Conflict on South African Mines, 1972-1979¶
Dudley Horner; Alide Kooy (1980). Conflict on South African Mines, 1972-1979. Saldru Working Paper No. 29 (Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town). SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town.
| Type | working paper |
| Scope | Economics and economic history of apartheid |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1972–1979 |
| Regions | South Africa, Witwatersrand, Orange Free State goldfields, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique |
| Themes | mining migrant labour, unions strikes, resistance social movements, labour markets wages, origins segregation, business and state |
| Citation key | horner1980b |
Argument¶
The authors catalogue 81 incidents of conflict on South African mines between 1972 and 1979. They argue the incidents were resistance to repressive compound conditions, wages and job differentials, not irrational tribal violence. Drawing on Phimister and van Onselen's work on Rhodesian mining, they treat strikes, riots, desertion and 'repatriations' as the visible peaks of everyday worker consciousness in a labour-repressive system with no institutionalised bargaining. They read the official Inter-Departmental Committee of Inquiry's 'faction fighting' explanation as crude racism. They locate the 'faction fights' in the mines' occupational and hostel division of workers by origin. They show that the mines and state responded with conciliation, social control, divide-and-rule and ruthless suppression, while avoiding full trade union rights.
Evidence and method¶
Mainly press reports (Rand Daily Mail, Star, Cape Times, etc.), SAP Commissioner's report RP 36/1975, Hansard, Horrell's Survey of Race Relations, TEBA annual reports, the 1975 Inter-Departmental Committee report on riots, and secondary literature (van Onselen, Phimister, Wilson, Moorsom). The paper compiles a 'Diary of Events' and tables of deaths, injuries and numbers employed by mine and group, plus a table of minimum mine wage rates 1948-1979.
Place in the debates¶
- 'Faction fighting' as tribal violence vs. structural/class explanation (see Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor). Rejects the official tribalist explanation as 'crude racism'. Attributes clashes to differential job access, contract lengths and mine management's division of workers by origin.
- Nature of African worker consciousness under labour repression (organised protest vs. everyday resistance) (see Worker consciousness, strikes and conflict on the mines and shop floor). Follows Phimister and van Onselen: strikes and riots are 'high water marks', and desertion, avoidance of mines, absenteeism and loafing are equally important evidence of consciousness.
- Role of labour reserves and migrant labour in South African capitalism (cheap labour thesis) (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Holds that reserves allowed wages below reproduction cost and super-profit in early development. They now function more as pools of surplus labour.
Findings¶
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Scale of conflict: 81 incidents, 205 deaths and 1,168 injuries across gold, coal and other mines, Oct 1972-Dec 1979. (p. 3)
Between October 1972 and December 1979 a series of 81 incidents of resistance occurred on South African mines, many of them violent, in which 205 workers died and 1 168 were injured.
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Reserves subsidised early farm and mine labour costs, giving super-profit through wages below reproduction cost. (p. 5)
The existence of rural 'labour reserves' enabled the farms and the mines in the critical early stages of their development to reap a sort of super-profit
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Black South African workers entered the mines in numbers only after the 1974 wage rises; before that many preferred unemployment while seeking manufacturing jobs. (p. 7)
it seems that previously many of these workers preferred to remain unemployed in the hope of getting a higher paid and less dangerous job
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A quarter of the disturbances stemmed directly from working and living conditions, with wage-based strikes a further substantial category. (p. 9)
Of the 81 disturbances on the mines between 1972 and 1979, 20 were directly related to working and living conditions.
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Basotho miners struck in unison against Lesotho's compulsory deferred-pay scheme and thousands left the mines. (p. 11)
At least 8 500 Basotho and Tswana miners left the mines and went home.
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The foreign labour supply was sharply disrupted, with Malawian numbers collapsing after Banda suspended recruiting. (p. 12)
the number of Malawian workers on the mines fell from 110 000 in 1973 to a low of 163 in April 1977.
