The Indian labourers in the sugar industry are receiving very low wages. The Fact Finding Commission on the Coloured Question has reported on the poverty of the Coloured people due to low wages and unemployment. Poverty, high rents and unemployment Poverty is rife among Non-Europeans, especially Africans. Rents paid by Non-Europeans are very high. The housing conditions are appalling.
Sanitary services are negligible.
Overcrowding is an undoubted fact. There is no unemployment relief. Unemployed are liable to be forcibly transferred to areas where labour shortage occurs. No accurate statistics are kept which could give one some idea of the appalling misery of the Non-European people. The Unemployment Benefit Act operates in certain scheduled industries such as Mining and Motors but the Africans are deliberately excluded though they are the lowest paid and the first to lose their jobs.