The Road to Marikana: Transformations in South Africa’s Platinum Industry, 1994–2012

Abstract

The Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012 exposed significant fault-lines in South Africa’s platinum mining regime. However, existing published work sheds little light on the historical trajectory of platinum mining in South Africa, and posits various mono-causal explanations for the tragedy that took place. This article provides an historical account of worker organisation in South Africa’s platinum sector since the advent of democracy, and synthesises this story with the political and economic forces that have reshaped the sector over time. Platinum has been plagued by a highly volatile growth pattern, declining living conditions for its workers, and increasing labour segmentation since 1994. These issues posed unique challenges for organised labour, who became increasingly ineffective in the face of growing worker dissatisfaction. By highlighting the importance of these interlinked factors, the article offers important context to existing debates on Marikana. It does not delve into the violence and political upheavals that followed the massacre itself.

Acknowledgements

This article is a refined version of a 2013 Honours dissertation, and would have been impossible without the dedication and wisdom of Professor Anne Kelk Mager, my supervisor. I would also like to thank Kally Forest, Jeremy Seekings, Peter Delius, Matthew Chaskalson, Karen Lazar and Susan Levy for valuable advice and insight.

Notes

¹ See A. Manson, ‘Mining and “Traditional Communities” in South Africa’s Platinum Belt: Contestations Over Land, Leadership and Assets in the North West Province, c.1996–2012’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 13, 2 (2013), pp. 409–23; G. Capps, ‘Victim of its Own Successes? The Platinum Mining Industry and the Apartheid Mineral Property System in South Africa’s Political Transition’, Review of African Political Economy, 39, 169 (2012), pp. 63–84.

² P. Alexander, ‘Marikana, Turning Point in South African History’, Review of African Political Economy, 40, 138 (2013), pp. 605–19. Similar arguments are articulated in P. Bond and S. Mottiar, ‘Movements, Protests and a Massacre in South Africa’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 31, 2 (2013), pp. 283–302; S. Mohamed, ‘The Effect of a Mainstream Approach to Economic and Corporate Governance in South Africa’, in Omano Edigheji (ed.), Constructing a Developmental State in South Africa: Potentials and Challenges (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2010), pp. 169–83.

³ G. Hartford, ‘The Mining Industry Strike Wave – What Are the Causes and What Are the Solutions?’, GroundUp Media, Cape Town, 10 October 2012, available at http://www.groundup.org.za/article/mining-industry-strike-wave-what-are-causes-and-what-are-solutions/, retrieved 12 February 2016.

⁴ C. Chinguno, ‘Marikana and the Post-Apartheid Workplace Order’, SWOP Working Paper, 2013, passim.

⁵ P. Frankel, Between the Rainbows and the Rain: Marikana, Migration, Mining and the Crisis of Modern South Africa (Johannesburg, Agency for Social Reconstruction, 2013), Chapters 1–4; K. Breckenridge, ‘Marikana and the Limits of Biopolitics: Themes in the Recent Scholarship of South African Mining’, Africa, 84, 1 (2014), pp. 157–8.

⁶ My approach falls broadly into a current of social historiography evident in the late 1980s, driven primarily by Crush, Jeeves and Yudelman. These authors re-introduced political economy into labour historiography. See J. Crush, A. Jeeves and D. Yudelman, South Africa’s Labour Empire: A History of Black Migrancy to the Gold Mines (Johannesburg, Westview Press, 1991).

⁷ G. Hawthorn, ‘The Platinum Group Element Deposits of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa’, Platinum Metals Review, 54, 4 (2010), p. 210.

⁸ A. Edwards and M.H. Silk, Platinum in South Africa: A Concise Account with an Examination of the Outlook for Producers during the 1990s (Johannesburg, Council for Mineral Technology, 1987), pp. 11–19.

⁹ Transvaal Chamber of Mines Annual Report, 1951, p. 147.

¹⁰ Edwards and Silk, Platinum in South Africa, p. 19.

¹¹ Ibid., pp. 2–19; R.M. Reddy, ‘“Darlings no Longer”: Tswana Mineworkers and Labour Unrest on the Platinum Mines of Bophuthatswana, 1986–1994’, Honours dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011, p. 18.

¹² V.L. Allen, The History of Black Mineworkers in South Africa, Volume II: Dissent and Repression in the Mine Compounds, 1948–1982 (Johannesburg, The Moor Press, 2003), p. 2.

¹³ Ibid., p. 97; Edwards and Silk, Platinum in South Africa, pp. 25–9.

¹⁴ B. Fine and Z. Rustomjee, The Political Economy of South Africa – from Minerals–Energy Complex to Industrialisation (London, Westview Press, 1996), pp. 96–111.

