UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND
 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 at Seminar in RW 319 at
 4,00 p.m. on Monday April 28, 1986.
 SOCIAL ORIGINS AND THE ROLE OF KINSHIP IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF WHITE
 WOMEN WORKERS AT THE ZEBEDIELA CITRUS ESTATE, 1926-195?
 by Andrea van Niekerk
 Social and economic developments in the larger society, eco-
 nomic constraints, and changes in industrial organization
 affect the family's ability to respond to labour markets,
 organize migration, and influence work processes. In turn,
 internal changes within the family, as well as the family's
 priorities, which are dictated by its needs and cultural
 traditions, affect labor supply, motivation for work, and
 social relations in the production process.
 According to this argument of American historian T. Hareven, it is
 clear that for an understanding of the adaption of white women workers
 on the Zebediela Estate, one has to consider the social mileau, the
 material and personal imperative of these workers. This essay has to
 remain fairly tentative though, because of the limits imposed by scant
 references in the company's documents, and by the small size of the
 survey done. Conclusions are inevitably based on the experiences of
 the majority of these women, i.e. those who came from the Northern
 Transvaal.
 Zebediela Estate is particularly fascinating because of the way it
 brings together a rural-agricultural and an industrial world, with
 both influencing, and even shaping the other. What follows, is there-
 fore incomplete in a way, since it represents only one half of this
 equation. So one has to keep the 'other half, the industrial sphere
 of Zebediela, constantly in mind, to retain a sense of the dynamic
 two-way interaction between the countryside and the factory.
 In geographical terms, the majority of the white women who worked
 at Zebediela, came from the Northern Transvaal, as one would expect.
 In fact, of a group of 36 women, only nine did not come from that part
 of the country. Others came from the rest of the Transvaal, the
 Orange Free State (OFS) and as far afield as Mosselbay. The Department
 of Labour sent two packers from Vryburg, (2) and an application from
 Durban, although citrus packing was also done in the eastern Cape, and
 at Muiden in Natal.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 The majority of women migrating from the Orange Free State, appear
 to have come from the northern part of the province, places like
 Frankfort, Parys and Sasolburg. From the nearby Western Transvaal,
 women arrived from Makwassie, Schweizer-Reneke and Wolmaransstadt (al-
 though another packing operation was situated at Rustenburg). It is
 interesting to note how Lichtenburg women were often perceived as ex-
 ceptionally poor by their fellow-workers. Cities like Johannesburg and
 Pretoria were not included. In 1948, the Armesorgraad of the N.G.K,
 applied for vacancies at Zebediela for a number of jWOmen. A married
 English speaker applied from Mayfair, Johannesburg. Others came from
 the eastern and south-eastern parts of Transvaal, in particular the
 area around Middelburg-Delagersdrift. They were indeed "of all sorts
 and places".
 The greatest number of women, had at leat one thing in common: they
 were the daughters of Afrikaans-speaking farmers. Of a group of 33
 women for whom the occupation of their father or relative with whom
 they were living is known, all but three came from farming households.
 The fathers of the three exceptions were a miner, a transport driver,
 and an unemployed cripple. They were all members of large families,
 and often related their faimily history to events like the Rebellion,
 concentration camps, or figure in history, like Jan Smuts, and even
 the Voortrekkers. Women spoke with pride about their parents 'taming'
 the Bushveld. This group of 'pioneers' of the Northern Transvaal,
 figured prominently in the reports of the Carnegie Commission.
 The Northern Transvaal was largely an area of mixed (especially
 tobacco, potatoes and mealies) and cattle farming. It is therefore on
 these, and cattle farming in particular, that one needs to concen-
 trate, when seeking to establish the link between the condition of
 agriculture and young white women seeking employment in the period
 between the two world wars. Two questions need to be raised: one need
 to ask why these women were looking for work, and then why did they
 take jobs at Zebediela specifically.
 An Estate memo of 1930, attributed the inefficiency of white women
 as packers, to the fact that they were not dependent on their earnings
 as seasonal workers. This was true only in exceptional cases. App-
 lication was made by a divorced nurse who claimed that she owned prop-
 erties, did not need money, but wanted the experience. Interviewers
 believed that some women went to work at Zebediela for the adventure,
 the desire to get out of their comfortable houses, the experience, and
 even for romance amongst the orange blossoms.
 But these women were the minority, and others could in retrospect
 hardly believe that they existed. According to Mrs Heystek, a packer,
 everybody that worked there was poor, because one who had
 something, would not have stayed there.
 Talking about women who complained about their wages, Mrs Smith,
 who worked as a fruit examiner, said,
 I could never understand how they could pretend to be rich
 people, but ... it was as if it was only the poor people who
 worked there, that needed the money.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 Another packer, Mrs du Preez, admitted that they divided everybody
 into two groups, the 'elite1, and the 'proppe', who were obviously
 less well-off. However, even the 'elite* needed the work:
 or else they would not have gone (to work there), because it
 was hard work.
 The Estate management reported that many women arrived undernour-
 ished at the beginning of the season, but left at the end, in a better
 condition.
 The position of South African agriculture by the 1920s, has already
 been too well sketched for it to need any repetition here. According
 to the Carnegie Commission, the problems suffered by agriculture
 ranged from natural disasters {especially drought and locusts), to the
 devastation of the Boer War, industrialisation and the capitalisation
 of agriculture. The Commission found that although the Cape had the
 largest number of poor whites, the rural areas of the Transvaal ex-
 perienced the most rapid rate of impoverishment. It is instructive
 that J.G. Strijdom, who declared that capitalism in agriculture should
 be fought, found support especially amongst the tobacco and stock
 farmers of the Northern Transvaal.
 Already in 1897 a migration of poor people was taking place, from
 the older districts to areas in the north like the Waterberg. As a
 result, the white population nf the Northern Transvaal showed an
 extremely rapid rate of growth:
 Northern Transvaal (Waterberg, Potgietersrust, Pieters-
 burg, Zoutpansberg, Letaba).
 Date European Population
 1911
 1918
 1921
 1926
 1931
 16 593
 22 252
 28 410
 36 815
 40 697
 Increase 1911 - 1931 145%
 The Commission believed that these migrants to the North consisted of
 people who were in the first place unable to cope with what it called
 'the demands of the increased competition'.
 Great social and economic upheavals followed the discovery
 of minerals. All these things together was the reason why a
 large part of the old Transvaal population could not adapt
 to the changed conditions, and stayed behind in the economic
 race.
 The marked attention that the Commission gave the Northern Trans-
 vaal, indicated that even in the impoverished countryside this area
 was regarded as a particular problem.
 Although the 1920s did see the beginning of real agricultural
 development in the north, this development must be seen in context.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 Groundnuts, which was part of an increased diversification, really
 took-off as a result of the Second World War, which led to guaranteed
 prices. Tobacco prices were fairly profitable, but with it came the
 threat of over-production. This crop remained one that was essentially
 produced with family labour. Citrus production remained constant,
 while vegetables also came into its own right after the Second World
 War. Cattle farming saw a rapid increase in productivity and efficien-
 cy, which was part of the growing capitalisation of agriculture in the
 region that took place during the period under discussion.
 But the picture presented by cattle farming, was not just rosy. It
 also contained a warning. The agro-economic survey conducted by the
 Division of Economics and Marketing, found that farms were divided
 into too many small units. As a result, the income of the average
 farmer was small:
 It was found that only the big cattle farmers and farmers
 who speculated a great deal, make a good living in this
 area. In contrast, the small cattle farmer, with his un-
 economic unit cannot, especially in time of low prices main-
 tain a reasonable standard of living.
 The crux of the problem was that few of_ Zebediela's white women
 came from such relatively big farms, where an adequate living could be
 made from cattle farming. A woman who grew up on Witfontein south of
 Ellisras, stated that:
 22there were no big farmers around here as there are today.
 Another put it more bluntly:
 everybody was poor - there wasn't really anybody that was
 ahead.
 The Depression produced great problems for white farmers, "years of
 desperate struggle for economic survival against the seemingly merci-
 less attempts of both the market and nature to drive farmers off their
 land". The older sister of an interviewee agreed that things were
 so bad, that it would have been very useful if she was able to find a
 job. But,
 there was no work. It was a time of poverty. That was in
 1930 and thereafter was the Depression. It was a very diff-
 icult time.
