Mr. Patrick Wall, Tory M.P. for Haltemprice, in a recent letter to The Guardian (Dec.19th) tries to prveve hew well off the African workers are in South Africa. He quotes approvingly the minimum wage of £5. per week that the Africans 'enjoy' and constrasts this with other African countries. He goes on to say - "This is no doubt the reason why so many Africans enter South Africa each year to enjoy the higher standard of living..." :
What this 'gentleman' fails to mention is, of course, the appalljing poverty that this £5. per week condemns the majority in South Africa to live in. Nor dees he mention the fantastic disparity between the wages of the White and African workers, or indeed between the white population as a whole and the African's. Some idea of this can be gleaned from the fellowing. In the gold mines of South Africa at present 44,000 White workers are employed, and in 1965 the total European wage bill came to £68m. 375,000 non-European workers are also employed, and for 1965 the tetal wage bill for these came to £3}5m. i.e. While they number nearly nine times as many as the Europeans they draw less than half the amount in wages. This super-exploitation is something that most apologists of Apartheid (and the Smith regime in Rhodesia) like to hide.
Nevertheless, despite the flowery phrases and double talk the grim reality breaks through daily. If other African countries lag behind in income, this should not be used as an excuse for Apartheid, rather it should be a very geod reason for looking closely at the stranglehold imperialsim still has on these countries.