.SALDRU FARM LABOUR CONFERENCE

sEPTEMBER 1976

Paper No. 22

Fann LaJ::x)ur in the Ci trusdal Valley

Jan Theron

Preliminary Draft: No rx>rtion of this paper

may be quoted without permission of Saldru,

School of Econanics, University of cape Town.

FARM LABOUR :tNTHE CITRUSDAL VALLEY

Jan Theron

This essay concorns the living ~d working conditions of farm workers on f~rms in the Citrusdal Valley. In part is an exros~ of factual conditions - as revealed in questionnaire interviews with farmers and workers and information gained from farmers, workers, teachers, health workers, personal experience and personal oncounter. Some references are also made t~ the labour conditions in Vredendal, based on a visit there. In part it attempts to treat various aspects of the farm situation as elements in a whole and self-regulating structure. How this structure has been and is being transformed is related chiefly through accounts of the protagonists of the struggle, the farmer and workers, and deals therefOre less with history than mythology.

CITRUSDAL isa small farming centre (812 Whites, 830 Coloureds, 180 Africans) 160 km nOrth of Cape Town, in the valley of the Olifants River. Another 120 kIn nori;h in the same valley is Vredendal. The Citrusdal portion of the valley is contained by the Olifants River berge on tho west and the Koubokkeveldberge and Cedarberg on the east. 30 kilometres north of the town tho valley is stopped by",;he Clanwilliam dam, 30 kilometres south by the juncture of the two mountain ranges. It was on this southern portion, an area containing about 60 farms, that a questionnaire survey was conducted; and on one farm on the way east­wards from the farm and on aother on a plateau out of the valley, west­warus towards the Swartla.ncl. While the area, as it name implies, is predominantly citrus growing, vines arc increasingly cultivated, as well as vegetables, fruit, sheep, cattle ,chickens, pigs. Farming is therefore mixed, and it is not easy to make comparisonsbetwcen produotion on farms. Also it is a very long established farming area, and thex-e are a variety of sizes and types of farms -there are the sub-divided portions of older anel larger farms which are farmed independently, and large consolidated farms; farms smaller than 50 hectares and several farms larger than 500 hectares.

The farms have· this in common, tha.t they rely exclusively on the l~hOl.n:' of permanent f~rm workers, that is farm workers working and living on the farm. The great majority of these workers are Coloureds, whose origins are in the Citrusdal valley or surrounding diet'ricts. Quite typically there are workers who have lived their entire lives in the proximity of a few farms. There are a small percentage of Africo.ns, either permanently resident in the Cape and qUite freqUently with Coloured spousos, or on 11 month contracts from the homelands. The requirements for seasonal labour in the citrus nndvine picking season are met locally, by, the women and chil(lren 1i ving on the farms, who work for casual rates. They arc tho wives and chiltiren of permanent farm workeIi3. Some farms employ less than 5 pcrm~ent workers, others marC! thon 50. Yet the livintJ an(i workinv, concli tiona of tho f::1.rm worker, while they va,ry signi.ficant ly, are the outcome of the same development and the same fflrm structur~ - everywhere thore are thosymptoms of poverty nnd deprivation - illiteracy, high infant mortality, inadequate clothing, poor nutrition, endemic alCOholism.

!! 13 farmers and 50 workers were interviewed in separate questionnaires. The conditions on 16 fanns in Citrusdal are set out in the tables attaohed.

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h, ' /3-eh fn.rm has its own wn.y of costing a mans labour. Always thez:e is a I :(:! t,' ,sh wnge, and in many cases the workor gets rations per week. Then also i'i oIc.koned among the benefiteof being a farm worker are housing, free

I:" 'at'-Jr and wood, in many cn.ses an amount of wine (dop), bonuses, christmas ill I '~fts and so on. " ',','

ii' tin,' farm A the fabric of t.hispayment becomes clearer. This is a small 1'1 ,f'airm with 4 permanent workers. At the end ,of each week they are paid R2 I' ,p~us rations _ a bunch of dried fish, a bucket of wheat meal, a packet of

beans, 61b meat (beef), sometimes fat, I lb rice, milk ~~ily, fruit and . vegetables on the not very frequent occasions they are available.; These rations are fairly typical of the area. They do not provide the ,staples

d i- sugar, coffeo, tobacco, moaliemeal, nor do they provide any varlation ! ;~f diet. With payment in kind control of parts of the workers own life, ~pether it is the food he eats or the house he lives in, is rested with the farmer. : 'rhe submission to this control is ceremonial : once a week the farmer '

;1 : gives the worker what food he conside~ed is, enough to get ?y on, five times i'a day he pours each worker a can of W1.ne. The ceremony brl.ngs together ' : farmer and farmworker in the relation of supplicant to prOVider, 'dependant to parent. fin identity of interests of farmer and worker 'is affirmed 'but ,the implication is that this is a dependance ,rather than inter-dependance} it patches over as best it can the disparity of interests disparate levels of living, insufficient wages and rations. Rations can be p~id in various ways with different implications: in most cases there, are set rations per male worker,e ~·single worker will be 'worth' the same ration as a worker with a family of 6, in some cases the rations are graded according to family size.,

On farm 11. Hermanus Monk earns R8 per month plus the rations detailed above weekly. He is married with 5 children. On the rations the family 'kom deur on 'n manier'. Sometimes they must buy more of what is given. Sugar; ooffee, tobacco and sometimes vegetables they must always ~uy. There is nomoney for clothing. The family would not survive without tho wife's additional earning of R3 p.w. for doing gard,@.ning. He~'ldrlk Sass, aged 29 years, doe s the, same work on the farm for the same:cash wage, but 'because he is single and has no one to cook for him', ;is fed 'meals from the kitchen and receives no rations at all. In both cases ,workers are, p~id the milfimum ~ount n~cessary tok~e~ them and thei:: ,. dependants al1.ve. That loS qu1te poss1.ble for cond1.tLons of starv;at1.on to exist on relatively prosperous farms is demonstrated by their ,;high ' incidence of infant mortality. I

What the paternalist relationship mystifies is conflict: that there is a fundamenta.l conflict of interest between employer and worker; that conflict cannot be contained, inside the relationship'& inside the farm. Only the most, tenaoious form of pcternalism could hope to cover over the dis­junction between the world of the farmer and the world (the same locality) where people are struggling to stay alive: and the most persistent, repetitive and cloying qontrol. This control is ~;"~'J8d in various obsessive practices encountered on farms - the recQrding of the minutest transactions of workers, the measuring out of r').tions, the handouts of liquor - whioh have the effect of inuring the farmer to what for the worker is at stake and to what poverty means.

The worker's every transaction with the world outside the farm is mediated through the farmer: the rules that effect this have the outcome that the worker is kept on thE: farm, and labour costs are contained. This effort tooontn.:Ln theworkor is variously rationalised as being for his con­venience and benofi t. The dop system and rations, the effort to iregulate even what the worker consume s, arc cruder instance s of the same \type. By controlling more exactly what labour consumes, by costing con~inually what labour needs to stay at work and clipping-off the surplus, ~he

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produ?tivity of labour is inoreased. Sinoe what labour needs to stay at work 18 in :r:,,l.rt defined by sooiety, and overflows the bounds of a partioular f~rm, tho bounds of the farm should be rigidly maintained. It is oonsequently not surprising that the dop system-, pc,yment of rations and very 101,." oash wages, bad housing, abuses of all kinds, should oombine. on farms which excercise the most extensive control. The human product of this combination is a worker in abjeot material circumstances in terror of the world outside the farm - the dependant worker in whose mirid is installed the 'need' of. a bac'1s to provide for him. Yet farm A is not the most extreme case, and in a oertain sense it represents a tendancy found On· all farms, merely pushed to its limits.. Farm A ~s a small farm, marginally productive (the a~sessment of lo~l farmers) on whioh relative to his society the farmer sustains a declining standard of living. Workers demanQs and wage increases represent a foroo which threatens to J.isplacothe· small farmero The idea of an independ.e~t Or assertive

. worker is unaceptablo to him, or is equated with an 'opstoker'. In flight from the modern agricultural economy and at the same time from a naso_ent proletariat he encapsulates himself in a pet-verse retreat where 'baas 1 _is cmnipot61n1tand :the 'hotnot I are in line.

Most farms p~W some rations. In some oases rations are botter th<.ll1 on Farm A, in (,thers th~). r3.tions are tOken. 4 Farms gave no rations at all. In ono case the farml.:1r clisC1.pproved of the rations system, in another it was 'apparently in order .to better exploit the workersin'his store. On farms B and C the motive for dOing away with rations came from the workers. In contrp.st with A these are intensively farme(~, large and highly produotive .farms. They arE? adjOining. B employs 54 men. . -RecontlyB introduced at thG request of the workers anoption,whereby.· workers could ohoose to be paidcash'plus rations or cash only. The fa.rmerhad no idea. why the men should prefer to be paid cash when the ratiorisworo good value for monoy;' hO, himself preferred rations to . be paid.. It was not hO\-lever clear what vB.lue the rationG did represent, since they v:iried· according to family Size, wnereas the ()ash wage was set according to skill only. At more or less the same t~_me as this AohnlllA commenced tho workers on farmC which employs 16 men, met and appointed a delegate "to request that they no longer be paid in rations. The farmer convened a meeting of his work force, who voted acoor(lingly. The farmer did not knO~'I why the workers were against rations. Wh;Ltever the reasons

. that enabled. the workers to tako this aot ion ,- the contrn.st betwe'enthe productive farm with a large and less controlled work fOl'coand a small farm like f., is apparent-in the fashion in which they. scrapped payment .in kind they r .. ::we created B. powerful now symbolism.· The paternalist stereo-

. type of the: dependant worker, a tabula rasa, is replacell by the symbol of workers' action. .,

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The houses tho workers live J.ll are one or two-roomed cemerit constructions without ceilings, electricity, running-water, ~ashing installations, tcilet s; if there arewimlows they are about a foot square; they are exposed to great heat in Summer anel cold in Winter. If anY logiC has dictated their situation it is that tho land upon ·which they are settled is not arable - on hillsides, amongst -rocks, on the verg:)of roads. There is little about them 'that tells about· the people who live in them, Or the gen0rations that preceded them.

