UNIVERSITY OF THE WTTWATERSRAMD
 A F R I C A N S T U D I E S I N S T I T U T E
 African Studies Seminar Paper
 to be presented in RW
 4.00pm MAY 1986
 Title: The Garmet Workers and Poverty on the Witwatersrand, 1920-1945
 by: Elsabe Brink
 No. 190
t
 THE GARMENT WORKERS AND POVERT' ON THE WITWATERSRAND,
 1920-1945.
 Introduction - The Seductive Swindle of the City.
 The inter war years in South Africa witnessed a massive migration of
 rural Afrikaners"*to the cities. The white jural population of the country
 declined steadily, as a average of some 19-20 000 .whites poured into the
 urban centres each year.1 The Witwatersrmd acted as a magnet to vast
 numbers of these migrants, and as a result nearly doubled its population
 during this period from 230 657 in 1921 to 547,836 in 1946. As most of
 these arrivals were Afrikaners, the Afrikains speaking population on the
 Vitwatersrand doubled itself in the first decade and again in the
 second.2
 A number of theories have been advanced to explain the attraction of
 the city for the inhabitants of impoverisied rural areas. These expla-
 nations have centred on such factors as thi impoverishment of the rural
 areas, the continuing capitalisation of land and agriculture, the in-
 creased employment opportunities of the_city, the well organised and rich
 welfare organisations and the 'bright lights' of the city.3 Die
 Kerkbode, official mouth piece of the Dut;h Reformed church in South
 Africa, graphically captured the 'urban pill1 school of thought when it
 spoke of the "'blink-bedrog1 van die stad" - the seductive swindle of the
 city - that attracted hopeful migrants to -he city. 'The opportunities
 in die city are great1, it warned, 'bit its seduction is twice as
 great1." The bustle of the city, its enterninments, bright street lights
 C.C. Nepgen, November 1931, as quoted iy E.J.P. Stals,ed, Afrikaners
 in die Goudstad.HAUM, Pretoria, 1986. i.32.
 Total White Population of the Vitwatersrand 1921-1946.
 1921 1926 1936 1946 Total 230 657
 254 362 402 223 547 836 Source: Population Census, 1921-1946.
 UG 51. E.J.P. Stals, op cit, p.19.
 E.J.P. Stals, op cit, HAUM, Pretoria, 2386. vol II, chapter 1. See
 also vol I. The standard work on the sibject rural exodus and influx
 into the cities is the Carnegie Commission, The Poor White Problem
 in South Africa, Pro Ecclesia, Stellentosch, 1932, especially volume
 I, chapters 5 and 6. Other contemporary studies include for example,
 P. duToit, (compilier), Report of the Nitional Conference on the Poor
 White Problem, Kimberley, 2-5 October 1934, J.R. Albertyn, ed. Die
 Stadwaartse Trek van die Afrikanernasie, Volkskongres, 1947, Minerva
 Pretoria, 1947; C.W. De Kiewiet, A Hif-ory of South Africa, Social
 and Economic, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1941; and F.A. Van
 Jaarsveld, Die Afrikaner se Groot Trek na die Stede, Perskor,
 Johannesburg, 1982. R. Morel 1, De Lag^rsdrift, M.A. Univeristy of
 the Witwatersrand, 1982. I.J. Van Eedsn's thesis 'interne Migrasie
 Pat rone van die Blanke Bevolking var. Suid Afrika met besondere
 verwysing na die Transvaal, MA, RAU, 1975, deals with the question
 of migration from a demographic point o: view.
 Ds. P. Du Toit, Stedoliko Boarbeiding, in Die Kerkbode October 1938,
 p.653.
and shop windows the magazine saw as contributing to urban social and
 moral decay. In the spirit of the 19 j8 Voortrekker centenary cele-
 brations, which strove to unite all classes of Afrikaners into ono 'volk1,
 the church felt itself obliged to act rapidly and sympathetically take
 the lead. It had to save impoverished, recently urbanised Afrikaners,
 threatened by the disappearance and disintegration of their traditional
 values, and subject to the changed mores, customs and morality of the
 city.
 Other recent accounts present a similar perspective. Stals for example
 in his recent history 'Afrikaners in die Goudstad' says that;
 "die regering (het) die pad vir die versnelde verstedeliking van
 die Afrikaner gelyk gemaak en verbreed."5
 Along with other authors he argues that 8 the Pact government after its
 election victory in 1924, did much to initiate attractive employment op-
 portunities in the urban areas of the country. A Ministry and Department
 of Labour was founded and employer and employee relationships were
 smoothed and eased by the acceptance of the Industrial Conciliation Act
 of 1924. A 'civilised labour policy1 set out to protect white unskilled
 labour in face of competition from the vast unskilled black labour market.
 With these measures the government wished to smoothe the urbanisation
 process of the Afrikaner. Mr. A.J.P. Fourie, then Minister of Mining and
 Industry assured the electorate in November 1931;
 ? "Die nasionale regering is van oorablik tot oomblik besig om
 omstandighede so te skik dat die mense hier in die stede "n bestaan
 kan maak vir hulle huisgesinne." (The national government is from
 moment to moment busy to arrange circumstances thus that the people
 here in the cities can make a living for their families,)7
 Each, of these approaches are profoundly misleading since what they all
 imply is that poverty was primarily rural issue. . While opportunities
 did exist in the city, poverty and unemployment remained rife and urban
 existence was a struggle, especially during the economically depressed
 times of the early 1930's when work was not plentiful and vast numbers
 of people arrived in the city. Here men, recently arrived from the country
 side, settled only to find themselves unemployed and unemployable for a
 variety of reasons ranging from a lack of skills, education and
 ill-health. As farmers who has lost their land, these men did not have
 any industrial skills, they were rarely educated beyond st.6 and often
 arrived in the city un a debilitated and unfit state of health. They had
 to compete on an already oversupplied white labour market to find em-
 E.J.P. Stals, op cit, p.8.
 For example. R.H. Davies, Capital, State and White Labour in South
 Africa, 1900-1960. Tho Harvester Press, Great Britain, 1979.
 p.225-227.
 E.J.P. Stnls, op c.it, p.8.
ploymont and within the field of unskilled labour had to face composition
 from a much larger and cheaper black labour force as well."
 v
 Living conditions were particularly sordid. During the twenties and
 thirties the white poor mostly congregated in highly congested areas such
 as Vrededorp .anc^  Fordsburg in Johannesburg and George Town in Germiston.
 These suburbs in which the poor of all reces lived, were considered the
 worst slums of the city. Vrededorp was a slum;
 "said to be one of the worst slum areis in existence, harbouring
 as it does in its sea of iron shanties the flotsam and jetsam of
 low class Coloured peoples, Chinese, Indians and Natives - many of
 purely criminal class", acting Standard Bank inspector Mr. J. Mac
 A. Leash stated in 1921.* r
 George Town, which Mrs. Spangenberg as described a suburb of 'beroerde
 sinkkrotte' and as 'sommer 'n gemors', (just a mess) did not provide any
 better accommodation than Vrededorp.10
 In these cramped slums a distinct white working class culture of poverty
 emerged which centred on the family unit as the basis for survival.
 Within this unit, moreover the female members of the family commenced to
 play an increasingly crucial role in the existence of the family. These
 young women had to work to help to relieve the poverty in their homes.
 This poverty, hot the seduction or the opportunities of the city caused
 the social and moral crisis that so alarmed Die Kerkbode.ll
 It is this poverty and the way it framed and intervened in the lives of
 Afrikaner women garment workers that is subject of this paper. First
 their efforts as young mothers with dependent children to care for will
 be analysed. The garment workers1 role as daughters will then be examined
 to further gauge the extent of their involvement in the economic survival
 of the family in the city. Finally the gament workers' plight as single
 immigrant in the city will be looked at, especially in view of the ever
 * E. Brink,'Maar 'n Klomp 'Factory' Meica, Family and Community on the
 Witwatersrand',1920-1945, History Workshop, University of the
 Witwatersrand, January 1984.
 I
  The Branch Generally, Standard Bank Inspection Report by acting In-
 spector M. Me A Leash 14/4/1921, Standard Bank Archives, (hereafter
 SBA), INSP 1/1/214.
 10
  Interview 26.
