M.P.’s assertion is contested

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 4

M.P.’s assertion is contested

The deputy chairman of the Student Christian Movement (the Rev. M. L. allace) contests the assertion by Mr H. J. Walker. M P for Papanui. that some of his claims in a statement on South Africa could not be sUhstantiated.

If Mr Walker’s remark .about “uninformed comment” was intended to apply to his statement, he rejected 'the remark. Mr Wallace said. Mr Walker had said that I “statistically, socially, and economically the black I South African was immeasurably better off than his ’counterpart in any independent African State.' I According to the former director of the South African Bureau of Census and Statistics in 1968, and according to the Comparative International Almanac, “the average annual income of blacks in South Africa is lower than that in Ghana, Senegal, Liberia, and Zambia, while those tn reserves have an annual income lower than Africans in Tanzania. Nigeria. Mozambique, and Kenya,” said Mr Wallace. Francis Wilson, m “Labour in the South African gold mines from 1911-1969” (Cambridge Uni-

iiversity Press 197. points 'out that in 1968 the average Zambian copper mine workler earned Rl3OO a vejj .(whereas the black (South African gold mines ( earned RlB9. Bv May. 1973, the black South African in • all mines was still onlv , earning R 360 per year, Mr Wallace said. “Mr Walker claims that it ■ cannot be substantiated that lithe blacks grow poorer as ( the whites become richer,” 'he said. ■ “While it is true that between September. 1970, and ■March, 1973, earning of ■ black South Africans have ( been rising relatively faster I (than white earnings — I blacks (men only) 29.8 per. cent, whites (men and (women) 17.5 per cent — one I must take into account the huge differential between the basic income levels of the 1 i two groups. This means that lithe actual cash gap has in--1 creased considerably. I “For example: 20 per cent increase on RlO per week gives one Rl2 per week; a 10 ,per cent increase on RlOO (per week gives one RllO per week — an increase in the cash gap of R 8 per week,” (Mr Wallace said. ( “Mr Walker claims that it lis ludicrous and emotional I eyewash to assert that black people are herded into areas ; lfor coloured occupancy. The ‘Bantu Homelands, also 'known as Bantustans or ' native reserves, are the scat- ' tered rural areas, comprising 1 13 per cent of the total area ! of the Republic of South '■ Africa, which have been set aside as the permanent 1 homelands of the African population. 1 “Mr Walker claims that * the Government provides i sports fields, stadiums, and I theatres for the black African free of cost? But, 1 according to a Parliamentary '■ answer on April 6, 1973, the I blacks pay R 16.9 million in . tax, excluding regional and 1 tribal levies. So they are as 1 free of cost as our roads or 1 our rubbish collection, for 1 which we pay through rates land taxes. “The real point at issue.” ; said Mr Wallace, *‘is not 1 that the South African blacks are poor in com- ■ parison with people in other 1 countries, but that they are . poor in comparison with the ’ white people of their own 1 country, and that they are ( prevented — by legislation —from altering this. It is a 1 straight conflict between justice and racism.”