Mozambican Labour Regimes and the Eastern Main Line

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
Charles van Onselen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Main Line ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
The South ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Line P ◽  
Voluntary Basis ◽  
Low Wages

The South African mining industry profited from the slave- and forced-labour regimes that preceded it in the adjacent Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Many of the earliest migrants were part of a labour force ‘recruited’ through coercion. Black Mozambicans later preferred to work as cheap, indentured migrant labourers rather than face working for no or low wages in their own country. The chapter explains how this helped underpin the illusion that black labour was somehow free, mobile and voluntary. But as southern Mozambique became progressively more underdeveloped economically, the need to coerce black labour became less necessary and the system was said to be operating on a wholly voluntary basis as part of an economy dominated by ‘market forces’.

The Eastern Main Line

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Charles van Onselen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Main Line ◽  
The South ◽  
African Migrant ◽  
Line P

The psychological and social hardship experienced by African migrant miners on trains in southern Africa left a deep cultural imprint. This chapter explains how classic African musical renditions—now largely shorn of their historical context—in songs such as Shosholoza and Hugh Masekela’s Stimela, present poignant reminders of the systemic exploitation of black labour in the South African mining industry.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 184-198
Author(s):  
Charles van Onselen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
The South ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
Forced Labour

Black Mozambicans consistently resisted the oppressive labour regime that used steam locomotives and the rail network to deliver them as indentured labourers to the South African mining industry. Some used the system to transport them to the best labour markets and then deserted to find other, better employment. The railways formed an integral part of a highly coercive system of industrial exploitation and, in that, differed from other historical situations where transport systems were used to further genocidal agendas. Yet, so deeply traumatic were the rail journeys to and from the mines that they became incorporated into the modern witchcraft beliefs of Africans which speak of trains without tracks and the recruitment of workers for forced labour in a zombie workforce. The scarring caused by the Night Trains is still with us, whether in songs, such as Stimela, or in witchcraft beliefs that reflect death through over-work at sub-subsistence wages.

The Recruiting of Chinese Indentured Labour for the South African Gold-Mines, 1903–1908

1977 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
South African ◽  
Vertical Integration ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
The South ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
South African War ◽  
Northern Chinese ◽  
High Degree

One of the responses of the Transvaal gold mining industry to the economic crisis after the South African War of 1899–1902 was to import Chinese indentured mine labour. To facilitate this process and to integrate it with the overall demands and requirements of the industry, the mining companies established a recruiting and shipping company in 1904, known as the Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency. This short-lived company, which was characterized by a high degree of vertical integration, operated as recruiting and shipping agency in China, receiving agent in Natal and co-ordinating and advising agent in the Transvaal. Despite complex arrangements designed to exploit the Chinese labour market, the company was, generally speaking, successful in securing the requisite labour force of suitable size and quality for the Transvaal mines. However, it showed a longer-term susceptibility to competitive pressures in the northern Chinese labour market. The company was amalgamated with WNLA in 1908.

scholarly journals Exploring the challenges associated with the greening of supply chains in the South African manganese and phosphate mining industry

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R.I. David Pooe ◽  
Khomotso Mhelembe
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
South African ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
The South ◽  
Phosphate Mining ◽  
Phosphate Industry ◽  
Management Recommendations ◽  
And Control

As with most mining activities, the mining of manganese and phosphate has serious consequences for the environment. Despite a largely adequate and progressive framework for environmental governance developed since 1994, few mines have integrated systems into their supply chain processes to minimise environmental risks and ensure the achievement of acceptable standards. Indeed, few mines have been able to implement green supply chain management (GrSCM). The purpose of this article was to explore challenges related to the implementation of GrSCM and to provide insight into how GrSCM can be implemented in the South African manganese and phosphate industry. This article reported findings of a qualitative study involving interviews with 12 participants from the manganese and phosphate industry in South Africa. Purposive sampling techniques were used. Emerging from the study were six themes, all of which were identified as key challenges in the implementation of GrSCM in the manganese and phosphate mining industry. From the findings, these challenges include the operationalisation of environmental issues, lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing, proper application of monitoring and control systems,lack of clear policy and legislative direction, the cost of implementing GrSCM practices, and the need for strong leadership and management of change. On the basis of the literature reviewed and empirical findings, conclusions were drawn and policy and management recommendations were accordingly made.

