Crossing Boundaries: Mine Migrancy in a Democratic South Africa¶
Jonathan Crush; Wilmot James (1995). Crossing Boundaries: Mine Migrancy in a Democratic South Africa. IDASA / IDRC.
| Type | book |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1886–1994 |
| Regions | South Africa, Witwatersrand, Orange Free State goldfields, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Transkei/Ciskei, Southern Africa |
| Themes | mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, unions strikes, transition post apartheid, inequality poverty unemployment, business and state, demography urbanisation, origins segregation |
| Citation key | crush1995 |
Argument¶
Edited conference volume on how mine migrancy, a legacy of segregation and apartheid, can be transformed in a democratic South Africa. Jeeves and Crush argue that repeated crises never displaced short-term migrancy, which was a political bargain rather than an economic necessity. Crush shows the system eroded in form but not in content after 1970: inflexible migrancy, computerised control, and retrenchments that fell more heavily on South African than foreign miners. Other chapters cover hostels and housing, violence, health (TB, HIV), the supplier economies (Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi), the 1980s gold profit squeeze, and the NUM's responses. The volume concludes with Crush and James's argument for "normalising" the status of all miners.
Evidence and method¶
Chamber of Mines and Teba statistics, mine-level employment tables, Lesotho national accounts (1980-91), interviews with ex-miners, hostel residents and miners' partners, focus groups, a survey of Mandela Park households, participant observation at Western Deep Levels, TB and HIV epidemiological data, company documents, and interviews with Teba and mine managers.
Place in the debates¶
- Was entrenched migrancy an economic necessity of gold mining or a political outcome? (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Jeeves and Crush hold that it was a political bargain of 1906-11 serving white supremacy, not a product of profitability concerns.
- Did the industry 'internalise' (replace foreign with South African labour) in the 1980s, as the ILO argued? (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Crush rejects this: the foreign share stabilised after 1980 and layoffs fell mainly on South Africans.
- Cause of the post-1986 gold crisis: rising costs or falling revenue (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Nattrass finds a fall in real revenue (gold price and ore grades) was the main culprit, not costs; Jourdan endorses this.
- Are mass retrenchments an economic necessity or a strategy against the NUM? (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Coplan and Thoahlane see a 'retrenchment industry' aimed at union-busting and cutting labour costs; Seidman and Nattrass stress gold price and productivity pressures.
- Effect of migrant earnings on the sending economy (Lesotho) (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Cobbe finds weak evidence that migration raises domestic output; the GNP multiplier is under one, so a fall in migration need not reduce GDP.
- Future of the foreign mineworker: status quo, expulsion, South Africanisation, economic community or normalisation (see The mine migrant labour system: origins, recruitment, foreign labour and stabilisation). Crush and James argue for normalisation: treat miners as ordinary workers and ordinary immigrants.
Findings¶
-
Entrenchment of migrancy resulted from politics, not mining economics. (p. 31)
The entrenchment of the system should not be seen as the inevitable product of economic necessity in the mining industry. It was rather the result of the particular conjuncture of economic forces and political programmes
-
The 1911 laws expressed a political bargain that kept black miners temporary and unskilled. (p. 25)
Significantly, the economics of mining did not directly dictate this outcome. It was more the result of a political bargain laboriously constructed in 1906-7.
-
The 'unwritten law' limited family housing to 3 percent, and the mines found it a useful defence. (p. 30)
Between 1950 and 1975, no gold mine even came close to the 3 percent figure.
-
Foreign labour's share stabilised after the mid-1970s fall to 40 percent rather than disappearing. (p. 37)
Figure 1 clearly shows that the proportion of foreign labour on the mines actually stabilised around 1980 and, if anything, gradually increased during the 1980s.
-
Layoffs 1986-92 fell mainly on South Africans. (p. 46)
TOTAL 464580 314128 150452 -56099 -94353 37 63
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Inflexible migrancy gave employers the benefits of stabilisation without family housing. (p. 44)
Without having to permanently stabilise the work-force in family housing, the mines could achieve many of the benefits of stabilisation.