 II
  In a similar vein Sachs claimed that the garment workers did not come
 to the Rand "for adventure and romance, but to earn a few shillings
 for themselves and their parents." .S. Sachs,Garment Workers in
 Action, Eagle Press, Johannesburg, 1957, p.18. Studies done on mi-
 gration elsewhere observed a similar pattern. Cf. I,
 Bertaux-Wiume, 'The Life History Apprcach to the Study of Internal
 Migration,1 in D. Bertaux,Biography an.i Society - The Life History
 Approach in the Social Sciences,SAGE Publications, London, 1981 and
 T. Haraven, "Family and Kin In Urban Communities, 1700-1930, New
 Viewpoints Division of Franklin Watts, New York, 1977, p. 121.
present spectre of prostitution in the city. The incidence and threat
 of prostitution in Johannesburg for young single girls arriving from the
 ruralyareas will be examined to see whether indeed it constituted the
 danger it was made out to be.
The. Gnnnont Workers as Mothers.
 The labour of the garment workers as mothers btname crucial to the sur-
 vival of the family, because the fathers and soia of the family were not
 always able to bear the responsibility of the economic survival of the
 family alone.. "Qie Carnegie Commission remarked on the crucial role of
 the women in the survival of the Poor White family. In Vol I Grosskopf
 expressed the opinion that:
 "on the whole the female members of the poor zural families in the
 bigger towns command our highest respect... Sot only the mothers,
 but the daughters as well, greatly contribute to the advance of such
 poor families in the towns. . . it depends <xery largely on the
 womenfolk and especially the mother, whether tie family sinks lower
 or rises".12
 MER, co-author of vol. V concurred :
 i
 "it seems that a family with a sterling father but a weak mother
 is more liable to sink than one with a worthless father but a re-
 spectable mother."13
 Wives and daughters therefore had to provide wh*n their menfolk earned
 very little or nothing. Said Mrs. Spangenberg af women whose husbands
 had low earning power;
 ' "Ons moes werk. Daar was nie anderste xie. Sy salaris was
 klein...Ons moes almal uitspring om by te blx. .. .vandag werk vir
 more se pap om te eet."
 (We had to work. There was nothing else for it. His salary was
 small....we all had to jump in to keep up work today to have
 porridge to eat tomorrow.)111
 To which Mrs Viljoen added;
 "Daai jare was daar nie so 'n ding dat 'n vrou kon bekostig net om
 by die huis te bly nie. Sy moes werk, want die man het ook maar
 baie min geld gekry. "
 (Those years there was no such a thing that ? woman could afford
 to stay at home. She had to work, because the man also earned very
 little money.)15
 The same experience is reproduced in the life histories of scores of
 other families. Mr. G.C. Beetge, a passenger transporter, earning ? 1.5.0
 ? 1.5.0 per week and having to pay four pounds per month in rent, was
 12
  Carnegie Commission, op cit, Vol.1, p.219.
 11
  Ibid', Vol.V, p.34.
 1(1
  Interview 26.
 lt
  Inlorviow 31.
heavily dependent on his wife's wages and sorely missed thorn whan she lost
 her Job with a tailor also in Gerraiston.ie
 v
 Other women whose husbands for a variety of reasons lost their jobs, had
 to see their families through extended periods of unemployment as well.
 The Martins family provide an example. They had migrated from the Orange
 Free State to Germiston where Mr.Martin had become a mine worker, em-
 ployment which he lost during the 1922 strike. They were then supported
 by his wife who was employed by a tailor.
 Ill health of the male providers of the family caused similar problems.
 Mrs. Durandt of Fordsburg, who had a new-born baby and a husband confined
 in a home for the chronically sick dependent on her, wrote to the Garment
 Workers Union (GWU) in 1931 that since she did not have an income any morel
 "We have absolutely nothing in the house to live upon."17
 i
 Mrs. Spangenberg recalled a Swanepoel family arriving in Germiston in
 search of a better life. Mr. Swanepoel, a sickly man, had failed at
 farming in the Pietersburg district and had come to the city in order that
 his wife and five daughters might find employment in the clothing facto-
 ries. On the same day, Mrs. Spangenberg related, all six Swanepoel women
 succeeded in finding work in the local factories.18
 Finally women, whose husbands were employed in occupations which were
 subjected to economic fluctuations, such as in particular the building
 trade, were the mainstay of their family's economic survival. The work
 record of Mrs. van der Westhuizen whose husband was a bricklayer, was
 closely related to her husband's erratic pattern of employment. She would
 work for some nine months and be home for 3-5 months when her husband was
 fully employed. However, she would always return to work at the same
 factory; at first the Alexandra and later the Pax in Germiston. The work
 record of Mrs. Harmse, whose husband was a furniture maker, indicated
 similar intermittent rest periods.19
 Mrs. P's. husband combined these disabilities. He was a builder who was
 often ill with a lung complaint during the winter months. Due to his
 health and the precarious nature of his trade, he could not always work.
 Consequently, she became a major provider of the family. Once during
 the late thirties when the building trade was more prosperous and her
 husband was fully employed, she could stop working.
 16
  'Slumvegters1, Ons Vaderland, 5 June 1923, Randse Afrikaanse
 Universiteit. History Project Archive.
 17
  Application for Confinement Allowance, Affidavit, Mrs F Durandt,
 1931, Church of the Province of South Africa Archives, University of
 the Witwatersrand, Garment Workers Union Archives, (Hereafter GWU),
 AH 10*92, Bbc 1.29.
 11
  Mrs. Spangenberg, Interview 26.
 lf
  Interviews 30 & 12.
"NQO wot, ok was mocg. Ek wou 'n bictjie gaon rus. My man hot goeio
 werk gohad, toe het ek gaan rus. " (No, I was tired. I wanted to
 re^t a bit. My husband had a good job, so than I rested.)20
 Not all garment workers could afford to stop working. An analysis of the
 occupations of t^ ie husbands of the women who had been interviewed reveal
 that only four of the garment workers did not return to the factory after
 their marriages. They were married to miners, a teacher and a stock ex-
 change worker. The majority of the other women vere married to railway
 workers mostly employed in unskilled positions. The rest were married to
 men employed in the building and related trades, transport and other oc-
 cupations such as butchers, artisans, or post office workers. A closer
 look at the distribution of the average annual wages in the manufacturing
 and mining industries reveals that ?he garment workers were mostly married
 to men employed in the poorer paid occupations axd those most subject to
 economic fluctuations. Table 1 reveals that miners occupied the best paid
 positions at the time,followed by men in the metal engineering industry
 and those employed in the provision of energy on the Witwatersrand.2x
 Although building and contracting workers seemed to have been well paid,
 their profession, as has been indic.atedjW.as often hit by slumps and re-
 cessions .
 Generally the garment workers married young, much younger than the average
 marital age for white women in South Africa at the time.22 A. breakdown
 of the marital age of the informants reveals that the majority married
 at 19, with 5 marrying at 20 and 4 at 21. Two each married in the later
 age groups.23 Most had children within the first years of marriage but,
 so precarious was the economic situation of the garment worker mother that
 most went back to the factory after their marriags and the birth of their
 children. The standard practice for a married garment worker would be
 to work until a month or two prior to the birth cf her child and return
 to work three to six months, or even a year after the birth.2* In contrast
 to the large families into which the garment workers were born, mostly
 10-12 children, the marriages of the garment workars themselves produced
 fewer children, mostly three or less. Only Mrs. Deysel had 10 children,
 2 0
  Interview 22.
 2 1
  For this reason relatively few garment workers were married to miners,
 cf. E. Brink, 'Factory Meide. ..?.' Table 1. I
 2 2
  M.J.M. Prins loo, Blanke Vroue-arbeid in die Unie van Suid Afrika,
 Nasionale Pers, Kaapstad, 1957. p.353. Marriages per 1000 in the
 Union 1921-1944._
 av. age of bride
 25.11
 24.72
 24.89
 25.24
 25.25
 2 1
  Only two informants remained single and seven had remarried either
 as divorcees or as widows. See table.
 Year
 1921-25
 26-30
 31-35
 36-40
 41-44
 per 1000
 8.04
 9.28
 9.30
 11-50
 10.39
 21) Eg. Interviews, 26, 12.
but sho had had thorn whilst not working, and only returned to tho factory
 after the birth of her youngest child. Mrs. Spangenberg was the only
 woman who had had more than three children whilst fully employed in the
 clothing industry.**
 Garment workers usually left their children in the care of their mothers
 or mothers-in-law, and sometimes in the care of women in the neighbourhood
 or domestic servants.26 When her child was born, Mrs. Bosch usually took
 her across the street to be looked after by her mother. In winter she
 used to leave her to sleep there as well, to prevent taking her out early
 in the morning.27 Mrs. Lategan's mother and later her mother-in-law, who
 lived elsewhere in Johannesburg, looked after her child during the week
 whilst she was at work, returning the child on weekends. Mrs. Lategan
 described her feelings on leaving him to go to work for the first time;
 "Ek was gewoond om self agter my kind te kyk en hom self skoon en
 netjies te l^ ou en als, en dit was vir ray swaar om hom te los bedags."
