The past months have seen the implementation of a number of recommendations made by the Riekert Commission of Inquiry into Legislation affecting the Utilisation of Manpower as adopted by the Government's White Paper. The effect has been to intensify the control of movement through the pass system, and to bring about even more suffering.
The first step was to increase from R100 the penalty for employing unregistered African labour (who have become known as "illegals"). For a first offence there is a maximum penalty of R500 and a minimum of R500 for subsequent offences. When it was introduced a moratorium of 3 months was declared during which time unregistered African workers could be registered without prosecution or being endorsed out. During this period 84,379 people who were working illegally in the urban areas were registered, about 49,000 in the area covered by the West Rand Administration Board. They became registered on one-year contracts, which effectively prevents them from acquiring permanent residence rights in the city.
An emergency report issued by the Black Sash in November showed that thousands were nevertheless refused registration as they did not fulfill the necessary conditions. Only those who started work before August 1978 were granted amnesty. One woman who had worked for 13 months, since September 1978, was endorsed out when her employer took her to be registered.
A man working on a contract in Alberton did not have his contract renewed and was dismissed. Although he had a job and accommodation in Johannesburg, and his wife is legally resident in Johannesburg where their two children were born, he was endorsed out and told to go back to Tsolo in the Transkei. Another man on contract to WRAB till January 1980 was told his contract would not be renewed; he was told contract workers were no longer wanted, and he would be endorsed out. There were many such cases.
The new regulations mean that no unregistered work will be permitted and workseekers from the bantustans can only obtain legal employment if they are recruited or requisitioned by the labour bureau in their home area.
Another recommendation of the Riekert Commission is being used to block the movement of skilled and semiskilled workers from the bantustans. The WRAB director of labour stated in January that no labour from outside the area would be registered if local labour was available adding "This is keeping with the recommendation of the Riekert Commission which suggested that no outside labour should be allowed to take jobs which local people can do" This was at the same time as reports that the government was to encourage the immigration of foreign workers into South Africa to meet the shortage of skilled and professional workers.
The most recent move in the wake of the Riekert Commission has been to apply in Bloemfontein and Pretoria on an experimental basis new provisions affecting African rights to be in the urban areas. This was presented in February as a relaxation of the 72-hour curfew law. Under the pass and influx control laws blacks are prevented from spending more than 72 hours at any one time in the 'white' cities and towns unless they have a permit based on certain residential qualifications such as birth in the area, or lawful residence there for an unbroken period of 15 years, or registered employment. With the proposed end of the 72-hour limit, according to the Deputy Minister for Co-operation and Development, "anyone without permanent resident rights who is stopped by the police and cannot prove they have a job, or the right to seek work, and approved accommodation, will be endorsed out immediately" This links urban residence more firmly to employment and housing and thus tightens rather than relaxes influx control.
However the proposal to thus suspend the 72-hour limit in two cities met with opposition within the National Party particularly in Pretoria, and on 15 February the Deputy Minister of CAD told Parliament that "the provision is not at present to be lifted in either Pretoria or Bloemfontein". Instead a survey will be conducted in both cities to establish "the further practicability or otherwise" of the proposal; in practice this may amount to the same thing. The aim of the experiment, according to Dr P. Koornhof, Minister of CAD, is to gather proof that the 72-hour limit is not necessary and that "a better and more humane" form of influx control can be applied. The president of the Black Sash stated that it would increase the powers of the bureaucracy, and that Riekert recommendations were "designed to improve the efficiency of the influx control which will make life more difficult for the majority of South African citizens".
Another Riekert 'relaxation' is that Africans with urban residence qualifications and houses who marry women from outside their area may now register their wives; previously there was a total ban on women entering the urban areas in this way. But this concession is limited by the housing problem, and benefits only the relatively wealthy. The waiting list for a rented house in Soweto is nine years long and people are told they will only get a house if they buy one. But the cheapest WRAB house costs R6,000. Administration Boards will not normally accept a man for the waiting list unless his wife has a permit, but she will not be given a permit until he has a home.
In general the Riekert 'reforms' thus add up to a much stricter means of controlling the movement of Africans. At the same time the pass laws are being administered as before. A recent case was that of the 'crime' committed by a four-month-old baby in being with its mother. A Johannesburg employer was fined R60 for allowing a domestic servant to keep her baby on the premises. A WRAB spokesman stated that "all children of domestic workers, regardless of age, have to have a permit to stay with their mothers". In practice such permits are not obtainable and domestic workers are required to sign a form saying that they will not bring children to live with them. The mother eventually decided to leave Johannesburg. "I've had enough" she said "and I'm very scared of the inspectors and police who come here".
Last year 120,000 people were arrested under the pass laws in South Africa. Figures given by the Minister of Police in March showed that 99,660 men and 20,290 women were arrested in the main cities (40,000 being in Pretoria alone) by the South African Police. Other persons are arrested by the municipal police (blackjacks) employed by the Administration Boards.