-
Anglo American's home-ownership scheme was largely unaffordable and drew few takers. (p. 58)
only 3 423 (less than 2 percent) of the corporation's 174 207 workers had joined the scheme.
-
The gold profit squeeze stemmed mainly from revenue, and the NUM traded wages for jobs. (p. 186)
a closer examination of the data reveals that the fall in revenue (due to the depressed gold price and falling ore grades) was the major culprit
-
Gold's contribution to exports fell sharply in the 1980s. (p. 186)
gold's contribution to total exports fell from 46,2 percent in 1982 to 27,2 percent in 1992.
-
Mine TB rates rose to levels unseen since the 1920s, partly tied to an ageing, stabilised work-force. (p. 128)
Overall incidence (in-patients and out-patients) is estimated to be around 16/1 000. This level has not been seen on the mines since the 1920s.
-
Retrenched Basotho and the Lesotho economy bear heavy costs. (p. 159)
Unemployment itself surged from 23 percent in 1986 to 40 percent in 1991
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The mines are restructuring labour supply toward gate hiring, with consequences for foreign miners. (p. 150)
For the first time since its inception the mining industry can hire men at the gates of the mine in an unfettered and "free" labour market.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber of Mines Annual Reports and Statistical Tables (1988-1993), COM Review and Newsletters | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1970s-1993 | Supplies employment, foreign/SA labour composition, profitability, NUM membership and gold price data underpinning chapters by Crush, Nattrass, Head and Davies & Head. |
| Employment of black miners by source area and mining house, 1986-1992 (Tables 2-6, from mine-level labour statistics) | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1974-1992 | Shows lay-offs fell more heavily on South Africans than foreign miners, and the foreign share stabilised or rose in the 1980s. |
| Anglo American Corporation accommodation data, 1987 and 1993 (Table 1) and AAC 1993 tables of country by age, education, length of service and wage band | company records or reports | 1986-1993 | Documents the minimal shift from hostel to married/home-owner/living-out housing and the age/skill profile of Mozambican versus South African workers. |
| Market Research Africa, Accommodation Study Target Group Report No 1 (1986) | household or labour survey microdata | 1986 | Survey of home-ownership demand which the corporation used to launch its scheme. |
| NUM Final Housing Survey (1990) | union or movement records | 1990 | Shows affordability barrier to home-ownership scheme. |
| HSRC study of hostels for the Goldstone Commission; Dept of Local Government & National Housing 1991 hostel bed listing; CSIR 1992 hostel survey | commission or official report | 1991-1993 | Enumerates hostels and beds nationally and by mine owner (Appendices A and B). |
| Goldstone Commission evidence and report on President Steyn gold mine violence, November 1991 | commission or official report | 1991 | Source for NUM allegations and conclusion that violence was multi-causal. |
| Payze focus-group interviews in three mine hostels (1992-93) for Goldstone Commission | author survey or fieldwork | 1992-1993 | Qualitative evidence on hostel conditions and residents' accommodation preferences. |
| McNamara fieldwork and attitude survey on hostel violence (McNamara 1980, 1988; McNamara and Schlemmer 1988) | author survey or fieldwork | 1974-1988 | Case studies of gate-politics incidents and an independent attitude survey of Basotho versus Pondo workers. |
| Vivienne Ndatshe interviews with Xhosa-speaking women, Vaal Reefs area, June-December 1990 | interviews oral history | 1990 | Testimony on women's housing preferences and urban/rural ties. |
| Epidemiological Comments TB and HIV notification series; national HIV antenatal surveys | official statistical series | 1971-1992 | Shows rising TB notification and HIV prevalence nationally and debates data validity. |
| COM Annual Health Department Report 1992; Gold Field Mines Annual Medical Report 1980; TB incidence by mine group | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1960-1992 | Series on TB in-patient incidence among black miners. |
| Pathaut study autopsy data, National Centre for Occupational Health, 1975-1991 | author survey or fieldwork | 1975-1991 | Autopsy data linking years of service to TB prevalence. |