 (I was used to looking after my child myself and to keep him clean
 and neat and everything, and it was hard for me to leave him each
 day.) 2'
 Mrs. V., a widow with three small children, whose family still resided
 in the Pietersburg district, used to leave her children in the care of a
 neighbour and later in the care of her landlady when she went to work.
 Mrs. Spangenberg, whose mother spent 17 years with her, clearly outlined
 the division of labour in the home between mother and daughter. Her
 mother was
 "... .net verantwoordelik vir die tyd wat ons as werkvrouens uit die
 huis uit is." (...responsible only for the time that we working
 women were out of the house.)29
 It would seem that although she was absent the whole day, Mrs.
 Spangenberg still retained the female authority in her home. Mrs.
 Viljoen, whose mother ran a boarding house in Hillbrow used to look after
 2 5
  Interview 7. These findings correlate closely with studies of mi-
 gration which maintain that amongst other factors, fertility de-
 creases with migration. I. J. van Eeden, op cit, p.161.
 2 6
  Interviews 32 and 13. These women as working class women themselves
 were able to afford domestic servants. This could be attributable
 to the extremely low wages paid to black female domestic workers at
 the time. In comparison to a weekly white female wage of up to three
 pounds per week, eg. Elizabeth Tshayinca, a Johannesburg domestic
 worker earned between one and two pounds per month during the early
 thirties. S. Gordon, A Talent for Tomorrow, Life Stories of South
 African Servants, Ravan, Johannesburg, 1985. p.71.
 2 7
  Interview 2
 21
  Interview 17.
 21
  Interview 32 and 26.
her child whilst she was at work. Mrs. Harmsc in contrast, used to take
 her child to the creche in Fordsburg, one of the very few in
 Johannesburg.l0 Mrs. Viljoen also recalled women vorking with her who
 would make the journey to Fordsburg to deliver their children at the
 creche before returning to the centre of town to take up their work in
 the factory. ? ^
 In some cases domestic servants would be entrusted with the care of the
 children. Mrs. Herman used to employ women who used to live on her par-
 ents' farm in the OFS on a rotational base of six months.31 It would seem
 that some mothers who were still breast feeding would also sometimes leave
 their babies in the care of domestic servants in the cloakroom of the
 factory. They would stop work long enough to rush to feed the baby.*2
 In addition, Dulcie Hartwell also recalled having to leave her child in
 the care of a domestic servant to attend trade unioi: conferences.13
 A child's illness created especially stressful tines. Mrs. Nel who as
 a widow had to leave her child ill in bed gave insight into the situation;
 "....dan vat ek vanmore a fles met me Ik en ek sit dit voor die bed
 en ek sit toebroodjies en goed, kos (neer) ...ek net 'n dierbare
 ou buurvrou en as hulle siek is stuur sy sop."
 ( then I take a bottle of milk in the morning, sandwiches and
 things, food and put it next to the bed have a sveet old neighbour
 and when they are sick she sends soup.)31*
 Anna Scheepers, addressing the GVU Commission of Inquiry, indicated that
 this was a relatively common problem in the lives of women garment work-
 ers .
 "....the women are worried there is nobody co care for the
 children when they are ill and it disorganises production in the
 factories.II3S
 Besides problems in child care, marital difficulties frequently beset the
 lives of the garment workers. Of the 35 women interviewed five were
 divorcees or separated from their husbands. From 1921 to 1946 the divorce
 rate in South Africa skyrocketed with the number of divorced women in the
 30
  Interviews 31 & 12. By 1944 there were only 6 nursery schools in
 Johannesburg which could cater for only 220 children and cost 8 000
 pounds.per annum to maintain. Minutes meeting Shop Stewards Commit-
 tee, 7.2.1944. GWU, Bcf 2.1.
 31
  Interviews 13 and 31.
 12
  D. Eiberg, Life was a drudgery, A garment worker looks back. Garment
 Worker/Klerewerker,(GW/KW), July/Aug. 1945. Unfortunately no more
 evidence could be located.
 13
  Interview 34.
 >1(
  Interview 19.
 33
  A. Scheepcrs, witnuss GWU Commission of Inquiry, p.2291, GWU, Bca 4.
country doubling from 1926 to 1936 and doubling once again in tho period
 surrounding and during the Second World War.16 In Johannesburg in 1937
 alone Die Kerkbode cited 787 divorces and 758 orders for the restoration
 of conjugal rights in contrast to some 400 in Cape Town for the same pe-
 riod.37
 In Johannesburg, the garment workers whose marital problems were not
 solved by divorce took it to the GWU where the committee members would
 make every effort to assist them Dulcie Hartwell maintained that an es-
 timated 25% of the garment workers had trouble with their husbands.
 "They would come up with blue eyes and bruised all over and some-
 times they had obviously been bleeding from the battering they had '
 had and tell us that they were scared for their lives and what must
 they do. The husband comes to the factory drunk and starts de-
 manding to be allowed into the factory and all this sort of thing
 and the boss threatens to sack her if the husband comes in."31
 i
 It appears that adultery, abuse, desertion and drink were major causes
 for the break up of marriages in the factory. Anna Scheepers recounted
 how union officials once helped a woman who had been locked in her flat
 by her husband, to escape through the fan light. In addition,tthe union
 would often give advice on marital problems. They often took abused and
 neglected women to the union doctor to have their cuts and bruises treated
 and provide assistance in divorce proceedings.
 ; In the case of death, divorce or desertion, some informants who had no
 one else to care for their children and were forced to commit their
 children to an orphanage temporarily so that they could earn a living.
 Mrs. Fitch, for example after her separation, temporarily put her child
 in the St. Mary's Orphanage and found accommodation for herself in the
 Lionel Leveson Hostel for low paid girls so that she could take up em-
 ployment at the Alba Clothing Factory. She was accepted as inmate because
 her child's boarding fee of 10/- per week and divorce expenses brought
 her net income below the maximum wage limit of some two pounds per week
 imposed by the hostel.39 Even Peggy Sachs, a middle-aged prostitute also
 put her only child into the Jewish Orphanage in Johannesburg. She re-
 ceived no support from the child's father and had to make arrangements
 regarding the care of her child in order to pursue her rather insalubrious
 3S
  Total number of divorcees in South Africa, 1921-1946
 1921 1926 1936 1946 Total 4 787 5 270 10 900
 23 343 Union Statistics for 50 years. Bureau for Census and Statis-
 tics, Printed on Authority, 1960.
 37
  'Mense Trou vandag te maklik1, Die Burger 31.12.1937 as quoted by Die
 Kerkbode, January 1938.
 31
  Interviews, 35, 36, and 34. No much research has as yet been done
 on the causes and prevalence of divorce during this period, but it
 could prove to be an interesting avenue for exploration.
 31
  Report of the Matron, Lionel Leveson Hostel, 8.3.1940. Central Ar-
 chives Depot, (CAD). VWN 4R0.
 10
 .
profession.40 Dulcie Hartwell explained these measures taken by garment
 workers to survive;
 v
 "They had no choice. They couldn't afford to pay servants. Unless
 they were lucky enough to live with family then it wasn't necessary.
 Much the same, as wha- happens amongst the black people today, who
 send their children home to thecountry. They didn't, couldn't send
 ' their children home to the country."1*1
 At the time, it was a relatively common practice for single working par-
 ents, in times of unemployment, illness or leek of care, to use
 orphanages, eg. the Langlaagte Orphanage, as a temporary refuge to which
 to send their children. As soon as they could help to contribute finan-
 cially to the family economy, th&y were retrieved and came home again.
 For example one informant was committed to the Lasglaagte Orphanage at
 the age of eight when her father died and her mother could no longer care
 for the children. She remained there until she could find employment at
 the age of sixteen.42
 A more final solution for unmarried,mothers or destitute parents who could
 no longer cope, was formally giving children up for adoption. Anna
 Scheepers recalled many young unmarried women cosing to the union for
 help;
 " partykeer is 'n meisie swanger en sy weet aie wat om te doen
 nie. Dan het ons probeer, jy weet ouers kry vir die - kind.. .dit net
 ;
  heelwat gebeur."
 (...sometimes a girl is pregnant and she does noi know what to do.
