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The Future of Mine Migrancy in the Context of Broader Trends in Migration in Southern Africa

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Robert Davies; Judith Head (1995). The Future of Mine Migrancy in the Context of Broader Trends in Migration in Southern Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3. Taylor & Francis.
Type journal article
Scope Economics and economic history of apartheid
Method mixed
Period studied 1975–1994
Regions South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, SADC region, Witwatersrand gold mines
Themes mining migrant labour, labour markets wages, unions strikes, transition post apartheid, inequality poverty unemployment, demography urbanisation
Citation key davies1995

Argument

Legal mine migrancy from neighbouring states is no longer the main form of migration to South Africa and is being phased out. The cause is structural change inside the mining industry, not the policy of the new democratic government. Mines have cut labour since the 1987 strike, shifted to hiring at the gate from South African sources, and TEBA's recruiting role has withered. The authors argue that with regional economic stagnation and structural adjustment, each lost mine job could set off a multiplier in which several family members migrate clandestinely. They therefore urge regional cooperation and job-creation programmes, and caution against populist deportation policies. The argument rests on Chamber of Mines employment statistics, deportation figures, regional economic data and interviews.

Evidence and method

Chamber of Mines Statistical Tables and Annual Reports; Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman statistical appendix; deportation figures from the Minister of Home Affairs and Parliament; interviews with TEBA, Western Areas mine, NUM and UNHCR officials; WENELA internal report (1989); Lesotho labour force survey 1985/6; Mozambican statistical yearbook 1992; World Bank and UN-PAAERD data; press reports.

Place in the debates

Findings

  • The foreign (SADC) share of mine labour fell sharply in the first phase of substitution. (p. 4)

    In 1975 the ten original member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) provided 73.8% of the black workers employed in gold and coal mines

  • Total black mine employment fell heavily after 1986 and the 1987 strike. (p. 4)

    The total number of workers employed in Wage Bands 1-8 (the categories historically reserved for black workers) fell from 536,112 in 1986 to 327,305 in 1993

  • The 1987 strike prompted retrenchments and changes to the labour process in a context of weak gold prices. (p. 4)

    the 1987 strike prompted the Chamber to begin a programme of retrenchments accompanied, in some cases, by the introduction of new technologies.

  • The foreign proportion rose slightly after 1986 but foreign numbers fell by almost a third. (p. 5)

    The average number of SADC citizens employed on gold and coal mines owned by members of the South African Chamber of Mines was 71,224 less in 1993 than it was in 1986

  • TEBA no longer recruits and is shifting costs against foreign labour, encouraging gate hiring. (p. 6)

    It means that it will become increasingly costly for the mines to take on labour from the outer periphery (the historical supplier states), and to their advantage to hire men directly at the gates of the mine.

  • Deportations of illegal migrants were rising and were large relative to legal foreign mine employment. (p. 7)

    96,515 'illegal aliens' were deported from South Africa in 1993: 80,926 (83.8%) from Mozambique, 10,861 (11.2%) from Zimbabwe and 3,090 (3.2%) from Lesotho.

  • South African policies in the 1980s disadvantaged neighbouring states through disengagement from service relationships. (p. 9)

    the 1980s saw South Africa disengaging from a number of service relationships where it had historically been involved as a buyer, and thus provider of revenue, to other countries.

  • Remittances remain vital to Lesotho's economy despite falling mine employment. (p. 10)

    TEBA payments to Lesotho totalled 284 million rand in 1992 - an amount equal to 65% of the country's GDP in 1990.

  • Reductions in recruitment outpaced job creation in supplier states, effectively exporting unemployment. (p. 11)

    levels of recruitment from SADC member supplier states have been cut at a rate far in excess of the capacity to create new employment opportunities.

  • Mines can now draw on a South African labour reserve at no recruiting cost, suggesting a permanent gate-hired workforce. (p. 12)

    It can draws on a growing reserve army of labour within the borders of South Africa itself, at no cost.

  • The large dependent population per mineworker underpins the proposed multiplier effect. (p. 13)