 The Great Depression was followed by a drought in 1933. These two
 events had a disastrous effect on prices, especially after 1930, which
 not even the Pact government's price stabilisation measures could
 counteract.
 Only two women said that their fathers were bywoners. Although
 this is a very tentative suggestion, it would appear as if the majori-
 ty of women interviewed, came from families who owned the land on
 which they farmed. However, keeping in mind the downward curve of
 agricultural prices at the time, it comes as no surprise that the
 ownership of land did nothing to safeguard one against a crucial lack
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 of cash income. (See Appendix 111) The daughter of a sheep farmer
 recalled that during the Depression, her father sold a sheep for
 5/-. Another remembered selling her cow for ?5, and using the money
 to buy two calves for ?2 each, and a pair of ?1 shoes.
 Months jiassed in which you did not see how a sixpence
 looked.
 Even where they had adequate food, and
 we had our own place, we had enough water and all, but I
 don't know, money makes money.
 For others, the problem was acute to the point of not being able to
 buy the necessary foodstuffs:
 In those years my mother was a widow, and she struggled to
 go on ... Then she, my brother and I bought a few groceries
 from that income, and we just went on.
 In some instances, this cash problem was solved by bartering:
 You take two, three dozen eggs and a chicken under the arm,
 then you go to the shop to barter. ?Then you buy sugar for a
 sixpence, a candle and coffee and such things . . . You
 suffered from hunger in the house, even in the countryside.
 Everything you had, you had to .get from the land, because
 there was no money to buy with.
 But of course there were things that could not be bartered for, and
 this included railway tickets with which to get to Zebediela. These
 women then had to borrow money to get there in the hope of finding
 employment. Even occasionally available, especially as orange
 packers:
 They could not^make a living on their farms, so they came to
 pack oranges.
 To sum up, the dilemma of most Northern Transval cattle farmers was
 in the fact that they were poor, did not own big land, and often did
 not have large numbers of stock. This was compounded by agricultural
 prices after the Depression, which created a need for these families
 to earn cash money. For others, like bywoners and inhabitants of
 settlement, these problems were magnified. Bywoners, for instance, had
 to cope with a constant threat of insecurity as well:
 Often, while you are a tenant, the farmers only wait until
 the crop is on the land, and most of the work has been done,
 then they find something (fault) ... you had no contract.
 In addition, another of the findings of the Carnegie Commission was
 that, with reference to white urban migration, that,
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 the European farm population itself, both the rich and the
 poor, adjusted their demands to a higher standard of living
 with amazing rapidity.
 This is particularly relevant in the light of the expressed motiva-
 tion of young women to seek work:
 They (the parents) saw that they could not give the daugh-
 ters what they needed. And if 4^ hey worked for themselves,
 they could buy what they needed.
 Under these circumstances, members of rural families were 'only too
 grateful to get a job1, and their attitude to places like Zebediela,
 that was 'a way out for more than one', became one of great grati-
 tude.
 The position of agriculture, falling prices and growing capital-
 isation, were more than enough reason for members of rural families to
 seek outside employment. Fathers and brothers got temporary work on
 the roads, or on relief work like the dam schemes like the Loskop
 scheme. But, as Bozzoli pointed out,
 there is no logic in the fact of proletarianisation which
 determine that men should be first off the land.
 More often in these families, it was the daughters that left the
 farm, migrating to Zebediela, and in later years in increasing numbers
 to the cities. This raises the next question, since if a white rural
 family was in need of a cash income, why were the daughters more like-
 ly to leave, in contrast with rural black families.
 The answer seems to lie in the way that young white women formed an
 untapped supply of labour. This was not a phenomenon! exculsive to
 South Africa. It has been argued in another context that,
 the fact that European labour forces consisted primarily of
 young, singel women ... is itself an indication of the per-
 sistence of familial values. Daughters were expendable in
 rural and urban households, certainly more expendable than
 their mothers, and, depending on the work of the family,
 their brothers. When work had to be done away from home and
 when its duration was uncertain, the famiLy interest was
 best served by sending forth its daughters.
 For this reason,
 unmarried women provided the most readily available manu-
 facturing labour force because they could be easily freed
 from agricultural activities without disrupting the ongoing
 organisation of the family farm.
 In the typical white rural family, the unmarried daughters seldom
 had pivotal importance in the work of the family. In his Psychological
 Report for the Carnegie Commission, Wilcocks stated that of 24 daugh-
 ters in a group of 19 poor families, eight were married, and 14 were
 'helping mother in the house.' Women presented a recurring image of
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 the stillness and boredom of farm life. When these young women worked
 during the season at Zebediela, their mothers did the housework, and
 during the break between seasons
 then we did all the housework, cleaned the floors, washed
 the washing and all those sorts of things.
 So they could be taken out of the household, and returned, without
 serious disruptions. Another believed that her parents allowed her to
 work, because they knew 'it is on the farm, very lonely and boring'.
 My brother and I were still in the house, and it was very
 quiet. He helped on the farm.
 It may be that one can apply the same argument to these women that
 Hareven found to be true for rural migrants to an industrial milltown:
 Most of these people preferred the industrial city to the
 'lost1, mythical rural community which, today, is often
 idealized for its harmonious and wholesome way of life.
 'Rather', many were driven into the -factory system by the
 deprivation and tedium of farm life.
 The picture whereby young, unmarried, expendable labour on the
 farm, seeked employment when presented by a combination of material
 need and opportunity, is slightly complicated by the presence of a
 minority of married women. But actually, the same argument holds true
 for them as well. Keyter wrote a treatise on marriage and the family
 in 1940, and argued that,
 stripped of all significant productive activities the home
 has become so empty that the woman has also started her exo-
 dus from the home.
 What this means, is that the same spread of commodity exchange that
 created the need for rural families to have a member working of? the
 farm, lightened the way for their process of proletarianisation.
 In the case of Zebediela, the way was only laid bare once the
 shortage -of unmarried women in the late 1930's abolished the pref-
 erence for unmarried workers. Many of these women lived permanently
 on the Estate, and worked as day-labourers. Others lived there tem-
 porarily with their husbands (usually in tents), and while the husband
 did seasonal work in the orchards, the women packed oranges. Other
 married women left their homes, husbands and children behind, for the
 entire season. Such women had to have a strong enough motivation to
 overcome the existing prejudice against mothers leaving their child-
 ren, 'because a mother has to stay at home'.
 Some worked to buy clothes for their children, and others worked to
 ensure their children a better future, in terms of education, than
 "they had. Usually the children were left with either the father or
 more often, the woman's mother. Where there were no children and the
 husband was absent from home, working at Zebediela became very con-
 venient. During the Second World War for instance
  tQ the wives of
 soldiers found it a useful place to earn extra money. But married
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 8
 women were always the minority, and one can perhaps argue that it was
 the vulnerability of unmarried daughters to partial industrialisation,
 that protected the rural household from radical change.
 But having argued that these women were available for employment,
 one still has to examine why they found that employment at Zebediela.
 Zebediela was not an 'ordinary factory1, because working there, also
 involved hostel accommodation, and the degree of control over indivi-
 dual lives that it implied, and thus provoked an entirely new range of
 considerations altogether. Two problems have to be addressed. To what
 extent did women seek work at Zebediela, exactly because of these con-
 siderations around seasonal work and hostel accommodation. On the
 other hand, to what degree is it true that women worked there, because
 there were no other, more acceptable, alternatives available to them.
 Every year contained two orange packing seasons. The Naval season
 lasted from mid-April to June, and the Valencia season from July to
 October/November. The two seasons were therefore divided by a break
 of approximately three weeks to a month. During this break, and after
 the second season, all packer and graders went home. This seasonal
 flux did offer some advantages. According to the Matron
 They work a part of the year, then they go home, they go to
 rest, and then they return and they work again and go back
 home again. I think they earned enough to save for the
 times that they did not work.
 Others agreed that being able to spend a part of the year at home,
 and then with some money in your pocket, was very desirable:
 I actually enjoyed it. Three months was a long time to stay
 away from your home.