 Then we tried, you know, to find parents for the child. .. .this
 happened often.)43
 As is evident from the efforts of the GVU, apart from the existing chan-
 nels for formal adoption, more informal processes of adoption seemed to
 have existed in the working communities in Johannesburg. Mrs. Nel re-
 called being instrumental in one informal adoption of an illegitimate
 child in the neighbourhood by a rural family, and knew of another case
 of informal adoption in the neighbourhood. Mrs. DT.'s husband, the
 youngest of a very large family had himself been adopted, and met his own
 family when he was 21. Hester and Johanna Cornelius and Dulcie Hartwell
 also adopted three children from the same family whom they found destitute
 on Johannesburg station. The mother was an alcoholic and the father, a
 40
  V.P. Steyn, Senior Probation Officer, Prostitution and Houses of 111
 Fame in Johannesburg, 1939?. CAD, VWN 2017.
 41
  Ibid.
 42
  Interviews and R. Krut, Maria Botha and her seas; The making of a
 whito South African Family in the 20th century, Unpubl. paper, In-
 stitute of Commonwealth Studios, University of London, 1.11.1983.
 41
  Intorviow 35.
 11
railway worker could no longer cope with the young children. Not all
 links were severed, for the father regularly visited his children***
 v
 It is therefore evident that the garment workers as married women were
 faced with the persistent problem of poverty. In most cases they were
 married to men wljo could not support their families adequately. Due to
 impediments such as their low earning power, ill health, a poor education
 or" economic fluctuations, these men had to relinquish their role of chief
 breadwinner of the family. The garment workers who had married young
 mostly had to avail themselves of mothers, mothers-in-law and at times
 domestic servants to enable them to find employment themselves in order
 to contribute to the family income. When they did not have kin or friends
 to fall back on, and could not afford hired help, they were forced to use
 the various orphanages in the cityrto as centres of child care. In ex-
 treme cases they would make use of not only formal but informal channels
 of adoption as well to solve their problems of child care.
 Interviews, 10, 34, 35.
 12
Tho Gnrmnnt Workers as Daughters
 Until such time as dependent children reached an age when they could begin
 to earn a living, impoverished white families in the city found themselves
 in very straightened circumstances. However, once children could begin
 to work, officially at the age of 16, but mostly at the age of 14 or even
 younger, the family became better equipped to combat the poverty they
 experienced in the city. Sons and daughters, especially the latter, be-
 came key factors in the economic survival of the family in the city.**
 Single garment workers still residing with their families in the city,
 carried a burden comparable to that of the mothers of the poor white
 family. The Carnegie Commission ? elaborated on the role of the daughter
 in the Poor White family:
 "The daughter's earnings in the Poor White family are of great im-
 portance; particularly in the cities the family forms a wage earning
 unit. Hence there is a natural supply of female labour. Although
 factory work still sometimes takes place under undesirable condi-
 tions it offers a steadily imprpying. field of employment to the Poor
 White girl, and the excess of womenfolk in the cities is directly
 connected with the attraction exerted by the opportunities so of-
 fered."116
 These opportunities"although offered under appalling conditions of over-
 crowding, poor ventilation, filth, noise and heat, provided incomes with
 which a large number of women supported their families.*7
 These young girls contributed extensively to the family budget, even
 though it meant hardship for them.*8 According to Miss O'Reilly;
 "We all had to contribute - we had to live - I gave all my wages,
 all of it and then my mother used to give me money back again."*9
 Mrs. du Toit also gave all her money to her mother who was a widow and
 when she ventured to buy a few books with the money she was often scolded
 by her mother.50 Mrs. Labuschagne did not receive any pocket money solely
 because;
 *
 B
  Not much is as yet known about the son's role in the economic survival
 strategies of the family. Cf. E. Brink, 'Factory Meide....1
 ** Carnegie Commission, op cit, Recommendations 84, Vol.II, p.xxiii.
 *
 7
  H Pollak, op cit, p.102-111; p.171, 176.
 *' Ibid, Addendum p.49 and 53.
 *? Interviow, 20.
 10
  Interview 9.
 13
"Jy woct daar is nie - dis die groot ding "- jy weet daar is nio."
 (You know there is none -- this is the big thing -- you know there
 isvione.)51
 In her evidence before the 1932 Conciliation Board, Anna Maria Swanepoel
 (albeit motivating for higher wages and echoing Solly Sachs), maintained
 that about three quarters of the- young girls in the clothing industry
 supported their families and had a hard time making ends meet.52 Johanna
 Petersen, also present at this investigation, testified that she gave her
 father, who was too ill to work, a pound per week to support himself and
 her little sister." Of her weekly wages of ?2.10.0 ?2.10.0 Maria Johanna
 du Plessis contributed five pounds per month to the family budget. Her
 father, at a monthly wage of nine pounds, earned less than she did and
 had to keep a family of eight of-whom only four were employed. Nellie
 Murray's father earned a pound per week whereas her sister, a dressmaker,
 earned six pounds per week and she earned ? 2.10.0 ? 2.10.0 per week.
 Together they had to support a family of 7 in Brixton.51* In 1931 Ivy
 Rebock, an 18! year old machinist, helped her father, a telephone exchange
 worker, to support their family of fourteen.55
 Further evidence is provided in Hansi Pollak's study. Of the 16 case
 histories she used to illustrate the economic responsibility of the women
 she investigated, 5 related how young girls between 17 and 20 were the
 sole support of large families ranging from 6 to 13 members. One girl
 (18), the eldest of a family of 8 which she was supporting on ?1.2.6.
 ?1.2.6. per week remarked;
 "We have to struggle very hard to keep the home going. My father
 is an invalid and unable to work... Often when I get home from work
 I feel as if I'm too tired even to lift anything".56
 When her father became too ill to work, Mrs. Britten also, contributed
 her weekly wages to the upkeep of her family. Usually two or more of the
 12 children in the Britten's family worked to support their parents and
 the younger children who were still at school. The older brothers and
 sisters who had left home, in most cases to get married, no longer were
 able to contribute. This trend was observed in the USA during the De-
 51
  Interview 16.
 52
  Evidence of A M Swanepoel to Dept of Labour, Conciliation Board,
 22.9.1932. CAD, ARB.559.
 13
  Evidence of Johanna Petersen, Ibid.
 5
 " Evidence of Maria du Plessis and Nellie Murray, Ibid.
 55
  Statement of I.Rebock to GWU, 1931, GWU, Bbc 1.23. In June 1932, just
 prior to the general strike in the clothing industry she lost her job.
 Notice for termination of employment, June 1932. GWU, Bbcl6.1.
 56
  II Pollak, op cil, Addendum, p.56.
 14
prossion as well, where married daughters no longer helped their paronts
 financially, although some wished that they could have done so.""
 s
 S 7
 In the absence of a father the daughters had to shoulder the burden alane.
 They had to ca*e for widowed mothers, young brothers and sisters and
 sometimes their own illegitimate children. Ivy Mitchell (23) of Greymont,
 one of a family of five was the only support of her widowed mother, al-
 though her sister was employed in a shirt factory and her brother was
 attending the School of Mines. When she lost her work at ? 2.19.6 t 2.19.6
 per week she was destitute and appealed to the GWU for a grant of two
 pounds per week whilst she was unemployed."
 She had begun work in the clothing-industry in 1921 at the age of 12 and
 had been in the industry for 9 years when in 1930 she earned three pounds
 per week as an all round tailoress.
 Miss. M. Martie an unmarried mother of Village Main, also appealed to the
 GWU for assistance when she had to stop working and lost her weekly wage
 of 50/- which had been used to support her family of nine. She and her
 sister Doreen were both employed at S. Malks and had to support their
 family of nine on their combined wages. Their father had been unemployed
 for the previous 8 years and due to the birth of her illegitimate child
 Margaret (21), had lost her job. Although she.had no hope of receiving
 maintenance from the father of the child, Martin Schanell, a labourer in
 Newclare, who earned 5/6 per day, their combined wages disqualified her
 for a state confinement allowance. In 1934 Margaret found herself in a
 similar position. Although she had in the interim moved to Selby, she
 had to return to her parents home, as she did not have any income for the
 six months after her child was born in December 1933. Their father, a
 painter handyman, did earn some money after the Depression, but Margaret
 and Doreen remained the main supporters of the family which during the
 thirties had increased to ten members. In the mid forties after being
 employed at S. Malk's for 16 and 15 years respectively, they approached
 the union to help them to buy outfits for mourning, which they could not
 afford, for their father was expected to die shortly. They based their
 appeal on the fact that they had as yet no received aid from the
 union.5S
 Miss A. Cronje of Vrededorp, like the Martie sisters, was the sole support
 of her family as well. However, she fell ill and lost her job, an oc-
 B 7 R.Cavan & K. Ranck, The Family and the Depression, University of
 Chicago Press, Chicago, 1938. p.166.
