An analysis of African reluctance to meet the labour demands of the Transvaal colony as expressed in the Labour Commission of 1903 and the South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-1905

The Transvaal Colony experienced a huge problem with the scarcity of African labour for the
mines and for the farms after the South African War. From 1901 to 1906 African labourers
displayed great reluctance to meet the labour demands of the Transvaal colony. Both black
and white witnesses to the Transvaal Labour Commission (TLC) and the South African Native
Affairs Commission (SANAC) gave their views regarding the reasons why African labourers
were unavailable for wage labour.
The Chamber of Mines dominated the proceedings of the TLC so that in the end very little
objective information could be gained from the TLC. Africans themselves, testifying before
SANAC stated a number of grievances which might have been responsible for the widespread
withdrawal from employment on the mines. It became clear that Africans preferred to work
independently rather than to provide labour for whites who ill-treated them. This they could
only do if land was available to them. / History / M. A. (History)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/18152
Date02 1900
CreatorsMasina, Edward Muntu
ContributorsTheron, Bridget, Carruthers, E J
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
Format1 online resource (ii, 81 leaves)

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