LOOKING BACK

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 50 YEARS AGO

Workers in the Public Service are confronting the Government with wage and salary increase demands which the Cabinet may not be able to refuse. The Public Servants’ Association, which represents 110 000 White State workers, including those in the Police, Defence Force and Prisons, is to demand immediate increases in State workers’ earnings. It will be made at a meeting with the Minister of the Interior, Mr. P. M. K. Le Roux, and chairman of the Public Service Commission, Dr. D. J. C. Steyn. This is a complete aboutface for the association, which last year agreed to go along with the Government’s appeal for a wage freeze and, instead, asked for improved fringe benefits. — June 2 1968

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES 25 YEARS AGO

After the price of money, the most important price in the economy is that of fuel. It affects every other price in the economy, including labour. Apartheid — the World Bank reportedly estimates — has placed SA workers an average 37km from their work. No other country in the world houses its labour force so far from the workplace. The leading trade authority, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, reported this week that SA slipped from being the world’s 16th largest exporter to 30th between 1980 and 1991. The Government recognises that the economy has been largely structured around the needs of apartheid and that a democracy will require new policy objectives. — June 6 1993