 But once having experienced seasonal migration, other women left
 Zebediela when they were able to, exactly because they disliked the
 back and forth migration.
 I think we got tired of working there. Also because we could
 not work the whole year. The period we spent at home ....
 you are biggqr. and older, and you no longer just want to
 stay at home.
 One of the reasons why they were intitally willing to migrate
 seasonally, was because it satisfied their parents, whose permission
 they felt they needed to be able to work. The issue of parental
 control will be discussed in greater depth below. Suffice to say the
 parents often approved of having their children back at home for a
 part of the year, as well as feeling comforted by having them live in
 hostels, under the strict eye of the matron:
 It gave my mother some sort of satisfaction that we were not
 completely away from home.
 Living in a hostel was not only more acceptable to parents, but
 also more convenient for married women. With their husbands absent,
 for instance as soldiers in the Second World War, it rid them tempo-
 rarily of the responsibility of the household. For others, one could
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate
 imagine that the issue of control was as important to their husbands,
 as it was to some parents. Living on farms that were often situated a
 considerable distance from the nearest town, also made the hostel a
 practical feature at Zebediela. Many could probably echo Mrs
 Heystek's words, who believed that,
 If Zebediela did not exist, I would never have gone to
 . b4
 work.
 Apart from this, Zebediela was situated in the countryside, and
 therefore a less alien prospect than moving to a city. It was also
 well-known. Many of the women learned about Zebediela from mothers
 and sisters who used to work there. It also rapidly became the larg-
 est orange estate in the world, whose reputation spread across the
 country.
 Another major employer in the Northern Transvaal was the Letaba
 Citrus Estate. Despite similar working - and living conditions, and
 roughly equal wages, many avoided it because of the stiffling climate
 and incidence of malaria. Neither was it as well-known as Zebediela.
 Others preferred not to work in the cities either, for a variety of
 reasons. Coming back to the issue of parental control, young women
 were sometimes forbidden to go to the city. Partly because of their
 parents' negative attitude to 'Sodom en Gomorra' and partly because of
 the absence of kin there:
 If you said city, they saw something evil. They did not
 believe that a girl should go alone. There was no family in
 the city you could go to ... they thought you were lost even
 before you arrived.
 Others simply felt that the city was 'alien and far away and every-
 thing1 . But it is interesting that this same lady did eventually
 leave Zebediela for Pretoria in 1941, partly because of the seasonal
 work, and partly because of 'Pretoria se liggies1. Similarly, a lady
 who initially felt that,
 for the city Johannesburg, where there was probably enough
 work available in the clothing factories and so on, we'from
 the countryside did not have the courage at that stage.
 Yet three years later, in 1941 at the age of 23, she moved to Jo-
 hannesburg.
 But there was another very basic reeason why many went to Zebediela
 rather than anywhere else. This had to do with their inability to
 find alternative employment. Thus one lady agreed that she would have
 preferred a daily job, but 'in those days there were no such thing1.
 Another said that she rather enjoyed doing seasonal work, 'because we
 did not know of other work'.
 This lack of employment in the countryside has been well document-
 ed. The Carnegie Commission noted that,
 in .the country even the daughters of more comfortably
 situated . farmers find little scope for profitable
 occupation, but in the poor households they can contribute
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 10
 practically^nothing towards their own support and that of
 the family.
 So Zebediela became the only opportunity for many to earn cash.
 Such was the surfeit of women, that already la 1931 did the Estate
 turn many women back who came looking for work.
 During this period, the Northern Transvaal contained few big towns.
 The countryside was scattered with little towns that consisted of
 little more than a shop and a Post Office. In a typical town like
 Groblersdal, where many women originated,
 the nearest place we could earn a bit of money was Zebe-
 ,. , 62diela.
 Women were in any case not always able to utilise the opportunities
 that did exist. Men, as breadwinners, were regarded as more needy of
 jobs, and so some jobs were rather filled with men. These included
 the shops (usually Jewish or Indian), the railways, and even the Post
 Office (the exchange was usually operated by a woman). 'In those days
 the men did all the work' . It also had a lot to do with the myth
 that young Afrikaner women stayed at home, and did not work: 'You did
 not work of course.' It was interesting to see that this last woman
 used the notion of women not working, as the reason why she had no
 alternatives to Zebediela, open to her. It was also suggested that in
 the towns, women from the town got preference when it came to employ-
 ment.
 Prejudices could prevent women from taking what work there was.
 Parents could refuse to allow their daughters to do domestic work. The
 Carnegie Commission explained this attitude with the argument that,
 in other and more prosperous days they had been accustomed
 to their own home to leaving at least the rougher kinds of
 domestic work to the coloured or native servant, and so now
 they refuse to entertain the degrading suggestion that their
 own child should descend to the level of an inferior race.
 It also mentioned that low wages are paid for long hours of work.
 This did not mean that some women did not do these jobs, but it is
 instructive that they never stayed at the job very long. One lady
 went to help in the house of a friend/relative, and his sick wife,
 until her mother ordered her home. Another looked after an elderly
 woman but couldn't stand her 'fieterjasies'. 'I sometimes felt that I
 could not take it any longer'. When she heard about an opening as a
 cook, a woman -went for an interview, although,
 in those times they (parents) were scared of letting you go
 out/away.
 After getting the job, her brother who introduced her to this posi-
 tion, decided that she won't go, saying that
 CO
 I don't think it would be the right thing for you to do.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 11
 Although the cousins of another woman looked after the children of
 rich people in Johannesburg, her mother adamantly refused to let her
 do it. She believed^ihe reason for this refusal was because 'it was
 69
 humiliating to her1.
 Another alternative was to work in a shop, cafe or pharmacy in the
 local town. Mrs Lotter left Zebediela in 1938 to work at the SB Cash
 Store, the biggest in Pietersburg. There were problems here as well.
 Complaints against working in shops resolved around the standing, the
 responsibility of working with money, and working with the public.
 Working in a shop demanded some grooming, which few women could
 afford. This was perhaps less important in the countryside, but there
 again there were greater problems getting accommodation in a very
 small town, and much fewer shops around. Very often such a shop was
 owned by an Indian, which excluded it from consideration altogether.
 None of this meant however that there was no opportunities avail-
 able at all, merely that they were strictly limited, in the Northern
 Transvaal in particular. It has been shown that some women left their
 jobs, to go to Zebediela. In most cases this was because of dissatis-
 faction, or for practical reasons. A women from Koringpunt applied
 for an office job at Zebediela, but was offered work as a grader.
 Another who applied from Pretoria, worked for a Mayfair dressmaker,
 who moved to East London. One woman, worked for a small while in a
 cafe, but it is unclear why she left. A woman who worked at Zebedie-
 la for eight years, left to work in a cafe, partly because her parents
 moved to town (Naboomsrpuit) and partly because of the rumours at
 Zebediela about a switch to black women. Another worked in a cafe
 until her parents moved to Marble Hall, from where it was easy to
 reach Zebediela.
 There was other work available in the countryside itself, in to-
 bacco stores, fruit packing plants, and school hostels. These tobacco
 1gwais' were sometimes used as a stopgap in the seasonal break. Miss
 Byrne worked in the Pietersburg 'gwai' during a break, but returned to
 Zebediela because the wages were the same. The wages were apparent-
 ly only 10 shillings, whereas at Zebediela it varied according to your
 ability and hard work. Another complained that in the 'gwai' in
 which (She worked before going to Zebediela, the smell was unbear-
 able. Some women packed apples in summer and oranges in winter. A
 fairly common job was as cook in school-hostels in places like Heidel-
 berg and Ellisras, which was of course not a seasonal work.
 For women who migrated to cities, the scope was of course much
 wider, with the clothing factories especially providing jobs for un-
 skilled women. A number of women interviewed, did leave Zebediela for
 the Rands' textile factories, in the 1930s and 1940s. But the great-
 est expansion of opportunities came in the years after 1939. In these
 years, Zebedielas* shortage of white women became acute. The Estate
 Secretary confronted the defence forces recruiting officer with the
 choice of whether the Estates 'should export oranges,
  Rpr should re-
 lease the women to go and work in a munitions factory'.
