Government Moves to Control

The first signs of tough action against independent unions came to light in November when the security police detained 22 high ranking trade unionists in the Eastern Cape, the focal point of this year's labour unrest. Now, the Pretoria government, in a draft Bill, advocates some stringent measures to control the emerging African trade unions.

The draft Bill also makes one or two concessions. A significant concession is that "non-racial" trade unions will be allowed to operate legally without any harassment from the authorities. But the prime objective of the Bill is clearly to exert greater control over the activities of the new unions.

The draft legislation seeks to give the government the power to close down unions; to prevent trade unions from having offices in the "bantustans"; to bar all donations to unions without the consent of the Ministry of Labour; to ban political activity by unions and to extend official control to unregistered unions.