WorkingPapers No. 9 SOCIUM SFB 1342 - Clement Chipenda Alex Veit Jonas Pauly
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
SOCIUM SFB 1342
•
WorkingPapers No. 9
Clement Chipenda
Alex Veit
Jonas Pauly
The trajectory of
food security policies
in South Africa,
1910-1994
The persistence of food subsidiesClement Chipenda, Alex Veit, Jonas Pauly The trajectory of food security policies in South Africa, 1910-1994. The persistence of food subsidies SOCIUM SFB 1342 WorkingPapers, 9 Bremen: SOCIUM, SFB 1342, 2021 SOCIUM Forschungszentrum Ungleichheit und Sozialpolitik / Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy SFB 1342 Globale Entwicklungsdynamiken von Sozialpolitik / CRC 1342 Global Dynamics of Social Policy Postadresse / Postaddress: Postfach 33 04 40, D - 28334 Bremen Websites: https://www.socium.uni-bremen.de https://www.socialpolicydynamics.de [ISSN (Print) 2629-5733] [ISSN (Online) 2629-5741] Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Projektnummer 374666841 – SFB 1342
Clement Chipenda
Alex Veit
Jonas Pauly
The trajectory of
food security policies
in South Africa,
1910-1994
The persistence of food subsidies
SOCIUM • SFB 1342
No. 9
Clement Chipenda (clement.chipenda@gmail.com), Post-
Doctoral Researcher at the SARChI Chair in Social Policy,
University of South Africa
Alex Veit (veit@uni-bremen.de) and Jonas Pauly (jonas.pauly@
gmx.net), both Institute of Intercultural and International Studies
& CRC 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”, University of
BremenAbstract
Related processes of capitalist development, apartheid, and political contention
determined South Africa’s public food politics and policies during the 20th cen-
tury. This paper provides a chronological and comparative analysis of the emer-
gence and transformation of food-related policies from South Africa’s foundation
as a semi-independent settler state to the democratic revolution. We centrally
argue that while apartheid ideology, capital interest and liberal and democratic
opposition often conflicted, interests also converged in some regards. To explain
policies that both confirmed and contradicted a seemingly unambiguous racist
ideology, we employ a process-sociological figurational approach that reveals
the interweaving of political, economic and symbolic developments. Based on
primary sources from the archives and secondary literature, we compare two
food security policies: school meals and food subsidies. We show that a highly
symbolic conflict about school meals ended with excluding African students, part
of a welfare state trajectory that gradually abandoned non-whites. However, a
much costlier, non-discriminatory redistributive food subsidy system did mean-
while strive and expand. The apartheid regime reclined responsibility for African
children’s welfare. Simultaneously, a vast food subsidy system included the non-
white population as consumers and labour force.
[ii]Zusammenfassung
Verknüpfte Prozesse der kapitalistischen Entwicklung, der Apartheid und der po-
litischen Auseinandersetzung bestimmten die öffentliche Ernährungspolitik Süd-
afrikas im 20. Jahrhundert. Dieses Arbeitspapier liefert eine chronologische und
vergleichende Analyse der Entstehung und Transformation der Ernährungspolitik
von der Gründung Südafrikas als halb-autonomer Siedlerstaat bis zur demo-
kratischen Revolution. Im Mittelpunkt steht die These, dass Apartheid-Ideolo-
gie, Kapitalinteressen sowie liberale und demokratische Opposition zwar oft im
Widerspruch zueinanderstanden, die Interessen aber auch in mancher Hinsicht
konvergierten. Um Politiken zu erklären, die eine scheinbar eindeutige rassisti-
sche Ideologie sowohl bestätigten als auch ihr widersprachen, wenden wir einen
prozesssoziologischen figurativen Ansatz an, der die Verflechtung von politischen,
ökonomischen und symbolischen Entwicklungen aufzeigt. Auf Grundlage von Pri-
märquellen aus Archiven und Sekundärliteratur vergleichen wir zwei Politiken der
Ernährungssicherung: Schulspeisungen und Nahrungsmittelsubventionen. Wir
zeigen, dass ein hochsymbolischer Konflikt um Schulspeisungen mit dem Aus-
schluss afrikanischer Schüler endete, Teil einer wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Entwicklung,
die Nicht-Weiße weitgehend ausschloss. Ein viel kostspieligeres, nicht-diskrimi-
nierendes und umverteilendes System von Nahrungsmittelsubventionen existierte
unterdessen jedoch fort und expandierte sogar. Das Apartheidregime negierte
seine Verantwortung für die Wohlfahrt afrikanischer Kinder. Zugleich schloss ein
umfangreiches Lebensmittelsubventionssystem die nicht-weiße Bevölkerung als
Konsumenten und Arbeitskräfte ein.
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [iii]Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
2. Food policies in the Union of South Africa, 1910-1948 ........................................4
2.1 Dairy welfare: The introduction and expansion of the school feeding scheme ...6
2.2 Centralising food markets: The age of subsidies I ..........................................9
3. Food policies during apartheid, 1948-1994 .................................................... 11
3.1 Food or teachers? The end of the Native School Feeding Scheme .................12
3.2 Consumer welfare: The age of subsidies II .................................................. 18
4. Conclusion ................................................................................................ 24
References ......................................................................................................... 25
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [v]1. Introduction heid government found a complete welfare
disengagement to be undesirable. Political,
economic and social considerations led the
What was the trajectory of food security pol- National Party, which governed the country
icies in South Africa from 1910 to 1994? until 1994, to allow the poor majority to
This paper explores different public policies profit from redistributive food subsidies.
aimed at dealing with the problem of pover- How can such policy changes, both con-
ty-induced hunger and malnutrition between firming and contradicting a seemingly un-
South Africa’s foundation as a semi-inde- ambiguous racist ideology, be explained?
