Hostels have become synonymous with the migrant labour system in South Africa. They were first introduced on the mines to house workers cheaply. The significant feature of these hostels was that they were for "single" males - they did not cater for the housing needs of workers families. Their design made them useful, to the employers, in controlling their workers. As the manufacturing and construction sectors grew, hostels similar to those one the mines were replicated in most urban centres in South Africa. They were useful in reducing the cost of reproducing labour by externalising these costs to the reserves, later the bantustans. At the same time they performed a valuable political role by ridding the "white" urban areas of the "swart gevaar". This role was reinforced during the period of Apartheid, and hostels are therefore seen as "artefacts of the era of apartheid". More recently they became notorious as "urban fortresses" from which acts of violence were perpetrated, particularly on the Reef. As the country moves towards a post-apartheid non-racial democracy the injustices and inhumanities of the hostel system will have to be redressed. The miserable and wretched conditions will have to be transformed and hostels will have to be integrated into "normal" community life. The recent violence succeeded, at great cost, in instilling a sense of urgency for the transformation of hostels, so as to reduce the potential for further conflict and violence. All the major actors committed themselves to a national development initiative to transform hostels. Hostels however, are a complex phenomenon, serving varying functions and performing many roles. There is therefore a need for a more thorough understanding of the various features of hostels to inform any intervention if it is going to be meaningful or lasting. This dissertation examines the complexities of the hostel question with a view to informing development interventions in hostels. In this thesis the focus is on physical/spatial planning interventions. / Theses (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1993.

M.A. / This chapter has been dedicated towards painting a picture of the quality of life issues regarding migrant workers living in hostels. The results and findings as interpreted has brought about useful information that will be utilised to draw conclusions and recommendations. Quality of Life of Migrant Workers at Eskom The findings have reconfirmed who the migrant worker is in terms of the description given by Leatt (1981) which was the definition adopted for the study. The indices drawn from the objective and subjective indicators of quality of life which were adopted from Moller, Schlemmer and Du Toit's (1987) were used as the basis from which the interview schedule was drawn, and has proved useful. Reference is made in particular to questions 12,13 and 14. Relevant construct for quality of life were found, with more usable constructs from questions 12 and 13. Furthermore the statistical analysis of the vector of the mean test scores referring to the HOT 1 has also given useful information as it enabled the student to analyse three variables independently and jointly see section 3.3. Cross tabulations representing correlations between indices created out of quality of life indicators namely core quality of life issues as identified by Question(s) 12,13 and 14 and the objective indicators of quality of life, namely accommodation, the intake of nutritious food, and recreation practices. There is a clear demonstration of quality of life issues that should be looked at if the quality of life of migrant workers living in hostels has to be improved. Although there are many diverse quality of life issues identified in the study the three that were selected with the framework of this study has given usable information. The next chapter will address the conclusions and recommendations.