Tho male i~ the· breadwinner, and by virtue of his work, ~d for as long as he works there, he is housed with his family on the farm. Women frequently seek casual work on adjoining f::.rms, but it is clear that this is allowed only if the farmer on whose land they live doesn't require their labour. Likewise th8 farmer has priority on the labour of the older children. On a farm bohind Citrusdal there are a community of squatters who work elsewhere and pay rental to the farmer - they too arc obliged to help out the farmer on whoso goodwill they rely to live there, in the picking season. The Squatters had been small-holding farmers at Elandskloof -animals, vegetables and fruit farmed on allotments from the N .G.K. Mission -as well as working elsewhere. In 1964 they were evicted from their land

_by!,u

-4-by ~ farmer who had acquired-the p~opertyo

, Some of these people from Elandskloof have remained in the Citrsudal area, living pn a farm in houses they themselves constructed, workine Qn farms which give them the best rate or conditions they oan command, or dOing other work. Their homes are built of corrugated iron, wood, thatch, in m'Ach the same way as the squatter settlenien~s of Cape Town - they are !?uperior construction, imaginatively desib'l1ed, built and -lecorated. Inside they are well furnished ani there is q. plethora of objects that signify value (display cabinuts) an:t are themselves valuable. Yet some of these people do the same WOrk as workers in the valley. The ostensible issu~ over which the people of Elandskloof were evicted from their homes and land, aC90rdiJ,'lg to some of them anq indopendentlycorrobrated by a local farm, was this: - in the height of the season the farmer wl').o had acquired the farm was in need of labour; when he asked the peop':'e of .81anuskloof to work almOst everyone refused, whereupon the enragou farmer ordered. thorn to qUl,t his lanu.. -

The fa+m w9rker has a place on the farmer's land in return for labOur he ren,lers thG farm~ri the obligation to ren,Ler labour is the obligation of the propertyless to the owner of the property. It is an obligation of not only tho male workers but the people he brings -with him on to the farm. The house the worker lives in is not payment,anJ. he acquiros no riGhts therein. When he grows olu he may continue to live there, but not by virtue of ownership or proJ:~ieta.lYright but (for whatever Nason) by authqrity of the farmer.

In tho valley south of Citrusdal theTa is- one proper huusingscht'.lme -attractively dusignud houses, with running watur, toilets anu a;:lequate Gp<;lce. It was er~otGd on ;::;'ovl,3rnment lQan by the owners of the farm, a. comrany based in th\;l T'I'f.ll1.sv3.al. They are maisonottes on a large expanse of lawn, in contrast to the raw earth covered with the debris of occupation that characterize most farm 'locations'. Yet in such schomes the workers' problems are ameliorated, not rumedied. They have st ill no ri.(~ht s of tenure • They are nomads who traverse a circumscribed area, insearoh of e. living in the meantime. In order to scott) 8 :".\1l.ywl-,P1H'l

they must ent~r into a relationship of debt with the owner of the property ancl accept the oblii_~ation to work for the farmer. For an elite the ciroumsQribed area may be wider, e.g. several of the workers on the farm had workud outsido Citrusdal :.mel off farms altogether, unusual in the experience of tho Citruselal workers. The terms of debt m~ be more lenient, which of courso attract~ the upward moving worker - and the workers on this faTm had a wider knowl~dge of conditions in the valley than any other. The sch.ame describocl might ultimately represent g. nevI communi ty s1iq.rHlaru anel a direction in which the farm structure can traps-form its relations. Ye1 for-the farmer it is the solution that bi~ capital from outside imposes on a local situation which he (quite correctly) supposes it does not· need to unJ.erstan,d. .

Payment of rations j.s part of the worker's wage and an expression of worker-farmer relati.onship. ~ the second. -sense it may be regarded as a metaphor for or j3igl'l of the worker-farmer relationship. H~at the sign indicates (0.0. paternal relationship of depond.ance) and concrete . reality ... 1"lhat it means to the worker (e.g. less mone;y and independence), what it moans to the: farmer (e.g. stable labour force) - ~e cl!il'arly different. . The provision of housinr is an aspect of payment in mind, yet the worker-farm~r relationship it inuioates is altogether not the paternalism which tenders to tho workoTs' every need. Here the Sign, physical reality itself, i~ altogo1iher unambiguous. So farmers express cmQarrassmont at their workers housing - one repeatedly has the impression that :t.hey avoid going inside them al togethGr. Jacobus Clocto, forinstancG, lives in a room 3 x 4 metres: ventilation

-is proviclcd through tho chink of a bo~rded-u;-, window; there are no light s; i1'). one corner there is a tab18 and upturnod box on which there

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- 5 -are various cooking and eating utensils and (1 primus stove; in the opposite corner there is a metal bed an:' matress; the floor is bare cement, the wall s are black .:md adorned only by a travel poster from the baas. The rudiments of shelter are provided, the space is devoid of any indication of a surplus which is the worker's owno Baas in this c:o~se is an intelligent and articulate supporter of the P.R.P., who says that Jacobus Cloete needs a paternalistic framework to exist in. -

The st3.lldard version of why lrlorkers do not get better ~ouses is that they are incapable of appreciating them - anecdotes of lavatories never used, facilities n(';clected and clestroyed, and slovenliness of workers are oited untiringly. The truth there is in this assertion is that the culture of the farm workers vitally consists of music,of spoken langua5e, of u:mce - but is profoundly illiterate. The people have made no marks on tho terrain, engraved no tablets ~ a nomad people has not yet a memory. The first farms in the Citrusdal Valley were established in 1726. The title of these first settlers and their descendants thv present owners, IS evorywhere established in residences, in old graveyards with tho names of the present establish­ment - Vn.n del' r1erwes, MacGrecors, Burgers, Smits. Among .farm workers too there are name s associated with the area - Sass, Herrings, Oewies - but their n.ntecedents have left no traces; their homes are mode~nconstructions, bleached shells cast up against the foothills. This is the payment in kinl for c;enerations of farm labour, the out­come of a'longstanding rolationship. For the worker who collaborates in this relationship, who reproduces it again arid again, what more eloquent way is there of expressin;g .its n'1ture, his subjection, than by defiling his habitation? Better hous~s would signify·rlll advancment of labouring people - the extent to which farmers are favourable to this can be gauged from their response to generous government loans for housing. Farmors will get around to "improving housing when they will no longer be able to retain, their labour without doing so, At precisely this moment workers will be discovered to be appreciative of gooi1 house s. .

EMPLOYMENT OF vJOMEN lIND CHILDREN

There is no p';;rmanent employmont for women except as dumeStic servants in the farmer's household. Obviously there are fewer jobs as cll1mestics than there ar0 unempluyed women who could fill them. The farmer· is thus able to use dom0stic labour for a fr::tction of a living wage. Tho domosti,o is given meals frcm the kitchen; if her ma.n is a farm ~vorker hs-r wage is not thG principal source of income. If she is single or the breadwi~e;r she will probably be more and morc incorporated into tho f~rmer's house­hold. The household wEl then feod and clotho her,"md provide for her dependants, 3l1.d her labour anJ the labour of her children will become increasingly merged in the home oconomy - h8r wants and duties, her personality as (\ pro(luctive being, nre now subordinate features of its operation. Y8t for women who have no occupation (the appelation house-· wife coul!i hardly dignify the upkeep· of a concrete paoking'-case which does not belong to you) domestic work is a better·prospect than the passive wait for the da.ily, Weekly, monthly return for the ~en's labour.

For most women there is work sumo of the time, mainly in the plicking season. The picking season for citrus may on 11 large farm where the full range of citrus fruits are t~rown be as long as 7 months, as the (liffe ren tfrui t s ripon at different t imo s of the year. For vines picking lasts a few weeks. Durin,,: these periods picking is not continuous.. The casual lahour tha.t a farmer needs varies considerably. Tho going rate also v:.;.ries, between 40c and Rl,50. Most of this he finds on his own farm, among tho women and children. Som~ small farms which support a few fwnilies obtain their casual labour from other small f1.rms, 'l'1herc the pickinf; season has not commenced or is finised •. On farms olose. to town women 8.t1(l school children from the town pick fru~ t"

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What is significant is that at the season ofpea\c aotivity extra labour is available locally. Other.kinds of oasual work a woman may do are 'tuinwerk' (in the Baasts garden), 'skoffelwerk' (hoein~ weeds between trees and vines - machinery exists which does this work) sorting and packing (this is sometimes paid on, a piece-rate) and washinge

'!'here is noway a woman living on a farm, unless it is adjacent to the town, could also work in town - the distance is too great, there is no transport. For ready money, prostitution is one possibility. ,It is particularly a desparate option ,I f since fartn workers· are not in a pcisi tion to lavish favours. In Vredendal, where the social climate among the labouring people seemed to be more degenerate than in Ci trusdal, prostitution (whether for liquor, money, food or lust) was according to a farmer there, common and the' sexual indiscretions a frequent cause of fights.