 81
  Affidavit I. Mitchell, 14.3.1930, Bbc 16.1. Letter of Ivy Mitchell
 . to GWU 1933,' GWU Bbc 1.38.
 11
  Gen. Sec. GWU to Factory Inspector, Dept of Labour, Pretoria, 28.1.32,
 GWU Bbc 1.138. Letter Inspotor of Factories, Johannesburg to M.
 Martie, 14.12.1931 and statemont M. Martie, 1931. Affidavit M. Martie
 21.11.1934, Bed 4.1.1. Minutos Complaints Committee GWU, 26.7.1945,
 GWU, Bed 1.2.
 15
curronco which increased the destitution of her family. In
 for the union to find her a job she maintained;
 "it is impossible for me to stay at lome without work because my
 father did not work and we are a big family."*"II fi
 A month later she again appealed for a job as the situation at home with
 her father still unemployed, had become impossible. With the aid of the
 union she did find employment and in October, wise to industrial ways,
 appealed to the union for help to get the raise due to her after her first
 six months in the industry.*1
 The fathers of Elizabeth Anderson and Maria van Rensburg of First Avenue,
 George Town and Second Street, Germiston respectively, had no occupa-
 tions. The daughters' jobs as a machinist and factory worker respec-
 tively, probably were of great importance to their families' economic
 survival. Maria Bewick, Frederika de Kock and Doris Edwards' fathers were
 all retired men in Germiston, most probably dependent on their daughters
 wages, for Maria and Doris had not brothers and sisters over 21 living
 at home, although Frederika's sister, a shop assistant, most probably
 helped as well. Hester de Vet helped her brother, a laundry worker, to
 support their widowed mother and three brothers and sisters on a weekly
 wage of respectively 10/- and 30/- per week.62
 These women supported their families at considerable cost to themselves,
 for;
 " many young women who earn wages upon which they themselves
 could live in fairly good circumstances, actually live under very
 poor circumstances owing to the necessity of assisting ailing, un-
 employed or casually employed parents, or numerous younger brothers
 and sisters."S3
 Both Mrs. Pennells and Mrs. B. had to belp to support the family when
 their fathers, as prosperous farmers lost everything when they stood
 guarantee for a friend. Mrs. Pennells who felt that she had to contribute
 to the family income began working in Fordsburg tailoring factory in 1919.
 She felt that she wanted to work for all her peers seemed to be employed.
 "Ek wou graag gaan werk het mens voel ook jy wil gaan werk,
 ander werk, en hoekom kan jy ook nie." (I wanted to go and
 80
  Letter A. Cronje to Solly Sachs, received 2.6.1930, Bbc 16.1.
 ?
 x
  Correspondence A. Cronje and GWU, October 1930. Ibid.
 ?
 2
  JPL,' VR 1931, Germiston. Preliminary Statement of H de Wet to GWU
 Commission of Inquiry 1948, GWU, Bca S.
 11
  Investigation into housing conditions of female factory workers in
 Cormlston 13.4.1936, C. Division to Undersecretary. CAD VWN 468.
 16
work....one also feels you want to go and work, others work, and
 why not you too.)*"
 On arrival in Johannesburg Mrs. B.'s father found employment as a lift
 operator and his daughters found employment in a clothing and sweet fac-
 tory respectively to contribute to-the survival of the family. However,
 her father's job was 'maar *n hartseer saak1, vhilst both sisters felt
 it to be a humiliation to be employed in a factory. Their education had
 continued after st. 6 and as a result they soon moved into better
 jobs.*5
 Garment workers who migrated to the city without their families relied
 heavily on the help of kindly disposed kin for their survival in the urban
 environment. Mrs. Spangenberg and Mrs. Ae., al-hough they had migrated
 to the city alone, were fortunate to have kin to whom to come in
 Johannesburg. ' Not only were they accommodated but were they cared for
 by their relatives and family. Mr. and Mrs. Britten's path into the city
 were likewise smoothed by the presence of kin who encouraged them to come
 and put them up for a while.66
 On arrival in Johannesburg Mrs. and Mr. Voslco were put up by her
 husband's aged uncle and blind aunt, whom she looked after until their
 death years later. When more established, she and her husband in later
 years accommodated young relatives newly arrived in the city at no charge
 until they could find employment which would allow them independent
 lodgings.6 7
 It would therefore seem that a similar system of familial support existed
 here as Haraven found in industrial Manchester in the USA;
 "in a regime of insecurity where kin assistance was the only con-
 tinuing source of support, family culture by necessity dictated
 that family considerations, needs and ties guide and control most
 individual decisions. "6i
 Observers on the Witwatersrand indicated that a similar system of as-
 sistance seemed to have been extended to strangers as well. Recently
 urbanised Afrikaners, although they could hardly afford it, seemed to have
 been kindly disposed towards destitute fellow migrants. Ds. J.D. van
 Niekerk, of the NGK Langlaagte found in an investigation of the working
 64
  Interview 21.
 *
 8
  Interview 27.
 *' Interviews 1,2 & 26.
 *
 7
  Interview 33
 11
  T. Haravon, Family Timo and Industrial Time; Tne Relationship between
 Family and Work in a Now England Industrial Community. Cambridge
 University Press, CnmbcJ.dgo, 1932, p. 109.
 17
girls in Langlaagto and Industria that many were accommodated by .kindly
 pooplo who at 12/- per week,
 " dit onmoontlik kan bekostig om meisies teen daardie prys te
 huisves, maar doen dit uit jammerte."
 (could barely afford to accommodate girls at that price, but do it
 ? out of pity.)*'
 Indications are however, that this was more the exception than the norm
 and girls without families found themselves in equally as desperate a
 situation as families without girls.
 Housing conditions of single garment workers not accommodated by kin or
 friends were appalling.70
 The Boucher family, a mother and seven daughters who inhabited one room,
 serve as a good example. Their conditions were so severe that welfare
 officials remarked that the health of one of the daughters who was a
 cleaner in a clothing factory, would hardly improve whilst she had to
 sleep on the floor.71
 In overcrowded conditions especially in Fordsburg and Vrededorp in
 Johannesburg and George Town in Germiston, garment workers found accom-
 modation in very poor and crowded conditions.72
 Sometimes up to four garment workers shared single room and bed costing
 about a pound per month and used candle boxes as chairs. In addition the
 four girls had a bed, one cushion and two blankets to share and made their
 sheets and curtains of washed flour bags.73
 A 1926 Wage Board report confirmed this tale.
 "the only way many of the girls who had no parents or friends to
 assist them could exist was by boarding at places where by sleeping
 *' Letter ds. J.D. van Niekerk, to MP. Mr. A. Fourie, 5.2.1935. CAD,
 VWN 468.
 70
  Inspection Report by Mr G Wood acting Inspector G Wood 30/9/1932 SBA,
 INSP 1/1/320.
 71
  Report of Germiston Childrens Aid and Benevolent Society to Germiston
 . Magistrate; 24.1.1936, CAD VWN 679.
 72
  For a more detailed discussion of these suburbs see, E. Brink, 'Fac-
 tory Meido....' In 1932 the European population of Vrededorp was 7674,
 that of Fordsburg 4727 and Mayfair 5707. Ibid.
 71
  II Cornelius, 'DIG LOWQ van 'n Kl<*j;ciwoi:kst&r' , GW/KW, November 1936,
 18
3 in a bed and living on dry brend nnd black coffee, they could bo
 accommodated at 6/6 to 7/6 a week."7*
 V
 A docade later in 1936, an investigation done by Department of Labour
 officials, Miss. S.M. van den Berg and H.J.L. Verwoerd, into the housing
 and living conditions of young girls working in the clothing factories
 in Germiston revealed a similar situation.7*
 Many were living in 'iron and brick cottages, with no bathroom, crowded
 and lit by candle light1. The some 320 women who were investigated -
 the majority of whom originated from the country side - were found living
 in three distinct areas in and around Germiston. They congregated mostly
 in George Town, the slum area of Germiston, the better labourers' quarters
 of the town and in the surrounding more rural areas. The position in
 George Town seemed to be the worst.
