book,
latter
The former costs 50 cents  whilst  thc
:an l>e obtained at K2.20c.
The Portuguese and S. African governments are making enormous sums of money
out of this pass system. Thc S. African
government has opened a special pass department in the W.N.L.A. Depot where from 400
to a thousand new reference l>ooks (temporary identification) cards (T.I.C.) are issued.
The money is not paid hard cash because new-
recruits have no money. Instead it is paid
indirectly through the mines, by simply deducting the miners' pay over three months'
period. Thc passes supplied for arc sometimes so many that the miner may return
home without having received his pass. On
his return, he may apply for another without
enquiring about the previous one, because
the amount of documents they carry are so
many (contract sheets, finger print forms,
T.I.C. forms, etc.), that it becomes difficult
to distinguish one from the other. In both
countries if a miner looses his pass he must
buy another one at the same cost. Indeed,
thc amount of exploitation can be estimated
at  no less  than  a  thousand  pounds  per day.
C Treatment of Miners.
The treatment of miners in the W.N.L.A.
is not only bad but inhuman. New arrivals
and departing squads are crowded in rooms
pitifully small and badly ventilated, sheltered without hardly a blanket whilst the very
hard and cold cement  floor forms their bed.
During the exhausting registering procedure, the poor African miners are left to
stand in the blazing sun or cold winter
weather without moving an inch for fear of
being flogged. Sometimes the process drags
the whole day and towards the close of the
day, the poor fellows are dismissed until the
next morning.
They wake up very early at 4 a.m. to be
first in those abnormally long queues. It is
common  for people  to spend  the  whole day
without having had breakfast or lunch. The
food given to the miners is the worst so far
for human consumption in the whole civilized
world. The food includes samp, porridge and
bowels of oxen.. Bowels are cooked without
caring to clean them of dung. As for samp
and porridge it is served raw because there
is no inspection going on and more especially
that the numbers are great and thc cooking
staff is pitifully small and inexperienced.
Everything concerning food is not only
third-rate. but is intended to be like that.
Worse still is that food is served in the open,
whether thc weather is fine or bad. Indeed
even the most elementary principles of
hygiene are not observed - - a striking contrast between the magnificent well-ventilated
and hygicnically good building of the
Chamber of Mines and the Anglo-American
Corporation.
What do the miners dig that which cannot improve their working conditions ? The
question is absurb because that is the set-up
under thc present  system. '
C Wages, Taxation and Deferred Payments.
 Ever  since  the   1913  miners'  strike,  the
conditions of the miners have deteriorated
and with thc banning of mine workers, trade
unions and associations, more and more intensive exploitation was and still is practised.
With the help of rigid government laws,
the mining magnates of S. Africa have so
entrenched themselves that they have even
gone to the extent of passing wages regulations affecting mine workers throughout
the country. - »
Today, all the miners get 27 cents per
shift, which means among other things that
in order to accumulate as much cents as he
can, a miner must work at least day and
night. The murmuring about an increament
is common in the mines although it is often
mishandled by those representing thc miners
(stooge Indunas and also suppressed   by   the
. ~ 10 —