Two women in Citru?dal made the transition from the female role to a man's work. Whatever the motivation' in each situation the consequences for them are wider th~ merely the cash wage they get. At the base of a society which p~s women a lower wage than men would do the work for, and puts every limitation the type of work a woman may do, fora woman to do a man's work means to forfeit dignity. For the farmer her labour'S worth is determined by the same criteria as any other: in terms of the work she is able to do, and there are all the suppositions of male dominated SOCiety' to ~onfirm him, her worth is not very much; in terms of her own bargaining position, in terms of her capacity to hold out for a fair wage, her'position is weaker still - she admits as much by asking for work at all. The one woman was a widow.. Her husband had died when the tractor he was driving in the farmer's employment was washed away in a flooded river. The widow is entitled to maintenance for her 8 children, but the farme:r actually receives this money and passes on amounts to the children. The amounts seem to vary. The widow doesn't know how muoh she is entitled to get? either because the baas won't tell her or because she is too scared to ask. ~lliy is she too scared to ask? She is in a very precarious position indeed - not only is she scared of losing the means to survival, but it has been deeply impressed upon her that in the matter of living she is a str~, without any right to ask questions.

There are numerous indications that pensions and compensation monies on farms do not always reach the persons for whom the State had intended them. (Many old people have to carryon working after reaching pensionable age, and in one case where a farmer expressed particular affection towards a work~r, ~-t-/~U~ this same worker was 69, or: the farm 19 years and still work~ng a 1ull day. The farmer who had earl~er commended the Government pension Prov~s~ons, had never enquired what the workers age was or informed him he was entitled to a pension).

The widow's eldest child does domestic work for food andolothes. She .is 18. She is not paid at all. The seoond is a boy and he works after 'school for Rl,50 now and then,or'when the farmer thinks about it. When I spoke to the widow in Maroh, the last time he had been paid was old years eve. Three other children are also at school, and there are three who are too yo-qng to go to school. The farmer's evident lack of sentiment for the widow of deceased employee is consistent with the real relationship between labour and farmero As on the farm discussed earlier, the roots of such grotesqueries lie in the fact that it, is a .small and relatively bac~ward farm. The widow, after 30 years on the farm, is paid 30c a day, without food.

A second woman that does a full day's 'man's work 'is Hanna, who is the mother of 9 children. Her husband is a permanent farm worker at R8 p.m. plus rations, and she gets R2 p.w.The eldest daughter is 15 years and helps her grandmother with the domestic work for R6p.m. Grandmother haS for many years been the family retainer and the granddaughter is now moving into the same position - a homely demonstration of the qssification of the social order.

Nowadays most children spend about 5 years at school, until ~td. 3 or 4. Having left school, aged 13 or 14 they commenco working on the farm. Physical development is probably also a factor determining when a child starts work, 2nd most of tho children are much older than their physical development suggests. Very few children at this age will look for work i~ town. They are still part of their families or the family nexus - staying with uncles and aunts. Boys are still too young to do C1. full day's labour, and of tun they do casual work. Girls may do casual work or domestic work. The money goes toward the fund, out of which the family is fed nnd clothed. If the b()ys become permanenot workers on the farm, they continue to live with their family or relatives until they couple off and start their own family. Single and living awny from home, the worker in several instances would sond money to his fnl!lily. There is an indefinite period, a brief adolescence that is arrestedtby'the imperatives of farm life - a girl's first child upwards of 14, marriage dG jure or de factor, farm work - according to one farmer, 4 girls on his farm between the ages of 13 and 16 had had children within the last ye~r, and this was quite usual. There is no social stigma attached to pregnancy at this age. The family decides whether the man in question is acceptable, and the girl herself has little say in this. '

As has already been notod, older children help w1th picking fruit in season for remuneration by the hour. The rates are probably very low. From the farmer one has the impression that this is not to be regarded as labour as such, labour which is bought at a price or on conditions, but an aspect of the interdependence of people living on the farm -the childr(m help out when help is needeJ., in recognition of which they re co i ve pocket..:money, and in thi s way there is an exchange of gift s which leaves the essential relationship unaltered. The ambience on the farms is such that children around the farm may bo called 'upon to do whatever needs t;o 'be done, in return for which baas or madam will give them a plate of 'food or sweets from the store or coins. If the service is not (performed, little Koos does not scrub the floor, b:\.<'1.fl':'1 rage expresses ',itself in the idea of ingratitude - look what I do for him (hotnotkind). For children continually available to do odd jobs there is food, cast off clothes and the like. It does not keep them off the (metaphorical) streets. It is also a stage in the' insalcation ' of the eternal docility and the indobtness of labour. As soon as they Bre capable of: a full d::1Y.' s work they will have to begin to work.

In some cases the employment of children is regularized, and one or other child, will work every afternoon after school, or every week-end. Arrangements of this kind are exceptional, and the children who do this work arc probably orphans, or in speoial Circumstances, as in the case of tho ·widow's second child. This'again disposes the farmer to think thn.t employing the child i8/ n generosity that he dispenses, accordignly that work done is ~ act of gratitude andp~ent. Thus the widow's ohild is pa.id wh~ the farmer feels like it, after the huisbesook of tho dominee,/perhaps. Those are some other instances of tho rogub.r employment ~f children on farms:

Farm A: Two children who work after school each day forR4,80 per month.

Farm B: Two boys in Std. 3 and 4 work after school o'lch day for R3, 00 per month.

Farm C: An orphan boy does ,housework, etc., is not pa.id but is fed and clothed by the farmer.

In the town Citrusdal, according to two reliable informants, a'factory m~e~s considerable use of children, of the ages of 9, 10 and 11 (/intvormants, obviously unaware of the provisions of the Factories Act, seem to think nothing' of children of 12; 13 and 14 working in a factory). The children w,ork every afternoon after sohool tlnd the whole day during

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the holidays. They slice fruit 1 to do which they are provided with a knife, for a piece-rate, up to. 120 CI. very considerable tray. 'f.hese are not ncessarily the children of f~rlI) workers, but their fnm~lies welfare is narrowly tiod tocondi tions on the farms. Use of child labour could not happen without the compliance of their parent~, and it is a guage of actual condHiuns in the. rural areas. t ,

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AN EDUCATION

t Truintjie was the 2nd of 13children. Her father is a farm \'loJ;'ker, old enough to receive a pension though he must still do a di\Y"~ work

f I '

for enough money ar).d ood. Her mother is a domestic worker, still on the srune farm \'lhcre Tr'ilintjie grew up. Truintjie is about ,30: . she has no birth certificate :md <loesn't know her age. She is 'married to a farm worker and there, arG 9. children. For some years she : and .' her husbnnd h::ld worked on a neighbburing· farm where conditions were better. He as a labourer at RIO a week, she as a superintendant in a :r~ck store for up to R15 ~1 Heek. In Ci trusdal that is a very good wage. Truintjie is intelligent and capable. She supel:'Vised 8 ,other women. A litoT3.cy course was run &If the farm. In ayoar" at~ending nigh~ cla~ses,. Truintjie hadre~chis~d .•. IV. Sh(~. was presented,. to the Anghc.:m ,.\.rchb~shOP on her cvnf.~rrrlat ~on. . . f! .. Then a d~sease destroyed the crop on the farm she worked on, t'hepack­store could no longer operate and a portion of the farm had to" be . sold. Truintjie was reduced to "Skoffelwerk" at R3 per week. Truintji:e got into :m argument with the 'm1dam' and godmother of her second..... . youngest, who ha<l accused her of not helping out. ShG left for a next­door f3.rm where she was pa.ici RI ,5~ a week. Her man worked tli~re too, but after 6 months they loft • Truintjie returned h orne, to the farm whe:re her parents were and she had grown up, to R2 a week nndl't\.l;inYJR

and 11 dops a day. She cloes labouring work, the Srt!n\;:l as the men. 'l'l.(~.'T live in two rooms with 9 children.

Truint jiehad no opportunity to acquire any form of education :Until someone introduced a literacy scheme on her farm. The literacy scheme was introduced on the initiative of an Thlglish speaking farmer and his wife: when they hand~d over the running of the night-classes to the workersi t collapsed. So far as can be ascertained it was th~ first attempt to teach literacy in tho area. Now, several of the fa.~m schools run night. classes for adult workers, 0.1 though it is only possible for a very few to attend them. Bn.rring the Dutch-Rdormcd Mission Station, at ElandBkloof, and the school in the town of Citrusdal, the first sohools on the farms were established in the 1960's. Truintj~e's generation had no opportunity of o:ttend, school. Of 50 workers in Citrusdal survoy 34 replied that they could not read or write, and 3 that they could not read. 16 were literate. Of the se only 1, who had attended school in P'tarl, was over 30 years of age.

Tho new generation that has been or is going to schools on the farms, some of whom sb.rted school at the ages of 13 and 14, is under 30 years of age. (Df Truintjie's children, 6 ar8 at schooL The'/eldest (16) complet.;d Std. IV and did not continue, whether because she .' would have to bo;').rd in Citrusdal to continue, or whether because the family needs her earning capacity, is not known. Now she works with her grandmother in the farmer's kitchen. The seconcl child (14 years) is ~b.rtha. Most farm children 'leave school in Std. 3 or 4 and according to a .schoul principal, take up employment on the farms. At 13 or 14 they aro too young togo olsGwhere. I)'

~

Martha./ ••• ~ 1. '.