 "The area (is a very congested one, and in almost every house, fac-
 tory girls can be found living either with parents or in
 lodgings".76
 The girls living in lodgings here paid 7/6 to 12/6 per week for their
 accommodation whilst those living in the serai-residen.ial area of the town
 west of President Street in the so-called 'better labourers' quarters',
 paid from 12/6 to 20/- per week. At this price the girls preferred to
 prepare their own food in their rooms because food they received was "te
 sleg' (too poor). Miss van den Berg explained;
 "When asked what 'te sleg' (too poor) really meant, they said *rice
 and potatoes."77
 Garment workers living on rice and potatoes under these appalling cir-
 cumstances had to fend for themselves on wages earned in industrial em-
 ployment. These girls living without families found themselves in a more
 uncertain and perilous position than girls who still resided with their
 families. Although the latter were also exposed to considerable poverty
 which necessitated no mean sacrifices in order to ensure the survival
 7
 * Wage Board Report into the Clothing Industry, 1926 as quoted in,
 'Garment Workers demand a living wage', nd. GWU Bch 1.
 75
  Information from CAD VWN 468, The report was cocpiled by Miss. S.M.
 van den Berg and H.J.L. Verwoerd. Hansi Pollak whose thesis on white
 women in Witwatersrand industries had been completed some years pre-
 viously assisted in the investigation. See also E. Brink, Virtue is
 a Grace, seminar given at the ASSA Conference, Cape Town, July 1985.
 78
  Rand Daily Mail, Germiston factory girls 22.4.1936, CAD VWN
 468!
 7 7
  Ibid. Sho also maintained that on such a poor diet the girls often
 lacked tho energy to partake in any physical outdoor recreation and
 activity.
 19
of thoir families, their existence was more secure. Girls without fami-
 lies however, would sometimes be forced to resort to other alternatives
 to escape their destitution and poverty.
 20
Prostitution - From Frenchfonttiln to thn Gamo Reserve
 The wa^es of the garment workers wore low, especially in the first and
 second year of employment, starting on some 17-20s per week. Board and
 lodging was expensive, ranging from 12-15s. per week for the cheapest but
 worst accommodation.71 "I have no people here and and have to pay board-
 ing", wrote Miss G. Green who boarded with a Mrs. Van Onselen in Mayfair
 in an appeal to the WTA after she had been unemployed for three weeks.
 Such intense poverty forced these girls to restort to socially unaccept-
 able means of supplementing their meagre wages. Johanna Cornelius de-
 scribed their plight having been on slack for several days per week.
 "Honger het ons gedryf om te daen wat ons nooit tevore gedoen het
 nie, naamlik steel. Ons gaan al vier in 'n winkel, die een koop
 iets vir 'n paar pennies en die ander neem hulle kans waar".
 (Hunger drove us to do what we never did before, that is to steal.
 We would all four go into a shop, the one buys something for a few
 pence and the other three benefit from the opportunity.)79
 These four girls in order 'om nie te versleg1 (not to be corrupted),
 eventually gave up their independence to find accommodation with families
 who allowed themselves to to house work in return for their lodgings.
 Hester Cornelius1 account hints at another publicly frowned upon way of
 making ends meet. A garment worker who had taken in two young girls as
 lodgers, was more explicit when responding to Hansi Pollak in 1931;
 "What are they to do if someone does not take them in cheaply? They
 will only go wrong and go through the same as I have had to do (i.e.
 an illegitimate child)",80
 'Going wrong1 was a very real alternative for destitute garment workers
 with no friends or relatives in the urban areas. Both the garment workers
 and the union realised the dangers. As early as 1920, albeit for propa-
 ganda purposes, Witwatersrand Tailors Association (WTA), forerunner of
 the GWU, declared:
 "We ask you to imagine your sisters in this struggle. We ask you
 to declare that the conditions of labour on the Rand for young girls
 shall be such as to safeguard them from the terrors of
 prostitution." (their italics)11
 71
  Carnegie Commission, op cit, Vol.1, p.221 (A), see also Report S.M.
 v.d. Berg, Ibid.
 71 J. Cornelius, 'Die Lewe van 'n Klerewerkster.' GW/KW, November 1936.
 i0
  H Pollak, op cit, Addendum p.58. 'Case histories illustrating the
 living and homo conditions in the form of investigators notes.1
 gl
  Pamphlet; Witwatorsrand Tailors Association (hereafter WTA) 'The
 Tailors' SLriko', 24.1.1.920, CWU Aab 1.157.
 21
In 1929 Mr. H. Lee, then president of the GWTJ saw the women as the cha
 of tho union, for they ' who would bo walking about the streets if not
 for the union.'12 The GVU at least, was aware of the danger of garment
 workers going onto the streets;
 "....such wage? lead to girls employed in tailoring being driven,
 in many instances on to the streets to become prostitutes to the
 deterioration of their health as they are not paid enough to provide
 even the most elementary necessities of life for themselves and in
 many cases their dependants."11
 The forms and incidence of prostitution among white women and more
 significantly among white Afrikaner women migrants to the city, is dif-
 ficult to assess. Observers, politicians and historians alike seemed to
 have preferred to draw a discrete veil over this discomforting subject
 which has been occassionally condemned but never explored. Says Stals;
 "Die verskynsel dat jong meisies, wat los van hulle ouerhuis in die
 s tad kom werk het en met armoede en swak werks - en
 verblyfsomstandighede moes worstel, ia onsedelikheid verval het,
 was vir die morele gewete van die Afrikaner, soos uitgedruk deur
 kerkorganisasies, politici en ander leiersfigure sorgwekkend en .
 onaanvaarbaar."
 (The phenomenon that young girls, who had to come to work in the
 . . city divorced from their parents' home and had to struggle with
 [ poverty and poor working and living conditions, fell into
 immorality, was for the moral consciousness of the Afrikaner as
 expressed by church organisations, politicians and other leading
 figures, a matter of concern as well as unacceptable.)81*
 Van Onselen is one of the few who have attempted to lift the topic from
 its bed of obscurity. As he shows, ever since the early days prostitution
 was endemic to Johannesburg. Prior to the First World War the main body
 of prostitutes was composed of women who had migrated from Europe and
 America to Johannesburg in the wake of the gold rush and established
 themselves in what was then called 'Frenchfontein' in the centre of the
 city. After the War they were gradually replaced by young Afrikaner
 women originally from the local country side, who plied their trade in
 an area known during the thirties as the 'Game Reseve', which it was
 maintained 'on certain nights literally swarms with men who are looking
 for women1.*5 This change from foreign to local women is neatly
 encapsulated in the change in the name of the red light district of
 *
 2
  Minutes, GWU meeting CEC, 22.7.1929. GVU, Aaa 1.
 1 1
  Sweating Conditions in the Tailoring Industry, 6.8.1929., GWU, Aab
 1.24.
 ? 4 E.J.P. Stals, op cit, vol II, p.31.
 11
  V.P. Steyn, Senior Probation Officer, Prostitution and Houses of 111
 Fame in Johannesburg, 1939?. CAD, W N 2017. (The 'Game Reserve*
 presumably was situated in tho vicinity of Gold and Troy Streets in
 tho city cuudru.)
 22
Johannesburg. The name 'Frenchfontein' , had a cosmopolitan ring which
 denoted the international origins of tho mon and women who made up this
 profession. By contrast the name Game Reserve1, had connotations as An
 environment in which one had the liberty to hunt a protected species.
 However, even. Van Onselen Is unable to shed much light on the female
 practitioners of this profession. ? During the 1910's one is fleetingly
 made aware of the existence of girls such as Maggie van Niekerk 'Tricksy
 Beukes and the Potgieter sisters, some of the first local Afrikaner woman
 to become prostitutes in Johannesburg residing in Fordsburg and
 Vrededorp, but for the rest Van Onselen mainly concentrates rather on the
 male organisers operating in Frenchfontein.*6 These young women, Van
 Onselen maintains, were propelled into prostitution by their employment
 in menial jobs which; -
 " had the disadvantage of pushing young women into the company
 of older and more experienced male labourers. This contact in the
 work place' in turn gave rise to a certain degree of promiscuous
 behaviour and casual prostitution which in the hardest years of the
 depression more readily gave way to a full-time career in vice.'"7
 While these circumstances were clearly factors in promoting prostitution,
 a range of other circumstances needs to be taken into account in order
 to get a full picture of the background to prostititution. Studies of
 prostitution elsewhere in America and Britain found that;
 ' "For young farm women who came to these towns, their isolation, low
 pay and vulnerability to unemployment easily led to
 prostitution."*'
 In South Africa similar factors which pushed young females into
 prostitution can be identified. Let us first turn to these. To begin
 with the seduction of the city in its guises seemed to have been consid-
 ered the downfall of some young girls. Miss van den Berg, investigator
 for the Department of Labour, alluded to the spectre of prostitution and
 the 'blink-bedrog van die stad*;
 "Moreover, the crowded and sordid conditions of the environment to
 which they return, combined with the craving of a number of girls
 for new and excitable experience, tend to make these girls
 suggestible to any type of diversion which offers.11'9
 i6
  Undated letter, W. Cartlidge to Commissioner of Police, CAD, SAP 53.