| Interviews with mine medical officers (August 1993) and mine HIV prevalence studies 1990/1992 | interviews oral history | 1993 | Explains screening practices and silicosis diagnostic changes. |
| 1932 Tuberculosis Research Committee report, SAIMR Publication No 30 | commission or official report | 1932 | Historical evidence of TB risk by years of mine employment. |
| Interviews with Malawian migrants and returned workers (163 migrants), 1989-1994 | interviews oral history | 1989-1994 | Migrants' views on HIV testing, repatriation and sexual behaviour. |
| Malawi Ministry of Health survey 1989 (via Kishindo), Aids Secretariat reports, National Statistical Office Demographic and Health Survey 1992 | official statistical series | 1985-1994 | Data on HIV/Aids prevalence and condom use in Malawi. |
| Head interviews with Teba, COM, Wenela, NUM, mine personnel managers; Wenela telex 596 (7 Sept 1987); Teba proposed fee structure | interviews oral history | 1987-1994 | Documents hiring at mine gates, one-off contracts and Teba fee changes. |
| Sechaba Consultants 1994; Setsabi et al 1992 survey of Basotho miners; Lesotho Bureau of Statistics Yearbook 1992 | official statistical series | 1976-2001 | Statistics on share of men in mining, unemployment, GDP/GNP and ex-miner farming. |
| Coplan and Thoahlane interviews with 60+ ex-miners; NUM Maseru representative (Puseletso Selae, 10 Jan 1994) | interviews oral history | 1993-1994 | Testimony underpinning the 'retrenchment industry' and social dumping claims. |
| Lesotho national income accounts 1980-1991 (Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Reports No 13, August 1992) and migrant data (Cobbe 1992) | national accounts macro | 1980-1991 | Annual series used in naive OLS regressions of migrant earnings on GDP/GNP/agriculture. |
| Seidman survey of 80 Mandela Park households and interviews in Virginia and Maseru, 1992-93 | author survey or fieldwork | 1992-1993 | Documents community impact of down-scaling at Harmony. |
| Government Mining Engineer reports RP 25/1983, RP 46/1987; Marais Committee reports; Gold Fields Gold 1991/1993 | commission or official report | 1982-1993 | Gold price, production and safety data for Nattrass's profitability analysis. |
| NUM Development Unit records on co-operatives and micro-enterprise loans | union or movement records | 1987-1994 | Describes outcomes of NUM job-creation programmes. |
| Thabane interviews with co-operative leaders and members, May 1994 | interviews oral history | 1994 | Assesses viability and problems of ex-miner co-operatives. |
| Department of Home Affairs deportation figures; UNHCR Maputo 1993 mission report and interviews; Comissao Nacional do Plano 1993; Lesotho Bureau of Statistics 1990 labour force survey; World Bank WDR 1992 | official statistical series | 1985-1993 | Evidence on clandestine migration, regional economic stagnation and remittance dependence. |
| Teba operational data and Manpower Data Centre (Rowett) | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1988-1994 | Figures on recruitment decline, payments and voter database. |
| Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman 1991, South Africa's Labour Empire | secondary literature compilation | 1886-1990 | Supplies historical labour-supply and housing statistics repeatedly reused (foreign labour shares, married quarters, Mozambican employment). |
| Moroney 1982 and 1974 survey of 40 gold mines on married quarters | secondary literature compilation | 1913; 1974 | Figures on married quarters and tin towns before 1914 and the 0.7 percent stabilisation in 1974. |
| Native Labour Regulation Act, Mines and Works Act (1911), Natives (Urban Areas) Act (1923), Mozambique Convention (1928) | legislation gazette | 1911-1928 | Legislative entrenchment of migrancy and the colour bar. |
| Rand Daily Mail, 3 February 1953; Cape Times 3 Jan 1994; Business Day 14 July 1992; Mining World 1989; Chamber of Mines Newsletters | newspapers periodicals | 1953-1994 | Quotations on Verwoerd's opposition to mine villages, NUM wage agreements and employment prospects. |
New data¶
