AEssay ReviewWhat Price Black Labour in Rhodesia?J. SucklingCentre for Southern African Studies, University of YorkThe urban Poverty Datum Line (P.D.L.), thewages and conditions of black employment,and the development of the Tribal Trust Lands(T.T.L.s) are related, either directly or indirectlyto the supply and demand for black labour inRhodesia. Apologists for the 'free' marketsystem would do well to consider recent workon these subjects*. The pieces by Clarke andHarris adopt a political economy approachto the market for black labour and show howthe white polity has structured and regulatedthe institutions within which the market hasto operate to the disadvantage of Blacks. TheP.D.L. study by Cubitt and Riddell demon-strates just how low black urban wages arerelative to the admittedly subjective judgementson what is and what is not necessary in income* D. G. Clarke, Domestic Workers in Rhodesia,Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1974, Occasional Papers Socio-Economic Series No. 1, 88pp. Rh$l,00; ContractWorkers and Under development in Rhodesia, Gwelo,Mambo Press, 1974, Occasional Papers Socto-Economic Series No. 3, 132pp. Rh$l,40.V. S. Cubitt and R. C. Riddell, The Urban PovertyDatum Line in Rhodesia, Salisbury, University ofRhodesia, 1974, x, 139pp. Rh$l,00.P. S. Harris, Black Industrial Workers in Rhodesia,Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1974, Occasional Papers Socio-Economic Series No. 2, 71pp. Rh$l,00.A. J. B. Hughes, Development in Rhodesian TribalAreas, Salisbury, Tribal Areas of Rhodesia ResearchFoundation, 1974,xii,323pp. no price indicated.terms to 'satisfy minimum necessary consump-tion needs'. And the work by Hughes is athorough if orthodox survey and critique ofthe various attempts to raise productivity inthe T.T.L.s. This overview is invaluable becauseit points out that too much emphasis has beenkid on 'economic' man in the setting up andevaluation of development projects in theT.T.L.s, and it provides evidence on the lackof suitable productive oportunities resulting inthe migration of black labour to the urbanareas.Turning to the substance of the papersthemselves let us start with the P.D.L. study.The authors present a short history of theP.D.L. concept ranging from the initial ideas ofBooth and Rowntree to the contemporaryP.D.L. studies in South Africa. The resultingdefinition of the P.D.L. is thus more com-prehensive and precise than previous definitionsand is as follows: 'the income required to satis-fy the minimum necessary consumption withina denned environment in a condition of basicphysical health and social decency'. There aretwo components to the P.D.L., one biologicalŠ the basic nutritional requirements forhealth, and one social. It is this latter elementthat results in controversy and where valuejudgements are involved. The authors recognisethis and provide some degree of justification113for their choice of essential items of expendi-ture. Suffice to say that their choice is widerthan in previous studies. The pricing exerciseto cost the selected items compares well withstandard practice.What is of more interest in the study is theset of four underlying assumptions: (a) it ispossible to evaluate basic family needs in mone-tary terms, (b) families have homogeneoustastes, (c) income is spent rationally and effi-ciently, and (d) economic obligations do notgo beyond the nuclear family. The first is easyto criticise but non-economic needs presentintractable measurement problems. The secondis always present in attempts to condense arange of values for an item into a single index.The third can be handled using the concept ofthe Effective Minimum Level (E.M.L.) of in-come Š that level of income necessary toensure that the P.D.L. standard is reached. TheE.M.L. is not calculated in this study butSouth African studies have suggested that theE.M.L. premium is 50 per cent of the P.D.L.The fourth assumption, and its implications,creates the greatest difficulty because the evid-ence suggests that it is not valid. If the extendedfamily system is in operation then the widediscrepency between urban wage levels andthe P.D.L. (roughly 90 per cent of black urbanemployees earn less than the P.D.L. for afamily of six) can be explained by the thesisthat a portion of the costs of maintaining theurban family is shifted to the T.T.L.s. Furtherevidence is provided by the casual observationthat significant expenditure takes place onitems not included in the P.D.L. The extendedfamily and the obstacles to permanent urbanresidence by Blacks also invalidates the in-clusion of a provision for post-employmentconsumption