pendent settler state and the democratic rev- This is the central research question that this
olution. We posit that food security policies, paper addresses. We employ a process-so-
an overlooked form of public welfare provi- ciological approach that seeks to understand
sion, provides important insights into public these dynamics across the different political
welfare as a central aspect of state-society regimes by way of figurational analysis. The
relations. concept of figurations, developed by Norbert
Over this period, South Africa underwent Elias to overcome the artificial differentiation
dramatic changes, most importantly in terms between structure and actors, directs the ana-
of how the state related to different popu- lytical scrutiny towards the interdependencies
lation groups. Between the World Wars, that connect actors (Elias, 1978, 1987; see
South Africa’s political institutions pushed for also Bauman, 1979). Several authors ap-
a policy of increasingly centralised food se- plied the approach to welfare state policies
curity. Food scarcity and insecurity became and politics, pointing out the entanglement
a political concern, with administrative and of integration, marginalisation, violence
welfare institutions developed to address the and care (Gilliam & Gulløv, 2017; Krieken,
problem. The central topic of contention be- 1999; Rodger, 2012). A process-sociologi-
tween political factions was the inclusion or cal approach reveals the interweaving of po-
exclusion of the black African majority from litical, economic and symbolic developments
state-organised nutritional security policies. (Elias, 1976; Mennell, 2004, p. 161) such as
While parts of the White political establish- the increasing capacity of the state to enforce
ment refused to acknowledge the state’s property laws across the territory, to control
responsibility for the welfare of all of the and regulate markets, to assume responsi-
population, exclusion and disengagement bility for the nutritional situation of the pop-
was contested by modernizing, progressive, ulation, and to define categories of people
democratic and philanthropic actor groups with different roles, obligations, rights, and
inside and outside the state apparatus. places of legal residence. These processes,
The watershed period around World War despite their long-term directedness, did not
II saw the increased inclusion of the African unfold linearly: at their core, contradictions,
population in the context of a general ex- detours and impasses have been generated
pansion of the South African welfare state. by the increasingly dense, but highly conflict-
Yet after the electoral victory of the National ual, web of interdependencies between the
Party in 1948, the incoming apartheid gov- actors involved in South African politics.
ernment tried to divest itself of its responsi- Food (and, closely related, agricultural)
bilities towards the African population. In a politics in South Africa involved a large set of
highly symbolic and contested move, African interdependent actor groups: dominant con-
children were excluded from school feed- servative and nationalist parts of the White
ing schemes. The forces of racist disregard, political establishment, who refused to ac-
dispossession and exploitation seemed to knowledge the state’s responsibility for the
have prevailed. However, even the apart- welfare of all of the population; liberal, dem-
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [1]ocratic, philanthropic, and church groups turalists, the food processing industry and re-
contesting exclusion and disengagement, tailers found the regulation of their markets
arguing for the state’s responsibility for the favourable, as it shielded from the uncer-
food security of the whole population; dif- tainties and competition in the global food
ferent industrial factions, most centrally min- market and guaranteed dependable profits.
ing and agricultural capital, also weighed in, Trade unions, the democratic movement,
protecting their interests in a capable labour religious, philanthropic, and progressive
force and dependable profits. groups valued the benefit of food subsidies
The conflicts about food security led to for consumers with limited means. This pecu-
broader societal debates, in particular until liar figuration allowed the food subsidy and
the apartheid state successfully suppressed price control system to last for more than 50
most opposition voices. Contestation also years. The school feeding scheme for Afri-
took place within the narrower confines of the can students, to the contrary, mustered the
different political institutions, including be- support of only a limited and increasingly
tween and inside political parties, parliament, powerless coalition of liberal, democrat-
and the ministerial bureaucratic apparatus. ic and religious groups. Moreover, African
The outcome of these conflicts about inclusion school feeding was portrayed especially by
and exclusion was a process of recalibration, White nationalists as a negative example of
away from minuscule ‘charity’ for non-whites, bureaucratic waste and charity for an unde-
by the much-discussed introduction and sub- serving group, while the subsidy system was
sequent abolishment of public school meals neither interpreted as welfare nor charity, but
for African school students towards food sub- as economic policy.
sidies profiting consumers across racial di- Despite its significance for the health and
vides until the 1980s. survival of poor South Africans, not much
Food policies, as many redistributive wel- has been written on the history of South Afri-
fare instruments, attempted to remedy effects can food politics. This contribution attempts
of other political decisions and econom- to fill some of the lacunae in tracing the
ic developments. The South African state, country’s agricultural and food policy trajec-
throughout the period under consideration, tory, with a focus on welfare for the (African)
actively contributed to African food insecurity poor, over an extended period. The works
through its regime of land alienation and la- speaking directly to our topic and informing
bour exploitation (Bundy, 1972; Higginson, the paper are Tinley (1942, 1974), which
2015). It progressively sought to disengage provide insights into the institutionalisation
from its responsibilities towards the African of a centralised control system and close
population, which it sought to shut away into partnership between state and industry on
reserves, homelands, and townships. How- matters of food production and distribution.
ever, South Africa’s economic development Moll (1984, 1985) and Kallaway (1996) dis-
also depended on African labour working cuss bread subsidies as well as the school
the mines and factories. Fear of social un- feeding system. Wylie (2001) sheds light on
rest and the need for a reasonably healthy political figurations and ideologies of White
workforce influenced the trajectory of food paternalism that shaped food policy trajec-
policies towards the centralised regulation tories, while Stanwix (2012) aptly summaris-
and subsidisation of agricultural production es the bread subsidy system in an M.A. the-
and food distribution. The persistence of the sis. Notwithstanding the dearth of literature
food subsidy system was based on the broad on food policies and politics before 1994,
constellation of supportive actor groups that the literature on South Africa’s political and
otherwise were unaligned or even antago- economic history which informs this article
nists: the influential group of White agricul- is excellent and broad. To name only a few,
[2]Duncan (1993, 1995) provides historical ca’s peculiar context of transition from settler
background with a focus on public health colony to nation-state, characterised by rad-
and the welfare system. The publications ically conflictive ideologies on which racial-
of Posel (1987, 2011) are used as a foun- ized groups belonged to nation and state,
dation. Through her work, we can see the overshadowed imperial and international in-
emergence of a repressive racialised labour fluence. Developments in Britain and reports
system, ethnic mobilisation, the creation of of international organizations featured as
a White ethnocracy, black proletarianisa- points of reference, but their elements were
tion and social mobility during the apartheid taken up or rejected by actors as they saw fit
era. Seekings and Nattrass (2005) provide a for the domestic discussion.