,

Martha is obviously bright and talented. She is in Std. V in Citrusdal, 20 KIm. aw~, since tho f"1rm schoul goes up to Std. IV only. The state. pays h\;lr board (provided she passes) with a family in a municipal house in Citrusdal township. Since she is a source of income for that family , it will not matter that the house is overcrowded. Tnu school is a NGK-Sondingskool ~d 10 of the children are tho children of farm workers. Some walk from farms in the invironment, others from further afield are in the srune situation as Martha. A, state experimental farm provides a bus for the children of its, vJorkers, while a community of workers who squat on farms out side Oi trusdal helVe org."lnised transport in rrivate vehicles, ,"lnd 3:pparently receivG some re-imbursement from the State. From tho f~rm school that Martha attended about 5 out of 20 who every year pass Std. IV ~o on to Citrusdal School. Numbers who start out th0 year at Citrusdal go back home after the first two weeks. There is very little interaction between th8 farms and tho townspeople i for the child living in the municipal location involves a rupture' wi th tho restricted and rostricting culture of the farm people for which many childronaro not equipped. If Martha p::l.sses Std. Vl and is to continu0 hor. shcooling, she must go to Malm0sbury High School, over lO:.i KIm. aw<\y. In another social cmvironmont it might mruw perfoct sense for her to do this. But what sense dC0s it make in Martha's case?

Four of Martha's brothers and sisters are at farm schoul. The shool is rented by the' St ,"1t 0 from the farmer. There are 165 pupils from farms in tho vicinity ,::md 4 teachers. Tho school goes up to Stc,l. IV. In order to accommodate. all tho pupils in the 3 classes thore are 2 sessions, from 1.30 - 1.30 and from 11.30 - 3.30. This meCUlS that tho toach,,"s must teach the sarno lossons twice each day. It also means that 'the 'children at different levels must share the sarne classroom, and be taught at the same time. Thc)se arrangements appear to be typical: . at another school 1.1CrUSS the river there are 56 children, 2 teachers, 2 classrooms. All th'o childrun walk to school: for some school, may be a distance of 8km away. There is no tranApr)]:~ provided for f~rm children in Citrusdal except for Whites. Everyday a half empty white school bus overtakes the straggling children. Sometimes a passing farmer will give them a lift. In winter there is the problem that oi ther the children st<\y.at home in bad weather, or most of the teachers effort must be directed at getting the children dry. The youngest of Truintjie's children is not yet school gOilig.age, but the 2nd and 3rd youngest are 6 and 1 years old. They do not go to school because they are physically too small to walk the 12 km there and back.' Must children who are not near a farm school, i.e. most children of workers on farms, begin school at 1t years for this reason.

A policy of compulso;ry education must first come to terms with physical reali ties. The themes that emerge in interviews with 2 schuol principals, a toachGr, a teacher at a farm school in Vreclendal where the problems appeax:ed to be essentially the same, are of the physical hardships in gOing to school: the children are poorly fed, poorly clothed, school is far and Overcrowded. In ;hese circumstances education is pronato be an abstract goal. Many children work in their a.fter-schoolhours, and in tho citrus picking senson (maximally 8 months) the bigger children are expected to work. Tho expectation that you schould work once you are old enough comes from farmer and from family. In the town ofOitrusdal ohildren from Std. I upwards (9, 10, 11 years old) were working in the fruit factory peeling frUit - in the a.:rtornoons on sohool days, for the whole day during holidays. (see earlier section) ..

What kind of investment is an education for Martha? There is no place for an education on the farms, unless it is as teacher at a farm school, or as a nurse, attached to a clinic (for her mother there were neither possibility: neither schuols nor a clinic).

-10-

,.or there is keeping the family a.live withwoman"s work as a maid, --'skoffelwerk', or picker. Or Martha may leave tho farms alto&"Gther. What in her cultural surround,ings has prepared her for this? A' sonse

- of talents that miGht have founu. prou.uctive outlet in her mother?' The miu.dle-class aspirations of her teachers? Or will she simply refuse to submi t to tho abjoct lifo ,of tho farm workers?

~: , In a backw:lrd, anu. poor community educntion is liable to seem thJ formula , j

for social advancement. Horkers want an education for themselves and their children- some dutifuliy go to ni{Sht school, altho\lgh thJ ability

,to read and write will earn thorn no money on any farm; theirchildren attend farm school and, they would like them to go further, with -often the vaguest iu.oa of what this involves.

1 Through education the volk

qan uplift itself';' a group of Coloured workers asserted their resent­ment of tho Afrikaner that, he wishes them to remain where they are, and to prevent the Coloured bettering himself •• In almost all c'ases'·· ' the survey workers were able tQ inuentify which of their fel1ow;workers could read .or write. L

·If the social phantasy is that through educationono partakos of a flux which ~~""JG'rflows the cC1.tegories of farm labour, bursts the constraint,s "of/~erty, in fact education 'is kept strictly within the limits of the

//~rm. The Church, the Department of Coloured Affairs and the farmer / collaborate for their missionary purposes,. . The school is rented by

Coloured Affairs from the'farmer - implicit in any notion of how far education and 'opheffingswerk' mavr extend is the fact that the farmer owns the land, the 'school, 'the house the teacher lives in. The teachers who are confronted everyday with the pr!Jblems of farm people, are at , the same time separated by relative comforts and fe'1r from u.ealingwith them. The farmers' opinions about education for their labournowadaiYs partake of tho prevailing ideology that education for people is. acceptable, 'a good thi~g'.

In practice however farm schools are a recent innovation, arid pt;0bab~y one to check the. f~ow of ~oI>le f~o~coun~ry.a.reas: no farmer 'tttaches value to an educat~on or hteracy e~ther ~n the sort of work he loffers or the wage ho pays. There. are no skilled jobs_ Tractor drive,rs' are paid a little more usually, but they are chosen, it seems, ~n grounds of general competence and. responsibility_ Qne farmer njcely demonstrated the disjunction iriideology ina set-up which holds, ou~ . the promise of education in the one hand and null if ie s the promi'se with the other: he would rigorously check that'children went to school.and diU. not commit truancy; "at the sarno time he regarded an educat iOn for his workers as v~lueless. ~he wQrker who has been to sohool, he says, is like a poor man with richf:riends whom he brags about - in th,e end he is just poor and the farmer must go to the samep.:1.ins to explainil each time to him how his f.:1.rm works; the man without an education, nO~fever, is a "boter mens". Oneseos the farmer's point - an' older genera.-bon retain the dignity of physical labour;, for them phySical labour, and their bodies have been the only means of expressing dignity. The younger workers, who know there are other options, who have learnt in. sohool the prinoipals of oru.oring· people in classes, are filleu. with resentment -the .pent up ambition of people wl10 kn'ow they are being kept at the bott~m.

<I

+ On an English owned farm a; worker exprossed the view that the Afril<:a.ner ' was only building schools ·to prevent En'glish'fa.rmers from taking' the creu.it -in fact' the first schciolin this {section Qf the Citrusdal. Valley hid been er0ctud by the Anglioan Churoh.

~. Farm workers are almost entirely reliant on farmers for supplies. Dist~ces and the absence of independent means of transport prevent town shopping, except on the occasions that the·farmer takes his workers to town; and hours of work would not permit it. Instead, as P1U't of

. tho tendency of farms to set themselves up as a closed and self­sufficient system, there are farm atores - if there is no farm store on the farm where a worker is, there will be one on a nearby farm. Mos~

of the supplies are bought through farm stores, and what is not available· there may be ordered from town through the farmer. Only 4 of 44 workers interviewed in Oi trusdal did not buy from farm stores at all. For the farm workers therefore there are oontinual exohanges with the farmer of goods for money: the worker sells his labour to the farmer for money, and buys a living from or through the farmer with what he has earned. Frequently the farmer finds it simpler to merely deduct food bought from wages, andproteot the worker from the odour of money almost entirely. This is of oourse the end result of payment by rations, wi th the same bonus of lodging the worker firmly on the farm. Distinctions between cash and credit are' frequently blurred. One farmer who said that no one on his farm was in debt really meant that no one had made;, a borrowing oUt of the ordinary. All 10 workers interviewed - ona farm where workers were relatively well off - owed thefarme.r nmounts between 50c and R3 for regular supplies they had . ordered from town, and not yet fully paid forAs another farme~remarked 'everybody.on this farm is in debt to some extent'. On a farm whioh employs a shopkeeper (this is usually the province of the farmer 9s wife), the shopkeeper revealed that of 14 permanent workers 10 peoplewere in debt. 9 ~f the~e debts were only for goods bought in the farm store, which stocked food and simple items of clothing. The farm was 3 or 4krn and easy walking distanoe from town, and the mark-ups in the farm store, acoordingto one worker, were higher than in town. Yet workers chose to shop on the farm, for convenience, an~ to be able to buy on credit. Debts ranged from R69, then R46 down to Rl,25. One worker, an African, had borrowed RI00 from the farmer to send his 3 children to school, in Queenstown. He is paid R24 per month plus a sack of mea] ie..,-meal weekly. On this money, with his wife and a fourth ohild to support, his debt seems irredeemable. (He will either have to work for the farmel' for the rest of his life or some other farmer may buy him out, that is pc\yoff his debt - in which case for one creditor is merely substituted for another). Perpetual debt is both metaphor and actuality for the farm worker. Katrina Miller, who has lived and worked all but one of her. 66 years on this farm, said 'ek weet nie of ek skuld nie, ek skuld altyd'.