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The authors reject the official racial explanation of 'faction fights'. (p. 13)
This sort of crude racism serves no purpose as an explanation.
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Faction fights are better explained by management's occupational and hostel division of workers by origin. (p. 15)
we would suggest that it would be more useful to analyse 'faction fights' in terms of the mines' policy of dividing workers occupationally and in hostels according to area of origin
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Mine management deliberately uses an ethnic mix to prevent total strikes. (p. 19)
if the labour force on individual mines were homogeneous, the mines would run the risk of strikes being total instead of partial.
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Mines and the Committee resisted full union rights because they would enable solidarity. (p. 22)
any system of full trade union rights which would clearly articulate worker grievances might also provide a base for worker solidarity and better organised resistance.
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Minimum underground mine wage rose from 72 cents to R1,60 per shift in 1974, with further rises in following years. (p. 41)
Minimum rates increased in two steps, in June and December, from 72 cents to R1,60 underground.
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Employer and state response was combined conciliation, social control and ruthless repression. (p. 25)
Riots are to be prevented through conciliation and more extensive social controls, and where they nevertheless erupt, they are to be ruthlessly suppressed.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee of Inquiry into Riots on Mines in the Republic of South Africa | commission or official report | c.1975 | Source of the official 'faction fighting' explanation, the committee's recommendations for prevention and suppression of riots, and the claim that 33 of 54 incidents were 'ethnic differences'. |
| Annual Report of the Commissioner of the South African Police for the year ended June 1974, R.P. 36/1975 | official statistical series | year ended June 1974 | Cross-checks press figures for deaths and injuries in the 1974 incidents; the police numbers are preferred in some cases and differ from press counts. |
| Press reports (Rand Daily Mail, Star, Cape Times, Argus, Natal Mercury, Daily Dispatch, Burger, Sunday Tribune, Financial Mail etc.), 1972-1979 | newspapers periodicals | 1972-1979 | Almost the sole basis for the Diary of Events and Tables 1-4 (dates, mines, numbers involved, dead, injured, groups involved). |
| Horrell et al., A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (SAIRR), 1973-1978 editions | secondary literature compilation | 1973-1978 | Compiled accounts of individual incidents and Malawian worker numbers; also source of the minimum wage series in Table 5. |
| J.A. Grobbelaar, Some Views, Impressions and Conclusions on the Riots and the Labour Unrest which has taken place in the Mining Industry Recently (TUCSA, 1975) | union or movement records | 1975 | Supplementary source for details of the 1974 incidents in the Diary of Events. |
| Annual reports of The Employment Bureau of Africa Limited (TEBA), formerly Mine Labour Organisations (Wenela) | chamber of mines or recruiting records | 1973-1976 and 1978 year-ends | Provides the numbers of African labourers employed on each mine, set against the incidents in Tables 2-4. |
| Department of Statistics, Statistical News Release P.8, 27 July 1979 | official statistical series | February 1979 | Establishes mine employment of 667 000 (69 000 white, 598 000 black) to show the sector's importance. |
| House of Assembly Debates, Q. cols. 59-60, 14 February 1979 | parliamentary debates | 14 February 1979 | Gives the economically active population (9 440 000) as the denominator for mine employment. |
| House of Assembly Debates (Hansard 3), Q. cols. 205-210, 21 February 1975 | parliamentary debates | 21 February 1975 | Sole source for some incidents (Balgray Collieries, Copperton, Loxton) not reported in the press. |
| Minimum wage series for African mineworkers (Wilson, Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969; Horrell, Survey of Race Relations; Financial Mail, 6 June 1979) | secondary literature compilation | 1948-1979 | Table 5 records the Chamber of Mines minimum wage rises, used to argue that the 1974 wage rise drew South African workers to the mines. |
| University of Eduardo Mondlane, Centre for African Studies, The Mozambican Miner: a study in the export of labour (1977) | secondary literature compilation | 1977 | Evidence on re-engagement certificates at ERPM and Western Deep, and on Anglo American's policy of reducing dependence on Mozambican labour. |