The use of elongate support in the South African Mining Industry

2018 ◽  
pp. 343-347
Author(s):  
F.J. Glisson ◽  
D.H. Kullmann ◽  
A.E. Vidal da Silva
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
The South

Further Regional Studies

War Epidemics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Smallman-Raynor ◽  
Andrew Cliff
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
South African ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
World War ◽  
The South ◽  
South African War ◽  
Forced Labour ◽  
Study Sites

In Chapters 7 to 11, we have examined a series of recurring themes in the geography of war and disease since 1850 through regional lenses. In this chapter, we conclude our regional–thematic survey by illustrating further prominent themes which, either because of their subject-matter or because of their geographical location, were beyond the immediate scope of the foregoing chapters. In selecting regional case studies for this chapter, we concentrate on wars which have not been examined in depth to this point (the South African War and the Cuban Insurrection) or which, on account of their magnitude and extent, merit examination beyond that afforded in previous sections (World War I and World War II). Four principal issues are addressed: (1) Africa: population reconcentration and disease (Section 12.2), illustrated with reference to civilian concentration camps in the South African War, 1899–1902; (2) Americas: peace, war, and epidemiological integration (Section 12.3), illustrated with reference to the civil settlement system of Cuba, 1888–1902; (3) Asia: prisoners of war, forced labour, and disease (Section 12.4), illustrated with reference to Allied prisoners on the line of the Burma–Thailand Railway, 1942–4; (4) Europe: civilian epidemics and the world wars (Section 12.5), illustrated with reference to the spread of a series of diseases in the civil population of Europe during, and after, the hostilities of 1914–18 and 1939–45. As before, the study sites in (1) to (4) span a broad range of epidemiological environments, from the cool temperate latitudes of northern Europe, through the tropical island and jungle environments of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, to the warm temperate and subtropical savannah lands of the South African Veld. Diseases have been sampled to reflect this epidemiological range. The South African War (1899–1902) has been described as the last of the ‘typhoid campaigns’ (Curtin, 1998)—a closing chapter on the predominance of disease over battle as a cause of death among soldiers (Pakenham, 1979: 382). From the military perspective, typhoid was indeed the major health issue of the war, accounting for a reported 8,020 deaths in the British Army (Simpson, 1911: 57).

scholarly journals Recent advances in hearing conservation programmes: A systematic review

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nomfundo F. Moroe ◽  
Katijah Khoza-Shangase
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Hair Cell Regeneration ◽  
The South ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Hearing Conservation ◽  
Recent Advances

Background: Current evidence from low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries, such as South Africa, indicates that occupational noise-induced hearing loss (ONIHL) continues to be a health and safety challenge for the mining industry. There is also evidence of hearing conservation programmes (HCPs) being implemented with limited success.Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore and document current evidence reflecting recent advances in HCPs in order to identify gaps within the South African HCPs.Method: A systematic literature review was conducted in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. Electronic databases including Sage, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus MEDLINE, ProQuest and Google Scholar were searched for potential studies published in English between 2010 and 2019 reporting on recent advances in HCPs within the mining industry.Results: The study findings revealed a number of important recent advances internationally, which require deliberation for possible implementation within the South African HCPs context. These advances have been presented under seven themes: (1) the use of metrics, (2) pharmacological interventions and hair cell regeneration, (3) artificial neural network, (4) audiology assessment measures, (5) noise monitoring advances, (6) conceptual approaches to HCPs and (7) buying quiet.Conclusion: The study findings raise important advances that may have significant implications for HCPs in LAMI countries where ONIHL remains a highly prevalent occupational health challenge. Establishing feasibility and efficacy of these advances in these contexts to ensure contextual relevance and responsiveness is one of the recommendations to facilitate the success of HCPs targets.

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