David is permanently employed on a farm in Vredendal. The farmer runs a store on the farm at which workers buy on oredi t. 1~ record of all the transactions between tho worker and the farmer is preserved in a pale creon buok : the worker is paid at the end of tho week - this is a book entry: he buys food in the shop - this is set off against the age: he ordurs goods from town - this is a special entry: he accmoulates a credit balance - this is transferred to a savings nccount. The farmer does not ask the worker's permiSSion to do this (a worker loft to himself is incapable of saving). If the diligence of this farmer in keeping detailed reoords is unusual, there is nothing unusual apout the frame of mind of which this excruciating paternalism is the product. David unlike most is' close enough to town to shop there - but he is able to get oredit on the farm. The farmer states. openly that he puts obstacles in the Wc\y of his workers goirle .to town. David earns Rl a day and is single. Th~ first entry in David's book is in August 1975: he has R2 credit. In September he gW)S into Rl,42 debit for buying1more food than he earned money that wee':... In October the debt is R3,50 - he stayed off work for 3 days, olaimingto be sick but the farmer asoribed his sickness to . drinking and credits him with Rl,50 morc f00d boueht than he has earned in the week: ho .has also bought a pair of shorts. In October he is sent to jail for being drunk. He is put out on parole •

. . '. ~. ------------~'---"'

Farmers have nn arrnngement to recruit lA.bour at the local jail 0 David works for the farmer for a few weeks. He gets prison rations and at the

end of his period will be paid fQrthe days he has worked. The rate is 45c per day, from which the farmer deducts up too. quarter for his'own expenses, plus rations. David at the end of his parole receives a lump sum which enables him to wipe out his debt. He does buy 22c more than earned but soon thereafter· rectifies this and over successive weeks steadily' increases his credit - Rl, R2, R2,10, R2,60, R3,OO, R3,10. Duriing, the Christmas period he misses 2 days work, buysR2 more than he e,3.rned '., and is back at Rl credit. In January he finds he must get spectacles, costing R16,OO. Again in dobt,he steadily reduces this amount by Rl a week until in March it is R7 ,60. Then some threshold is reached, David breaks down, misses work, has to buy more than he earns, and the debt beginS to increase. Added to this he must visit a doctor which costs another R2,OO. In April 1976 David's debt is RIO,76.

Of 12 others on the same farm as David, 5 were in debt to the farmer for amounts of R5, R3, Rl,40, Rl, RIO,60: the sarne number as were in debt had credit balances of R},60, R2,60, 58c, Rl,60, 40c,R3, 75. One man, Willie-boy Smart, owed nothing, had nothing to his credit. Willie­boy earns Rl,50 a day, with which he 'must support ,his common-law w~fe and 2 children. It is the same struggle to keep debt wi thin control: he sta.rts out July with Rl,50 credit, but clothes, the dentist, put him in debt. Over 2 months he gets out of debt, then he is arrested for being drunk, imprisoned, comes out on parole to work for the same farmer" only mow for prison rates. Off parole, he is indebt and out of credit, now for pad'lock, now for cast-off clothes, now for, another padlock. In Fepruary and Rl,50 in debt, W,illie-boy commits another offence and is on pnrolefor 3 weeks, again, dOing the same work on the same farm. Wi th the pa\role _ money he pays off his debt., but bUys some shoes which it will takel 6 weeks to Pay off. And so on ,ad tedium. The circle is closed: on the wage he , is paid Willie-boy can never stay out of debt: until he is out of" debt, he can not leave the farmer IS' employment -debt is an. actual hold which the, farmer has on his labour, which he may use to keep his labour, or ~se tq, 'sell' his labour. (i.e. another, farmer will agree to take over thp debt).

, I I

The extent of these money debts is the extent to which workers are' paid a living wage. The normal (mark~t) consequence Of low wages is that your labour will leave you - debt averts this consequence for the farmer. According to the testimony of some farmers themselves, it happens that farmers ~~ntionally let a worker get into debt in order to tie the worker to 'rl.18mployment. It isirmnater{al whether one attributes to the farmer this ,conscious cynicism, or unconscious motivations, which express themselves 'in tho paternalist yen to control and manage worker's lives, and otherways. The uUderlyingreali ty is nicely Gxpressedinthe cases of David and Willie-boy. Both apply themselves to riQding themselves of debt. At the point at which the d13bt is reduced by consistent effort over some months tu manageable proportions, they break down. Tho patterns of break down on the farm are set: . drunkeness, violence, misdcIllunnours. As is tho case with breakdowns which bourgeois socioty dusignates mental, breakQown sets out to re-establish limits." l~gcr never finds its proper expression; because it is not directed at what will eradicato real ,debt, it turns back on its subject its random violence, its own urunken effort to forget itself. Roal debt for David and Willie"';'boy is not an amount of mdney but a viscious circle, ih which they are never able to earn enough to quit thc:ir job yet their jobs are intolerable. From tho point of view~f " . 'society' and the forces that ~~intainit, tho way Willie~boy aod;David are punished is exempll:llry -they are sentenced to go back and wor~ in the very situation they sought by alcohol to escape from, in thccase lof Willie-boy liter3.l1y the same fa,rmo The debts which the workers had sought to renege' from are re-established. The lirilits are inflexible. Farm workers who are convicted of potty off{;nces such as drunkenes,s" tresspass and assault are of ton put out on parole, which mayresuit in remission of sentence. ' A ".! /

CCOru.lnlg 0 ••

I

-13-

According to !l. Vredondal farmer there is a considerable demand for parole labour, due to a labour shortage on farms. The procedure is that the farmer pays the prisun at the proser,ibod rata for the number of days the prisoner has worked on his farm, making the allowable deductions - the prison then pays its prisoner. In f;).ct the practice is apparently for the farmer to pay the prisoner directly, and it is in fact left to him whether to pay 'the 45c' plus rations rate.

t The store, says the farmer, is oporatod as a service to the worker. I~ provides tho worker with things ho requiros on terms he can afford. The farm stores in which the less speotacular debts accumulate are no doubt in some instanc~s run for no material benefit and at some trouble by the farmer. One farmer says he runs his store only to cover his costs. But according to farmers themselves there are abuses - one farmer lets workers buy on credit over a month, at the end of a month tho worker is presented with a figure he owes, by which time he can no longer reckon what it ought to be; one farm run by a gentlemanly and kind couple pay their entire workers waG"e pncket out of the takings of the storo; there are other farmerswho charge high mark-ups. (Jacob Sass, according to the farmer for whom he now worked, had been 2 weeks on a neighbouring farm, at the end of which he owed the farmer R12 - he still doe s not know how it came about. The farmer paid the debt to acquire his sorvice~). On a farm where the farmer certainly dealt honestly with his workers, a worker accused the farmer of cheating him; the book was produced, and the details of why and when the.debt arose explained; the farmer took it as a sign of great stupidity that the worker refused to be convinced that he was not being cheated, If the worker is stupid, it is an is~oranco of. the vioious circle in which he is trapped emel which presents no 'tm.y out i and it is the stupidity that deadens his sensibilities in order that an intolerable situation will be made tolerable.

MOBILITY. AND ISOLi .. TION

The farmer wants a sufficient and stable labour foroe to maintain his various social and material investments. position: he can do this by moving up in ing for higher wages 'from the position he quitting the farm.

The worker wants to improve his the social hierarohy, by bG.l'gain­

already oooupies, or by

In the ensuing oontest there a~e no terms whioh favour a loser, and there are no ways up from below. There are a very few exceptions to this. The only skilled job on a farm' in the Ci trusdal survey was an unqualified man who workei as a motor mechanic for R2,lO a day, which compare a with an average wage of Rl t 30 a day. Tractor drivers frequently are paid between Rl or R2 a week more. A farm in Vredendal employs one worker in the cnpacity of foreman for R2,IOa day compared with rates between Rl and Rl,45 for other workers - by 3.11 accounts he does hiehly resp-lnsiblc work, yet economically he is sC<l.recely.better off than ordinary labourors. AccorJing to the farmer he has at least Std. 6, by his own account ho finds his abilities frustrated by his low WI1{;9. He claims ho is unFl.ble to move because the farmer won't ondorso his pass. On another fnrm there is also a Coloured Foruman, who does the work that had previously boen Jone by a vlhi to farm man:lgor. He is pai,l R20 a week, whereas other workers get on the average Rl4 per week.and the lowest paid R8,lO - this the largest differential in the Citrusdal Survey, is worked out according to what each worker is 'worth' to the farmer. The farmer even pl~s to instal this ' foreman.in the former manager's house, in ordor, it seems, to regularise his position as honorary white.

Since the way up is blocked, the worker must~either live out his life as a fn-rm worker as h<: can,' or quit the farms altogether to work elsewhere. In the Cit rusdal Survey, some workers hal workG~l in tho town Ci trusdal in their youth, where lay is not much botter than on tho farms but the freedoms are far greater. However for .:l, family to tnove to Citrusdal is very

~ difficul t/ •••

-14-

difficult for tho housos the Municipality provides arc inade~atefortho people already living there. The inhabitants of 'Elandsk10of say 'they were promised municipal houses when they were evicted from their homes, which after ovor 10 yenrs have not been provided. (According to one farmer, there would be enough houses in the location if the unemployed and the pensioners were not tnking up 3.vailable accommodation). For the workers who stay on th8 farms, the possibilities of bargaining for higher wages are severely limi ted by ther~ being no workers org'IDisation (e.g. trale union) and by tho wprkers isolntion. Bargaining and il .

negotiation are transactions which imply that the parties CU'e of 'equal strength: the actual relationship between farmer and worker and the actual weakness of the workers position which the farm situation manufactures negate this possibility. The worker does not dem~d, he requests. . ' 'i Many workers in Ci trusJal· have no horizons oeyond labouring work; in the valley. The physical n:lture of the valley imposes on their workers an isolation, but their social isolation has to do with rostrictions imposed by tho farmer, which he is. able to do by virtue of owning the property on which they live, nnd restrictions which long hours nnd low pay imply. In the survey it was ·founl that workers are reliant 'ontirely . on farmers for the means of transj:,ort to got to town or distant fnrms;. t() get to nearby farms they must wilk.About 2/3 of the workers in fact went to town once a year, which would usually be at Christmqsj the consequence of this. is thnt contact 'between country and town peonleis. minimal. 2/3 of w.'rkers, askod on which farms they had friends or tbl.ations, nMled farms cxclusivoly in the vicinity of the farm on which they live and work. Social interaction with fellow workers is confined' to the limits of walkin:; dis~ance" .There are ·therefore great lUfficulties' in forming Q. ricture of wa.ges and working conditiuns that is at all ext.:::nsive, or of articulating tho in,.lenti ty of a labouring class. Workers in fact knew extraordinary littlE) about conditions on other 'farm~; a few' details about earlier jobs, or what they haQ·heard from rolativesand friends.

