Springbok tour

Press, 12 May 1981, Page 16

Springbok tour

Sir, — In reply to M. Johnson asking for my source of information regarding wages, I previously said that this came from the South African Race Relations Council when in fact it came from the South African Year Book of 1974. My apologies for this error. M. Johnson is in grave error to claim a common minimum wage for all the races. The black African's wages are determined byy the poverty datum line which is “a scientific measurement of the rock-bottom income an ordinary African family needs to keep body and soul together.” White incomes are negotiated by unions and management. Wage differences range from the near slavery practised in the agriculture sector to the about 3:1 ratio paid by the commercial sector. For example, the Union National South British Insurance Company, Ltd, paid its employees, in November 1973, (rand): Africans 114 per month; Coloured 111; Asians 209; whites 316. Hunger, malnutrition, disease and a high infant mortality rate do exist but M. Johnson would not have visited the “service cities” like Soweto or the 100 or so Bantustans or “homelands” to see this. — Yours,, etc., GRAEME R. YARDLEY. May 8, 1981.