 *
 In the war, many girls felt that they were still young and
 could get other work. Circumstances improved, money im-
 proved , so they got fixed ipbs there, and so we eventually
 struggled to get the girls.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 12
 It is impossible to say how many did leave Zebediela for the ammuni-
 tion factories. One woman who did so, declared that,
 if you did not have a great school eduation then, you went
 to work in the Mint.
 The subsequent shortage of labour, caused by greater opportunities
 for better employment elsewhere, forced the Estate to switch to black
 women as packers and graders in 1953.
 Another possibility was of course to work from one's home. Again
 opportunities for this were limited by the distances between people,
 as well as the inability of others in the community to pay for such
 services. A woman from the Orange Free State had a poultry business
 going with her sisters, but left it for Zebediela because of a lack of
 success. Another, who lived- near Randfontein, made dresses for
 others, like the local teacher. A woman from Nylstroom,
 went to iron for a teacher's #,ife during the week, and so
 earned my bit of pocket money.
 So far the most important reason for the inability of women to find
 alternative work, has only been alluded to. This was the low standard
 of education that most of these women had.
 86
 You had no book education, something to fall back on.
 On a question about what other work was available, Mrs Heystek re-
 plied bluntly, 'I was not educated'.
 Related to the issue of education, was the age of women employed:
 Many girls only waited until they were 16, whether they were
 in standard six, eight or three, then they left school.
 Another said, that her generation 'all had to go out early to
 work' Pauw referred to a 'phenomenal increase in the raunber of
 young poeple on the labour market after the First World War.' Pollak
 also pointed to this age factor, and found that of the women in her
 survey of clothing workers on the Rand, 83% were under 25 years of
 age. The age of workers at Zebediela was probably related to the
 earlier discussion on why rural unmarried women were the most likely
 to migrate. Such women would be over 16, and yet under the likely age
 for marriage. Under the Factory Act, no person under the age of 16
 could be employed. The Estate Secretary, referring to this clause,
 insisted that 'we made very sure' that they did not employ girls
 under age. But in reality, at least one lady insisted that she went
 to WOTM at Zebediela at the age of 12 years and three months, in
 1929. In 1950, the Estate received a warning fr_om the Schweizer-
 Reneke school inspector about employing a minor. Although the
 Packhouse Manager was requested to guard against this, by demanding
 school-leaving certificates in 'doubtful instances', another warning
 was received for a similar offence from the Pietersburg School Board
 in 1951. By this time, the Estate was struggling a great deal to
 recruit sufficient numbers of white women.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 13
 Not all the packers and graders were very young though. There are
 numerous references to older women. Applications received from two
 married women, stated their respective ages as 39 and 49. One can
 only speculate on how their age affected their adaption at Zebediela.
 Younger women did help them where they could. In the Packhouse, women
 often helped older women pack, while waiting for more oranges to
 arrive. In the dormitories, older women were allowed to bath, while
 younger women confined themselves to the showers: This led to some
 dissatisfaction:
 We are also going to bath. We are no longer always going to
 give the bath to the old women!
 Having left school at 16, meant that one had, like the majority of
 women at Zebediela, only a Standard six school certficate. This is
 important, not only because it determined success in searching for
 work, but also because it influenced a worker's feeling and commitment
 towards her job. In her analysis of the motivation of immigrant work-
 ers in a textile mill, Hareven examined the way in which management
 could control workers and provide incentives for work, by effectively
 exploiting their hopes and fears. These were generated by their
 financial dependence on the mill, which was in turn 'compounded by
 their lack of both educational and professional training.'
 Referring to the women at Zebediela, and their opposition to the
 war, the Estate Secretary described them as 'not of the educated or
 enlightened class'. As far as the education went, he was not very
 far from the truth. 'For the greatest part it was women who were not
 well-educated'. Another said, 'You had no other education', and
 added that the rest of her family had as little education.
 This pattern was repeated elsewhere in the country (see Appendix on
 the number of children who passed every standard). In her survey of
 clothing workers in 1935, Polak gave the following percentages reflec-
 ting the level of education:
 Total Percentage 100
 Under Std 5
 Passed Std 5
 Passed Std 6
 Passed Std 7
 Passed Std 8
 Higher than Std 8
 Not reported
 61
 13,5
 49,8
 7,8
 2,9
 1,3
 2,0
 As a result of the difficulties for school-going encountered in the
 countryside, and considering the standard of education in the Northern
 Transvaal, one can perhaps suggest that for the women who worked at
 Zebediela, the level of education would have been even lower than in
 Pollak's survey. According to the Carnegie Commission, the area of
 the Transvaal Bushveld and Lowveld had the lowest percentage of pupils
 above Std VI (4,97, compared to 7,94 for the whole Transvaal) and the
 lowest percent above Std VIII (1,42, compared to 2,37 for the whole
 Transvaal). It must again be stressed that the education of these
 women are discussed not merely for descriptive purposes, but because
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 14
 it was an important factor in how they adapted, or did not adapt, to
 working at Zebediela.
 There are several peripheral causes of this low standard of educa-
 tion. One was obviously the incidence of malaria. Children found it
 difficult to attend school when suffering from malaria attacks.
 Another cause was the fact that people's attitudes towards education
 adapted slowly, to a new realisation of how important education was.
 Even women who attributed their difficulty in getting well-paid jobs
 to their lack of education, still said that education was not very
 important:
 It was fif|?fi if you went to work. You did not worry about
 studying.
 Above all though, rural children found it difficult to get a high
 school education, because of the inability of their parents to pay for
 it:
 If you were not financially well-off, there was no oppor-
 tunity for you to study.
 Mrs Smith's mother got two school board warnings because she was
 too young to have left school, but while here mother may have wanted
 to keep her at school, 'she could not afford it1.
 'Then we had to go to high school, but there was no money'.
 Few of the small towns in the Transvaal countryside had high
 schools with hostels. In the Northern Transvaal, children had to go
 away to places like Bronkhorstpruit and Middelburg, Johannesburg or
 Pretoria, after standard VI. In the Transvaal, secondary education
 was free, and bursaries were available for board, transport and books.
 Eligibility for a bursary depended on inability to pay, and a certain
 measure of ability. After the Depression, the emphasis was increasing-
 ly on inability to pay. But if a child was disqualified for a bursary
 on the grounds of not really being indigent, it did not necessarily
 follow that the parents could easily afford to send such a child to
 town, especially if there was a number of children in the house. And
 when such a child did go to school, his or her clothes categorised
 them very clearly as poor. This makes the importance that some inter-
 viewees attached to the subject of clothes, very understandable. Talk-
 ing about her husbands' desire to finish his education, Mrs Erasmus
 said,
 His stepfather could not or would not help him with clothes
 for high school.
 And,
 I could not go because I had no clothes.
 Daughters were also burdened by their exclusion from the role of
 breadwinner, since it made greater sense to spend what funds and
 opportunities there were on the sons as future providers of families.
 Mrs Swanepoel won a half bursary for the high school at Nylstroom, as
 did her twin brother. Only one child could go by pooling the two bur-
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 15
 saries, since her parents could not afford to contribute anything.
 Despite their equal academic qualification, she was obliged to give up
 her half bursary. The result was that,
 there is a tendency for male persons to be more intent on
 completing their school education than female persons. That
 is to say that girls tend to leave school earlier or when
 they have reached the minimum required level.
 This is also why the higher posts in Zebediela's management were
 largely filled by men.
 'Huishoudskole' were established to counter the low standard of
 education among girls. But even here, many of the same problems
 remained. Prinsloo described the low attendance figures at these
 schools (an increase between 1927-1951 from 139-795 girls) as due to
 the stigma attached to these schools, as schools to train girls as
 housekeepers. But at least it did provide an opportunity to gain
 an education, with the aim,
 of teaching children trades, so that they do not stay on the
 farms.
 The Carnegie Commission found in 1932 already that,
 one fact stands out very clearly in the light of the higher
 demands made by modern conditions of life, and that is that
 Standard VI is increasingly considered to be an inadequate
 educational qualification for entrance into the arena of
 life.
 Many women also realised the truth of this statement. Miss
 Groenewald, questioned on whether she enjoyed working at Zebediela,
 replied that she did not like being so far from home, but
 I do not, have good qualif cat ions to be able to work any-
 where .
