TEBA Mine Recruiting¶
District and station-level mine labor recruiting data from The Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA, formerly NRC — Native Recruiting Corporation).
Research use only
TEBA records at the University of Johannesburg archive are available for research use only, and publication requires permission from UJLIC and TEBA. The files described on this page are not deposited publicly; derived tables are supplied only to researchers who hold written permission from UJLIC and TEBA. See Licensing & Access.
Key Files¶
| File | Description |
|---|---|
district_recruiting_panel.csv |
District-year recruiting (1,674 obs, 1973-1978) |
teba_panel_v6.csv |
Consolidated panel |
station_district_crosswalk_v4.csv |
TEBA station to magisterial district mapping |
nrc_recruits_by_office_1952_1985.csv |
Recruiting by office, long series |
regional_office_recruiting_1952_1982.csv |
Regional office aggregates |
district_station_proximity.csv |
Distance-based station assignments |
UJ Archive Books¶
uj_books_extracted/ — 35 CSVs (~21,900 rows) extracted from the NRC/WNLA annual books (Books 2–14, 1957–1969) via the Claude Vision API. Extends recruiting data back to the 1950s. Extraction covers every year 1957–1969; none of it has been page-checked.
| Year | CSVs | Rows | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | 1 | 503 | WNLA |
| 1959 | 3 | 1,996 | WNLA + NRC (Parts 1–2) |
| 1960 | 2 | 813 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1961 | 2 | 952 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1962 | 10 | 5,328 | WNLA (4 parts) + NRC (6 parts) |
| 1963 | 2 | 360 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1964 | 2 | 416 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1965 | 6 | 6,150 | WNLA (2 parts) + NRC (4 parts) |
| 1966 | 2 | 1,356 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1967 | 2 | 1,106 | WNLA + NRC |
| 1968 | 2 | 2,556 | WNLA (Parts 1–2) |
| 1969 | 1 | 396 | WNLA |
| Total | 35 | 21,932 | Books 2–14 |
The UJ annual-report extraction is complete; the 16 volumes that were mid-batch in March 2026 (the 1965 and 1968 series and the remaining 1959/1961/1962/1967 parts) have since been processed.
NRC Wage Files¶
nrc_wages_extracted/ and nrc_wages_consolidated.csv hold wage schedules from NRC and Chamber of Mines memoranda, 1938–1962, extracted by the Gemini Vision API (see NRC_WAGES_SUMMARY.md in the data folder).
Status¶
The UJ books, the NRC wage memoranda and the board-memoranda monthly series are AI extractions (Claude or Gemini Vision, March 2026). None has yet been page-checked; the sampling check is Phase 5 of the data plan. Status: transcribed.
Coverage¶
- Period: 1957–1969 from the UJ books; 1952–1985 for regional-office totals; 1973–1978 for the district panel
- Geography: Magisterial district, TEBA station, and regional office level
- Content: Number of recruits, by origin district/region, over time
Context¶
TEBA was the centralized recruiting arm of the South African mining industry. Under the Native Labour Regulation Act of 1911, districts were classified as "open" (where mine recruiting was permitted) or "closed" (where white farmers had successfully lobbied to restrict recruiting to protect their labor supply).
The 1974 mine labor crisis — triggered by the gold price boom and the collapse of Mozambican and Malawian labor supply — forced the opening of previously closed districts. This creates the treatment variation for the 1974 shock paper (Boone & Wilse-Samson), though the district-level DiD is specification-sensitive (significant in pooled OLS, null in TWFE). The TEBA open/closed geography also feeds the book's electoral analysis; the flagship political result, however, is the Eiselen-Line divergence — between 1977 and 1987, right-wing vote share rose about 14.2 percentage points more in divisions east of the line than west of it.
Provenance¶
- Source: TEBA/NRC board memoranda, annual reports, station records
- Key document: NRC File B1061 Pad 2 (1974 memo classifying district potential)
- Source PDFs:
raw_archives/06_mining/teba_archive/ - Digitization status: UJ books extracted (35 CSVs, 1957–1969) and NRC wage memoranda extracted (1938–1962), both by AI vision models and not page-checked (status: transcribed). The board memoranda of 1973–79 have a finding aid (304 covering memos in 19 files), kept for research use only