In the shadow of the gold mines: Migrancy and mine housing in South Africa

The profitability of the gold mining industry has long been based upon the e.exploitation of the vast reserves of African migrant labour drawn from South Africa and the sub-continent. A central institution of the migrant labour force has been and continues to be the vast housing complex, where the majority of the industry's 700 000 migrant workers are housed in single-sex barrack-like accommodation tinder the tight control of the mining industry. Although in recent years the gold mining industry has attempted to use alternative housing strategies for its married migrant workers, today the barrack-like housing complex remains the most important institution of labour control in South Africa. This paper examines the mine housing complex and the social control mechanisms deeply embedded in the design and social organisation of migrant workers' housing in South Africa. Although the new Government of National Unity is committed to improving the housing circumstances of all South Africans, mine workers face a housing problem inherited from segregation and apartheid which requires particular attention from employers, the government and the unions representing the mine workers.