The Witwatersrand a Unique Gold Mining Community¶
Donald R. Petterson (1951). The Witwatersrand a Unique Gold Mining Community. Economic Geography, Vol. 27, No. 3. Clark University.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | descriptive quantitative |
| Period studied | 1886–1949 |
| Regions | Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Transvaal, High Veld, Vereeniging, Pretoria |
| Themes | mining migrant labour, origins segregation, manufacturing industrial policy, agriculture land, demography urbanisation, labour markets wages, comparative theory |
| Citation key | petterson1951 |
Argument¶
Petterson argues that the Witwatersrand is unique among the world's gold fields because gold mining there transformed the whole national economy, land use and population rather than declining or giving way to other pursuits. The uniformity of the low-grade reef, the availability of Kimberley capital and organisational skill, and the state of technology made for a durable, centralised industry. The gold mines in turn drew rail, heavy industry, commercial agriculture and rural population towards the Rand. He claims the low-grade ore requires cheap, unskilled, legally wage-limited African labour, secured through taxation, which produced a caste labour system and the 'Native' and 'Poor White' problems. The paper is a descriptive economic-geography account, not an analytic study of labour.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary geographical description plus official Union of South Africa sources: Official Yearbook (1947), Department of Mines Annual Report 1946, Population Census of 7 May 1946, Hatch and Chalmers (1895), and Shantz and Marbut (1923). Some personal observation from visits in 1945 and 1949 (including remarks by Vereeniging residents), maps, photographs and a table of town populations.
Place in the debates¶
- Cheap labour thesis: low-grade ore and the mines' dependence on cheap African labour (see Cheap labour thesis and the function of the reserves). Accepts that the mines, operating on 'small margin of profit', must have a constant supply of cheap unskilled labour, secured by the poll tax and legally limited wages. This is stated as fact rather than argued against alternatives.
- Gold as engine of South African industrialisation (mining-centred vs. wider causes) (see Industrialisation, protection and industrial structure). Treats gold as the foundation of the industrial nucleus (rail, steel, heat and power industries), while noting that since the First World War gold no longer dominates the industrial economy entirely.
Findings¶
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The low average grade of Rand ore means the central problem is profitable working of poor ore. (p. 5)
In 1946, 4.02 penny- weight of gold was produced per ton of ore mined.4 In the United States the average richness of gold ore is from three to six times as great.
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Gold mining was centralised in a single area, with head offices, banks and the stock exchange in Johannesburg. (p. 7)
In no other country in the world have the gold mines been centralized within a single area such as the Witwatersrand.
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Around 301,000 African mineworkers lived in compounds in 1946, in crowded shared conditions. (p. 9)
The mine compounds, the remaining type of Non-European dwelling, housed in 1946 approximately 301,000 Bantu laborers employed by the mines.
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Only whites could own property in Johannesburg; Africans were housed in compounds, domestic quarters or slum locations, an early segregation pattern. (p. 8)
Since only Europeans are permitted to own prop- erty within the city limits, Johannesburg appears to be European or White in its external characteristics.
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The Rand market stimulated heavy industry and a steel-based industrial nucleus at Vereeniging and Pretoria. (p. 10)
Beginning during the first World War and accentuated by the last War, there has been a tendency for gold no longer to dominate the entire industrial economy of South Africa.
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Rand demand reshaped High Veld agriculture from cattle to maize and truck gardening, with subsidised exports and soil erosion. (p. 12)
No longer is this grassland area used by the inhabitants for the production of cattle. This has been superseded by truck gardening and maize (corn) production.
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The mines drew African men into migrant mine service, which disrupted rural society. (p. 13)
the majority of Bantu males leave their native village at least once during their life to serve an 18-month term in the mines.