¹⁵ Edwards and Silk, Platinum in South Africa, p. 2; Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2005 (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2006).

¹⁶ C.H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa: Conquest, Discrimination, and Development (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 205. Due to heavy inflation in the 1980s and deteriorating ore quality, the export share of gold decreased from 45%, in 1979–84 to less than 24% in the mid 1990s.

¹⁷ H-J. Chang, ‘Evaluating the Current Industrial Policy of South Africa’, Transformation, 36 (1996), pp. 68–70.

¹⁸ Between 1992 and 1996, a fierce debate within the left ensued over economic policy after the democratic transition. Writing in 1992, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s Enoch Godongwana argued that open markets and a ‘social accord between labour and capital’ would encourage economic growth and create a more equitable society. On the other hand, Marxist economist John Saul criticised this view for ‘positing a false dichotomy between Trotskyism and mild reformism’. As the ANC made several concessions to big business during the negotiation process, it became clear that Saul’s view had not found favour in the party’s top leadership. See E. Godongwana, ‘Industrial Restructuring and the Social Contract: Reforming Capitalism or Building Blocks for Socialism?’, South African Labour Bulletin, 16, 4 (1994), pp. 20–23; J. Saul, ‘Structural Reform: A Model for the Revolutionary Transformation of South Africa?’, Transformation, 20 (1992), pp. 2–3; J. Seekings and N. Nattrass, Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa (New Haven and London, Princeton University Press, 2005), p. 346.

¹⁹ Seekings and Nattrass, Class, Race and Inequality, pp. 344–7; S. Gelb, ‘Democratising Economic Growth: Alternative Growth Models for the Future’, Transformation, 12 (1990), pp. 28–40.

²⁰ Amplats Annual Report, 2000; S. Lunsche, ‘Blue-Chip Opening for Black Power’, Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 3 April 1994.

²¹ A. Bezuidenhout, ‘New Patterns of Exclusion in the South African Mining Industry’, in Adam Habib and Kristina Hartley (eds), Racial Redress and Citizenship in South Africa (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2008), passim.

²² South African Chamber of Mines, Facts and Figures (2004). Gross global demand for platinum autocatalysts jumped from 57.5 to 109.2 metric tonnes between 1995 and 2004.

²³ D. Holland and B. Kantor, ‘Thinking in the Same Old Way Will Not Rescue the Platinum Industry’, Business Day, 14 May 2014.

²⁴ Mohamed, ‘The Effect of a Mainstream Approach’, p. 171. The Rembrandt Group, who controlled Impala through Sanlam, decreased their share of JSE market capitalisation by almost 40% in the same period.

²⁵ Amplats Annual Report, 2000, p. 120.

²⁶ Amplats Annual Report, 2011, p. 1.

²⁷ Capps, ‘Victim of its Own Successes’, p. 67–77; Implats Annual Report, 2000, p. 23.

²⁸ J. Brown, ‘Platinum Firms’ Market Cap Reaches R580bn’, The Star, Johannesburg, 8 May 2007.

²⁹ Amplats Annual Report, 2007, p. 5.

³⁰ DME, Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2005; Implats Annual Report, 2006; Amplats, Ten Year Financial Review, 2008.

³¹ G. Isaacs and A. Bowman, Demanding the Impossible? Platinum Wage Demands and Profits in Context (Johannesburg, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, 2014), p. 12; DME, Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2011.

³² Disaggregated wage data are not available in company, Chamber of Mines or DMR reports. Numerous requests for statistics from the Chamber of Mines and mining companies at the time of writing proved unsuccessful.

³³ DME, Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2011; Amplats Annual Report, 2011, p. 5; Kitco Price Charts, available at http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/pt1825nyb.html, retrieved 7 July 2016.

³⁴ See V.L. Allen, The History of Black Mineworkers in South Africa, Volume III: The Rise and Struggles of the National Union of Mineworkers, 1982–1994 (Johannesburg, The Moor Press, 2003), pp. 80–88, 202–7, 276–80; A. Bezuidenhout and S. Buhlungu, ‘Union Solidarity Under Stress: The Case of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa’, Labour Studies Journal, 33, 3 (2008), pp. 266–8; T.D. Moodie and V. Ndatshe, Going for Gold: Men, Mines, and Migration (Los Angeles and Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994), pp. 263–71; interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013 (all interviews in this article were conducted by the author).

³⁵ N. Jacobs, Environment, Power and Injustice: A South African Story (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 203.

³⁶ Allen, History of Black Mineworkers, Volume III, pp. 435–540.

³⁷ Interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013.

³⁸ NUM membership information and graphs, National Congress, 1997.

