Swaziland report / Commonwealth Relations Office.

  • Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations.
Date:
[1962]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Swaziland report / Commonwealth Relations Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    24/148 (page 18)
    (52.4% of males and 11.6% of females) : by contrast only 11.8% of all countrymen and 2.2% of country¬ women are wage-earners within Swaziland. Over half the cash income of the Territory’s residents accrues to townsfolk. Chapter II: Occupations, Wages and Labour Organisation Until the recent post-war development period, the gold mines in the Republic of South Africa were the main source of employment for the Swazi. Within the Territory, employment was provided by the Havelock Asbestos Mine and European farms. The recent introduction of large forestry and irrigation undertakings has led, in turn, to the establishment of processing industries and two large sugar mills have been constructed, one by the Mhlume (Swaziland) Sugar Company Limited, near Tshaneni and the other by Ubombo Ranches Limited at Big Bend. Meanwhile the pulp factory for processing timber on the estate of the Usutu Pulp Company Limited had its first full year of operation. There is also a small fruit canning industry and a malt factory. Construction of the Territory’s first railway began during the year. It will open the way for exploitation of proved iron ore and coal deposits. Swazi workers are becoming increasingly dependent on the cash earnings obtained from employment in order to supplement the traditional tribal subsistence economy. EMPLOYMENT At the last total enumeration census, in 1956, a quarter of the gainfully employed European population over the age of fifteen years was engaged in farming and forestry, a fifth were crafts¬ men or labourers and 18% were enumerated as professional workers such as teachers, engineers, missionaries, lawyers and medical practitioners. Excluding those engaged in farming and mining, managers and administrators comprised 11% of this sec¬ tion of the population. Of the grainfully employed Eurafrican po¬ pulation over fifteen years of age, 30% were employed in farm¬ ing and forestry and 26% were enumerated as craftsmen or labourers. This Census also showed that 25,928 Swazi were I peasant farmers, 200 ran their own businesses and 26,050 were