The context of deprivation and the role of institutions, 1920s – 1960s ........................ 60
Deprivation, 1964 – 1977 .................................................................................................. 66
The interplay between recruitment and deprivation ....................................................... 79
The relevance of agency in the interplay between recruitment and deprivation .... 81
Gold mine work as capability-destructive and antithetical to development ............ 85
The Transkei as principal labour sending region, post-1974 .......................................... 92
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 96

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Chapter 4: The Deferred Pay Interest Fund (DPIF): endorsing control, constraining
freedom and development, 1914 – 1978 ........................................................................... 98
The Deferred Pay Interest Fund, 1914 – 1960s. ................................................................... 98
The Deferred Pay Scheme’s projects, 1958 – 1975 ........................................................... 104
1976 Independence celebrations and the gift of the Umtata Air Terminal ............. 115
TEBA Savings Fund Trust, 1976 – 1978 ............................................................................. 124
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 129
Dénouement ........................................................................................................................ 132
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 139
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 140

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Abstract
Early liberal historians predominantly criticised the migrant labour system for its
economic irrationality. After high GDP growth and steady benefits from gold mining
in the 1960s, Marxist scholars in the 1970s pointed to the destructive impact of the
system. Since 1994, the challenge inter alia has been to forge a new developmental
path for the economy. In 2012 the National Development Plan set out its aim to
“eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030”.1 This is the challenge. For the
country or region to ‘develop’ and eliminate ‘poverty’ we need to know what we are
trying to eliminate and what our development is trying to achieve.
This thesis examines the migrant labour system in the Transkei through a lens of
development and asks how and to what extent the system inhibited the development
of the Transkei and its peoples. Using Amartya Sen’s conception of development –
which sees development as a process of expanding social, political, and economic
freedoms/capabilities – this thesis offers a view of migrant labour institutions in terms
of how they created and engendered deprivation and unfreedom in the Transkei. It is
an attempt to understand our ‘developmental past’ and to understand how
development in the Transkei has been frustrated and inhibited by formal institutions.
Amartya Sen’s notions of ‘development’ and ‘deprivation’ offer an autonomy- and
freedom-centred approach to thinking about poverty and development. Specifically
the thesis examines the nexus of formal institutions underpinning the migrant labour
system – including state laws, the Native Affairs Department, and the Native
Recruiting Corporation – in terms of how they acted to inhibit the development of
mineworkers and labour exporting regions like the Transkei.

1 South African Government “National Development Plan, 2030,” accessed 4 May 2013.
http://www.gov.za/issues/national-development-plan-2030
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List of Abbreviations

AVS Assisted Voluntary Scheme
BAD Department of Bantu Administration and Development
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
DPIF Deferred Pay Interest Fund
FRELIMO The Mozambique Liberation Front
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GNLB Government Native Labour Bureau
GNP Gross National Product
IMF International Monetary Fund
NAD Native Affairs Department
NIE New Institutional Economics
NPO Non-Profit Organisation
NRC Native Recruitment Corporation
NUM National Union of Mineworkers
PAC Pan African Congress
PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
RNLA Rand Native Labour Association
TB Tuberculosis
TEBA The Employment Bureau of Africa (Limited)
THOA TEBA Head Office Archives
UJSC University of Johannesburg, Special Collections
UTTGC United Transkeian Territories General Council
VRG Valid Re-engagement Guarantee
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WHO World Health Organisation
WNLA Witwatersrand Native Labour Association

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List of figures

Figure 1: GNP and life expectancy in five middle income countries (1984) ................ 19

Figure 2: Transkei voter participation in general elections, and number of contested
seats (1963 – 1976) ................................................................................................................. 68

Figure 3: Transkei Justice and Education expenditure from 1964 – 1972 in Rands
(thousands) ............................................................................................................................ 70

Figure 4: Percentage distribution of pupils by broad educational groups in the
Transkei (1970 – 1974) .......................................................................................................... 73

Figure 5: Number of hospitals and beds (1973, 1975, 1980) ............................................ 74

Figure 6: Number of nonhuman animals owned in the Transkei (1956 – 1974) .......... 75

Figure 7: Transkei maize production, consumption and imports (1971 – 1975) ......... 77

Figure 8: Number of Transkei migrants recruited to work in SA, by year .................. 78

Figure 9: Trader recruiter output (1959, 1963, 1969) ........................................................ 80

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To the memory of Gloria Dimakatso Malakoane 1949 - 2013

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