BUSINESSMEN IN S.A.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29325, 3 October 1960, Page 18

BUSINESSMEN IN S.A.

“Many Leaving For Australia” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CAPE TOWN, September 29. A number of South African businessmen are so worried about the country’s future under apartheid that they are considering leaving for Australia, the periodical “Industry and Trade" said in an open letter to the South African Prime Minister, Dr. Verwoerd. It said the labour relations of no other country were governed by anything like South Africa’s job reservation by the colour of a man’s skin. "It’s a uniquely rigid restrictive, destructive of productivity, poisonous of human relationships . . . a destroyer of workers’ ambitions and an infringement of the rights of man,” it said. The letter declared that “no problem of technical achievement, no difficulty which confronts manufacturers in any other country is so frustrating, so intractable, so potentially explosive” as apartheid. Dr. Verwoerd, it said, glossed over the present recession, ignored the portents of boycotts, derided sober pleas of businessmen for administrative flexibility. “They (they businessmen) fear not only for their families but for the future of South Africa—a South Africa, Doctor (Verwoerd) as much theirs as yours,’’ it said. The men who were considering moving their capital, their families and themselves out of South Africa included many Afrikaansspeaking businessmen, the letter said. The fact that Australia appealed to many was interesting because until very recent years South Africa rated higher than Australia in the minds both of theoretical economists and practical capitalists.