    each job lost potentially affects the livelihood of anything up to sixteen people.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source Kind Period How used
Chamber of Mines, Statistical Tables (1993) chamber of mines or recruiting records 1986-1993 Provides wage band 1-8 employment totals and SADC/foreign worker employment by country, showing across-the-board job losses since 1986.
Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman, South Africa's Labour Empire, Statistical Appendix secondary literature compilation 1975-1987 Supplies 1975 and 1982 shares and numbers of SADC workers on Chamber mines and Lesotho series.
Chamber of Mines, unpublished data for 1993 Annual Report chamber of mines or recruiting records 1993 Supports 1993 employment figures for Basotho and other foreign workers.
Chamber of Mines, Mining into the Next Century: A Context for Survival and Growth (1993) company records or reports 1993 Cited for post-1987 company cost-reduction policies and context of depressed gold price.
Chamber of Mines, Annual Report 1992 chamber of mines or recruiting records 1992 Source for estimate that half a million mine employees support 3.1 million dependents, underpinning the multiplier argument.
Interview, Mr Bellingan, Personnel Manager, Western Areas Gold Mine, 13.12.93 interviews oral history 1993 Illustrates labour process reorganisation and productivity increase with less labour.
Interviews with Mr Mike Moloney, Operations Manager, TEBA, 14.12.93 and 23.5.94 interviews oral history 1993-1994 Source for men on strength vs handled by TEBA, TEBA restructuring, fee structure, and contractor labour legalisation.
Interview, Mr Tom Ketsise, National Union of Mineworkers, 24.5.94 interviews oral history 1994 Union view that contractors are used for normal mining operations and employ mainly Mozambicans and Basotho.
UNHCR Maputo, 'Mission Report' (November 1993) and interviews with UNHCR officials (Mpyisi 25.11.93; Kapya 29.11.93) commission or official report 1993 Establishes categories of Mozambicans in South Africa, the fourth being young male economic migrants, and border-crossing costs.
Interview, anonymous job-seeker, TEBA Maputo, 29.11.93 interviews oral history 1993 Evidence of the practice of 'buying a telex' to obtain mine jobs illegally.
WENELA Maputo to General Manager, TEBA Ltd., 'Monthly Report', May 1989 company records or reports May 1989 Confirms bribery for mine job documentation.
Debates of the National Assembly, 8.8.1994, Questions (Minister of Home Affairs) parliamentary debates 1994 Source of deportation figures by country for 1993 and the Minister's admission that no estimate of illegal migrants is possible.
Business Day, 31.8.1994 and 7.10.1994 newspapers periodicals 1994 Reports Home Affairs and police estimates of three to eight million illegal migrants.
Weekend Argus, 16-17.10.1993 newspapers periodicals 1993 Source for 1992 deportation figure and growth from 1988.
World Bank, World Development Report 1992, Tables 2 and 26 international trade or finance data 1965-1990 Table 1 of GDP and population growth showing stagnation relative to population growth.
UN-PAAERD, 'Economic Crisis in Africa: Final Review of the Implementation of UN-PAAERD', 1991 commission or official report 1985-1991 Used for continental evidence on declining incomes, wages and social spending under structural adjustment.
Lesotho Bureau of Statistics, The Labour Force of Lesotho: Labour Force Survey 1985/6 (1990) household or labour survey microdata 1985/6 Provides labour force structure, migrant share of wage employment and remittance share of rural household income.
Interview, Sr. Macuacua, Organizacao dos Trabalhadores Mocambicanos, 26.11.93 interviews oral history 1993 Source for 17,000 young Mozambicans repatriated from the GDR.
Chipeta and Davies, Regional Relations and Cooperation Post-Apartheid: a Macro-Framework Study (SADC, 1992) secondary literature compilation 1990-1992 Source for Lesotho TEBA payments relative to GDP and GNP-GDP gap.

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Argument by assembling published labour-employment and deportation statistics, official macro data, and interviews with TEBA, mine and UNHCR officials to describe trends in legal and clandestine migration, then speculative extrapolation from dependency ratios to a hypothesised 'multiplier' between mine job losses and clandestine migration.

Key claims

Claim Basis Strength
Employment of SADC citizens on Chamber gold and coal mines fell sharply after 1986 (about 222,600 to 151,400), alongside an overall fall in black mine employment of 39%. (p. 442) Chamber of Mines Statistical Tables 1993 and Crush et al. appendix, descriptive counts. Systematic data
Deportations of 'illegal aliens' in 1993 (96,515) were large relative to legal foreign mine employment, indicating clandestine migration now exceeds legal mine migration in numbers. (p. 444) Minister of Home Affairs figures in Hansard, plus Chamber of Mines employment totals. Partial data
The total stock of clandestine migrants cannot be measured; estimates range from three to eight million. (p. 444) Press reports and Home Affairs officials' statements. Illustrative or anecdotal
TEBA has shifted from recruiting to processing, and its new three-tier fee structure will make foreign labour costlier, so foreign mine labour is being phased out. (p. 443) Interviews with TEBA's Operations Manager; Chamber/TEBA figures on men on strength vs handled. Partial data
Supplier states are heavily dependent on mine remittances and face weak domestic employment, creating strong pressure for clandestine migration. (p. 447) Lesotho Labour Force Survey 1985/6, Mozambican Anuario Estatistico 1992, Chipeta and Davies, World Bank growth data. Partial data
Contract migrancy will be replaced by a permanent workforce hired at the gates, driven by structural changes (end of apartheid legislation, unionisation, no housing need) independent of the new government. (p. 449) Argument from structural reasoning and interviews; authors admit no direct evidence for some elements. Asserted
Each mine job lost may generate more than one clandestine migrant (a multiplier), since each mineworker supports many dependents. (p. 450) Chamber of Mines estimate of 3.1 million dependents of half a million employees; NUM estimate of 1:11; no data on actual clandestine migration responses. Asserted

The author's caveats

The authors acknowledge that clandestine migration is undocumented and that no reliable estimates exist, with deportation statistics the only 'properly collected' figures and only the tip of the iceberg. They also state that they have no evidence for their view that mine management will move towards an all-inclusive wage.

Gaps in the evidence

The central multiplier claim is not tested with any data linking retrenched miners' households to subsequent clandestine migration; household or migration surveys in Mozambique and Lesotho tracking family members would be needed. Deportation counts are used as a proxy for stock and flow of illegal migrants, though they reflect enforcement effort. Evidence on mine hiring practices (gate hiring, contractors) rests on a few interviews and could be tested with mine-level personnel records and Chamber/TEBA data, partly accessible now.

Replicability: Data described but not public.