 Their lack of education also reduced their ability to find work in
 the towns, until such time as there was a big demand for unskilled
 labour in the cities.
 Those who did not study stayed at home. Those who did
 study, naturally took work in
 they mostly did standard eight.
  town after matric, although
 For those who remained behind in the countryside, Zebediela became
 'a refuge for young girls who did not have an advanced school educa-
 tion'. The growing shortage of white women that the Estate experi-
 enced, was related to the increase in education opportunities for
 women.
 Over time it decreased Cw-Qjnen that went to Zebediela) as
 more girls went to study.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 16
 II
 Having established that the majority of white women that worked at
 Zebediela were from rural families, unmarried and relatively young,
 leads one to look at these families in greater detail. Assumptions
 made about the breakdown of the family under the impact of migration
 and industrialisation, have been challenged by sociologists like
 Smelser and Anderson. The latter showed, in a study of nineteenth-
 century Lancashire, how kinship ties did not only survive, but also
 played an important role in the development of these twin processes.
 There are two aspects to this family background. The one concerns the
 family network in general, but the other is concerned with the parents
 in particular, and their roles as sources of authority.
 It is impossible to determine how many young women never went to
 Zebediela because they were refused permission by their parents. Women
 that appear in the Estate records or who were interviewed, were ones
 that, either on own authority or with parental permission, did get to
 work there. Some women did admit that they needed the parents' per-
 mission to go pack oranges. A woman from Frankfort had to beg her
 parents to let her go because it was so far away. Others believed
 that they would not have gone if such permission was withheld. This
 is not to suggest that everybody needed permission, but merely that
 interviews highlighted the role of parents in the decision to work at
 Zebediela.
 Once parents gave their permission, they could impose conditions or
 retract. One woman worked as a housekeeper until her mother ordered
 her home. Another left Zebediela to work in a store in Pietersburg,
 but
 then my parents decided that I should no longer work, be-
 cause I did not need it.
 After going once, the parents of two sisters
 125
 saw that things went well, so we always went back again.
 When her sister left Zebediela to marry, another was no longer
 allowed to return because her parents did not want her to go alone.
 Some parents found it very difficult to let their daughters go. The
 reasons for their reluctance varied. The Estate Manager admitted that
 in the early years, Zebediela had quite an infamous repartition. A
 concerted effort to change this, was launched after 1935. Parents
 suggested that 'where there are so many together, there is evil'.
 One motheiVj^as reluctant because of the reputedly arduous nature of
 the work. In one instance, the mother first asked the father, who
 refused. Together they went to the 'Gereformeerde' Minister, who said
 'it was not a good place'. The daughter did not go. This incident
 apparently occurred in the 1940s, which suggests that attempts to
 'clean up1 Zebedielas1 reputation were not entirely successful. Some
 believed their parents' reluctance had something to do with the notion
 that Afrikaner daughters did not work,
 All the daughters had to stay in the home until they
 married.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 17
 But on the other hand, other parents let their daughters go because
 of their own circumstances, or because of the conditions of employment
 at Zebediela. Mrs Botha heard about Zebediela when her father told
 them about the opportunities for work there. Others were quite ex-
 plicit about their parents' motivation:
 My parents did not believe a girl should work outside the
 home, but later my father relented because times were diff-
 icult.
 134They were very sceptical about it, but we were poor ...
 In the beginning they did not want to hear about it, but ...
 those were difficult years.
 Some parents allowed their daughters to work at Zebediela, but
 adamantly refused them permission to migrate to the city. Their con-
 cern for the welfare of their children was partly based on fear and
 ignorance of the city of rural people. Daughters may be allowed to go
 if there was already kin in the city, with whom they could find a
 home. If not, daughters had to adapt to seasonal work at Zebediela.
 One can of course only speculate on the extent to which this concern
 with keeping the daughters effectively tied to the household, either
 directly through seasonal work or indirectly through kinship networks,
 was motivated by the need of the household for her income. But none
 of the four women who remembered their parents' adamant refusal to let
 them migrate to urban centres, actually sent cash home.
 The parents, quite naturally, felt more at ease when they knew
 Zebediela themselves, or were acquainted with the people who accompa-
 nied their daughters, especially when it was family members that went
 together:
 but when us children could go and work together, it probably
 reassured her.
 In at least one case, a mother travelled with her daughters to
 Zebediela to chek out the conditions there, 'and if it is safe for us
 to work there'.
 But the paternalistic policies followed towards the white women by
 management, went far in reassuring anxious parents. In the context of
 the textile mills she studied, Hareven noted ways in which the factor
 acquired an image
 not entirely alien for workers from rural backgrounds. The
 paternalistic environment was intended to assure young women
 workers and their parents that the boardinghouses in Lowell
 and Manchester were observing some of the traditional values
 of rural society.
 At Zebediela, one of managements' concerns in their treatment of
 the women, was 'what will you tell the parents?' In turn the
 parents were 'reassured because of the Christian character' that
 prevailed at the Estate.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 18
 In this way, it was possible for the Estate to use the family as a
 1
  model for work and social relationships' , so that ' the practice did
 serve the family interests to some degree' . To a question about
 how her parents felt about her living in a hostel, Mrs Hugo replied
 that,
 we had a strict old housekeeper. The idea that there is
 someone looking after you, you are nation your own, there
 are strict rules, it suited them well.
 One can perhaps speak of a two-way interaction between parents and
 the Estate management. A mother wrote to the manager about her
 daughter, who was apparently the unmarried mother of two children,
 that
 as you probably know, she cannot control herself. So I would
 appreciate it if you did not allow her to go out, -or week-
 ends to people, because I don't know anybody there.
 In turn management informed a woman that her granddaughter was
 being sent home because she refused to obey hostel rules and under the
 circumstances, 'we cannot acept responsibility1.
 One can imagine that these daughters gained a greater feeling of
 independence and freedom, as they continued to work. So by the time
 some of them left Zebediela, to migrate to the cities, they no longer
 felt obliged to get parental permission for this step. While acknow-
 ledging their parents' dislike of this move, women were not prevented
 from doing it. Instead, when they decided to go, it was a matter of
 'we just said we are going now1.
 Before looking at the wider family, instances where daughters used
 their parents as their motive for working needs to be examined. An
 attitude of obligation to repay the parents, and to help them in
 difficult times; was often expressed
 We gave our parents money because we felt we had a duty
 towards them.
 This sense of family duty expressed the existence of a 'family cul-
 ture ', which is equally obvious when looking at other manifestations
 of the interaction between the migrant and her family:
 For most young women, factory work represented a transition-
 al phase - usually one or two years - between domestic work
 in their parents' farm homes and marriage. The savings they
 accumulated from their factory labour were sent back to
 their families on the farm. Again, the interdependence of
 the countryside and the factory was maintained through back-
 and-forth migration; family ties still linked factory work-
 ers and rural communities into a common social system.
 149
 Anderson went so far as to argue that kinship was the most im-
 portant source of assistance on which the migrants could rely. Such
 kinship assitance was partly based on a principle of reciprocity. But
 this did not merely involve the flow of money between the migrant and
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 19
 her home. Family help also played a role in recruitment, adaption,
 creation opportunities to work, and of course outright financial
 assistance. But having argued earlier that the families of these mig-
 rants needed a cash income, does not mean that financial assistance by
 the migrants was only provided in cash.
 The notion of familial aid was not set into operation only when a
 migrant left her family to work. It was an integral part of the
 family culture referred to earlier. It is noticeable how often this
 aid involved the area of education.
 Sisters were often encouraged by their brothers and older sisters
 to finish their schooling, even where these siblings themselves did
 not have a high level of education.
 I was still at school when she (older sistex) said to me:
 'You will not go and work, you will study1.
 When Miss Thorolt was awarded a bursary to go to Johannesburg, her
 parents refused her permission. But her brother resisted this:
 He instited that he will pay for everything: Let her go.
 It's her life. She can go ahead.
