M.Phil. (Industrial Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The core question of this thesis is why working time in South African gold mining has been so stable and addresses the significance of this fact. The working or labour time of miners and mineworkers is shown to have been remarkably stable for a century since 1911. By construing the length of the migrant labour contract as a measure of labour time, which systematically lengthens over the same period until it aligns with the annual rhythm of industrial working time, the evidence is provided for the argument that labour time constitutes the hitherto unrecognised foundation for the exploitation of mine labour in the South African gold mines. The phenomena - and importance for value-creation - of both relatively long, stable industrial working hours and the ever-longer migrant labour contracts over a century, are explained in terms of the value labour power creates in the mining labour process, as well as how the sheer expenditure of extended periods of labour time create the necessary skills mining requires. The fortunes of the platinum mining sector largely follow suit. Whereas the revisionist literature focused on the acquisition of a mine labour supply, this thesis argues that the retention of mine labour, by way of extending, intensifying and sustaining labour time in mining production, completes our understanding of its exploitation. It does so by employing a value-theoretic analysis which reveals the genesis of value creation in productive social class-based relationships. It shows how a series of qualitative, socially constructive effects, intra-working class occupational differentiation for example, emanate from the very expenditure of labour time underground when measured as a quantitative amount of labour time. It is argued that the substantive study of labour time has been surprisingly ignored in Marxist theory within which it plays a central role in the labour theory of value. A range of research methodologies have been employed to make this case. An ethnographic participant observation research method was aimed at articulating an agent-sensitive approach. The candidate lived in the hostel compounds and worked underground with mining personnel and has been both subject to the working time regimes on the mines as well as having actively participated, via various forms of research, in dealing with restructuring and changing working time schedules. The thesis goes on to show in close empirical detail, informed by actual experience and adopting a triangulated research methodology, how working time arrangements within which labour time is expended, remains immured in complexity. Why capital and labour, for instance, adopt competing stances regarding the restructuring of working time arrangements is explained. I conclude that workers’ production demands need to be taken seriously when working time is restructured in mining.

Thesis (M.Communication Pathology)--Universiteit van Pretoria, 2002. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

The characteristics of Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) in gold miners of different ages and occupation types were examined and the incidence of tinnitus, vertigo/balance problems and nausea were determined. The results indicate that as a subject group these had symmetrical bilateral, mild hearing loss in the frequencies below 2000 Hz deteriorating to a moderate sloping hearing loss in the frequencies above 2000 Hz, and the loss did not demonstrate the expected “notch” at 4000 Hz that is usually found in NIHL. The average deterioration in the pure tone thresholds of gold miners was 3.5 dB at 500Hz; 2.75dB at 1000Hz, 15.37 dB at 2000Hz, 19.12 dB at 3000Hz; 20.87dB at 4000 Hz and 14.16dB at 6000 Hz for every ten years of age. The pattern of hearing loss varies for the different occupation types with machine operators being the most severely affected. The majority of tinnitus sufferers were in the age range 30-60 years and 57.8 % were in the under 60 years old category, while in the over 60 years the incidence was 4.8 %. The incidence of vertigo and nausea were found to be 27% in this population. The results of this study will equip the audiologist to better deal with diagnostic testing, successful hearing aid fitting and aural rehabilitation of this population. The study highlights the need for greater awareness and the imparting of detailed information to gold miners about the impact of noise on their hearing. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, awareness and practices regarding TB at a selected gold mine in Tanzania in order to enhance the paucity of knowledge in this area of public health. The mining population is considered to be at high risk of tuberculosis infection and illness. However, there is little data available on the knowledge, awareness and practices in the mining population in Tanzania. A quantitative, descriptive study, using the Health Belief Model as the conceptual framework, was conducted among 100 workers in order to give a detailed description of the knowledge and awareness of tuberculosis. The study confirms the role of the media, particularly radio broadcasting, health workers, teachers, and the community in promoting information and education on TB. Fever as a symptom was a problem. The study area is a malaria endemic area where fever is the commonest presentation hence every fever is regarded as malaria. This complicated picking up and identifying other causes of fever. Despite feeling compassion for and wanting to help TB sufferers, most avoided them, which emphasised people’s general fear of TB. This indicated the general isolation and stigmatisation of TB sufferers. The findings highlighted the need for on-going education about TB and its treatment, especially early diagnosis and adherence to treatment. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

The overall aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge, awareness and practices regarding TB at a selected gold mine in Tanzania in order to enhance the paucity of knowledge in this area of public health. The mining population is considered to be at high risk of tuberculosis infection and illness. However, there is little data available on the knowledge, awareness and practices in the mining population in Tanzania. A quantitative, descriptive study, using the Health Belief Model as the conceptual framework, was conducted among 100 workers in order to give a detailed description of the knowledge and awareness of tuberculosis. The study confirms the role of the media, particularly radio broadcasting, health workers, teachers, and the community in promoting information and education on TB. Fever as a symptom was a problem. The study area is a malaria endemic area where fever is the commonest presentation hence every fever is regarded as malaria. This complicated picking up and identifying other causes of fever. Despite feeling compassion for and wanting to help TB sufferers, most avoided them, which emphasised people’s general fear of TB. This indicated the general isolation and stigmatisation of TB sufferers. The findings highlighted the need for on-going education about TB and its treatment, especially early diagnosis and adherence to treatment. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Submitted in fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Arts (Fine Arts) Johannesburg, March 2017 / This dissertation uses David Goldblatt’s seminal photobook, On the Mines (1973, revised 2012) to mediate a biographical conversation with Raymond Zavala, a migrant mineworker who left Mozambique in 1962 to live and work in Johannesburg. On the Mines was used as a vehicle to examine intimate details of one man’s life in the mines, focusing particularly on a mine in Roodepoort known as Durban Deep, where Raymond worked for 38 years. During my visits with Raymond, On the Mines was kept in hand as he and I walked through what once was a prosperous mining town. We would discuss his day-to-day life as a migrant, mineworker, husband and father, and began layering and inserting our own stories and photographs over and into On the Mines in an attempt to portray a more personal account of one person’s life on the mines. Goldblatt’s photographic archive is crucial to this process in that it enabled me to initiate conversations with Raymond about his personal history, memory and identity. This research, encompassed in the visual biography presented here, was created in collaboration with Raymond. He guided me through this process by directing the narrative of his own story, recommending specific landscapes and people for me to meet and photograph.  I have chosen to present this practice in the form of a photobook, so that its concept and content can be shared as a critical resolution of my visual and narrative engagement. / XL2018

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, August 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-252) and index. / xxiii, 263 p. ill., maps 23 cm