³⁹ Seekings and Nattrass, Class Race and Inequality, p. 350. It is interesting to note that no centralised bargaining forum for the platinum sector was ever developed (the NUM negotiated wages in the gold sector through the Chamber of Mines). After posing the question to a number of experts, including two former trade unionists, I was unable to find an adequate explanation for why this is the case.

⁴⁰ Interview with Martin Nicol, Cape Town, 19 July 2013; NUM, membership information and graphs, 1997. Between 1994 and 1995, the union’s ranks grew by almost 50,000 members.

⁴¹ Interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013.

⁴² Bezuidenhout, ‘New Patterns of Exclusion’, p. 183; SWOP Research Report on the Servicing of the NUM, 1998, p. 27.

⁴³ NUM, agreement between the NUM and the Chamber of Mines, in the Review of Wages and Basic Conditions of Employment, 1996, p. 9.

⁴⁴ In 1999, Amplats claimed, without further explanation, that workers in its new Rasimone mine would live in ‘surrounding villages’. See ‘Amplats New Mine Ahead of Schedule’, The Citizen, Johannesburg, 12 March 1999; Amplats Annual Report, 2000, pp. 95, 117; A. Bezuidenhout and S. Buhlungu, ‘From Compounded to Fragmented Labour: Mineworkers and the Demise of Compounds in South Africa’, Antipode, 43, 2 (2011), pp. 250–51.

⁴⁵ SWOP Research Report, 1998, p. 9; R. Hamman, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining in Southern Africa: Fair Accountability or Just Greenwash?’, Development, 47, 3 (2004), p. 88.

⁴⁶ Moodie, Going for Gold, pp. 263–71.

⁴⁷ See Allen, History of Black Mineworkers, Volume III, pp. 202–7; SA Chamber of Mines, Annual Report, 1990.

⁴⁸ SWOP Research Report, 1998, p. 11.

⁴⁹ This worker asked to remain anonymous – ‘Shezi’ is a pseudonym.

⁵⁰ Interview with Alphus Modisane, Amplats Siphumelele shaft, 19 June 2013; interview with anonymous RDO, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013.

⁵¹ See R.M. Reddy, ‘Rural Identity on South Africa’s Platinum Belt’, Master’s dissertation, Oxford University, 2013, pp. 5–6.

⁵² SWOP Research Report, 1998, p. 31.

⁵³ NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2002, p. 8; Bezuidenhout and Buhlungu, ‘Union Solidarity’, p. 274.

⁵⁴ Bezuidenhout and Buhlungu, ‘Union Solidarity’, p. 269.

⁵⁵ SWOP Research Report, 1998, p. 44; interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013; interview with Kally Forrest, Johannesburg, 3 September 2013.

⁵⁶ Interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013; DME, Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2005.

⁵⁷ SWOP Research Report, 1998, pp. 8, 25; interview with Eric Gcilitshana, Johannesburg, 5 September 2013.

⁵⁸ P. Stewart, ‘Kings of the Mine: Rock Drill Operators and the 2012 Strike Wave on South African Mines’, Working Paper for SWOP Colloquium on Platinum, 2013, p. 13.

⁵⁹ Interview with anonymous RDO, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013.

⁶⁰ Stewart, ‘Kings of the Mine’, p. 17.

⁶¹ NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2004, p. 44; NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2001, p. 12; DME, Mining Statistical Tables, 1984–2005.

⁶² Bezuidenhout, ‘New Patterns of Exclusion’, p. 191.

⁶³ Kally Forrest, ‘Migrant Labour: Discarded but not Discontinued’, Ruth First Memorial Lecture, University of the Witwatersrand, September 2013; see also K. Forrest ‘Marikana Was Not Just About Migrant Labour’ Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 12 September 2013.

⁶⁴ Bezuidenhout, ‘New Patterns of Exclusion’, pp. 190–97; Forrest, ‘Migrant Labour’; SWOP Research Report, 2005, p. 31.

⁶⁵ Bezuidenhout, ‘New Patterns of Exclusion’, p. 185.

⁶⁶ SWOP Research Report, 2005, p. 33.

⁶⁷ NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2006, p. 51.

⁶⁸ Forrest, ‘Migrant Labour’. These included administering the monthly payments of certain mines.

⁶⁹ Frankel, Between Rainbows and the Rain, pp. 83–110.

⁷⁰ Interview with Chris Molebatsi, Marikana township, 19 June 2013; K. Forrest, ‘Lonpats, Angloplats, Xstrata, Implats: Undoing Rustenburg Community Life’, South African Labour Bulletin, 32, 2 (2008), pp. 13–16.

