On double standards
Sir: Dr J. L. Insley (Letters, 11 July) has stated that apartheid 'gives greater prosperity and peace to all races within the republic than anywhere else in Africa; The point about 'peace' is a matter of opinion, but the `greater prosperity' claim is not, for the figures can be checked. Here they are—and from official South African sources at that.
The official South African information pamphlet 'South Africa—Export Country' states that even six years ago, the per capita income of the black people of Ghana was £81 per annum. It has, of course, risen since.
But in November 1968, a past director of
the South African Bureau of Census and Statistics, speaking in Port Elizabeth, gave per capita income figures for South Africa in 1967 as follows: Whites: £825 per annum; Africans (urban): £70 per annum; Africans (Bantustans): £20 per annum.
As the numbers of Africans in urban areas and Bantustans in South Africa are roughly similar, the African average is therefore about £45 per annum—not much more than half the figure of Ghana. Dr Insley's state- ment is therefore untrue, and the arguments for apartheid which he has based on such statements are therefore wholly suspect.
L. Clarke Clients' Mail Dept, Bank of rtsw, 9 Sackville Street, London wl
Previous page