It is not alwCl3s necessary to ~pell out the restr'ictions which are imposed on debtors, which wouldba to .limit thc; rights of creditors. \lorkers may not fruely enter another's farm, or receive visi tors,Jrom other farms; this is the residual right Clf the ovmer Of the property which tho farmer ex~~rcises when control isriocessary, and. which the police diligently prosecute.

Workers in the Citrusdal survey. were asked what jobs they had pr0viously had. 20 of 40 hn.d only worked in the near vicinity of the farm) where they were workinG' when interviewed. Thoir work oxpqrience was c'9nfined to f.:1rms within about 8 kIm of eC1chothor. Four workers h:ld worked\ on ft1.rms further n.field but within the Citrus<.ial valley. 17 had at one ~imo or another loft the Ci trusdal valley or loft work on the farms : 7 l'1a.l marla th8 move for f::11llily reasons, tho vJifo came from elsewhere, or thp child had gone with his par,:ll1ts; 4 had ''lorked in Citrusd.al itself; t~e most skilled job hn.J. been that of tractor driver at R20 p.w. The han:lful of ll.fricans who work on tho farms have mor~J varied work experience.,

Below are some of the individual histories of Citrusdal workers::;

Farm X: is situated ne8.r the town and tho National road. Tho jbCl3 is R24 plus rations. Thero are 15 workers. No dop is given. Hanna Janson aged 38, was born on a farm in Citrusdal and is married. toa farm worker. She has 8 chi Llron , 3 of whom have left home: a son kho is a farm ,.lorker in Namibia., another son who is a fisherman in ::3t. Helena, a dau~ter "lho .' is a domestic serv:mt in Paarl. R·.)rhusband has workod on 3 or 4 farms b8twe0n Ci trusdal o.nd Clanwilli3Ill: the first farm he loft because of the pour wage (R5 per month and rations in 1973); he moved to~ .. another farm owned by tho samo baas, then to a f~lrm \<Jhich paid better; eho finally left thero b&causo 'sy sin was op' (He'd h:)Al it 1) "She thinks things' are

o better/ ••

-15-better on the firm she's on than un tha Clanwilliam side of tvwn, but doesn't know tho clistrict. Sho hn.s rob.tions on A. fClrm near Ceres and in Paarl, but has vnly once been vutside the valley herself.

Katrina Miller, born 1910, has beon on the farm all hor lefe except for a Yo::J.r in her youth when she workecl at a hotel in Murreesburg. ,The first 8 chilclren diud of measles and now she has had 8 moro. One wurks in Citrusdal fur RIO per week, the others are not yet olcl enuugh to wurk. Shu marriod a worker un tho f,').I'm. ~'he says c(.nditivns un the f~rm hav() always been the same. She was on, tho farm when the present baas was born, watch8d him grow into middle age, and nothing has changed.

I

John Simrn is Basutu born &1\1 has work0d un the farm since 1953. His wife w()rks in the kitchen for Rll per month. Three children are at school j}n Quee:l~town and stay with their mother-in-law. One child is with/his paronts.- Pt'oviously hnd boen a miner. He came to Piketberg un conf~act tu do roadwork , stayed to do Odd-jobs, then came to Citruidal. He owes tho farmer RlOO towards the education of his Chiil,-;"en' and will' probably be in jebt t,o thO, farmer (and tiecl to the fnlr~1 unless another farmer buys him out) for life.

/ '

/rn:l~t SJ-Jrrger , ~4 years, works full time at R7 per week in the co--op ./ l~ Cltyusdal.. H1S father worked for about 17 years on the farm, until

~./ h1S ,)Dath. H1S mother cloes casual work on the farm for 60c a cl.ay~ He,/has comploted Std. IV and lives with his mother. One of ,his 7 brothers nnd 6 sisters is also still on tho farm, a permanent farm worker. 2 bthers work in Cltrusdal, 3 are working on famrs north of Citru~dal valley, the lithers have moved further '\field. Ho has workod un 2 otherfarms in the Citrusdal valley, but,uid not want to du fn.rm work bGcause the pay is too low. He would liko togo to the Bol,').)').u, ~Jhero the pay is better.

F::J.rm Y ~s situatecl9 klm from town. Tho pay is R38per month and the housing is exceptioria.lly. good. The workers seemed less clowntr(),ldcm. No dop is given. Tho fJrm emplQYs 5 permanentworkors.

i.letta Floor, and her husbancl, b"bth. agod about 50, were born on tho B<:UlIO

farm at the top Of Ci trusdal Vg,llGY. Apart from the farm they grew up on they have worked on 4 other f·.1.rms up and down the valley a.nJ. once on a farm on tho mountain t9warls P:i.ketbergo The pay was always more or loss the same. Theirreas'~)ns for leaving the respectivo fu.rrils were: the people were 'rof', the housesanu the ,~ater wore very hot, and th~y wished to find somewhere cooler; he had disagreeu with a. Bantu wurker; there were too many fightsnnd people would get killeu. They had been on tho fa.rm l2 years.

Hendrik Engelbrecht 24, came from Paarl, where ho had been a. transport '~~erryer' for R25 per week, tG stay with his uncle nnd aunt on a. farm in th;) valley: his father had <liecl, he was alone in Paarl and 'my gevoole wa.s nie on daar to bly nie'. Has Sub.B , is now married with a small child.

Farm Z: The f:um is a.bout 20 klm from Citrusdal anu isol'1te<l ncar tho tor of tho va.lley. Unlike workers on the previous 2 fa.rms workers har<lly ever :lblo to get to town. The pay is H8 p~m. plus rations. Throo bottlos of dop a.re given a.t weekonds.

Vykie :£i'n.ro is aged 17. She was born Md a.lways been in this p'lrt of tho valley. Tho father of her baby works in Van Rhynscl.rop for Rl5 per month ,'J1ld sencls money to her. She clocs casual work at R2 per week. She once worked on a f:lrm 2 miles a.way.

Eva Salics, aged 18, was born in Porterville but moved vii th her parent s to n. farm at tho top end of the valley when she was young. Her husband, a perrrtanent farm worker, waS born on that samo farm. He later workecl: there ~d then they h~d moveu to a nearby farm where they could both work, she as a mai<l for R6 per month. They had moved to th • .: present farm because

-of some difficulty wi"th. tho baas of tho previous one., She has frionds Ul'lcl relatiop.s on 3 nearby farms. I l.ndriese •••••

-16-

,Andriose Ko\)pman, 37; was born on n farm 10 kilometres awa:y, marrioda 1t~omi'l.l1born on a ne3.I'by farm. Hudvosn't know how long she was on tho farm, but she. was there bofort) the rtrrival of the present baas. He worked on lather f3.rm nuar to his prosent orie, but l<.lft because the pay was too low. Sho has been a maiJ there for R2 per month: now she J()os oasual work 1 Or 2 days a week at Rl a day.

The farmers olaim that workorswho are on the farms are not capable of work other than manual labour: 'they oannot make 'tho trans:)i;tli;m:\ :rom unskillod to skilleu. work, thoyaro not eoonomically sui t<:ld t,;,· Lho transtti~n_ _'rom rural to urban areas. To the extent that this:is true,

" I '

it is tho outcvme of tho sort of labour th(;farms have sought tOf produce. By wi thholcling from tho farm worker an education by braoketing him in the unremitting and unform task pf produoing for the fJ.rmer, the farin system reproduced til. its workers a stupidity which is ultimately its o~o The contrast between the farm workers of Citrusdal anJ the people from Elands-, kloof some of whom work on the same farms, is n, contrast botwuen a' people whose social and economic product has been appropriated, Md a p~orle who, though wage labourers, have retained sumething of th9ir own. Most consricuuusly, they nre J:oople who'have acquired an:l articulate a hist ory • ' j: Elandskloof Mission had bolongod to the N .G.K. Sengingkerk and was sold to a local farmer, who as related 'earlier evictod a communityof 27 familias. The f:1.rmer took not only'their land but n.nim;l.ls ,also. One family stayed behind to work for the farm3r- it was allowecl no animals, no g:lrlen, no crops. According to one farmer, Elandskloof had been shelter for rev),le who would not work, and for r-eoplewho wanted to avoid the costs of living in town - and (inevitably) there were 'opstokers' who d.id not want tho, reorle to work for the fi'\,rmer. Howevor, many of the people of Elandskloof had grown UIJ there, and attended' schoul there. :, The personal histories below aro of a commurlitywho have settled on a farm near Ci trusdal ~ They Pew R4 per month per h<nlfle for woed and water (a river). Others· from Elanlskloof live on other farms, or have moved to CapeTown.