 Women that worked at Zebediela in turn helped their younger sib-
 lings to a higher education. One lady contributed from her income,
 and her b_cother from his hunting, to help their brother become a
 teacher. Such aid was not necessarily cash. It could have been
 the provision of clothes, necessary to send a child to school. Or it
 could be pocket money for the studying brother or sister. This sense
 of family duty was probably even more intense where the children had a
 large part in the upbringing of the other children, as did sometimes
 happen:
 Her mother died early on, and the 12. c-children looked after
 each other and brought each other up.
 Children occasionally grew up outside their parents' home, with
 relatives. These were often grandmothers, but could be an older,
 married sister:
 She (oldest sister) could not work, since she had a rash on
 her hand. Sp my mother gave me to her so that I could help
 them a bit.
 Once they married, they could make use of the same source of
 assistance. Married women could only work at Zebediela, if they had a
 relative, like their mother, who could take care of their children.
 The family continued to play a big role in the womens' working
 lives. Siblings could for instance, help each other find work. Ref-
 erence has already been made to an older brother who took his sister
 to be interviewed for a job as cook. At the same time, one child was
 often expected to stay at home with the parents, on the farm. A
 daughter could work for a while, and then return home to stay. In
 return for helping her folks on the farm, she did not have to earn a
 living, often in a factory, like her sisters.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 20
 A migrating daughter had the security of knowing that you could
 return home, if things did not work out. The Zebediela workers could
 spend their seasonal break at home if they were unable or unwilling to
 find another job- It did not mean that they necessarily enjoyed stay-
 ing at home, but if that home was not available, seasonal employment
 of this kind would not have been possible.
 When looking at the role of kin assistance, one has to consider the
 issue of reciprocity. These women did not inevitably receive aid on
 the basis of their membership of a family. This implies a series of
 calculative motives, but at the same time, it does not seem possible
 to explain all the motives of the women in question by 'economic ex-
 change theory ?_
 It is unlikely that women were allowed to use their break at home
 simply as an unp ad holiday. They usually had to help around the
 house, as they would have done if they never worked. So in return for
 kin assistance, women could allow themselves to be placed under the
 a ithority of family members, and to be directed by the needs of the
 family. The woman referred to above, whose brother took her for a job
 interview, accepted his dictum that she wtU not take the work,
 apparently without demanding an explanation. Another accepted the
 demand that she drop her work in a hostel to go to Zebediela because
 her married sister did not want to go alone, so 'they actually forced
 me to leave the work in the hostel'. Mrs Biddulph left Zebediela
 for a sweet factory in Volksrust to live with a cousin who, as the
 wife of a train-driver, was often alona :
 She asked my mother if I - I would not, because I wanted to
 return to Zebediela - so she asked that I should
  19JCtme and
 stay with her. She would find me a good job there.
 There are many other examples of daughters leaving or changing
 their jobs, or simply looking after their parents, at the request of
 the parents.
 At Zebediela the central role of kin networks becomes very
 apparent. This is already true in the process of recruitment. The
 Estate relied on different forms of recruitment. It made use of
 official institutions and church bodies, like the Armesorgraad, and
 the Departments of Labour and Social Welfare. This institutional
 recruitment had its advantages as the Estate Secreatry, Mr van Blerk,
 pointed out:
 One wanted to help the people, and we also realised that
 working with such institutions, you will get the people that
 need it,, ^ nd you will also find people that are worth the
 effort.
 As the Estate experienced a growing need for packers and graders
 (about 500 by 1950), because of increased output, it was not possible
 to rely only on these institutions.
 Recruitment done by the Estate itself, also had its drawbacks.
 Adverse publicity could easily influence the recruitment drive, and
 the kind of women recruited, did not always fit the needs of the
 Estate:
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 21
 this wide spread (recruitment area) intensifies the diff-
 iculty of verifying that all prospective recruits are of the
 right type.
 The difficulties of control and discipline engendered by a few hun-
 dred women living together, and working together for low wages at an
 exhausting job, shaped managment's perception of 'the right type1.
 While advertising was important, recruiters were also sent in
 places like Potgietersrust, and even Pretoria, from house to house,
 especially when shortages began to hamper the Estates' labour supply.
 But the most effective recruitment was done by word of mouth passing
 of the message about employment at Zebediela. Friends and relatives
 who worked at Zebediela or lived nearby, informed those who lived
 further away, about the place:
 Friends of ours heard from friends of theirs. When they re-
 turned they told us ahout the work, and they told us they
 made such good money.
 Pauw argued that the Afrikaner family had fewer contacts with em-
 ployers, that could have eased their entry into the labour market.
 And under these circumstances, one had to rely a great deal on friends
 and relatives for information about employment. Anderson also referred
 to this phenomenon, where
 relatives were ... also economically dependent on each other
 in other ways arid, this was particularly so when it came to
 obtaining a job.
 At Zebediela, in the absence of relevant records, it is not poss-
 ible to state exactly what percentage of women migrated under the
 auspices of kin. Of the 28 women for whom this information is avail-
 able, five went to the Estate because of its reputation or because
 they lived nearby, five were recruited, and 18 heard about the work
 through friends and relatives. In one case,
 the next season the older sisters simply,., took her younger
 sister, who just left school, with them.
 Relatives also assisted with the rail fare, to get there. In one
 case, a brother offered to pay the railfare. In another, the money
 was borrowed from an uncle, on the condition that it will be repaid
 out of the wages earned at Zebediela.
 Parents could decide to let their daughters go, provided that they
 were accompanied by another sister or sisters. So it was then to their
 advantage to migrate in a family group. Moreover, where children felt
 an obligation to repay their parents or to contribute to the house-
 hold, every supporting members lightened the burden of obligation of
 all. Some women went to Zebediela because their brothers were already
 working there, either in the orchards, or making wooden cases in which
 to pack the oranges. The mother of two girls from Vryburg, who went
 to Zebediela in 1949-1952,
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 22
 did not want them to leave the farm to go and work else-
 where, but she allowed them to go there because their
 brother was there to keep an eye on them.
 But having a brother or sister already working there, could help a
 young man adapt easier:
 I felt there was somebody who knew my brother (who was al-
 ready working at Zebediela). Because she (older sister) was
 there, and we were, ^ L number that came together, we did not
 feel out of place.
 There were also a number of mother-daughter combinations working
 together at Zebediela. These relatives and friends were allowed to
 share dormitories. This arrangement enabled the management to use pre-
 existing social structures to serve its own purposes. Women whose
 sisters could report their actions to their parents, were likely to be
 more disciplined. Talking about women who slipped out of the hostels
 at night, an interviewee added that,
 we never did it, because we were three sisters together.
 Older sisters could also act as a source of authority over younger
 ones:
 We did not go out with boyfriends there. I did, a bit, but
 my sister was very angry about it ... She was always my
 boss, more than my mother.
 But on the other hand, being part of a small group of familiar
 people, reduced the necessity of making friends or mingling with other
 less desirable people:
 You were more with the people you knew, like a clique, so
 that you were excluded from the others. You did not want to
 mingle with them. These were more your type.
 Family relationships were also an advantage in the sphere of work.
 Although packing and grading were not complicated jobs, one had to be
 shown the rudimentaries at least. This was usually done by female
 supervisors ('floorladies' ), but could be done by a relative or
 friend. The woman who was to become Zebediela's champion packer,
 learnt to pack exceptionally fast when her sister, who was already
 working there, placed her behind the fastest packer. This enabled
 her to pick up the rhythm and method of speed packing, which in turn
 helped her to become the highest earner, since packers were paid on a
 piece-rate system. If the relative happened to be a good worker, the
 worker could benefit from their reputation:
 It was in favour that my previous and my second sister did
 good work. They were weLL thought of. So they treated me
 well from the beginning.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 23
 Earlier in the text it was said that cash money was not necessarily
 the most important aid that a migrant could extend to her family. It
 was argued that these women often came from families that needed cash
 income. Money was necessary to buy products which rural families were
 no longer producing for themselves, like material for clothes, house-
 hold goods like stoves, and candles, and foodstuffs like sugar. So the
 fact that few women sent money (a part or the whole of their wage)
 home, did not mean that there was no flow of resources back to the
 rural household.