broad picture of racialised social inequality This study is based, additionally to the
and the limits of distributional welfare during secondary literature mentioned above, most
apartheid. centrally on the archives of the Rand Dai-
While South Africa’s food policies have ly Mail (RDM). The RDM was among the
been debated and decided mostly on the leading English-speaking national newspa-
national level, its instruments and concepts pers during its existence from 1902 until its
developed in larger contexts, namely the controversial termination in 1985. Its liber-
imperial and international discourses on al perspective, which developed into an in-
food politics. This study, therefore, adds to creasingly oppositional stance to the apart-
the field of historical studies on global food heid regime from the 1960s, allows insights
policy and food security. The key interest of on political positions and debates from the
previous studies often revolved around the right-wing ruling parties, capital factions,
question of how the dominant understand- churches and other civic societal groups, to
ing of food security developed over time (cf. the progressive, mostly White liberal parties
Worboys, 1988). Vernon (2007) traces how and organisations. For this project, we draw
hunger emerged as an issue of humanitarian from about 350 articles that the electronic
concern and as a problem of the (welfare) archive’s search engine produced for differ-
state in Britain until the 1940s but touches ent combinations of the search terms ‘food’,
on imperial policies only in passing. Shaw ‘subsidy’, ‘wheat’, ‘bread’, ‘milk’, ‘school’,
(2007) as well as Jachertz and Nützenadel ‘scheme’. For the period from the newspa-
(2011) explore how thinking about food se- pers dissolution in 1985 to the start of the
curity developed at the level of international political transition in 1990, we found suffi-
organizations since World War II. cient secondary sources confirming conti-
Our study speaks to such historical ap- nuity in the trajectory of South Africa’s food
proaches by illustrating how ideational and security policies.
economic developments at the international We further consulted fifteen relevant gov-
level materialized in the domestic context. ernment documents, produced at different
The introduction of marketing boards, food historical junctures. Among them, five re-
subsidies and school meals in South Africa ports of commissions of inquiry, which were
was embedded in a global historical trend, set up to look at food, health and education
with similar measures being implemented in policies and interventions, are of particular
other parts of the British Empire, the Anglo- importance. The membership of these ap-
phone world, and beyond. The economic pointed commissions, tasked with provid-
background of these new instruments was ing policy advice, usually united politicians
the global Great Depression and the ‘war and academics. While often producing
effort’ of World War II, its political context high-quality research, these commissions
the expansion and increase of states’ infra- were not open-ended inquiries, but rather
structural powers (Mann, 1984). South Afri- political arenas. Our interpretive approach
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [3]is thus based on a triangulation of three dif- ed and excluded, that is, the majority of the
ferent sources: official documents, media re- population.
porting, and secondary literature. Our mate-
rial, however, is relatively silent on the matter
of the anti-apartheid movement’s actions 2. Food policies in the Union of
and positions, particularly after it has been South Africa, 1910-1948
outlawed in the 1950s and 1960s. This is
one area on which further research should
be undertaken. The Union of South Africa, as a self-gov-
The paper follows a chronological order erning dominion of the British Empire, was
and is divided into two sections, detailing the founded in 1910 on the ashes of a century of
periods of before and after the introduction warfare and dispossession, rapid urbanisa-
of apartheid respectively. In the first main tion and rural impoverishment (Terreblanche,
section, we detail the school feeding scheme, 2002). In the rural spheres, hunger and mal-
which in its early years profited only White, nourishment had already been widespread,
Coloured and Indian school students, but in particularly among rural African populations
the context of World War II was expanded alienated from land and permanently ex-
to black African children (albeit with racially cluded from new regimes of land property.
hierarchized benefits, as typical in the South The 1913 Native Lands Act abolished Afri-
African welfare state until 1994). In the fol- can access to land outside the overcrowded
lowing part of this section, we look at the reserves, turning the rural African population
emerging food subsidy and marketing con- outside the reserves permanently dependent
trol system, which was also set up shortly be- on White landowners profiting from cheap
fore World War II and expanded during the labour. The original cause of food insecurity
war effort. In the second main section on the in South Africa was the expropriation of land,
apartheid period after 1948, we again look which choked “Africans’ own agricultural rev-
at both school feeding and the food subsidy olution” (Hendriks, 2014, p. 2; Wylie, 2001,
system. We show that while the school feed- p. 63, p. 250). The reserves themselves were
ing of African students became a contentious economically unviable throughout their his-
and symbolic issue and was subsequently tory. Many Africans took up inadequately
abolished by the apartheid regime against paid labour in the expanding industrial cen-
much contestation, the food subsidy system tres of gold and diamond exploitation (Iliffe,
not only persisted but even grew. Our analy- 1987, pp. 114–142; Wylie, 2001, pp. 52,
sis demonstrates that while the comparatively 68; Yudelmann, 1984). One important as-
small school feeding system did not fit into pect of this economic regime became ‘mi-
a racialised perspective of welfare, the food grant labour’, i.e., temporary occupation
subsidy system—despite its distributional in the mines and subsequent return of the
character that benefitted all consumers and workers to the reserves and other rural ar-
especially the poor—was carried by a broad eas. This system effectively imposed the wel-
constellation of otherwise non-allied forces fare costs of reproduction, sickness and old
reaching from White agricultural capital to age on the workers’ families. Other Africans,
trade unions, and from reactionary ‘house- despite waves of legislation abolishing free-
wives’ organisations to the anti-apartheid dom of movement and settlement, managed
movement. The subsidy system played an to permanently reside in the emerging min-
important role in maintaining the apartheid ing centres. In these sprawling urban areas,
regime’s economic, social and political co- however, “the path from poverty to destitution
hesiveness, while at the same time providing lay through insecurity”, including illness and
a crucial lifeline to the expropriated, exploit- cyclical unemployment (Iliffe, 1987, p. 130).