| Rand Daily Mail, 6 March 1975 (statement by general manager of Mine Labour Organisations) | newspapers periodicals | 6 March 1975 | Supports the claim that the mines prefer an ethnic 'mix' to prevent total strikes. |
| Plaut, Report on the Anglo American gold mines (SALB 1976) and Prior, Managerial ideology: a case study (SALB 1977) | secondary literature compilation | 1975-1977 | Evidence that hoisting delays are a perennial worker complaint. |
| Van Onselen, Chibaro and Phimister/van Onselen essays on Rhodesian mining | secondary literature compilation | 1900-1953 | Provides the conceptual framework (compound control, day-to-day resistance, desertion) that the authors apply to South Africa in the 1970s. |
New data¶
A chronology ('Diary of Events') and Tables 1-4 of 81-82 mine conflict incidents, October 1972 to December 1979, covering mine, group, date, numbers involved, killed and injured, and labour force size, compiled from press reports, SAIRR surveys and police reports.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Descriptive event-catalogue of incidents compiled from press reports, supported by a reading of the official Committee of Inquiry report and an interpretive framework borrowed from Rhodesian labour historiography (Phimister, van Onselen). Claims rest on classification of incidents by cause and group, plus argument by analogy and critique of the Committee's ethnic explanation; there is no systematic test of causes.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Between October 1972 and December 1979 there were 81 incidents of resistance on South African mines, with 205 deaths and 1 168 injuries. (p. 3) | Press reports, SAIRR surveys and police reports compiled in the Diary of Events and Tables 1-4. | Partial data |
| Most 'faction fights' should be explained by labour-force structure (differential job access, contract length, hostel allocation by origin), not tribal enmity. (p. 14) | Counts of Xhosa-Basotho and other clashes by year from the press-based Diary, plus the observation that Lesotho long-service workers hold upper-bracket posts on some mines; no mine-level labour-force data. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Of the 81 disturbances, 20 related directly to working and living conditions and 18 were wage-based strikes. (p. 9) | The authors' classification of the press-based incident chronology. | Partial data |
| The January 1975 incidents were a collective protest by Basotho miners against the Lesotho government's compulsory deferred pay scheme, causing at least 8 500 to leave. (p. 11) | Press reports and Diary entries (Saaiplaas, Vaal Reefs, President Brand, etc.); Lesotho regulations cited from press. | Partial data |
| Black South Africans went to the mines in large numbers only after the Chamber of Mines substantially raised wages in 1974. (p. 7) | Table 5 wage series; the causal inference about worker preferences is asserted without recruitment data. | Asserted |
| The mines and state respond with conciliation and social control (humane treatment, recreation, company-owned shops, ethnic mix, screening) combined with ruthless suppression. (p. 20) | Close reading of the Inter-Departmental Committee report recommendations and press statements. | Partial data |
| Conflict peaked in 1974, declined in 1975-76, and the reported incidents understate resistance, since only dramatic events reach the press. (p. 22) | Table 1 annual counts built from press reports; inference about unreported resistance is speculative. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
Mining house investigations are not available to researchers, so the authors rely almost entirely on scanty press reports. Press and police figures for deaths and injuries often do not tally, and Table 1 notes alternative police totals. Numbers involved and employed are frequently unknown, and the information is too scanty to identify some combatants or to analyse the labour-force structure of each mine.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument needs mine-level data on labour-force composition by origin and job grade, wages, contract length and hostel allocation to test the structural explanation of 'faction fights'. It also needs the mining houses' internal inquiry reports, the Chamber of Mines and TEBA recruitment records, and worker testimony. Some of these records may now be in archives; the interviews could have been collected at the time. Systematic information on unreported day-to-day resistance (absenteeism, desertion) would also be required.
Replicability: Data described but not public.