 There were of course cases where women sent home the biggest part
 of their wage, believing that their family needed it. None of these
 women were apparently forced to do it, but rather did it out of a
 sense of duty and obligation. Others only sent home a part of their
 wage. Of the three women that claimed that they sent back most of
 their money, one was the daughter of a bywoner, and two had widowed
 mothers. The money that they sent home, was mostly used for grocer-
 ies.
 The majority of women questioned on this, sent home either money
 and presents, or just presents. Even a family who had enough food, may
 still have needed other things that had to be bought with money. Seen
 in this light, 'presents' could be vital household commodities. It
 could, and did, very often include clothes and material for the
 parents and for the other non-working siblings.
 At least two instances were recorded where the wages of the daugh-
 ters helped their families survive amidst poverty. One woman recalled
 a night in the early 1930s, when for their family,
 there was no food for the next morning, and then my cousin
 arrived with a letter from us., from Zebediela, with ?5 in
 it. Then they had food again.
 In another family, eight of the nine daughters worked at Zebediela
 at different times; and throughout the 1940s,
 In this way the poor family was tp a large extent kept alive
 by the income of the daughters.
 But on the other hand, some women contributed nothing to the house-
 hold, but spent their money on their 'trousseau', own clothes, and
 holidays. Although this appears somewhat callous at first glance, it
 was entirely understandable. Since Zebediela provided only seasonal
 employment, the wages one earned over those seven or eight months of
 the year, had to last throughout the break. And since many of them
 went to work because grown-up daughters were a financial burden with
 which their fathers may have had difficulty in coping with, their
 ability to keep themselves, removed some of the strain in itself. An
 interesting variation of this was where the daughters generated oppor-
 tunities for the fathers. Working at Zebediela, they were allowed to
 buy cull oranges, intended for the local market, at low prices. These
 they could send home for the family's consumption. But one woman ad-
 mitted that her father took the oranges they sent home,
 then he went around to the ne???ibours, to the neighbouring
 farms, and sold those oranges.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 24
 It has been argued that,
 changing conditions in the rural economy, as well as the in-
 ternal changes within the rural families, were therefore
 essential-conditions for releasing a labour force for in-
 dustry .
 This essay has tried to sketch these ' essential conditions' that
 were opperating in especially the Northern Transvaal, in the first
 half of this century. In doing so, it traced the reaons why the
 labour force that was released in this case, consisted largely of the
 daughters of Afrikaner farmers. It was shown that this release by no
 means severed the relationship between the migrating women and their
 rural families. On the contrary, these relationships were extensively
 employed in a variety of ways, to facilitate the entry of the migrants
 into an industrial environment, and even an urban one, while at the
 same time answering the needs of the rural households from which they
 originated.
White women workers at the Citrus Estate 25
 FOOTNOTES
 1. Hareven, TK: Family Time and Industrial Time: The Relationship
 between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Commu-
 nity, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. ix.
 2. Letter from the Kimberley office of the Department of Labour to
 the Manager of the Zebediela Estates, dated 23 April 1947
 (Zebediela Collection, Abj 1).
 3. Letter from the Juvenile Affairs Board, Durban, to the Secretary
 of the Zebediela Estates, dated 21 March 1952 (Zebediela Collec-
 tion, Abj 1).
 4. Letter from the Secretary of the 'Armesorgraad van die Witwaters-
 rand van die Nederduitse Hervormde of Gereformeerde Kerk', to Dr.
 Quin, Manager of the Zebediela Estates, dated 18 February 1948
 (Zebediela Collection, Abj 1).
 5. Application for work by M M Hodgson, date unkown (Zebediela
 Collection Abn ii).
 6. Interview with the former Secretary of the Zebediela Estates, Mr
 van Blerk, conducted in Potgietersrust on 12/6/1984.
 7. See interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, (ex orange grader), con-
 ducted in Pretoria on 2/10/84.
 8. Report on Native Packers by the Packhouse Manager, dated 4/12/30
 (Zebediela Collection - hereafter referred to as ZC - Aa 1)
 9. Letter to Dr Quin, dated 31/3/49 (ZC Abj 1)
 10. See interviews with Mrs Lotter, conducted at Bulge River on
 11/2/85, and with Mrs E Barnard, conducted at Bulge River on
 27/11/84. They were respectively a grader and a packer at Zebe-
 diela.
 11. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek (ex packer), conducted in Warm-
 baths on 4/4/85.
 12. Interview with Mrs Lenie Smith (ex orange examiner, at Roedtan on
 3/4/85.
 13. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez (ex packer) in Krugersdorp on
 11/6/85.
 14. Report by the Inspector of Factories, following complaints about
 conditions at Zebediela, dated 28 June 1939.
 15. See Grosskopf, JFW: Carnegie Commission, Report I: Rural Impover-
 ishment and Rural Exodus, Pro Ecclesia, Stellenbosch, 1932.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 26
 16. 0'Meara, D: Volkskapitalisme: Class, Capital and Ideology in the
 Development of Afrikaner Nationalism 1934-1948, Ravan Press,
 Johannesburg, 1983, p 51.
 17. Grosskopf, ibid, p 77.
 18. Malherbe, EG: Carnegie Commission, Report III: Education and the
 Poor White, Pro Ecclesia, Stellenbosch, 1932, p 94.
 19. Albertyn, JR: Carnegie Commission, Report V: Die Armblanke en die
 Maatskappy, Pro Ecclesia, Stellenbosch, 1932, p 8.
 20. Article on 'Boerdery in die Noord-Transvaal', in Die Morester, 2
 June 1950.
 21. Ibid.
 22. Interview with Mrs Pollie Erasmus, (ex packer) at Bulge River on
 28/11/84.
 23. Interview with Mrs Elsie Oosthuizen (ex packer) in Potgietersrust
 on 1/4/84.
 24. O'Meara, ibid, p 37.
 25. Older sister of interviewee Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 26. Personal correspondence with Mrs G Strydom (ex packer at Letaba
 Citrus Estate), from Messina, 24/6/1985.
 27. Telephone conversation with Mrs Barnard, ibid.
 28. Letter received from Mrs Henna Swanepoel (ex packer) from Vaal-
 water, 4/3/85.
 29. Interview with Mrs Kotie Botha (ex packer and grader) in Boksburg
 on 12/9/84.
 30. Interview with Mrs M Kok (ex packer and grader) in Naboomspruit
 on 3/4/85.
 31. Older sister of interviewee Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 32. See interview with Mrs Annie Greyling (ex supervisor) at Zebedie-
 la on 12/2/85, and with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 33. Interview with Mrs Lamont (ex matron) in Potgietersrust on
 12/2/85.
 34. Interview with Mrs C G Ferreira (ex packer) in Johannesburg on
 25/3/85.
 35. Grosskopf, ibid., p 8.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 27
 36. Older sister of interviewee Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 37. Interview with Miss Lucy Byrne (supervisor and permanent member
 of staff) at Zebediela on 14/6/84.
 38. Bozzoli, B: 'Feminist Interpretations and South African Studies,
 some suggested avenues for explanation1, African Studies Insti-
 tute Paper, October 1981, p 5.
 39. Scott, J W & Tilly, L A: 'Women's Work and the Family in Nine-
 teenth-Century Europe1, in Comparative Studies in Society _ and
 History, v 17, 1975, p 52.
 40. Salaff, J W: 'Working Daughters in the Hong Kong Chinese Family',
 in Journal of Social History, nr 4, Summer 1976, p 440.
 41. Wilcocks, R W: Carnegie Commission Report II: Psychological Re-
 port: The Poor White. Pro Ecclesia, Stellenbosch, 1932, p 20.
 42. Interview with Mrs Bodenstein {ex grader) in Springs on.13/9/84.
 43. Interview with Mrs M Thorolt (ex grader) in Westonaria on
 26/2/85.
 44. Letter from Mrs H Osmers (ex packer at Letaba Citrus Estate),
 from Tzaneen, 27/2/85.
 45. Hareven, T & Langenbach, R: Amoskeag: Life and Work in an Ameri-
 can Factory-City in New England, Methuen, London, 1979, p 12.
 46. Keyter, J de W: Die Huwelik en Huisgesin, Tweede Trek Reeks no.
 VII, Nasionale Pers, Bloemfontein, 1940, p 109.