[4]Food had been a long-established con- The poor White problem was of signifi-
cern in the broader field of poor relief in the cance in the development of early policies
British empire, including in South Africa, but on food, especially concerning children. Pro-
for an extended period remained the primary vincial governments and charitable organi-
domain of religious charity (Iliffe, 1987, pp. sations, at the time the major actors in poor
120–121, pp. 193–213). After World War relief (Iliffe, 1987, pp. 120–121), set up dif-
I, however, the nutritional situation became ferent measures to provide food assistance
a concern of the state and a matter of both and meet the nutritional needs of poor White
economic development and social order. In children (Duncan, 1993, 1995). The Trans-
South Africa’s racialised setting, governmen- vaal Provincial Council’s Executive Commit-
tal concern initially focussed almost exclu- tee from 1916 onwards provided funds to
sively on the so-called ‘poor White problem’. feed needy White children in schools during
The poverty of White South Africans was the winter months (Kallaway, 1996, p. 3;
understood as both a problem of absolute Moll, 1985, p. 3).
deprivation as well as relative racial status. In That public concern about the food intake
the countryside, some (descendants of) Euro- of poor persons was initially largely limited to
pean immigrants had been hit by the crisis in White people reflected the figuration of po-
rural farming after the Boer Wars, and eco- litical parties and the strongly limited voting
nomic depression following World War I. In rights of non-whites.2 The political landscape
the mixed inner-city areas, poor Whites tend- was rife with conflicts between the Afrikaans-
ed to live and work side-by-side with African and English-speaking White population,
and Coloured people of the same margin- themselves originating in the earlier wars
alised class, a social closeness that alarmed between the British Empire and the indepen-
racist sentiments among the White middle dent Afrikaner republics. However, as neither
and upper-class. There was concern that so- side could muster electoral majorities on its
cial proximity would lead to physical, moral own, cross-ethnic alliances prevailed. The
and mental degeneration. This was seen as leader of the South African Party and prime
a threat to White supremacy and the White minister (1919–1924 and 1939–1948), Jan
population, requiring immediate remedial Smuts, represented the reconciliation of Af-
action (Duncan, 1995, p. 107; Jochelson, rikaner and English elites, at the expense of
2001, pp. 50–55). Tayler (1992, p. 40) ar- both the non-White population as well as
gues that “…the term [White poor] had been the White labour movement. On the other
used to refer to White people who were not side of the parliamentarian aisle, in 1924,
merely poor, but whose standards of living Afrikaner nationalist J. B. M. Hertzog led his
had degenerated to be considered inimical National Party (NP) into a coalition with the
to White society as a whole.” Although White Labour Party. This so-called ‘Pact coalition’
poverty had been debated already in the late married Afrikaner rural interests and the An-
19th century, it became strongly politicised glophone share of the White urban working
only in the 1930s. About 300,000 persons, class to create the foundations of a racial-
a considerable part of the white population ly hierarchical welfare state. Another White
segment,1 was considered poor in 1929 cross-ethnic alliance of the interwar period
(Carnegie Commission Report, 1933, pp. began in 1934, when Hertzog and Smuts
605–618; Devereux, 2007, p. 541; Sagner,
2000, pp. 525–526). 2 The Pact and the Fusion government extended the
right to vote to all White men and women, and
abolished historical voting rights of non-White
1 The White population numbered between 1.5 persons except for a handful of ‘native represen-
(1921) and 2 million (1936) persons (Statistics tatives’ (see Dubow 1989; Elphick, 2012; Lodge,
South Africa, 2000, 1.4). 2002).
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [5]formed the Fusion government and then better than previous laissez-faire policies.
the United Party, merging the majority fac- Historically, from the promulgation of Land
tion of the National Party and the South Af- Act in 1913 onwards, African farmers had
rican Party. During World War II, Hertzog’s been systematically side-lined from produc-
nationalist faction returned into the National tive activities, while a lot of investments were
Party, yet Prime Minister Smuts in 1943 won channelled to White commercial agricul-
an electoral majority on his own (Duncan, ture. A dualistic agrarian system emerged,
1993; Posel, 1983, 1987; Seekings, 2007; which enhanced White commercial farming
Worden, 2008). interests, while suppressing the potential of
In the context of World War II, the last African farmers (Greyling & Pardey, 2019;
Smuts government extended the welfare Hendriks, 2014; Vink & van Rooyen, 2009,
state, which so far had provided racially p. 4). From the 1920s, several agricultural
graduated benefits to the White, Coloured and credit policies with food production ob-
and Asian population groups, in very limited jectives benefitted White commercial farmers
ways also to the African population (Devere- (Makhura, 1998, p. 573). In particular, the
ux, 2007, pp. 542–543; Duncan, 1993, National Party made concerted efforts to up-
pp. 106–119; Marks & Andersson, 1992; lift the farming Afrikaner (White) poor. The
Sagner, 2000, pp. 535–537). Four political emerging modern commercial farming sec-
forces counteracted the previous (and subse- tor subsequently became a key base of the
quent) tendency to exclude the African major- party and the apartheid state. Until 1980,
ity from food security policies: First, the min- some 80 acts of parliament were passed to
isterial bureaucracy, led by the liberal minis- strengthen the commercial farming sector.
ter Jan-Hendrik Hofmeyr, took bold steps to State support saw commercial farms becom-
modernise and centralise the South African ing bigger, more industrialised and mech-
welfare state. Hofmeyr, who ran several min- anised (Hendriks, 2014, p. 2). Commercial
istries including finance, health and educa- farmers became pivotal in agricultural and,
tion simultaneously, acted as prime minister by extension, food politics.