 C. Van Onselen, New Babylon, New Nineveh, Studies in the Social and
 Economic History of the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914. Ravan, Johannesburg
 1982. vol.1, p.146.
 t7
  Ibid, p. 146.
 " M. Vicinus, A Widening Sphere, Changing Roles of Victorian Women,
 Mcthucn & Co. Ltd, London, 1977. Introduction, p. xv.
 11
  Rand Daily Mail, Germiston Girls live on Rica and Potatoes, 22.4.1935,
 CAD, VWN 468.
 23
Ds. Van Nlckcrk was equally awnro of: tho vulnerability of theso girls;
 ".v-die meisies buitendien aan allerlei versoekinge blootgestol
 word om hulle inkomste te vermeerder."
 (the girls, in,any event were subjected to all kinds of temptations
 to increase their income.)"0
 A garment worker living in a rented room at two pounds per month without
 any help highlighted these issues during an interview with Hansi Pollak
 in 1930;
 "I don't blame the girls who go on the street. Life's too hard.
 Many a night I've gone to bed hungry and cried my heart out, because
 I wanted a new pair of stockings or wanted to go to the
 bioscope."9l
 The garment' workers were not only socially but economically vulnerable
 as well. On their meagre wages they could hardly keep body and soul to-
 gether and when they were unemployed and had no one to turn to they had
 to resort to socially unacceptable ways of keeping alive. In addition,
 at times their growing dependence on wages and its accompanying rise in
 living standards and expectations would also serve to propel them into
 prostitution.
 Finally, as Stals has argued, the disintegration of family life in the
 city also played a part. As he suggests;
 "Daarby was gesinsverbrokkeling in Johannesburg ook aan die eenkant
 die gevolg van ouers wat aan mekaar ontrou geword het en aan die
 ander kant weer die oorsaak dat daar sedelike verval by die kinders
 ingetree het."
 (The disintegration of the family in Johannesburg was on the one
 hand the result of the infidelity of the parents and on the other
 the cause of the moral decline which manifested itself in the
 children.)92
 Although stoutly condemned, the presence and practice of prostitution in
 Johannesburg during the twenties and thirties was not thoroughly inves-
 tigated or researched.93 Information on prostitution during this period
 therefore is sparse. The situation is remedied to some degree by a
 lenghthy report written towards the end of the thirties by a Johannesburg
 80
  Letter van Niekerk to A. Fourie, Ibid.
 ?
 l
  H Pollak, op cit, p.59.
 t 2 E.J.P. Stals, op cit, vol II, p.32.
 15
  Frood's sociological investigation of the problem published in 1949
 does however shod some light on tho problem during the late forties.
 Cf. L. Krood, The Problem of European Prostitution in Johannesburg,
 JuLaa, C/jpo Town, 1949.
 24
probation officer Mr. V.P. Stuyn, on 'Prostitution and Houses of Ill-
 in Johannesburg.'**
 v
 The total number of prostitutes in Johannesburg during the 1930's is
 difficult to estimate, but according to Steyn's calculations, an average
 of some 90 prostitutes were arrested for soliciting per year, totalling
 557 women from 1932 to 1937.iB It was estimated by the police that at the
 time of Steyn's investigation some 300 to 400 prostitutes were operating
 on the streets, to him a relatively small number given the history of
 Johannesburg as a mining camp.'* In this report he identified four kinds
 of prostitutes. Besides the part-time and full-time prostitutes he also
 identified the mistress and 'fille de joie' or woman of easy virtue. The
 latter he maintained was not 'adverse to spending a weekend with a man
 if he had a car and can provide the- necessary entertainment1. These girls
 usually had the reputation of being very good company and having the habit
 of borrowing money but not repaying it after having 'granted
 intimacy1.97 Some garment workers fell into this category because they
 were forced to take a 'gentleman friend' for as one maintained;
 "its better being with one man .th an. be ing dependent on many", one
 garment worker admitted.98
 Steyn found that some 65% of all prostitutes operating in Johannesburg
 were part time prostitutes. They were mainly 'fille de joie' who Jiad
 drifted into prostitution as well as girls who due to a sudden economic
 crisis had resorted to prostitution to survive. Having later found em-
 ployment again they did not give up this source of additional income.
 Steyn was of the opinion that;
 " actually these girls gradually adopt a mode of living that
 demands greater expenditure than they can afford and that the
 temptation of securing additional income in this way is too great
 for them to withstand, especially when one considers the general
 moral tone of the environment in which they live.*59
 Peggy Sachs* reservations against factory work echoed this point. Ac-
 cording to Steyn she 'states she will have to resort to the other life
 9U
  V.P. Steyn, Prostitution Ibid. (This box dealt mainly with
 general welfare correspondence.) Much more investigation into this
 topic is needed though.
 95
  V.P. Steyn, op cit, p.9.
 96
  Ibid. Between January 1932 and June 1938 557 women had been arrested
 for soliciting.
 I 7 Ibid, p.5.
 *' H Pallak, op cit, p.210. Pollak observed that when they could not
 find accommodation they could afford or lodgings with friends or
 relatives, somo garment workers were therefore forced _ into
 immorality. Pollak's emphasis. Ibid, p.189.
 t9 V.P. Stoyn, Prostitution Ibid.
 25
to provide properly for hersolf*. So too, did Dora Pretorius (25) ori-
 ginally from Lichtenburg who, when sho was repeatedly visited by thfc
 probation officer eventually told him 'to go to hell as she would please
 herself.1 He observed, alluding to the observations made above;
 "I fear she took to this life because she was nut prepared to live
 on the small wage earned in a factory. " i l 8
 Steyn also found married women in the category of part timers who resorted
 to prostitution 'as a result of sudden emergency consequent upon illness,
 unemployment of the breadwinner or some similar cause'. Mrs. Catherine.
 Higgens (29), a mother of 3 children serves as an example of married women
 resorting to prostitution as well. As a factory worker she had the rep-
 utation of a fast and excellent worker, but when her husband was unem-
 ployed resorted to prostitution. She had supported her family on her
 her factory wages, but when she too lost her job, she went on the street
 again.101 In Gerraiston, a Mrs. Nieuwenhuizen of President Street, proba-
 bly into part1time prostitution as well, seemed to have done better with
 her 'immoral life1. She was unemployed in receipt of a five pound grant
 for her children per month and paid four pounds per month the two rooms
 she rented. Although her husband was midway through a 6 year prison
 sentence and she had only a pound a month to live on, she was in possession
 of a new bicycle, a kitchen dresser and a 'fairly extensive wardrobe' a
 social worker observed.102
 As van Onselen remarked, part-time prostitutes were often forced by
 economic circumstances and the adoption of a standard of living which
 demanded every increasing expenditures to solicit men. Freed also found
 in his study of prostitution in Johannesburg that the majority of
 prostitutes he investigated, had originally been employed in clothing,
 chemical, box and trunk factories, tearooms and milk bars.103
 Women who first took up prostitution as part-timers, would eventually
 drift into full-time prostitution. They were usually very poorly edu-
 cated, in many cases originally from rural families, aged from 14-60 and
 not interested in steady employment, but took up casual work in cafes or
 for example, worked as caterers as the dog races. Peggy Sachs again
 serves as a good example. Besides protesting against low factory wages,
 she also had a crippled foot which prevented her from standing as long
 as required in a factory. Winnie Henny (42), who was a full-time
 prostitute was also too old to take up other employment and in addition
 her appearance militated against her entering domestic service. By con-
 trast Joey Cloete (22), a 'very well-known prostitute' was excluded from
 socially acceptable work in a tearoom or similar occupation where she
 100
  Ibid.
 1 0 1
  V.P. Steyn, Prostitution Ibid.
 1 0 2
  Senior Probation Officer to Germiston Magistrate, 5.10.1936, CAD, VWN
 679
 10>
  L. Freed, The Problem of European Prostitution p. 179-180 and
 195.