⁷¹ SWOP Research Report, 2005, p. 21; K. Forrest, ‘Rustenburg’s Mines Dodge Responsibility’, South African Labour Bulletin, 32, 2 (2008), pp. 11–13.

⁷² Chinguno, ‘Marikana’, p. 8.

⁷³ L. Steyn, ‘Marikana Miners in Debt Sink Hole’, Mail and Guardian, 7 September 2012.

⁷⁴ Interview with Tholakele Dlunga, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013.

⁷⁵ Forrest, ‘Migrant Labour’; Hamman, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’, pp. 278–9.

⁷⁶ Farlam Commission of Enquiry, Western Platinum Limited Social Labour Plan, Exh. SSSS2, pp. 79–81; Farlam Commission of Enquiry, Mohammed Seedat Testimony, Transcript, pp. 38286–38322 (16 September 2014).

⁷⁷ SWOP Research Report, 2005, p. 31. NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2006, p. 12.

⁷⁸ Bezuidenhout and Buhlungu, ‘Union Solidarity’, p. 272.

⁷⁹ Ibid., p. 273.

⁸⁰ SWOP Research Report, 2005, p. 45.

⁸¹ Stewart, ‘Kings of the Mine’, p. 19.

⁸² Chinguno, ‘Marikana’, p. 17.

⁸³ See Department of Mineral Resources, Report on South Africa’s Minerals Industry, 2010–2011 (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2012); NUM, Annual Secretariat Report, 2006; NUM, Ten Year Plan: 2010–2020 (2010); ‘Platinum Prices Fall as Workers Call Off Strike’, Business Day, Johannesburg, 25 August 2009; J. Macharia, ‘NUM Accepts Angloplat’s Pay Offer to Avert Planned Strike’, The Star, 15 September 2009; A. Anderson, ‘Strike at Northam Mine Might Affect Growth Project’, Business Day, 19 October 2010.

⁸⁴ Bench Marks Foundation, The Policy Gap 6 – A Review of Platinum Mining in the Bojanala District of the North West Province (2012), pp. 28–31.

⁸⁵ Hartford, ‘The Mining Industry Strike Wave’.

⁸⁶ Manson, ‘Mining and “Traditional Communities”’, pp. 1–2.

⁸⁷ Farlam Commission of Enquiry, Lonmin Response to Consolidated Request for Information, Exh. SSSS2, pp. 370–71.

⁸⁸ SWOP Research Report, 2010, p. 61.

⁸⁹ Forrest, ‘Migrant Labour’.

⁹⁰ SWOP Research Report, 2010, p. 41.

⁹¹ Interview with Tholakele Dlunga, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013; interview with Alphus Modisane, Amplats Siphumelele shaft, 19 June 2013. Alphus’s interview confirms that a similar process was underway at Amplats’s mines from the beginning of 2012.

⁹² Chinguno, ‘Marikana’, p. 17.

⁹³ Interview with Mkhuseli Kolo, Wonderkop, 18 June 2013; Chinguno, ‘Marikana’, pp. 17–18. By 15 December 2011, Lonmin had signed an organisational rights agreement with AMCU for Karee. See Farlam Commission of Enquiry, Evidence of Joseph Mathunjwa, Transcript, p. 2487 (29 November 2012); pp. 2503–4 (30 November 2012).

⁹⁴ See, for instance, A. Anderson, ‘Eastern Plats Strike Affects Output’, Business Day, 19 October 2011; V. Xaba, ‘Mining Sector Braces for Mass Action’, Sowetan, 6 June 2011; C. Ferreira-Marques, ‘Lonmin Costs to Rise 11% While Sales Slump’, The Star, 22 July 2011.

⁹⁵ Interview with Chris Molebatsi, Marikana township, 19 June 2013.

⁹⁶ NUM, The Bargaining Spear, Volume 3 (2012), p. 152.

⁹⁷ Chinguno, ‘Marikana’, p. 18; interview with anonymous winch operator, Marikana township, 19 June 2013; interview with anonymous RDO, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013.

⁹⁸ In fact, the strikes immediately preceding the massacre took AMCU by surprise. In a letter dated 10 August 2012, Mathunjwa pleaded with management ‘not to give undue recognition to sinister forces’ outside union structures. See Farlam Commission of Enquiry, AMCU Letter to Lonmin Management ‘Re Employees Marching at Lonmin’, Exh. WWWWI, pp. 9–10.

⁹⁹ Interview with Tholakele Dlunga, Nkaneng, 18 June 2013; interview with Mkhuseli Kolo, Wonderkop, 18 June 2013.

¹⁰⁰ Bond and Motthiar, ‘Beyond Marikana’, p. 292.