The population estimates given by the Ward Council are probably less accurate than the municipal estimates. A failure in the agricultural sector would have serious consequences for other sectors in Europe. The main employer in the area under the control of the divisional association is the agricultural sector.
27 An official from the Departrrent of Manpcwer in Paarl stated that the official estimate of unemployment in the town was 500. 35 The likelihood of the housing shortage being alleviated in the near future is not high. The Chief Health Inspector of Divisional Council said the figure in his annual report represented only 50% of infant births and deaths in rural Paarl.4.
These figures reflect the high standard of living for whites in the Paarl area and the availability of health services for this part of the population. Gastroenteritis and pneilltlOnia play a far greater role in the divisional council's 1M figures than the municipality. The only feeding scheme in the Paarl area is the service provided by the Peninsula School Feeding Association.
The only racial distinction in the Department Council's annual report is that out of 152 new cases of T.B. Major causes of death for whites and 'coloureds' in the Paarl Divisional Council Area (1981)45. I As in the rest of the Divisional Council's report, no figures are available for the African population.
KEY General Practitioners
Private services in the area are provided by general practitioners, factory clinics and a J:Un clinic of the African Food and Canning Workers' Union. - - The health services provided by the public sector are those of the State Health Department, the Cape Provincial Administration. , the municipality of Paarl and the Paarl department council. 2 On the other hand, in healthy cases, agricultural workers had their payment for medical treatment deducted from their wages at the end of the week. The clinic has proven successful to date, but is subject to fluctuating demand due to the seasonal nature of the food and canning industry.
Much of the information regarding the day hospital comes from a visit to the hospital and through questioning of staff members at the hospital. 9. For more major operations, patients are sent from the day hospital to Paarl Hospital or referred to Cape Town. These beds, especially in the casualty department of the day hospital, are insufficient to meet the demand and one official10 of the hospital labeled the shortage of beds at 100%.
The original premise of the day hospital was that it would be run as much as possible by 'colored' staff, both medically and administratively. The clinic for whites is located in the center of the tarm and seems l.JE: quite underused compared to the clinics for 'Coloured'. The greatest use of the clinic for white patients is by pregnant women and IIDthers of young children.
The clinic was founded in 1976 and its establishment is considered by health authorities as one of the main reasons for the improvement in the health status of 'coloured' people in Paarl in recent years.14 However, in the future, all ambulance services in both rural area of Paarl as well as in the UIban areas under the control of the Divisional Council. The task of the Divisional CbuncH is much more difficult due to the geographically vast area served.
Although the two biliary clinics of the division corps are adequate services for rural areas, they are numerically inadequate. The services of the dental dispensary operated by the divisional council and state health are also unable to meet the demand in the rural areas, so another =biliary dispensary is being sought by the divisional council. During the week, hCMeVer, the rural worker depends on the availability of a ventilator to transport him to the city for treatment.
22 Such practice has led to a great distrust of the Health Authorities by the African people in Paarl. These issues, it is emphasized, go to the core of the entire nature of development.
SALDRU
For anyone interested in what is happening in South Africa at the present time, it is clear that understanding the changes taking place in the field of work is crucial. The entire debate about the political implications of economic growth, for example, revolves largely around different assessments of the role of black workers in the mines and factories of the Republic. Many of the questions with which people involved in Southern Africa are now concerned relate, in one way or another, to the field generally assigned to cultivation by labor economists.
At the same time, there are many who would argue that these issues are much broader than can be contained within the narrow context of 'labour economics'. In recent studies, commissioned by the International Labor Office, of development problems in Columbia, Sri Lanka and Kenya, for example, leading scholars have identified the three crucial issues facing these countries as poverty, unemployment and income distribution. Thus, the distinction between labor and development studies becomes more blurred as economists come face to face with problems of real life in the Third World.
It is also here that a growing number of people are coming to see that studies of the political economy of South Africa must not be undertaken on the assumption that the problems there are entirely different from those facing other parts of the world. Indeed, it can be argued that South Africa, far from being an isolated, special case, is a model for the whole world, containing all the divisions and tensions (black/white; rich/poor; migrant/non-migrant; capitalist West/third ) -world; etc.) that can be seen in a global perspective. Be that as it may, the fact is that Southern Africa's economy (for the political and economic boundaries are singularly out of line with each other) is one of the most fascinating in the world.
It is one on which much more research work needs to be done and further understanding of the forces at work is urgently required. It is precisely in an effort to contribute to such an understanding that Saldru is issuing these working documents.
Division of Research School of Economics
