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Power and Surveillance on the South African Gold Mines

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Jonathan Crush (1992). Power and Surveillance on the South African Gold Mines. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 4. Taylor & Francis.
Type journal article
Scope Economics and economic history of apartheid
Method mixed
Period studied 1890–1991
Regions Witwatersrand, Orange Free State (Welkom), Kimberley, Rural labour-sending areas incl. Mozambique and Bophuthatswana
Themes mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, unions strikes, resistance social movements, business and state, methods data sources
Citation key crush1992

Argument

Crush examines how computer technology, fingerprint automation and ID cards have been added to the gold mines' long-standing system of migrant labour control. Drawing on Foucault, Poster and Lyon, he asks whether the electronic 'superpanopticon' makes the physical compound redundant. He concludes that it does not: electronic surveillance (Anglo American's HURIS, the Chamber of Mines/TEBA Manpower Data Centre, bar-coded TEBA cards) meshes with and strengthens walls, guards and compounds. It also lets the industry rebuild centralised blacklisting after the NUM forced the withdrawal of the 'blue letter' in 1983. Workers accepted the system with little protest because they were used to control, jobs were scarce, and the cards carried visible benefits such as TEBA-Cash. Surveillance therefore has 'two faces'.

Evidence and method

Secondary literature on the migrant labour system (Jeeves, Crush/Jeeves/Yudelman, Hindson, Posel); press reports (The Star, Financial Mail, Rand Daily Mail, Mining Sun, Teba Times); an unpublished consultant proposal (McNamara 1981); a NUM report; archival evidence of the Native Grievances Enquiry; interviews with industry officials and mine managers (1984, 1986, 1991); and field visits to H.J. Joel mine in 1991.

Place in the debates

Findings

  • The central thesis: computerisation extends employers' capacity for impersonal monitoring of workers. (p. 4)

    The paper argues that computerisation theoretically prefigures a dramatic extension of ruling class capability to impersonally monitor the behaviours and bodies of the dominated.

  • The Chamber's recruiting bureaucracy created a huge manual archive of worker records dating from 1908. (p. 6)

    In 1991 TEBA estimated that it had some 10.5 million dossiers on past and present miners dating back to 1908.

  • Even under 1950s-60s influx controls, the mines did not rely mainly on state-regulated recruiting and kept hiring outside it. (p. 7)

    Nevertheless in 1955, for the first time in many years, the number of South African mine recruits exceeded the number of non-recruited labourers.

  • Anglo American pioneered computerised labour records (HURIS), including the first computerised blacklist of 'undesirables'. (p. 11)

    By 1980 the Human Resources Information System (HURIS) centre in the mining town of Welkom was connected to 300 terminals throughout Anglo mines.

  • Computerised clock-in (HURIS 3) was aimed at underground absenteeism and was judged a success by management. (p. 12)

    In-house surveys showed absentee rates of 2-3 per cent per diem at each shaft (amounting to several thousand workers across the industry

  • Electronic surveillance has not displaced the physical architecture of control; it supplements and perfects it. (p. 13)

    The arrival of the superpanopticon has certainly not prompted management to dispense with the 'walls, windows, towers or guards' of panoptical surveillance.

  • Before the NUM, mines could dismiss and exclude workers at will, which motivated the search for centralised blacklisting. (p. 14)

    Before the advent of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982, any mine could unilaterally declare a mineworker an undesirable and fire him.

  • After the 1973 abolition of legislation against contract-breaking, TEBA introduced the 'blue letter' blacklist in 1978. (p. 15)

    In 1978 TEBA introduced the TEBA 463 card (or 'blue letter') by which a mine could blacklist a worker from the mine, the group or the industry for varying lengths of time.

  • The NUM won a symbolic victory in 1983 when the blue letter was withdrawn, but the industry kept developing automated identification. (p. 16)

    The TEBA 463 card was officially withdrawn from circulation.

  • Fingerprint automation (FILENET) was introduced in 1987, after the strike-era rise in union power, to detect dismissed 'troublemakers' posing as novices. (p. 16)

    In 1987 TEBA began to install Olivetti's multi-million rand FILENET system

  • Benefits such as TEBA-Cash savings services tied workers to the ID card and encouraged their acceptance of the system. (p. 19)

    By the end of 1990 TEBA-Cash had 568,000 depositors across the industry.

  • Management sees electronic surveillance as complementing, not replacing, physical coercion. (p. 20)

