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Abstract
Commentary following the strike and massacre of mineworkers at Marikana in 2012 asserted that the migrant labour system on the Rustenburg platinum fields is still intact. But is this the case? An examination of the migrant labour recruitment regime in South Africa in general, and on the Rustenburg platinum mines specifically, reveals a substantial reduction in migrant labour and a fracturing of the colonial and apartheid recruitment regime. However, new forms of recruitment, especially through labour contractors, combined with old patterns perpetuate super exploitation which is made worse by the precarity and job insecurity that labour broking introduces. In examining the above, this article demonstrates how transformative legislation has rebounded to reinforce the remnants of the migrant labour system and the apartheid workplace regime whilst wilful confusion concerning the definition of local versus migrant has further undermined government's transformation efforts. The article concludes that while mining capital has in the main benefited from the disrupted migrant labour recruitment system the repercussions for labour have been mixed. In consequence trade unions, capital and the state will need to engage in order to build a just solution.
Note on Contributor
Kally Forrest is a former trade unionist and editor of the South African Labour Bulletin. She holds a PhD in labour history from the University of the Witwatersrand, is a research associate at the Society Work & Development Institute and a former Ruth First Fellow. She is currently the senior researcher for the Marikana Commission Phase 2. She recently published Metal that will not Bend: National Union of Metalworkers 1980–1995.
Notes
1. Jonathan Crush notes ‘if a low-grade ore body like South Africa's had been discovered in countries like Canada, Australia or the United States it would have been left in the ground because of the inability to mobilize the right kind of labour force’ (1997:3).
2. Between December 2012 and April 2013 whilst a Ruth First Fellow I interviewed mineworkers, recruitment agencies and employers from a variety of mines in Rustenburg. Regarding the worker sample some were interviewed individually, and some in groups to ascertain how they had been recruited and the meaning of such recruitment for their work life. In all I interviewed some 60 workers with the help of a local translator who spoke both Xhosa and SeTswana. Mineworkers were selected in different categories: contracted/permanent, young/old and local/migrant through mainly unannounced visits to their living or workplaces (hostels, informal settlements, townships, Rustenburg residential areas, trade union offices). Pre-arranged employer interviews focused on human resource managers in the largest Rustenburg platinum mines, namely Lonmin, Impala Platinum and Anglo Platinum as well as a couple of smaller mines. Interviews with recruitment agencies active in Rustenburg included Teba and general managers from two of the main labour contracting agencies providing brokered labour, namely Sutha Staffing Solutions and San Contracting Services.
3. Aquarius, up to July 2012, contracted out its entire operations to Murray & Roberts but found that this resulted in the duplication of management structures, which contributed to inflated costs for the company (Interview Aquarius Employee Relations Manager, 25 April 2013).
4. On the Rustenburg platinum belt the NUM has different branches for permanent and contracted workers so these workers seldom organise together or attend the same meetings.
5. The worker gave the company's name but asked that it not be identified, as he was afraid of being dismissed.
6. These wage rates are taken from pay slips provided by workers' interviewed in the period 2012 to 2013. Also with thanks to Asanda Benya for providing some pay slips of Implats workers.
7. Also see Business Report 11 June 2013.
8. The worker showed me the company's text message on his mobile phone, but was afraid to reveal the company's name.
9. A white miner videoed a colleague using a prohibited mobile phone (anything capable of igniting the seam gas that results from underground mining is outlawed). Eight months later one of the supervisors was dismissed by the photographer, a supervisor, and exposed the breach of safety rules to the mine.
10. MPRDA section 101, Appointment of contractor: If the holder of a right, permit or permission appoints any person or employs a contractor to perform any work within the boundaries of the reconnaissance, mining, prospecting, exploration, production or retention area, as the case may be, such holder remains responsible for compliance with this Act <http://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/MPRDA-amendment-act 49_of_08.pdf >.
11. The Bapo have staged a number of demonstrations at Lonmin demanding employment, including a large demonstration in 2011 (Sowetan 29 August 2011).
12. This was abundantly clear on a ‘combi’ research trip that a group of Society Work & Development Institute researchers undertook in May 2012 when we explored many of Rustenburg's formal and informal residence areas. The mayor of Ikemeleng, an informal settlement adjacent to the Aquarius and Samancor mines, commented to us that, ‘Somalis and Mozambicans have 119 spaza shops in Ikemeleng and no locals have shops. Local people don't have that sort of mind and often they don't have the skills so outsiders do it’.
13. Mining Weekly 23 March 2011.
14. At Impala, for example, for the first six months, 60 per cent of Mozambicans' pay is deferred, whilst with Lesotho workers 30 per cent of pay is deferred from months 2 to 11.
15. Business Day 2012.