The Oliphants' River Irrigation Scheme

Extract

A Great many criticisms have been made of South Africa's treatment of her native population. Many of these have been well founded, but at the same time it is well to remember that it is not easy, in a country where over three-quarters of the population is living at a totally different historical level from the rest, to decide what Professor Julian Huxley calls the optimum rate of advance for the more backward people. Undue haste results in the detribalization of people who have not yet had time to adjust themselves to western modes of life. The gold-mines of the Rand, for example, have been responsible for the growth of the evil of migrant labour, which drains the native reserves of their able-bodied men, and creates huge urban populations of Natives who have lost touch with tribal customs and sanctions, and have not had time to acquire the western ideas which should take their place.