 26
would bo able to earn enough to maintain hoc standard of living, because
 she was too well-known in her profession as a prostitute.10"
 Garment workers were acqutely aware of how close to the brink of
 prostitution poverty could bring them. So was their community. Thelma
 Collins was 'a gpod type of girl1 serves as an example. She tried to
 survive on her factory wage, but could only do so by living in Gold
 Street, 'a part of town where many prostitutes live'.185 She was contin-
 ually pestered by men, as was Johanna Cornelius, national organiser of
 the GVU when she lived on Troy Street and had to return home late at night
 after attending union meetings.10*
 The very precariousness of their situation made garment workers extremely-
 sensitive to the supposed slur onrtheir 'decency' and 'respectibility*.
 Thus they saw government notices put up in factories detailing the bene-
 fits for unmarried mothers under the law as a reflection on this
 respectibility and regularly tore down such notices from the walls in the
 factory;
 "Does the government think we're the class of girls who get ille-
 gitimate children? It's a disgrace to put up such a notice when
 only decent girls are employed."107
 The garment workers were 'decent' girls, who did honourable work of which
 they were proud and which helped to reduce the poverty in their homes.
 It would seem that they were seen as being not 'decent' in many cases only
 by virtue of their employment in factories. Pollert similarly found in
 a study of British factory girls that;
 "Sexually the label 'factory girl1 did not give them as high a price
 in men's eyes and they forced themselves to accept that they were
 at the bottom of the labour market both in class and in sexual
 terms."101
 Given the prospect of no being seen as 'decent' by virtue of their oc-
 cupation, the garment workers strove to underline their decency and re-
 spectability in all respects. A main theme during the strikes was
 accusations on behalf of the community that the factory girls were not
 1011
  Ibid, It would seem that waitressing and prostitution at times went
 hand in hand. "Unless there is a state aided hostel for such girls
 they have to look to undesirable methods of augmenting their incomes
 in order to be able to live." Memo, Training at Housecraft Schools,
 22.10.1937, CAD, UOD 92.
 1 0 8
  V.P. Steyn, Prostitution CAD VWN 2017.
 l 0 S
  Interview 35 , Anna Scheepers.
 I 0 7 H. Pollak, op cit, p.181.
 1 O i
  A. Pollert, Girls, Wives, Factory Livos, Macmillan Press, London,
 1981, p.99.
 27
decent solely by virtue of their striking.l0' The garment workers wove
 aware of the fact that thoy wore seen as not decent and respectable. As
 Sophiq Meyer maintained;
 "in die fabrieke is net soveel ordentlike meisies en vrouens as in
 enige ander plek en die man wat n fabriekwerkster kry vir 'n vrou
 kan trots wees daarop, want dan het hy 'n maat gekry wat verstaan
 ' wat dit is om skouer aan die wiel te sit en deur dik en dun saam
 met horn in die lewe deur te gaan."
 (In the factories there are Just as many decent girls and women as
 in any other place and the man who finds a factory worker as his
 wife can be proud, because then he has found a friend who can un-
 derstand what it is to put the shoulder to the wheel and to go with
 him through thick and thin in life.)110
 Addressing a meeting in Belgravia concerning the erection of a hostel for
 young working girls, Johanna Cornelius elaborated;
 "Tussen ons fabrieksmeisies is daar baie ordeatlike en edele
 dogters en ons staan nie agteruit vir julle nie. Ons is gewillig
 om ons werk te doen, maar ons eis om met respek behandel te word."
 (Amongst us factory girls are many decent and noble daughters and
 we do not stand back for you. We are willing to do out work, but
 we damand to be treated with respect.)111
 Sophie and Johanna's defense of the garment workers as workers labouring
 in honourable employment illustrates the measure in which the GWU sought
 to and succeeded in elevating the working class consciousness of these
 women. They were not doing work not befitting their social station,
 as suggested by Afrikaner nationalists, but they could take pride in the
 position they had acquired in the social structure of their community.
 Yet the ambiguity and unease with which they viewed their situation is
 suggested also by Johanna Cornelius1 hint at the lack of respectibility
 of two Erasmus girls who had joined forces with the nationalists against
 the union.
 "These two girls do not look very respectable, their appearance is
 that of street girls."112
 Poverty therefore propelled a minority of garment workers into socially
 unacceptable ways of earning a living of which prostitution was the most
 significant and the most frowned upon. Over time Frenchfontein became
 the 'Game Reserve1 when, after the First World War Afrikaner girls"re-
 10 9 E. Brink, Factory Meide....
 1 1 0
  S. Meyer, Ope Brief aan MP van die New York Klerefabriek, in GW/KV,
 October 1939, p. 9.
 111
  Ons eie Korrespondent, Rykes van Belgravia weier om in die omgewing
 van fabrieksmoisios to woon, in GW/KW, June 1939, p. 9.
 112
  Letter, J. Cornolius to S. Sachs, 7.3.1939, GVU, Ecc 1.10.
 28
placed their foreign counterparts as the locnl consituerns of the pro-
 fession Here women who wore not mistresses or ' filler* de joie', operated
 as part-time or full-time prostitutes, much to the horror and censure of
 Afrikaner clergy and politicians and community leaders. Jbwever, in this
 condemnation often the women who made up the profession ?ere as well as
 their motivations for doing so were lost sight of, an ?enmi3sion which has
 now hopefully"be*en partially rectified.
 Conclusion
 This paper has tried to determine the extent to which the poverty expe-
 rienced by garment workers on the Witwatersrand during the inter war years
 had shaped their lives and experience. It was attempted to show how these
 women firstly as mothers, especially with young dependent children, had
 difficulties.in providing for their families when their iusbands could
 not earn enough to support the family. Secondly, the contribution of the
 garment workers as daughters within the economic structure of the family
 once they attained a wage earning age, was analysed. The plight of single
 garment workers lodging with strangers in the city was looked at to see
 how they strove to combat the poverty they experienced. Finally,
 prostitution a threat which confronted a minority of ganrent workers in
 Johannesburg during the thirties was examined to ascertain its causes,
 extent amongst and influence on the lives of the garment eorkers.
 This poverty and the ways in which the garment workers coped with it
 had a profound effect not only at home but at work as veil. At home it
 contributed to a change in the roles of various members of the family,
 the father as previous head of the family having to relinquish some of
 his authority. The children, especially the daughters, gair^d in stature,
 independence and importance as major breadwinners in the f-mily. In the
 work place a shared experience of poverty nurtured a a feeling of soli-
 darity and conscience amongst the women themselves. Their experiences,
 especially during the strikes in the clothing industry which took place
 during the Depression, contributed to the nascence of * consciousness of
 themselves not only as workers, but as women workers vao could work and
 agitate to the benefit of one another. As Johanna Cornelius succinctly
 explained;
 "What can we Afrikaner women do to better conditions en the land
 by remaining there? Nothing! In the towns we can help our fellow
 . women workers who stream into the factories for a better life."113
 115
  J. Cornelius, Why I Loft my Home on the Land Lo c\ze m d work in a
 factory, 1938. GWU, Bch 1. '
 29
Table 1.
 Average, Annual Wages in the Manufacturing Industry on
 Witwatersrand, 1920-1945
 Industry
 agric.produce
 stone,clay,etc
 Wood work
 metal engineering
 food & drink
 clothing
 books & printing
 vehicles & parts
 furniture
 chemical & drugs
 surgical,scient.
 heat,1ight,power
 leather
 building,contract
 other
 mining
 '19/20
 265
 279
 Ilk
 357
 273
 161
 244
 249
 235
 284
 216
 285
 161
 309
 406
 485
 '24/25
 309
 301
 282
 304
 256
 145
 279
 206 T
 183
 281
 234
 363
 127. , .
 292
 235
 375
 '29/30
 300
 310
 311
 322
 236
 132
 313
 223
 209
 267
 216
 387
 yi%
 311
 237
 375
 '34/35
 210
 266
 314
 317
 209
 112
 .295
 in
 222
 275
 247
 371
 117
 289
 257
 385
 '37/38
 196
 267
 321
 311
 182
 117
 299
 246
 251
 216
 306
 311
 142.
 310
 246
 407*
 1 1
 f44/45l
 411 |
 375 |
 392 |
 405 j
 318 |
 236 ? |
 366 |
 367 |
 377 |
 345 |
 381 |
 433 |
 288 |
 414 |
 303 |
 431
 J
 Source; Industrial Census 1920-45 for average annual vagzs of
 facturing industry. Mining: Official Yearbook of the ITnion
 Africa, no 24, 1948.
 *-for the year 1938/39.
 the.manu-
 of South