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

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

Bibliography: pages 368-396. / This thesis examines how Lesotho came to depend on the export of its men to South African mines; what the experiences of these men were; and how all this impacted on Basotho society during the years between c.1890 and 1940. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the context and dynamics of labour migration and recruitment in Lesotho during the late 1880s to the late 1930s. This Part lays the basis for subsequent sections by showing which sections of Basotho opted for labour migrancy; and why it was men and not women who, initially at least, became migrants. In discussing the decline of the Basotho economy in the 1920s and 1930s, this section also shows how this was characterised not only by dependence on migrants' earnings, but also by the orientation to and concentration of Basotho labour on the Witwatersrand gold mines. Part II discusses various themes relating to life and conditions on the mines and in the compounds during the period up to c.1940. While specific note is taken of the African miners' death and accident rate, most attention is devoted to the various ways which Basotho miners developed for dealing with the sickness, death and destitution befalling their compatriots in the compounds and on the mines. Conversion to Christianity was an important part of some miners experience, as church forums and the bible could be used for recreational purposes, while literacy classes imparted many with essential skills which could lead to promotion on the mine. But competition for promotion and favours, as well as conflicting survival strategies, often resulted in violent conflict among African miners. Although some scholars have mistakenly attributed such conflict to ethnic factors alone, this thesis argues for an approach which is simultaneously historically and materially grounded. Part III, by using the case of infectious and occupational diseases, and prostitution and commercial beer-brewing, traces and analyses the impact of the migrant labour system on Lesotho. The thesis shows how the spread to Lesotho of such diseases as syphilis and tuberculosis was directly linked to contact with South African towns and mining centres through wage labour. Beer canteens and brothels emerged and flourished in colonial Lesotho not only because of the decline of the country's economy and the breakdown of Basotho social structures, but also because these establishments serviced the migrant labour traffic itself. The significance of this study lies in two areas. Historiographically, this study seeks to contribute to migrant labour studies in Lesotho in particular and Southern Africa in general. Its approach stands between economism which attributes the causes of labour migrancy solely to economic factors, and those paradigms which privilege ideas and culture over material factors. There is a dialectical interplay between material factors and ideas, although the former ultimately determines the latter. Secondly, the significance of this study lies in the fact that many of the issues raised, especially those in Part III, continue to pose serious problems for Basotho people and their government to this day. Knowing something about the origins and history of these problems may contribute to finding lasting solutions. This study, therefore, is about Lesotho, Basotho, and the mines.

The South African gold mining industry has since its inception, relied on an authoritarian and paternalistic form of labour control. This inheritance is due to a number of reasons; the nature of the process of gold mining itself, the reliance on migrant labour, the poor levels of education of workers in the industry, the regulation of workers' lives in hostels as well as the attitudes of white supervisors towards the control of labour - an inheritance from the British system, which tends to view hierarchies as rigid and highly stratified. The particular kind of paternalism found in gold mining has however, evolved over a time frame spanning this century, and has been subject to modification and external influence, particularly from managerial theories borrowed from Western , Europe and the United states. Thus, scientific management made its presence felt in the first half of this century, whilst more recently, the need to transfer new and upgraded technology has drawn on the sociotechnical tradition. The human relation movement, also a more recent phenomenon, has grown in direct response to the increasing levels of conflict on gold mines between management and labour. " At present the industry is undergoing a crisis in the form of a depressed gold price (necessitating reduction in the labour force), poor levels of productivity and an increasing challenge to management hegemony in the growth of a mass based trade union - the National Union of Mine Workers. It will be argued that these factors have necessitated that management in the industry ' search for new and more appropriate methods for the co-ordination and control of labour, and that the form that this has taken is towards more worker participation in decision-making. Participation on gold mines is developing in a number of areas; with consultative councils, with increasing consultation with the unions, in particular the N.U.M., in productivity drives such as the quality circles movement, and more recently in employee share ownership schemes (E.S.O.P.S.). All of the above approaches are attempts by senior management to incorporate labour more into the management process, and thus try to reduce the level of polarisation between labour and capital, which has gained in intensity in the industry over the past decade. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1992.