Edited conference volume with several newly collected primary datasets: Seidman's random sample of 80 Mandela Park households plus interviews; Ndatshe's interviews with Xhosa women; Chirwa's 163 migrant interviews; Molapo's 400 interviews and 800 blood-pressure screenings; Coplan and Thoahlane's 60+ ex-miner interviews; Payze's hostel focus groups; Crush's compiled tables of mine-level employment by source area 1986-1992; Cobbe's 1980-91 Lesotho regression dataset.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Largely an edited collection of case studies, interviews and descriptive statistics, with historical narrative (Jeeves and Crush), comparative tables of employment by source and mining house, one small-sample econometric exercise (Cobbe's OLS regressions on 12 annual observations), and advocacy-oriented scenario analysis for policy.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Migrancy has been entrenched since 1900s by a political bargain, not economic necessity; stabilisation experiments (tin towns, labour farms, AAC villages) failed and the 3 percent rule capped family housing. (p. 5) | Historical narrative using Moroney's figures, COM evidence to commissions, NRDC/Native Affairs files via Crush et al 1991, and 1974 survey of 40 mines. | Partial data |
| Over 90 percent of mine workers remain hostel-based migrants; Anglo American home-ownership and married housing reached only a small elite. (p. 15) | Table 1 (AAC accommodation 1987 and 1993) and the AAC home-ownership uptake figures. | Systematic data |
| Retrenchments 1986-92 fell disproportionately on South African workers while foreign share of workforce stayed stable or rose, so internalisation did not occur. (p. 21) | Tables 2-6 on mine-level and mining-house employment by source area from COM-type statistics. | Systematic data |
| Retrenchment in the mines is a deliberate 'retrenchment industry' that undermines NUM and shifts costs to Lesotho, with corrupt denial of benefits. (p. 145) | Interviews with 60+ ex-miners and NUM Maseru representative; no payroll or company records. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Gold-mine profitability crisis in the 1980s was driven mainly by falling real revenue (gold price, ore grade) rather than rising costs; real labour costs fell. (p. 167) | COM statistics, Gold Fields Gold reports, Nattrass working paper 1993, government mining engineer reports. | Partial data |
| The rise in mine TB since the mid-1970s is not explained simply by background infection or age; HIV, stabilised longer service and silica exposure may interact, though data are incomplete. (p. 112) | COM TB rates, age-specific morbidity, Pathaut autopsy study, HIV prevalence studies, medical-officer interviews. | Partial data |
| Mine migrant earnings raise Lesotho GNP but, on naive regressions, lower GDP (multiplier less than one). (p. 159) | OLS regressions on 12 annual observations (1980-91) from Lesotho national accounts, with imperfect proxy series. | Partial data |
| The mining industry is quietly restructuring toward a local gate-hired labour force, so contract migrancy from neighbouring states will fade and clandestine migration will rise. (p. 210) | Teba and mine-manager interviews, Teba fee structure, deportation figures and Chamber employment data. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
Authors acknowledge limited or poor data: Cobbe calls his regressions 'very naive' with short series, and says results are suggestive, not conclusive; Crush says lay-off statistics cannot show deliberate discrimination without job-grade analysis; Minnaar notes hostel counts are incomplete and companies withheld data; Payze notes anonymity and refusals; Seidman's Maseru sample is a snowball of 10; Head notes attrition and replacement rates are unavailable; Packard and Coetzee note TB notification under-reporting and Pathaut sample limits; Chirwa notes unreliable Malawian testing data.
Gaps in the evidence¶
Many claims about managerial intent (internalisation, retrenchment targeting of unionists, social dumping) rest on interviews and aggregate tables; mine-level personnel records by job grade, union status and nationality would test them and exist in company and Teba Manpower Data Centre files. Quantitative claims on Lesotho and mine TB rest on very short series and unpublished data; longer consistent national accounts and linked mine medical records would allow stronger inference. Sampling for qualitative work is small and non-random, so representativeness is unknown.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.