    There is very little evidence that mine management sees electronic surveillance as a substitute for older modes of physical persuasion.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source Kind Period How used
TEBA/Mining Sun article 'TEBA's ID System is a Winner' (M. Mahlaba), Mining Sun, February 1991 newspapers periodicals 1991 (describing 1908-1991) Supplies TEBA's estimate of 10.5 million dossiers dating from 1908, the manual-search burden, and the FILENET fingerprint laser-disc quotation from Colin Christie.
Sher, 'From dompas to Disc', in Davis and Slabbert (eds.), Crime and Power in South Africa (1985), p. 79 (state fingerprint holdings) secondary literature compilation early 1980s Source for the figure of some 15 million black South Africans fingerprinted on central state file.
Automating Apartheid (NARMIC/American Friends Service Committee, 1982) secondary literature compilation 1960s-1982 Cited for the state's mid-1960s computerisation of passbook records and the IBM/ICL contract competition.
Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman, South Africa's Labor Empire (1991) – data on fingerprint holdings, recruits vs non-recruited labour, blacklist evasion, recruiting-office crowds secondary literature compilation 1900s-1980s Relied on for figures such as 8 million fingerprint records held by the Chamber, the 1955 recruit/non-recruit shift, and blacklist circumvention methods.
Central Archives Depot (Pretoria), K 358, Native Grievances Enquiry, Vol. 1, File 68, Evidence of James Sholto Gordon Douglas, 6 March 1914 state archives 1914 Evidence that panoptical compound design appeared early, at City Deep mine.
The Star, 'Huris Keeps A Finger On The Workforce', 5 August 1980 (J. Murray) newspapers periodicals 1980 Describes the six phases of Anglo American's HURIS and the categories of personal data stored on black employees.
Discussion with Vaal Reefs Mine Personnel Manager, February 1987 (and in-house absentee surveys) interviews oral history 1987 Basis for the claim that HURIS 3 cut absenteeism of 2-3 per cent per shift and was deemed a success.
NUM, 'Collective Bargaining at Anglo American Mines' (NUM Media and Research Department, 1988), pp. 62-3 union or movement records 1988 Union claim that ID checks in compounds became routine and recorded after the 1987 strike.
Financial Mail, 11 July 1980, p. 132 newspapers periodicals 1980 Source for the late 1970s introduction of bar-coded ID cards to track workers.
Interviews with Personnel Manager and Hostel Manager, H.J. Joel mine, with Crush, Hunter and James, January 1991 (field research at Joel) interviews oral history January 1991 Establishes how the electronic zone-access and logging system at Joel operates and management's account of its purpose.
J. K. McNamara, 'Proposal on the Introduction of Identity Cards for Black Mineworkers' (Johannesburg, 1981) and 1982 warning to the Chamber company records or reports 1981-82 Documents that the initial impetus for the TEBA Card was avoiding re-employment of undesirables and that marketing to workers was needed.
Rand Daily Mail, 7 July 1983 and 11 July 1983 (blacklisting reports) newspapers periodicals July 1983 Documents the Chamber's denial and then admission of blacklisting after NUM complaints.
Teba Times (TEBA house journal), 1/2 (1990) and 2/1 (1991) company records or reports 1990-1991 Source for the TEBA card, visitor system, mobile units, on-line links of mines, field office automation, work-seeker registers and TEBA-Cash payroll takeover.
Interview, M. Hobson, Gonubie, with Jonathan Crush, February 1991 interviews oral history February 1991 Supports the account of the manual register of work-seekers introduced in 1987.
Author's fieldwork at rural Natal recruiting offices, April 1984 author survey or fieldwork April 1984 Shows blue letters still in use after the Chamber officially withdrew the TEBA 463 card.

Inference

Quantification: Illustrative figures.

Qualitative, interpretive case study of Anglo American's HURIS, JCI's H.J. Joel mine and the Chamber/TEBA central data system, built from trade press, house journals, a few interviews and a consultant's proposal, and interpreted through Foucault/Poster/Lyon theory of panopticism; the claims are argued by narrative and inference rather than systematic data.

Key claims

Claim Basis Strength
Computerised identification and records systems on the gold mines extended the capacity of mine management to monitor and exclude workers, building on older manual dossiers and fingerprint files. (p. 837) TEBA dossier and fingerprint holdings from Mining Sun and Crush et al.; Teba Times; Manpower Data Centre details from interviews and TEBA documentation. Partial data
Anglo American's HURIS reduced absenteeism at the shaft head through computerised ID clock-in. (p. 835) In-house surveys reported in a single interview with the Vaal Reefs personnel manager. Illustrative or anecdotal
Electronic surveillance has not displaced the physical design of the compound; at Joel, electronic tracking meshes with walls, fences and guards, enhancing older controls. (p. 836) Author's field visit and interviews at H.J. Joel (1991), supplemented by W. James. Illustrative or anecdotal
The NUM forced the Chamber to withdraw the TEBA 463 'blue letter' blacklist in 1983, but the industry then built a more secretive computerised blacklist. (p. 840) Rand Daily Mail reports of 1983, author's interviews, TEBA documentation; secrecy of the current system is inferred, with details stated to be unavailable. Partial data
Electronic surveillance was implemented with barely any protest because workers were habituated to control, faced a tight labour market, and gained visible benefits such as TEBA-Cash through the ID card. (p. 842) McNamara's 1982 warning, TEBA-Cash depositor figure from Teba Times, and the author's reasoning; no worker testimony. Asserted
Compound architecture shifted from the fan-shaped panopticon, standard by the late 1940s, toward 'upgraded' open hostel designs in the 1970s after worker protest. (p. 832) Archival evidence on City Deep, the author's unpublished paper 'Genealogies', Crush et al. plates, McNamara's thesis. Partial data

The author's caveats

The author calls the paper a 'preliminary analysis'. He acknowledges that mining houses became 'secretive and evasive' about computerised surveillance, that details of the current blacklist system are unavailable, and that management downplays the Joel system's purpose. The NUM and independent researchers have paid little attention to these systems.

Gaps in the evidence

The argument would need internal Chamber of Mines, TEBA and mining-house records (system specifications, blacklist entry numbers, rejection rates) to test how far electronic systems excluded workers or deterred militancy. It lacks worker testimony on perceptions and acceptance of the ID cards, and it never measures absenteeism or dismissal data before and after computerisation beyond one manager's recollection. Some company and NUM records may now be accessible in archives, and worker interviews remain possible.

Replicability: Data poorly documented.