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The mines' narrow profit margin required cheap unskilled labour secured by a poll tax. (p. 13)
To insure a constant source of Bantu labor, a system of direct taxation has been inaugurated whereby every Bantu who has reached 18 years of age must pay a personal tax
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The mining labour structure was a legally fixed caste system and excluded poor whites from unskilled work, generating the Poor White problem. (p. 13)
On the Witwatersrand, however, a caste system has evolved, and the Bantu is born to serve and the European to direct.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Union of South Africa, Population Census of May 7, 1946 (Pretoria, 1948), p. 18 | population census | 1946 | Supplies the population figures for Johannesburg, its European/Non-European split, Germiston and the seven smaller Rand towns in Table I. |
| Union of South Africa, Annual Report of the Department of Mines for 1946 (Pretoria, 1947), p. 22 | official statistical series | 1946 | Gives the 1946 average gold yield per ton of ore (4.02 pennyweight) and the roughly 301,000 Bantu laborers housed in mine compounds. |
| Union of South Africa, Official Yearbook, Vol. 23 (Pretoria, 1947) | official statistical series | 1947 edition | Source for Johannesburg climate data, maize yields per acre in the Maize Triangle, the Bantu General Tax of one pound, and the quotation on native labor under white supervision. |
| F. Hatch and J. H. Chalmers, Gold Mines of the Rand (London, 1895), p. 8 | secondary literature compilation | 1895 | Source for the geological description of the Main Reef conglomerate (thickness, width and dip). |
| H. L. Shantz and C. F. Marbut, The Vegetation and Soils of Africa, Research Series 13, American Geographical Society (1923) | secondary literature compilation | 1923 | Supports the claim that High Veld prairie and chernozem soils were potentially productive. |
| Author's visits and conversations in the field (Johannesburg 1945; Africa 1949; Vereeniging residents 1945) | author survey or fieldwork | 1945, 1949 | Informal local opinion that Vereeniging will become the center of South African heavy heat and power industry; general field observation underlies the descriptions. |
| Hugh H. Bennett (US Soil Conservation Service) 1944 caution to the Union on soil erosion | commission or official report | 1944 | Cited to support the claim that soil erosion on the High Veld is serious and needs control measures. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Descriptive regional geography: the Witwatersrand is compared qualitatively with other gold fields (California, Australia, Yukon, Siberia, the Spanish conquest), and its effects on urban, industrial, agricultural and population patterns are inferred narratively. A few official figures illustrate the argument; there is no systematic data analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The Witwatersrand is unique among gold fields because the uniform, extensive low-grade reef sustained an enduring industry that reshaped the national economy. (p. 212) | Comparative narrative plus Hatch and Chalmers (1895) for the reef geology and the 1946 Mines Department figure on gold per ton; comparisons with other fields are asserted. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Witwatersrand ore is very low grade (4.02 dwt per ton in 1946), so profitability depends on cheap labor and technology. (p. 212) | Department of Mines Annual Report 1946; the comparison with US ore grades is asserted without citation. | Partial data |
| Johannesburg and the Rand towns form an integrated urban unit with a large segregated Non-European population, including about 301,000 mine compound laborers in 1946. (p. 216) | 1946 Population Census (p. 18) for town populations and Department of Mines report for compound numbers; segregated housing conditions are described without cited sources. | Partial data |
| The Rand stimulated heavy industry (steel and power at Vereeniging, Pretoria and Germiston), making South Africa increasingly industrial. (p. 217) | Descriptive account with no cited statistics; relies on author observation and local residents' views. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Rand markets and subsidies shifted High Veld land use from cattle to maize and truck gardening, causing soil erosion. (p. 219) | Official Yearbook for maize yields; Bennett's 1944 warning; export tonnage (about 500,000 tons) is given without citation. | Partial data |
| The gold mines' need for cheap unskilled labor underlies the General Tax, legally limited Bantu wages and a caste labor system, which also produced the 'Poor White' problem. (p. 220) | Official Yearbook for the tax and the labor-structure quotation; the causal account of the wage limits and the Poor White problem is asserted. | Asserted |
Gaps in the evidence¶
The causal claims about labor coercion, wage limits, rural dislocation and the Poor White problem lack supporting data on migrant recruitment, wage series or rural household surveys. These sources existed then (Native Affairs Department and Chamber of Mines records, Carnegie Commission on the Poor White Problem, Mine Wages Commission reports, agricultural censuses). Industrial claims need Census of Industries output and employment series, and the comparison with other gold fields needs comparable production and cost statistics.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.