, , , - , ' , ,

:Mart inus Fransman had grown ve[,"Otable s at ElandskloQf and had a.' geboude' house (in contrast to the home erected of iron and' thn.toh) .' He \does ordinary farm work, and has worked on various farms in Ci trusda~\. 1.t present has has been 3 years on the same f:.1rm and gets R9,50 a w0ek. Formerly he' worked, only for a few weeks or months at a time whe~ labour was nueded. He works 5 dews a 'week - the farm is near ,so' he ei:ther walks to work or the farmer fetch0s him, and. he stews on, the far,m dur,ing tho week;, R9,50 is not enough for food and clothos, and his wife must work in ,the picking season - butthc farm is nearby. and 'die baafs hinder my nie'. He has Std. Vl. There' are 4 children. ~eis at school L'\,t Elandskloof, another at R0gf.:,"Cbl1ai Teachers TrC1ining Collage in qape Town, a3rd in Std. VII at Ceres High Sehoul - which is t,he cheapest sc}1oo1 for him to send her to. . \ '

Sa.ul Titus was born and grew up ,m Elandskloof, and i smru-ried Ji th 1 ". children. HEi has Std. V and a driver's licence, so on being expelled from Elandskloof he boc::lJne a driver for the Clanwilliam Municipality at R15 per month and lived on a farm next door. ~tfter 12 years asa driver he became a painter at R~O p.w. in Citrusdal, then travelled td 1rlorcester to be an operator for a construction firm at R28 p.w. He has a bakkie with which to return to his wifo ,and family at weekends. Five children are at school - lis in Std. VatWorcoster j the othorEl arc in lower

~ , ,

stanu:,irds at Citrusdal • .... • hcobus George WC),S born in 1949 in Elandskloof of a. family pf 9 children. , lie wont up to Std. II at Elandsklouf 0 1:1. t 18 he began work on _a fannin the Kousbokkeveld itR6 per week. \-llien the family waS evicted from Ebnds­kloof, they first moved to a. nearby farm but was obliged to work for the

" farmer/ ••• ~

- l"(

"

farmer beca.use he ownod the lan.d on which the family lived. L:J.ter the mother, 3 child.ren antl himself muved. to another farm. Thd father staJ'ed behind to do building work for tho farmer at R4,25 a d.'3.y. The reason for the movo was that the ~ children did not want to wurk on the fn.rm. The fa.mily wants to move to Citrusdal location, but there are no houses. Jacobus works for R3 a day"l,s a f::1I'tTl worker, 5 d.aiYs,.3, week.

DOP -The d.op system ;).ppe'lI's to be in tr'1I1sition in the Citrusd3.1'3.rea. Dap is still given during the day on som'J farms, on others in the evenings only, on yet others only at weekends, while a few farms give no wine at all to their workers. Some continue to give dop but offer their workers a cash incentive, e.g. 55c per week, 100 per week (the equiv3.1ent of a week's dop) to stop drinking. The traditional 'dopt is a pilchard tin filled with vaaljapie, which is a locally produced strong wine~

Ono fa.rmerwho had strong objections to the dop system which he fult should be logislatoJ. a{~a.inst, nevertheless gave dop on his farm - one bottle in the ovening!:!. He claimed that farmers who don't give wine can't get labour. In 1915 he offered the workers R5 per month to stop drinking. Of 19 workers_4·stopped drinking, 2 of whom still wmted a 1it!e~ q;f,_wiino at'" weekendn. There is one exemplary worker, F.l.god 66,

. -wl1ostopped drinking' at this time. The fa.rmer tnkes a branc1,y with him __ ~." ." ~irr-t'Iievoork lllIer onSaturdO\Y nights, as a sort of operant cond.itionine

to establish that it is pussible to drink rmd. retain contrul. The attitude ofthu; workers he typifies as being "n Hotnot wat nie drink nie, kan nie werk nie' • Drink impairs the efficiency of labour, yet the basis of the f3.rmers antagonism to drink is moral, and this seems to be generally true of the movoment ag8.inst 'dop' on the f,'1I'ms.- Yet it is ,:--morality tinged wi th'cynicism - this f"lrmer d()~s not really bolieve th,'1.t workers' nrll capable of going wjthQut dxink. This is so not merely because chillren grew up'on 'farms accustomed to the presence of .wine,

_~.:Qr bl3causc on many farms (lopping begins n.t an early age - youths of a.bout 14 or 15 on one.fn.rrn, ~whb looked nearer 11; or because of the q\lantit:io·s~ up'to 9 dops at regular int.ervals throughout the day,

- starting at irival, in or before dawn. The wurkers seem well aware that n,. ~9rn.l- stigma- is now attached to drink, and of 44 who were asked

"- -- whether they were prepared to work for a farmer who did not give; 'clop', 'about half said they would be. How could those individual resolutions

be translated mto actuality? For tho farm workers there nre no other outlets - no recreational opportunities and. :111 underground ,:mdillitera.te culture, which from a a,ursory encounter, is a.s fillocl with references to alcohol antlbCV:l.s a.s Mother is with referonces to dope anJ: pigs.

'. i

o

"

EMPLOYMENT ON 16 FARMS

MANAGERS: ,4Whites. Tw.o farms had until recently employed managers, but had since disposed with them.

SHOPKEEPER: 1 White FOREMAN: 1 Coloured

FAmm -1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

u

PERMANEN'l' MALE WORKERS AFHICAif! COLOURED TarAt

5

1

6

5

1

18

53

16

3

4

5

8

4

4

9

7

5

14

12

53

19

14

230

58

16

3

4

5

8

4

4

9

7 5

15

18

58

20

14

248

CONTI1~CT ilOi.llCJn.3) CASUAL AND OTHER WORKERS

5 on 11 month co~tract from Transkei.. i

+ 0 l' , - 3 women. J.vmg onfam during 7 mths of year**

3 on 11 mth contract from Transkei

8 to be em­ployed on 11 mth contract from Transkei

12 Sheepshearers from Lesotho o

9' women living on farm during 6 months of year

10'womon from nei~ftbour­ing fnrms - for a few, days.

Women from farm and neighbouring farms .

~lomenfrom farm and neighbouriIlg farms

Women from farm and ; neighbouring farms . ,

I 5 Women from farm -JdUring 5 rilths of , year

I Women from farm & 1 neighbouring farms -i' during 4 mths of year

I 8 women from fam-

,>

during 6nr\;ho ,)1: ;Jvo.r

Women.

4 women 2 weeks

10 'Vlomen- dut-ing 5 months of the year '

3 men &. ,12 women from i. farms on Swart land out

of season.

Women on farm, .men squatting on farm -2 weeks a year .

Some women living on farm throughout year -some women during 6

:; months of the year ;' Women & children during i: 6 months of the. year II

~ Da. facto perm3.l1entlYE3ettled in the Cape ~

This is not a continuous period of employment t :but the longest, period, i.e. the picking season during which these women may. be employed.

-~\.

. WAClESFQR 16 FARMS

MANAGER:

SHOf'KEEFER:

FOREMAN: R80 J)9r month

FARM

1

2

3 ", 4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

AVERAGE CASH MONTHLY, WAGE

R

42

35,20

40 8

23

8

17

20

12

31,84

38

24

36

48

36

56

. "

\' .

.. FOOD WEEKLY!Sf \..fAGE DIFF. 3i!

. MONTHLY

Optiona11 R4 - skill rations accord-ing to fam. size

CASUAL RATES PER DAY

50c .,.. Rl,50

~

R4 - length of f . 150

Full rations

Full rations

Full rations

Rations given - no details

Full rations

Half rations

. Full rations

Full rations

Half rations

service'

None

None

?

R3- ?

None

R8 - alcill

R4

?

? - length of service

? - tractor driver,

R12 -skill

R4 - married

R24 -skill

600

?

?

300 Rl,OO

400

.600

?

?

60c

RI,OO

" Rl,OO

Rl,OO

Rl,25

I !! The difference between mininrurn and m~inrurn wages for pennanent farm,

workers. I ~ For details of rations, see results of interviews with workers.

~ I Farm L - 1 bottle in

evenings or 700 cash Farm 2 - 7 x ~ + 1 bottle at w/end

or 55c per week ' Fann 3 - None Fa.rm4- 5x~ Fartn5- 4x~ Fann6- 9x~ Farm 7 - None _ Fann 8 - 3 bo-ttles at weekends

~-

Farm 9 - ? Farm 10 - 1 bottle evenings Farm 11 - None Fann 12 - ? Fann 13 - None Farm 14- 6 x ~ Fann 1~ - It bottles a ~

1 litre at weekends Farm 16 - 6 x ~

"

B -Adul +, worker able to read and write: 13

Ad'l.l t worker unable to read and. write & 37

Adult workers who attended schoo1in Citrusda1 area: 12

Adult workers who attended school outside Citrusdal area: i5 .. Attainment of workers who hav~ attended school: Below Std. 1 3

Std. 2,; 2 Std. 3 1 Std., 4 8

Farm schools in Ci trusdal only go up to Std. 4. One worker had Std. 5 from Secondary School in Citrusdal, 2 had Std. 6 from Secondary Scho.ol in Ci trusdal and Bredasdorp.'

39 Children of farm wqrkers interviewed attend the sarne farm school:, '

Sub A

Sub B

Std. 1

Std. 2 · .' Std. 3 · · Std. 4

I 9 7 6

3

5

5

Ages: 6,- 8 yea.rs

7 - 9 years

10 - 12 years

10 .... 12 years

13 15 years

12 16 years

At school but parente no~' sure what ,standard: 4

j I ! ,

Three children who passed Std. 4 at this school are now in ~td. at the Secondary School in Ci trusdal.

5 and 6

No child of the farm workers interviewed had ever studied or was stlu\ying , 'i beyond Std. 6.

'l

('

~,........,., '--1

~ T

!,,'

'f

!,

I

I,

A. INTERVIEWS WITH WORKERS INCOME P.t!;R FAMILY UNIT; FAMILY DETAILS; LENGTH OF STAY ONFARMSj OTHER JOBS.

The income figures indicated are monthly unless otherwise stipulated. Age, where known, is stat~d in--LEl.a.rs il1braokets.

. FARM rt'lAN WOMAN CHILDREN LIVING AT HOME CHILDREN DEAD CHILDREN LEFT HOME COMMENTS c.mG"It{ OF OT:BER JOBS 3TA"i<1'l.&'.MDWINNER

______________________ ~ __ ~ ______________________ ~----~---------------------- F~L- HASHEtD

r"""·~~-Deceased

Acc. at work

R44 -"., R44

?