in the P.D.L.A final point can be made of the relationof the P.D.L. to family size and compositionand the use of the P.D.L. as a standard bywhich to evaluate existing wage levels. Labourin a mixed economic system is paid not accord-ing to its obligations but according to historicalfactors, and others such as productivity andbargaining power. It is the usual practice forgovernment and not the employer to accom-modate varying family composition throughallowances and subsidies in the system of per-sonal taxation. There is a responsibility onboth employer and government to ensureadequate living standards for Blacks.The P.D.L. study establishes that blackindustrial wages are very much less than aliving wage. Why this should be so is set outin the work by Harris. His initial observationsare quite revealing; for example the ratio ofWhite : Black earnings is 11:1; Blacks aremuch more dependent on employment by theprivate sector (80 per cent in 1969 were em-ployed in this sector) than Whites, who in turnare more dependent on the public sector (37per cent in 1969, although this figure includesAsians and Coloureds); the wage-earner: de-pendent ratio is higher for Blacks than forWhites; and 40 per cent of the black labourforce is of foreign origin and provides roughly80 per cent of the labour input to the agricul-tural, private domestic service and miningsectors.Harris' analysis is important too in that therole of risk is incorporated into his analysisof why urban Blacks maintain links with theT.T.Ls. High levels of unemployment andunderemployment, difficulties in establishingpermanent occupation rights in the black town-ships, the lack of any basic social security, allincrease the insecurity of the black labour.Assuming risk averseness on their part, theyare forced to maintain links with the T.T.L.sthrough the extended family system and thusretain their rights and obligations under thatsystem. It is also not irrational on their partto have large families. But both of these factorshelp to reduce wage rates; the first by shiftingsome of the cost of maintaining a family unitonto the T.T.L.s, the second by increasing thesupply of labour.The difference in wage rates is explained interms of institutional factors (the establishmentof a 'traditional' wage gap, the opposition ofwhite labour, the legislation governing blacklabour) and in terms of human capital (Blacksare not well paid because they are not pro-ductive Š a reflection of their lack of experi-ence, training and education). Such is largelytrue. More important, however, is the questionwhy Blacks cannot gain the necessary humancapital, and why even if they can, they shouldbe rewarded at different rates from Whites. Theobstacles are clear. Employers are hostile,white labour wishes to maintain its security ofV ^114employment and high wages through the ex-ploitation of their monopoly of skills, thegovernment presumably in accordance with thewishes of the electorate encourages the im-migration of skilled white workers and restrictstraining facilities for Blacks.Further evidence for the almost whollynegative action of the government is providedby the provisions of the Industrial ConciliationAct. By allowing the establishment of verticalunions within any single industry but not multi-skill or multi-industry unions, this legislationeffectively prohibits the formation of a smallnumber of relatively powerful unions. Insteadthere are a large number of small unionsdrawing on narrow financial bases and unableto support the normal negotiating and educa-tive functions associated with union activity.The dearth of competent union leaders meansthat most unions are without proper andeffective leadership as well.Much more emphasis is placed on theinstitutional framework within which themarket for black labour operates in Clarke'sanalysis of the role and position of domesticand contract labour in the Rhodesian economy.The white polity has reacted in two ways toreduce the supply price of black labour. Thefirst has been to set up a legal frameworkcircumscribing the ability of Blacks to controltheir conditions of employment and their free-dom to change that employment at short notice,The major example here is the Masters andServants Act first enacted in 1901; its effectsare compounded by the exclusion of agricul-tural and domestic labour from the provisionsof the Industrial Conciliation Act. This meansthere are no provisions for trade union activity,collective bargaining or wage-setting machinery,no minimum wage, and no regulations con-cerning wages in kind. Considerations of thisnature are left to the market to sort