 47. See Bozzoli, ibid, p 15.
 48. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 49. See for example interview with Mrs Annie van Zyl (ex packer) in
 Potgietersrust on 12/2/85.
 50. Interview with Mrs Lamont, ibid.
 51. Interview with Mrs Biddulph (ex seasonal clerk) in Naboomspruit
 on 3/4/85.
 52. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 53. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 54. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 55. Interview with Mrs Hugo (ex grader) at Zebediela on 2/4/85.
 56. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 28
 57. Letter from Mrs J Horn (ex grader from Vredefort, 26/6/85.
 58. Interview with Mrs Annie Greyling, ibid.
 59. Interview with Mrs Pollie Erasmus, ibid.
 60. Grosskopf, ibid, p 215.
 61. Minutes of the Estates Management Committee held on 28 July 1931
 (ZC Aa 1)
 62. Interview with Mrs Bodenstein, ibid.
 63. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 64. Ibid.
 65. Letter from Mrs A Grobler {ex packer) from Steynsrus, 4/3/85.
 66. Wilcocks, ibid, p 58.
 67. Interview with Mrs Kotie Botha, ibid.
 68. Interview with Mrs Thorolt, ibid.
 69. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 70. Interview with Mrs Lb'tter, ibid.
 71. Application from Miss D Botma, dated 2 June 1947 (ZC Abj 1).
 72. Application for work from Mrs C Beyers, presumably in 1952/53 (ZC
 Abn ii)
 73. Interview with Mrs Kotie Botha, ibid.
 74. Interview with Miss Bellie Groenewald (ex seasonal clerk) in
 Naboomspruit on 3/4/84.
 75. Interview with Mrs Bets Barendse (ex packer) in Roodepoort on
 11/6/85.
 76. Interview with Miss Lucy Byrne, ibid,
 77. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 78. Interview with Mrs Barnard, ibid.
 79. Letter from Mrs Henna Swanepoel, ibid.
 80. Interview with Mr van Blerk, ibid.
 81. Interview with Miss Lucy Byrne, ibid.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 29
 82. Interview with Mrs Bodenstein, ibid.
 83. Letter from Mrs J Horn, ibid.
 84. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 85. Letter from Mrs A Grobler, ibid.
 86. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 87. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 88. Interview with Miss de Wet Riekert (Member of permanent staff,
 head supervisor in the Packhouse and recruiter), at Zebediela on
 14/6/84.
 89.- Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 90. Pauw, S: Die Beroepsarbeid van die Afrikaner in die 5tad, Pro
 Ecclesia Stellenbosch, 1946, p 89.
 91. Pollak, H quoted by Freund, Bill: 'The Social Character of Secon-
 dary Industry in South Africa, 1915-1945', African Studies
 Institute Seminar Paper, April 1985 p 12.
 92. Interview with Mr van Blerk, ibid.
 93. Interview with Mrs Elsie Oosthuizen, ibid.
 94. Letter from the Schweizer Reneke Office of the Provincial
 Inspector to the packhouse Manager at Zebediela, dated 15/7/50
 (ZC Abj 1)
 95. Letter from the Office of the Pietersburg School Board to the
 Manager of Zebediela, dated 28 September 1951 (ZC Abj 1).
 96. Application for work from M M Hodgson and C Beyers, ibid.
 97. Interview with Mrs Johnson (ex grader) in Alberton on 7/3/85.
 98. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 99. Hareven, T ibid, p 70-71.
 100. Report on the meeting of the Potgietersrust District Defence
 Liaison Committee held on 23/10/42 (ZC Abj 4).
 101. Interview with Mrs Lotter, ibid.
 102. Interview with Mrs C G Ferreira, ibid.
 103. Pollak, H P: Women in Witwatersrand Industries: An Economic and
 Sociological Study, MA thesis, Wits, 1932, p 46.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 30
 104. Malherbe, ibid, p 91.
 105. Interview with Mrs Elsie Oosthuizen, ibid.
 106. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 107. Interview with Mrs Bodenstein, ibid.
 108. Interview with Mrs Lenie Smith, ibid.
 109. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 110. Interview with Mrs Pollie Erasmus, ibid.
 111. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 112. Letter from Mrs Henna Swanepoel, from Vaalwater, 1/7/85.
 113. Prinsloo, M J M: Blanke Vroue-Arbeid in die Unie van Suid-Afrika,
 Nasionale Boekhandel, Kaapstad, 1957, p 102.
 114. Ibid, p 108.
 115. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 116. Malherbe, ibid, p 121.
 117. Interview with Miss Bellie Groenewald, ibid.
 118. Interview with Mrs Lotter, ibid.
 119. Letter from Mrs H C Kukkuk, from Heilbron, 8/3/85, about her
 mother, Mrs Sophie Hough (ex packer).
 120. Interview with Miss de Wet Riekert, ibid.
 121. Interview with Mrs Johnson, ibid.
 122. See interview with Mrs Thorolt and Mrs C G Ferreira, ibid.
 123. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 124. Interview with Mrs Lotter, ibid.
 125. Interview with Mrs Annie van Zyl, ibid.
 126. Letter from Mrs Tienie Venter (ex packer) from Thabazimbi,
 24/6/85.
 127. Interview with Mr van Blerk, ibid.
 128. Interview with Miss Lucy Byrne, ibid.
 129. Ibid.
? % ?
 White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 31
 130. Ibid.
 131. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 132. Interview with Mrs Kotie Botha, ibid.
 133. Letter from Mrs E C du Preez (ex packer) from Laersdrif, 25/4/85.
 134. Interview with Mrs Hansie Bekker (ex packer and grader) at Bulge
 River on 28/A1/84.
 135. Interview with Mrs Elsie Oosthuizen, ibid.
 136. Interview with Mrs Biddulph, ibid.
 137. Interview with Mrs C G Ferreira, ibid.
 138. Letter from Mrs Tienie Venter, ibid.
 139. Hareven, ibid, p 55.
 140. Interview with Mr van Blerk, ibid.
 141. Interview with Miss de Wet Riekert, ibid.
 142. Scott & Tilly, ibid- p 53-
 143. Interview with Mrs Hugo, ibid.
 144. Letter from Mrs A Jacobs of Molteno to the Packhouse Manager,
 dated 12/9/49 (ZC Abj 1).
 145. Letter from the Secretary of Zebediela to Mrs G A M Nothnagel of
 Middelburg, dated 6 April 1949 (ZC Abj 1).
 146. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 147. Letter from Mrs A Grobler, ibid.
 148. Hareven, ibid, p 4.
 149. Anderson, M: Family Structure in Nineteenth-Century Lancashire,
 Cambridge University Press, 1971, p 154.
 150. Interview with Mrs A S van Niekerk, ibid.
 151. Interview with Mrs Thorolt, ibid.
 152. Interview with Mrs Barnard ,_ ibid.
 153. Letter from Mrs Kukkuk, ibid.
 154. Interview with Mrs C G Ferreira, ibid.
White women workers at the Zebediela Citrus Estate 32
 155. Interview with Thorolt, ibid.
 156. Interview with Mrs Lenie Smit, ibid.
 157. Interview with Mrs Biddulph, ibid.
 158. Interview with Mrs Ban Blerk, ibid.
 159. Report on a Preliminary survey of Zebediela Estates done by the
 Bedaux Organisation, dated 4/5/50 (ZC Aba 1).
 160. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 161. Pauw, ibid, p 109.
 162. Anderson, ibid, p 118.
 163.' Letter from Mrs Kukkuk, ibid.
 164. Interview with Mrs Johnson, ibid.
 165. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 166. Letter from Mrs Kukkuk, referring to her two aunts, ibid.
 167. Interview with Mrs Hansie Bekker, ibid.
 168. Interview with Mrs Kotie Botha, ibid.
 169- Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 170. Interview with Mrs C G Ferreira, ibid.
 171. Interview with Mrs Soes Heystek, ibid.
 172. Interview with Mrs Smit, ibid.
 173. See interviews with Mrs C G Ferreira, Mrs M Kok, and Mrs Smit,
 ibid.
 174. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 175. Letter from Mrs Kukkuk, ibid.
 176. Interview with Mrs Rita du Preez, ibid.
 177. Hareven, ibid, p 3.