R44

R44

Rll+ rations

1rl.Comp. , (35) .

Casual

Casual

?

R3p.w. washing

(40)

Casual

2 -(14 & 10)

Three

Five

2 - R44p.m. each

5 (l4,13,12,ll)

6 (eldest 12)

-"Orie~"'" -~-.. r' ______ -...

1 at 11 mths

Four

Four

:1 -bricklayer in CaPe Town

Owes farmer

R5

30rr~ on ,the farm

a.I:J-"": __ - .g; • +-;;-·r-" O.oJ. a Ceres .1arm

----__ 4 _________ _

---.. -.-.--: Boards forRJ,p;m.

··,2 Years .Onnea.rby .. £a.rm

3.yrs. &. . 3mths on previv" .. slJ Ci trusdal

a' qo· farms rations: weekly, 71bs meat, mealies, meal, beans, dried fish, fruit & vegetables in season.

R34 Casual pension - (25) blind

3 (7,5,3) .3 yearR '!l Ceres farm

~ / -2-CHILDREN Lunm AT HOME CHILDREN, DEAD CHILDREN LEFl' HOME 'COMMENTS I.~crt OF f'IlEm JOBS "

J f T1Y ONBREAIY..mrnER FARM MAN WOMAN

________ ~ ____________________ ,~ ~ _______ RASHELD

2

. ,

R35,20 , (old)

, R35,20 , --- .-,- , ( 18) ,

R20

""' .. ~

(over 60)

R35,20 (50)

"R42,OO (old)

R35,20 (22) -

R35,20 (16)

R35.l20 (2 () .

"

Casual

?

Casual

~:.::>

-,

. --;,..;:.... ___ ~ ~_ . _-_', ____ "'I.o"----~

4 -eldest- (24) works on farm for R35,20

7 - (eldest i7)

3 - (eldest 6)

- ..... ~ .:-. -...

f.--, ..... - ~

--

'long time"

Live s with 1 mOl..tb grandmother-' " ,--,~- .....

Doe snot get PE.rhaps a pensio~ 3<b.£.8

1 Y1ar

2mths on Citrusdal

farm

2 ~ on nearby farm &-·in,·Koue " bOkkeveld

l: - on Va.a.l~ dam

2 - on nearby farm

------~-' ----~-----------

Sends R5 to parents on nearby farm. 4 brothers are all farm workers in the vicin~ty

Lives with Uncle - sends R4-R5 to parents now & then 7 children at home , 1 married

,toa nearby .. farm worker.

lyeal:"

3 we9!CS'

6 mths

'2 _on Ji trusdal farms

, i!. - on nearby farms

". .

At a Citrus-dalstore.

------------------.. ~------'--~------------9 yrs A.t Ci trusdal

Winery

f

;

'" .".. _n -~' ~ ~ ... -,u y--- -T'

FARM

2

MAN

R35t 20 (30)

R35,20 (21)

. _ .... ,,"" ... - ....

WOMAn

Casual

Casual

-3-CHILDREN AT HOME CHILDREN CHILDREn

DEAD IEPI' HOME

<.j

6 - {eldest 10) One ..

COMMENTS ) ~GT_l W ST1Y ON

CY!'HIlm JOBS BRmAJ)WINNER

~ . _ 't!AS;::. =...;HE;=.;;I;.;;.D-.;..._

13 yrg Nearby :farm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 - (eldest 1) 3 -feeks

,.~-............. ~~~ ..... 2 on nearby 4"'a.rm~& .. on·-a; --_.-Clanwilliam

:farm

------------------------------~--------------------------------------------------------'--------------------------~----~.-------R35,20 Casual

3

3 R44,OO Casual ." (30) + .... R3 p.w.

4 - (eldest 16)

4 - (eldest 8)

Two'

1 - mal­nutrlt.iOn as a baby

Sends Rl p.m. to grandmother

tfllltl~ timA" 1 - on nearby :farm

6. years 2 on nearby £arms & in Citrusdal

--~------~------~------------------------------------------~--------------------------------------~------~ R40,OO R4p.w ........

(29) . domestic

4 R8 + R3Pewe -rations' gardening (36) (28)

i - (3) 1 by wife'S previous marriage

~ m01.. -;1n ~nearby :farms & Somerset .Ie st :farms

----~---------------------------------------.-------------------------------------.--- --~-.-.-..-.-----------------------5 - (eldest 11) l'leekly rations: 61b

meat, dried :fish, meal, milk, rice, :fruit & vag. in season. Owe s :farmer

It, 3odI'S 2 Citrusdal JIt·Piketberg farms

_________ ~~ _______________ ~~-----------------------------------~---------------------~----------~R3~0~-----------------------------~ . __ ~~ __ __

5

R8 + rations

Owes Farmer R8 1 on" nearby farm (29) __________ _

Died in :fight R21 Used to earn· (40)

R24

8 (8yrs - 4mths) 1 at 5mths 1 child-in-law from a sister

Grandparents o:f woman are alive - 81mother gets a pension

1 year lon nearby farms as pioker then dcmestio

FARM

, ... 5

6 ". -.-. - -:.,

7

8

. ~ .

MAN HOMAN

Died - acc. at work

30ca day hoeing

R8 + rations R2p"w. (43.)--'" gard-

ening

R17+ rations' ,..

(35) Casual

,R20 + ' rations

Casual

Works l.n Van Rhynsdorp for ,R15 & sends m~ney home

Casual (17)

R18.+ ratiOns

Casual ~18)

CHILDREN AT HOME

8 (eldest 18) domestic pays for clothes & food - 2nd lio,es casual work

9 Eldest 16 a dome st ic paid

R6

8 (16 -3yrs)

6 (eldest 15)

1 (5months)

2(3, 1)

R20 + rations

Casual R2p.w. Five during season

R24 (22) Casual 2 (3, 1)

-4-

CHILDREN 'CHILDREN LEFT DEAD· HOME

1 at 18 months

COMMENTS'

Farmer"controls payment of W.C. to children

7

, LENGTH OF . STAY (N FARM

Bomon farm' 'been there for 30 years

OTHER "JOBS

I on nearby' farm -casual wk.

. -~'-'-""~~-

, Weekly rations: 8lb meat' -. - ~ .-- dried fish, meali-e-s, meal,

beans, sugar, coffee, tobacco milkLvegetables in season

" 3 on ... _ AbO~~'_~''''~'''''''''--''~CitruSdal ..... -,. .... - '-..,.r' .•.• ,.,;....

I at 8 days

1 in town ~ sen cis , R15.f3very

,.2 weeks

1 - pheumonia . at llmonths-

Rations: 81b meat t dried Whole life fish, beans, sugar, coffee, tobacco, milk, fruit & veg. in season.

Weekly rations:: ,6'Th meat, 15 yearB dried fish,.rice, milk, fruit

,&veg. in s~ason

Husband & wife born on nearby farms

3 yrs

"can't rember here longer than present 'baas'

2 yrs

';

farms

lUfe wkd inWorcea'" ter& Citrusda1'

Ion n~ar by farm

',.Nearby farms -wife as domestic

Nearby farm wife as maid

Nearby farm

~

.~ - -~--~

-5-FARM HAN war·tAN CHILDREN AT CHILDREN CHILDREN IEFl' COMMENTS ~Tt}TH V~l <nHER •

HOME DEAD HOME . '3TaY Cl~ "Uh'l lOBS

8 R28 + me.alie African worker 18 niGhs Coffee meal (29) waiter on

mines

R24 Rl,80p.w. 1 (3) 12 yeara washing

- -_...... ~... - - ......

10 R3l,84 Ow:es farmer R12 5 -onths Bulldozer. (28) driver

3 (10,8,6) 4tlb meat, ~

R38,OO V one Rations: Jl-jyrs & Citrusdal, +rations dried fish, meal,milk, ,rev. Kraaifontein

(31) frui t & veg. in season also & Piketberg farn-s

--------..--~

R38,OO None 1 atlyr 5 - 3 sons ~s. 4 Citrusdal +rations (45) farm workers farms

II' 1 daughter in city factory 1 farm worker at Mouton

R38 + l\one 1(3) Man sends R6 p.m. to I-brs 'agteryer' rations parents in Paarl

(24)

R38 + R47 - domestic l5mt"'b & Nearby farms

rations at Citrusdal Y.L'ev. also . Jitrusdal hospital l~mtb"l &. "1akery.

-12 R24 + R20 - domestic 5 1 farm worker Rations weekly: 41b meat, --+ps 3 Citrusdal

rations (38) iil Namibia dried fish, meal, milk, farms 1 at St.Helena fruit & veg. iil season 1 dome at ic in

Paarl

I~.f ~

FARM

12

.. -' .. ;",....-..,.... ....

u

MAN

R24 + rations

R22 +

WOMAN

Casual (66)

Rll domestic

• CHILDREN iAT HOME

Two

One

~­

CHILDREN ' DEAD

8 - measles epidemic

CHILDREN LEF'r H()}'1E

3 at school in Queenstown with woman's mother

COMMENTS

African Worker -owesfa.rmer RlOO

UlrGTH . OF 'OJfAY (l- FA,.. .. i

-loWtau -65yrs

~ .:. . ...,.

R23yrs

0THElR JOBS

Woman wkd 1 yr. at hotel in

. '>'"Moorreesbg

Roadworker &: odd-jobs

. at Piketbg worked on

~ __________ ~ ________________________________________ ~ ____________________________________ ~_______________ me mines

Died. worked :)"1yrson farm Casual

1 (30) works on farm for R24c + rat ions

12 -3 are farm workers, 2 married farm workers, 3 . work in Citrusda1

4