during the war-related prolonged absences
of Smuts. Inspired by British and American 2.1 Dairy welfare: The introduction and
post-war plans as laid down in the Beveridge
Plan and the Atlantic Charter, the Smuts/
expansion of the school feeding
Hofmeyr ministerial bureaucracy pushed for scheme
the liberal ‘radical moment’ of the South
African welfare state (Seekings, 2005). Sec- One example of a racially hierarchized so-
ond, the non-racist, democratic and worker cial provision, initiated by the agricultural
movements led by the African National Con- sector, was the school feeding scheme. From
gress (ANC) and the anti-racist section of the 1935, primary school children of European,
trade unions agitated for extending welfare Indian and Coloured origin received govern-
services to the African population. While the ment-subsidised milk and cheese. Overpro-
ANC’s and trade union’s demands may not duction in the dairy industry had resulted in
have been directly heeded, they fed into, a surplus which was given to these school
third, the mining industry, and its concerns children (Kallaway, 1996; Moll, 1985; Smit
about social unrest labour shortages (Paday- Report, 1942). The ‘free milk’ scheme was
achee & van Niekerk, 2019, pp. 9–13). thus both a subsidy for the agricultural in-
Fourth, the agricultural sector, consisting dustry as well as a contribution to the pupils’
of increasingly large and dominant ven- nutritional needs. It came about after the
tures, discovered that state subsidies and Dairy Industry Control Board, which assem-
price controls could benefit their interests bled cabinet members and representatives of
[6]the dairy industry, drafted the Dairy Industry icy and implement it using its own finances
Control Bill on 9 April 1935. It proposed to (Political Correspondent, 1935c). By decree,
redistribute half a pint of milk and butter to the government had extended the scheme
310,000 European primary school children to include ‘coloured’ and ‘Indian schools’
on every school day. For these children, it (“Free Milk for Coloured Schools”, 1935). In
was estimated that two-thirds of their parents terms of funding, it had been expected that
would be able to pay part of the cost. The funding would come from the government,
remaining 100,000 children were expect- parents and the Dairy Industry Control Board
ed to receive free milk with the government (through levies on urban milk sales). How-
paying £90,000 for it (“1,000,000 LBS of ever, as the Bill was not passed, it was the
Cheap Butter a Year”, 1935; Political Cor- government which initially met the expenses
respondent, 1935b). Such an arrangement (“No Escaping State Politics”, 1935; Political
was considered ideal in solving the problem Correspondent, 1935b).
of surplus milk (“Dairy Industry Threatened”, The school feeding of African students
1934; Political Correspondent, 1934). The was envisaged only during World War II. The
Bill also empowered the Board to set lev- 1942 ‘Inter-Departmental Committee on the
ies on urban milk sales and to subsidise the Social, Health and Economic Conditions of
sale of surplus milk (Political Correspondent, Urban Natives’, named after its chairman
1935a). Profits were to be channelled to- D.L. Smit, argued for communal or school
wards supplying free milk to schoolchildren feeding schemes, and urged that “the needs
(Political Correspondent, 1935b). The Board of the urban Natives, among whom there
proposed full control over the scheme while is probably a higher incidence of malnutri-
it expected full co-operation of the provincial tion than among any other under-privileged
administrations, local authorities and chari- groups, should receive recognition on their
table organisations in its huge redistribution intrinsic merits, regardless of any racial dis-
task (“1,000,000 LBS of Cheap Butter a tinction.” (Smit Report, 1942, pp. 5–7).
Year,” 1935). Generally, the report indicated, the problems
Due to its sweeping proposals, the Bill was the country was facing would culminate in
considered contentious. There was concern a socio-economic and political crisis if not
over the powers which it gave to the Board in immediately addressed (Smit Report, 1942).
setting prices and controlling schemes (“Bill The rapidly mounting concern of the gov-
to Give Dairy Board Wider Powers”, 1935). ernment was illustrated in a speech by Prime
There was also opposition and questioning Minister Smuts at a meeting convened by the
of the practicality of its proposals, especially Institute of Race Relations (SAPA, 1942):
in regard to the large scale of the distribution
program and the unavailability of schoolchil- If there is one thing we have to do in this
dren during weekends and school holidays. continent, and do pretty soon and pretty thor-
Funding was also of major concern (Own oughly, it is to look after native health. There
Correspondent, 1935; “School Milk Hitch”, is a death rate among the children, a sickness
1935). Some voices queried its efficacy with rate among adults which we cannot tolerate
suggestions that it would be better to provide if we want to see South Africa a prosperous,
the children with soup or bread (“Soup or good and happy country.
Milk”, 1935). The Bill was by many seen as
industrial or economic policy and not as a Featuring prominently in the so-called ‘na-
social or welfare policy. By November 1935, tive problem’, Smuts argued, was food inse-
the Bill had still not been passed, but the curity. “A start had been made by giving milk
milk scheme was already running, with the to children, but this would become more of
government deciding to side-track the pol- a public duty”, the RDM reported. Smuts
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [7]speech revolved around the notion of White of African children, the National Nutritional
‘trusteeship’ for the African population, Council, which was a product of a propos-
which summarised the prevailing paternalist al by the League of Nations for countries to
welfare concept of the ruling elite. Between have a multi-sectoral advisory committee
1938 and 1948, Smut’s United Party gov- on the government nutrition policy, reported
ernment began several measures to both im- that the scheme reached 982,000 students
prove African welfare and to further separate (Boudreau, 2005, p. 618). These comprised
the White from African poor. The wartime re- 322,000 European, 485,000 African and
form government aimed to improve residen- 175,000 Coloured and Indian children
tial conditions for Africans in the urban areas (Moll, 1985, p. 4).
but also emphasised racialised residential During the inception phase, the scheme
separation (van der Spuy, 1960, pp. 68–69). suffered from a lack of administrative plan-
While it aimed to counter structural causes of ning, regularisation and formalisation. Some
‘White poverty’, it also looked at improving of these challenges were later traced to
the conditions of Africans. hasty political expediency when formulating
In this context, authorities considered and implementing the programme (Union
providing food at school for African chil- of South Africa, 1951). In 1945, the Na-
dren (Wylie, 2001, p. 217). School feed- tive Education Finance Act (No 29) moved
ing, critics remarked, would reach only a financial control of the African education
limited number of African children, because sector, including the Native School Feeding
less than 30% among them received any Programme, to the central government. The
schooling. Less than two per cent advanced scheme was reorganised through the de-
to the post-primary stage of schooling, and velopment of new procedures and the ap-
the majority failed to get further than Stan- pointment of local organisers. The aim was
dard One. With so many African children not to make the programme less bureaucratic,
going to school, a large majority of African but more effective and responsive to specific
children would automatically be excluded local needs (Kallaway, 1996, p. 5).
