DEPOPULATING THE COMPOUNDS - MIGRANT LABOR AND MINE HOUSING IN SOUTH-AFRICA

Production and profit in the South African gold mining industry have long been based upon the employment of cheap black migrant labor. The central institution in the migratory labor system is the compound or hostel. Over 97% of the mine workforce of 500,000 currently live in these single-sex, regimented barracks. Changes in the political economy of gold mining in the 1970s and 1980s have prompted management to begin moving away from migratory labor and implementing alternative accommodation strategies. This paper critically examines the nature of those strategies and the obstacles to their implementation. Although sections of the mining industry are now committed to stabilizing workers in family housing, management wishes to retain tight control of the process. This, together with worker resistance and state inaction, will ensure that progress away from migrancy will be achieved only at glacial pace. © 1991.