Special problems of South > African women By William Allan I was on Aug. 9, 1956, that the South African racist regime decreed that African women as well as men must carry passes to move through various parts of the country. In response to the decree, women from all over the country packed their suiteases and set off in protest for Pretoria. : Women of all races and, ages dressed in the blouses of the African National Congress or their best clothes strode purposefully through the town. Some bore baskets of food on their heads. Others carried babies on their backs. But they all headed towards the Union Buildings to tell Prime Minister Strijdom what they felt about the pass laws. The women were all too aware of the treatment their husbands, sons and brothers had been sub- jected to. All lived under the constant fear that their men would leave one morning and_ not return that evening. They reasoned that if a father could be ar- rested for pass law violations, why not the mother next, and eventually the child? Forty thousand strong, the women converged on the grassy slopes below the Union Buiidings. When Lilian Nguyi, one of their leaders, knocked on Stij- dom’s door, she was told that he was not there. The women rose to their feet and stood with fists raised in protest for 30 minutes. The state police arrested all the leaders and charged them with violation of the notorious Terrorism Act. The Aug. 9 action has become a symbol of the struggle of South African women. Little has changed since that demonstration 23 years ago. The inhuman rule of the apartheid system continues. Although that rule is primarily aimed at race, rather than sex, Black women have some very special concerns. To begin with, South African women are even denied the limited legal rights of South African men. Section 11 (3) of the South African Bantu Administra- tion Act No. 38, of 1927 as amended, reads: - “. .. @ Bantu (South African Black) woman who is a partner in a customary union and who is living with her husband, shall be deemed to be a minor and her husband shall be deemed to be her guardian.” In South Africa, one out of every three Black workers is a woman. They are chained in three ways — they are victims of national oppression; they are oppressed and exploited as workers, and they suffer. special discrimination as women workers. Under the apartheid rule in South Africa, this discrimination is taken to the extreme. All working women of color (Indian, Colored, and African) carry the three-fold burden of oppression. But the African women, enslaved by the pass laws, are the most op- pressed of the oppressed. ~ Most South African women are forbidden to be in the urban areas where their husbands are, either to ~ live or work. Locked in the reserves by the pass laws, they have to take full responsibility for bringing up the children and enjoy family life only once a year when their husbands return from contract labor in the towns. Families cannot survive on the starvation wages paid to the male South African workers. Thus PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 27, 1979—Page 6 women are forced to look for work to provide for themselves and their families. Through the pass laws, the bosses can channel the women into the most menial and worst paid jobs. : A recent census revealed that of the 1,889,000 Af- rican women employed in South Africa, only 70,000 worked in industry. The rest were working in ag- riculture and domestic service. Now the number in industry is rising, because the women are being used by the bosses to replace Black men workers at lower wages. In the manufacturing industry in South Africa, one of every five workers is a woman. In 1970 out of . 214,000 women workers in the industries, there were 58,000 white, 72,000 Coloured, 14,000 Indian and 70,000 African women. Many of the white women fill clerical and office jobs, with a tiny number of Indian, Coloured and Af- rican women holding similar jobs as much lower wages. Most Black women workers are employed in laboring jobs, where they face even worse conditions of pay and work than their male Black fellow work- — ers. For example in the textile industry, women get one-fifth less than the minimum wage. In the Trans- vaal, a male worker gets 36 Rand a week. (One Rand is worth $1.18 in U.S. money). A woman worker gets 28 Rand a week: A male sewing machinist gets 27.50 Rand a week; a woman gets 22 Rand a week. ; Meanwhile in a runaway shop operation to cut. costs and increase their profits, bosses are moving their factories to ‘‘Border’’ areas and Bantustans, where they can employ women workers for as little as five Rand a week. Black women are forced to work long hours, in- cluding all the night shift work. The Factories Act forbids night work by women, but many employers | get exemptions from the government. For example, the Saltex company in Johannesburg introduced a three-shift system and got permission from the apar- theid government to employ women on the night shift. In Durban in the cotton factories women are on permanent night shift. If they refuse this shift, they are fired immediately. 24 The rationalizations for paying lower wages to women are some of the same heard here in the U.S. Bosses argue that wages are ‘“‘just pocket money.”’ They say also that women are weaker, and that they have babies and might leave their jobs, so there is no. point in training them. Bosses also threaten Black women workers with dismissal if they become pregnant. This fear often forces women to hide their pregnancies and work until just before the baby is born, risking their own health and that of the baby’s. Fear of this dismissal drives many women to back-street abortionists. In a single month in the late 1970s, 1,000 Black women were admitted to Barag- ‘ ojoud ey PuOM Aled wanath Hospital alone because of infections ca by abortions. | _ The threat of starvation forces many mothers” return to work as soon as their babies are bo! either sending their children to the poverty strick# reserves or leaving them in the care of an older ¢ or elderly relative in the town. ’ a] Many of the women’s homes do not have elect” city or water, and shopping facilities are woefUl) inadequate. When the women return home af sometimes being away 14 hours a day, they mu } prepare food for the family. They, of course, cam) } afford, washing machines, vacuums, electric. idly | and other household appliances. White wom@) exploited in their own way, do have these things, 9 in addition white families can exploit the labor ® Black domestic servants. a The Black women of South Africa, strugelil back against this oppression, have fought throve their outlawed unions and political organizatl? They have organized strikes.and stay-at-homes, > mobilized by the thousands against the pass 1a") Today they stand in the front rank of resistance in™ “squatter camps” against forced removals. Three hundred Black women workers at British owned Everready electrical company’s *", Elizabeth factory walked out on strike last Octobe! back up their demand for union recognition and f ter pay. Their existing starting rate was a misera 55 cents an hour, below even South Africa’s brea# i level of existence. They are members of the Mey Assembly and Rubber Workers Union, which al! Everready bosses refuse to recognize, especl@ since Black women are in the lead there. Among the organizations struggling to impr : the lot of South African women is the South Af Congress of Trade Unions. SACTU’s program © for: . : e Anend to pass laws and migrant labor syste” e Anend to all discriminatory wage rates f e A national minimum wage of R50 a week all workers @ A 40-hour week for all workers otf e Anend to forced overtime and night shift aft : e Equal opportunities for all workers, ee of : women, Black and white, in jobs, training and e tional programs ot e Maternity leaves with full pay, for tht i months before and six months after the birth oH child — or longer if the health of the mother or ba requires it aif e Full medical care for women throughout th pregnancies - aft e Child-care centers to ensure that childre? © cared for and protected while their parents a! work. saz) |