from a school-focused scheme (Hoernlé, The period after 1945 saw the growth of
1938, p. 119, citing the 1936 ‘Report of the the school feeding scheme. However, it re-
Native Affairs Commission’). Nonetheless, mained racially biased with African school
from February 1943 African primary stu- feeding being underfunded and catering only
dents in native schools began receiving sub- to a minority of African students. European
sidised milk and butter as recommended by students received three times more funding
the Smit report (Moll, 1985, pp. 7–11). One compared to African students; hence, the
of the pioneering initiatives was the Binfield latter received less or less nutritious food
Milk Scheme in Victoria East (in the Eastern (Wylie, 2001, p. 218). Nonetheless, the na-
Cape) where 1,200 pupils received a pint tionalist Afrikaner camp derided the Native
of milk a day (“Native Affairs Department of School Feeding Scheme as expensive and
the Union of South Africa”, 1943, p. 219). misappropriated. National Party representa-
Other African schools followed. The finan- tive Jan Christoffel Greyling Kemp, for ex-
cial burden of the Native School Feeding ample, protested a four-fold increase in the
Programme was shared between the Union 1946 budget in African education compared
government’s Department of Social Wel- to the previous year. For him, if “the native”
fare and the provinces, with the central gov- wanted to be educated, “let him pay for him-
ernment contributing two pounds per child self and not the White man” (“They said in
per day while the Provinces contributed one Parliament yesterday”, 1946). On the Na-
pound per child a day (Kallaway, 1996, p. 4; tive School Feeding Scheme, he said it was
Moll, 1985, p. 4). A year after the inclusion “keeping native labour off the farms because
[8]the food was taken to the kraals, where the sures first aimed to mitigate the consequenc-
men enjoyed ‘lekker lewe’ and would not do es of the world economic crisis. The initial
any work” (“Hofmeyr will try to widen Gap objective was to protect the White commer-
Between Income Tax Demands”, 1946). cial farming sector, which had been hit hard
Contrarily, many non-state actors em- by the 1930s global depression. During
braced the programme and were willing to World War II, the stringent agricultural and
food regime served to control and ensure the
complement it in addition to the state. An ex-
ample of one such initiative was the propos- food supply as part of the war effort. Pro-
al by two White schools in Zeerust, who in viding consumers, least of all the non-White
1948 offered to forgo their allocation under poor, with home-grown nutritious food at af-
the government school feeding scheme (this fordable prices remained a complementary
included their entire grant as well as bread objective. However, even if unintended, the
and butter allocations) so that more support system of subsidies and price controls would
would go to African schools (“Schools offer turn out to become the longest-lasting and
their Allocations to Feed Native Children”, most impactful food security programme in
1948). Others, such as Jeppe Preparatory the 20th century.
School were active in fundraising campaigns The central state increasingly tried to con-
trol producer and consumer prices in the
for African schools. Schools like St Cyprian’s
in Johannesburg’s Sophiatown were running 1930s through control boards modelled on
holiday feeding schemes targeting children the contemporary British example. The 1937
in and out of school. They took into account Marketing Act is one example of this trajec-
that only one in three African children couldtory. The act regulated the production and
be accommodated in schools and were able sale of agricultural products. It laid the pro-
to reach 7,000-8,000 children a day. They cedures and legal framework under which
even had plans to establish permanent feed- marketing boards3 could be established, and
ing schemes in areas like Newclare (“Schools it standardised them while investing them
Offer their Allocations to Feed Native Chil- with considerable powers (“Milk Scheme
dren”, 1948). Set Aside by Supreme Court”, 1940). In the
The programme had some success in the Marketing Act, there was a provision to rep-
fight against poverty, hunger, disease and resent certain interest groups, and it saw the
malnutrition among children. An important creation of the Producers Advisory Council,
legacy of the school feeding scheme during the Consumers Advisory Council and the
National Marketing Council. These bod-
this period was that it provided lessons to the
Union government that foodstuffs could be ies had investigative and advisory functions
distributed to vulnerable groups at afford- with their members being seconded to the
able prices. marketing boards to represent their interests
(Rees, 1979, pp. 16–17). On the boards,
2.2 Centralising food markets: The age White commercial agricultural producers
were heavily overrepresented, while (White)
of subsidies I consumer representatives had been added
only reluctantly (“Laissez Faire,” 1962; Tinley,
The increasing activity of the South African 1974, p. 47). This stemmed from the Mar-
state regarding food security during the keting Act which stated that on every board,
1930s and 1940s was not restricted to the
school feeding programme. Succeeding 3 There were numerous marketing boards which
governments set up much larger structural were created by this legislation. Examples include
changes that linked agricultural production the Wheat Board, the Citrus Board, the Banana
Board, the Oil Seeds Board, the Wool Board and
and consumer food availability. These mea- the Tobacco Board.
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [9]producers were to have a majority. Initially, produce into a buffer stock (storage facilities
there was a single consumer representative for grain were collectively built by producer
in 1937.4 This was later increased, but they co-operatives created by the Marketing Act)
remained a minority (“Laissez Faire,” 1962). (Rees, 1979, pp. 24–25). There were checks
In a report, the National Marketing Council on the transportation of controlled crops as
described the intention behind creating the well as privileged access to certain crops for
Marketing Act as the promotion of produc- industrial millers and distributers, creating oli-
er interests, with an expectation of improved gopolies in which there was limited compe-
producer returns (National Marketing Coun- tition and the market was restricted to a few
cil, 1947, p. 7). players (Jayne, Hayek & van Zyl, 1995, pp.
The Act thus institutionalised a close part- 4–6). The act and the numerous boards sti-
nership between government and White fled the free-market economy while providing
farmer co-operatives, which became the sole White commercial farmers with considerable
sellers of different products, including sta- influence over government policies on agri-
ples (wheat, maize, dairy and meat) (Beinart, culture, and indirectly, food security (Distri-
2001, p. 118; Hunt, 1955; Tinley, 1974, p. bution Cost Commission, 1947). Boards re-
xii, p. 138). The marketing boards fell into ceived a levy from producers and consumers,
two categories: those that controlled products and contributions from the state. The income
for domestic markets (which are the focus of allowed boards to finance market stabilization
this article) and others for the export market, measures (Rees, 1979, p. 24).