out butagainst a backdrop of historical practices andan oversupply of labour that shifts bargainingpower strongly in favour of the employer. Itis pointed out, too, that the Masters andServants Act in emphasising contractualobligations rather than conditions of servicedoes 'set a tone to the legal and institutionalframework which reinforces the hierarchalnature of the Masters and Servants bargain'.The effects of the exclusion of domestic servantsfrom the provisions of the Industrial Concilia-tion Act are amply demonstrated by the betterconditions of employment in the hotel andcatering industry, although some weight ad-mittedly must be attached to the formation bythe hotel workers of a credible union.The second reaction was to set up a monop-sonistic organisation to institutionalise andtap supplies of black labour from outsideRhodesia and channel it to those sectors, parti-cularly agriculture, that were not prepared topay the market wage for local labour. Indige-nous Blacks are more aware of the conditionsof work and levels of pay in the agriculturaland mining sectors, and of the better employ-ment opportunities within Rhodesia and SouthAfrica. The economic implications of settingup a single buying agent are clear: by reducingcompetition amongst employers for labour,wage rates are depressed below the wage levelthat would obtain in a competitive market. Thehistory of organisations set up with this purposein mind is long. For instance the WitwatersrandNative Labour Association was set up in 1901and the Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau twoyears later. The latter body ceased operationin 1933 and was only replaced in 1948 by theRhodesian Native Labour Supply Association.The Rhodesian organisations had a mixedsuccess. Only in the latter part of its historydid the R.N.S.L.A. cover its expenses and at itspeak it only supplied 10 per cent of primarysector employees. This proportion fell to 1.5per cent in 1971, reflecting the growing im-portance of locally recruited labour and therestrictions placed on the inflow of foreignlabour in the late fifties. Clarke emphasisesthe reluctance of contract labour employers toattract workers by offering wages competitivewith wages in other sectors and the inabilityof the R.N.S.L.A to meet the demand forcontract labour. An interesting hypothesisarising from this situation is that, if the capita-tion fee paid by employers to the R.N.S.L.A.had been added to the wage rate, the desiredamount of labour might have been forth-coming? In that the ratio of the capitation feeto the annual wage rate reached the orderof 20 per cent at times, this appears a plausiblehypothesis.Both Harris and Clarke point out the roleof low productivity in the T.T.L.s in reducingthe supply price of black labour for wage115employment in the urban sector. It is alsoclear that the lack of interest on the part ofgovernment is no small factor in explaining thissituation. Hughes' overview of past and presentdevelopment efforts in the T.T.L.s presents athorough and comprehensive documentation ofthis viewpoint. Governments have acted toolittle and too late and for the wrong reasons.He criticises the common assumption that ruralBlacks are 'economic' men with no social orpolitical attributes, and cites this as a reasonfor the low rate of success of various develop-ment projects. This is only partially correct.Rural Blacks may well be economic men butthey and the Whites operate under differentsets of institutions, and it is invalid to expectthem to respond to economic incentives in thesame way as Whites. For example Blacks areconstrained by an extended family system anda much greater incidence of risk than theirwhite counterparts. A factor ignored by Hughesas well is the action by the white polity tocontinually circumscribe and reduce the oppor-tunities open to Blacks to earn their livelihoodsoutside wage employment in the whitedominated sector. There would seem to be acontradiction as well between Hughe's viewthat rural Blacks are social and political aswell as economic men on the one hand andhis suggestion that the T.T.L.s be acceptedas an integral economic part of Rhodesia onthe other. It is I think naive to take the view-point that rural Blacks are not aware thateconomic integration without moves towardssocial and political integration is likely to bea non-policy.To end I would reiterate my opening pointthat those who seek to justify the low wagespaid to Blacks by reference to market forceswould do well to read the works surveyed. Veryoften the market itself is neutral but the in-stitutions within which it operates are not.V *V116