mainly citrus and deciduous fruits (“Laissez During the war, in 1941, the state re-
Faire”, 1962). Boards were empowered to sumed stronger control, especially as the
regulate production and provide the Minister Minister of Agriculture doubled as the Con-
of Agriculture with recommendations regard- troller of Food Supplies. In these roles, the
ing supply, demand and marketing, as well minister had wide powers over production,
as imports and exports. The Marketing Act distribution, rationing and prices. To counter
empowered boards to function without being shortages, in 1942/43 he limited the quan-
controlled or sanctioned by parliament. They tity of maize, rice and samp5 which could be
were thus able to fix producer prices (with min- bought at one time by consumers (Nation-
isterial approval) and to determine consumer al Marketing Council, 1947, p. 19; Tinley,
prices. They did this after taking into consid- 1974, pp. 51–52). After heavy criticism by
eration the volume of current harvests rela- trade and consumer representatives, the
tive to local demand, handling and storage combination of food supply and agricultur-
costs, export possibilities and other economic al production control was dissolved again in
conditions. Different boards functioned differ- 1944 (Albertyn, 2014, p. 16; Tinley, 1974,
ently. For example, the Maize Board bought p. 28). The control of agricultural produc-
maize at a predetermined price from farmers tion came under the Secretary of Agriculture,
through a system of agents, mainly co-opera- while an independent Controller of Food
tives, and it had a monopoly. The board then Supplies was to be appointed by the Minis-
either sold locally, exported, or channelled the ter of Agriculture. To ensure some linkage,
a Food Supplies Advisory Board was tasked
with the responsibility of assisting and advis-
4 Rees (1979, p. 24) gives an example of the Maize
Board in the 1950’s which was comprised of 21
ing the Controller of Food and the Secretary
members, including producers of maize and grain of Agriculture (Tinley, 1974, pp. 28–29).
sorghum (12), consumers (2), maize and grain Central to the food management poli-
sorghum dealers (2), maize and grain sorghum cies during this period (and thereafter) was
millers (2), stock feeders (1), exporters (1) and a
representative of the Department of Agricultural
Economics and Marketing. 5 Dried, stamped corn kernels.
[10]bread production and distribution. Following the period 1947-1960 (and a subsequent
a recommendation by the Wheat Board, the average of 0.201 from 1960 to 1980) (Moll,
Union government in November 1939 intro- 1984, p. 12).
duced a subsidy on wheat production. Fur- Closely related to bread subsidies were the
ther measures protected producers against introduction of coarser bread and a govern-
the negative effects of World War II (Wheat mental directive forbidding the production
Industry Control Board, 1952, p. 2). The of foodstuffs which required large amounts
Wheat Board argued that “an increase in of wheat. This intervention was guided by
the price of bread at the present stage can- two objectives. Firstly, it also sought to deal
not be contemplated. It has accordingly de- with the challenges posed by the outbreak of
cided to pay producers a subsidy out of its World War II. Secondly, the introduction of
funds to compensate them for the increased coarser bread in particular, but also other in-
costs” (“No Rise in the Cost of Flour, Meal or terventions in the food industry, had nutrition-
Bread”, 1939). In the war context, agricul- al objectives. During the war, the production
tural production costs steeply increased. The of white bread was abolished except at mili-
subsidy served to compensate producers and tary and civilian hospitals. A ‘rougher’ stan-
provide an incentive to grow wheat, which dard loaf was produced from unsifted wheat
was considered an essential commodity. A flour. This new loaf not only had nutritional
secondary intention was to keep the prices value but was reduced in size and therefore
of wheat products affordable and available cheaper. To maximise the available wheat,
to consumers. the government forbade the production of
The Wheat Board initially paid 1 shil- some products requiring wheat meal (mac-
ling per bag of wheat, which in 1939-1940 aroni and some confectionery products). In
amounted to £173,000. The next season the post-war years, the policy was continued
(1940-1941), there was an increase in sub- with a special subsidy in place aimed at en-
sidies to two shillings per bag, with the gov- couraging the consumption of nutritionally
ernment paying one shilling and the other enriched bread. This intervention also aimed
shilling coming from the Board (Moll, 1984, at reducing the amount of imported wheat in
p. 26). In 1942, the Minister of Agriculture favour of local production. This was expect-
announced the enlargement of the group of ed to reduce the price of brown bread over
receiving enterprises beyond the wheat farm- white bread, thus benefitting both producers
ers. £600,000 had been voted for assis- and consumers (Distribution Cost Commis-
tance to the wheat industry. £82,000 was to sion, 1947; Kallaway; 1996; Moll, 1984).
be provided to millers, while £46,000 was to
be given to bakers (“Millers Defended in the
House of Assembly”, 1942). Despite the tax 3. Food policies during apartheid,
subsidies, the government was to repeatedly 1948-1994
increase the bread prices between 1943 and
1945, forcing consumers to bear the costs
incurred by the Wheat Board (Tinley, 1974, At the eve of WW II, the National Party re-
pp. 51–52). united its different factions and resumed its
While initially intended as temporary, the role as the second pivot of South African
bread subsidy continued and even increased parliamentarianism. Campaigning on the
after the war. The nature and extent of the message of ‘White bread for a White South
subsidies can be ascertained in its propor- Africa’ (Stanwix, 2012, p. i), it won the 1948
tion to the GDP. Between 1939 and 1942, elections and began 46 years of rule. Its of-
its average share in proportion to GDP was ficial ideology, ‘apartheid’, aimed at retain-
0.231%, a number that rose to 0.417% for ing South Africa as a ‘White man’s country’
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [11](Henry Verwoerd quoted in Dubow, 2014, p. the ban on the ANC was lifted, and in the first 64), administered the Coloured and Asian fully democratic elections in 1994, it ousted minorities separately and segregated the the NP as the majority party in parliament. majority African population into the exist- For Seekings and Nattrass (2005, pp. ing ‘native reserves’. In 1959, the latter were 35–36), the apartheid state had policies that turned into self-governed, ethnically defined were tailor-made to buttress the standard ‘homelands’ (also known as Bantustans). of living of Whites, including by furthering While the permanent settlement of Africans in the pre-existing racialised discrimination in ‘White’ areas was discouraged, the migration health, education and other welfare spend- of workers between rural reserves/homelands ing. While much of this wealth was produced and urban industries continued to guarantee through the labour of non-Whites, apartheid the steady supply of cheap labour. ideology was based on the premise that each Premised on these points, National Party racialised group was responsible for its own (NP) governments pursued racial discrimi- development and welfare. Hence, the school nation socially, economically and politically. feeding scheme for African students fell vic- Economically, the NP embarked on a suc- tim to this thinking, as we show in the fol- cessful state-centric industrialisation path, lowing section. As we further argue, a broad making sure that both the public service constellation of very different political group- and major parastatals were dominated by ings nonetheless favoured the food regime ethnic Afrikaners and specifically members established during WW II, which therefore of the ‘Broederbond’ male secret society persisted and even grew. (Lester, 1996; Posel, 2011, p. 312, p. 326; Worden, 2008). In the agricultural sector, 3.1 Food or teachers? The end of the White farmers running large, increasingly mechanised farms received ever more lavish Native School Feeding Scheme subsidies. In 1967, subsidies for 100,000 White farms were almost double the amount Both for the National Party and opposing spent on education for more than 10 million voices, the Native School Feeding Scheme Africans (Deininger & Binswanger, 1995, pp. served as an early symbol in the emerging 502–503). apartheid political context, triggering an out- During the first decades of apartheid, sized debate compared to the rather modest parliamentarian opposition was dominated size of the scheme (“Jansen Says State Will by the United Party, which also managed to Try to Improve Native Reserves”, 1948; Kall- hang on to some provincial governments. away, 1996, p. 6; Kingma, 1948; “Swart Given its lukewarm criticism of apartheid, the Criticises Lawrence”, 1949; Wylie, 2001, formerly almost hegemonic party went into a pp. 216–219). For apartheid ideologues, slow demise. From 1960, more liberal and using public funding (misleadingly under- outspoken splinter parties increased their stood as paid by only ‘White taxpayers’) share of the White vote. While a space of to feed African students counteracted their ‘official opposition’ continued to exist, non- agenda of reversing the inclusion of Africans White and anti-apartheid political organisa- into the emerging welfare state. The liberal, tion was increasingly suppressed, including progressive and anti-racist political forces, bans on the Communist Party (1950), the still a visible political force in the early years ANC (1960) and related trade unions (SAC- of apartheid before the ‘banning’ of many TU 1961). Only in the 1970s did under- organisations, took up the symbolic mean- ground and tolerated organisations again ing of school feeding. While economic argu- succeed in domestic mass mobilisation and ments played a role, Christians, liberals and labour action against apartheid. In 1990, communists primarily deplored the moral [12]
iniquity of letting students go hungry based African parents, communities, local school
on their skin colour. Eventually, the NP gov- committees, and Native Authorities should
ernment succeeded in abolishing the scheme be made responsible. The report thus fit well
by forcing newly created school boards to and contributed to the infantilising apartheid
choose between funds for school expansion trope of African dependence on White char-
or school feeding programmes. ity, to be countered by the full separation of
Immediately after assuming power, in No- the racialised groups, a restoration of the
vember 1949 the new government set up a supposedly traditional African community,
committee of enquiry into the Native School and the teaching of modern nutrition to Afri-
Feeding Scheme, citing concerns over rising cans (Kallaway, 1996, p. 5; SAPA, 1949b).
costs as well as alleged abuse (“Stals An- The committee’s conclusions were re-
nounces Inquiry into Native Schools’ Sylla- ceived ambiguously. While the NP felt con-
bus”, 1948). Moreover, the NP Minister of firmed in its general opposition to the Native
Education and Health Albert Stals introduced School Feeding Scheme, opposition parties
measures which negatively impacted on the and social actors saw the NP contradicting
scheme, thereby forestalling the commis- the recommendations (“M.P.C.s Attack Ab-
sion’s work. Stals’ measures included a re- olition of Native School Feeding”, 1949;
duction of funds, with the government with- SAPA, 1949c; “Teachers Want Native Feed-
holding subsidies for the first quarter of the ing Cuts Reviewed”, 1949; Wylie, 2001, pp.
next year. As he argued during a parliamen- 218–219). In parliamentary debates, NP
tary debate, the scheme was working “at the representatives underlined their racialised
expense of the European taxpayer [and] must culturalist positions, arguing that the pro-
be counteracted because it fails to observe gramme was ‘spoon-feeding’ ‘spoiled’ Af-
the important educational principle of self- rican children and allowed their parents to
help and creates the danger that the Ban- spend their money on luxury goods and fancy
tu community may become accustomed to foods rather than ensuring a healthy nutrition
the dole” (cited in Wylie, 2001, pp. 217– for their children. The ‘White man’s food’,
218). Allowances for the schools were either they argued, was disturbing the healthy cus-
ceased or cut by half. Private charity organi- tomary diet. Among the underlying political
sations provided funds to make up for short- arguments, however, was the idea that the
falls. Non-African school feeding schemes Native School Feeding Programme would
were not affected and continued to operate add to the influx of Africans into urban areas
normally (“No State Funds for Native School (where many more schools existed than in the
Feeding”, 1949). rural areas), thereby undermining the central
In the meantime, the committee investi- apartheid aim of expelling the African popu-
gated the necessity of the scheme, its finan- lation from the cities (SAPA, 1950b). Another
cial and administrative needs and require- constant argument was expressed by Labour
ments, and linkages between nourishment Minister Senator D.W. Schoeman, who com-
and learning ability (SAPA, 1948; “Transvaal plained that “the cost of school feeding is ris-
Nat. Congress”, 1948). The 1949 report’s ing year by year, and the European taxpayer
baseline was that the Native School Feed- is bled dry to assist the native. Non-Europe-
ing Scheme constituted an undue financial an parents should be compelled to contrib-
burden on the White population but should ute towards the cost” (“Schoeman Patted on
not be phased out immediately as to avoid the Back for His Apprenticeship Bill”, 1951).
further malnutrition, disease and a gener- The Ministry of Education implemented
al deterioration of African physiques (bod- further severe cuts to the scheme, restrict-
ies) (Kallaway, 1996, p. 5; Union of South ing it to children under the age of fourteen
Africa, 1949). In the longer run, however, in larger urban and peri-urban areas while
SOCIUM • SFB 1342 WorkingPapers No. 9 [13]You can also read
