PhD, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Substance use is associated with mining accidents, increased health care utilisation, and economic loss. Although South Africa is a major mining country, paucity of data exists on substance use among mineworkers. To determine the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use among mineworkers, the prevalence of accidents associated with substance use, and factors influencing substance use among this population, structured interviews of 1571 participants (involving breathalyser tests for alcohol and urine tests for cannabis), focus group discussions, and a record review of post-accident substance tests were carried out in seven mines. While structured interviews were carried out between March & October 2002, focus group discussions were carried out between May & June 2003, and record review was done between March & September 2004. Between 10.7% to 24.4% of participants across study mines, with a mean of 15.3%, are likely to be dependent on alcohol, while 4.6% to 21.5% of participants, with a mean of 9.1%, use cannabis. Between 0% and 5.9% of all breath samples, with a mean of 1.9%, contained alcohol ≥ 0.10mg/1000ml of breath, the legal limit for professional drivers. However, the majority of positive samples were collected on a Monday and day of sample collection was found to be a confounding factor. In mine P1 in 2003, 1% of samples tested in cases of accidents were positive for alcohol, and in 2002 and 2003, cannabis tests were positive in 4.9% and 3.9% of accident cases tested, respectively. v Low levels of education (p=0.020), low job categories (p=0.004) and lack of awareness of link between cannabis use and accidents (p=0.0001) were found to be positively associated with cannabis use. Being a full-time worker compared to a contract worker (p=0.004) was protective from cannabis use. While being married (p=0.001) was protective from alcohol use, there was no significant difference in the alcohol and cannabis use status of those who were married and lived with their wives at the mines and those who didn‟t live with their wives but visited them periodically. Findings of this study where alcohol use for fun (p=0.046) and relaxation (p=0.018) were associated with alcohol dependence, and where misconceptions about the energy-boosting attribute of cannabis, and perception that work is „most-times to always dangerous‟ (p=0.012) were associated with cannabis use and alcohol dependence, suggest the use of substances as a coping mechanism and highlight the link between social factors and substance use. Industry regulations employing a holistic approach and incorporating essential components, such as clear written individual mine policy, health promotion, monitoring and surveillance, Employee Assistance Programmes, disciplinary procedures and wellness programmes, can contribute towards substance use control among this population.

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PhD, Faculty of health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2000

Student Number : 0105964W - MPH research report - Faculty of Health Sciences / The Employment Bureau for Africa (TEBA Limited) established in 1902 recruits mineworkers from Lesotho and neighbouring countries for South African mines. Information on mineworkers’ health and welfare from Lesotho is scarce. Tuberculosis prevalence ranged between 159/100000 and 506/100000 from 1991 to 2001 in Lesotho. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the proportion of mineworkers affected with tuberculosis among adult male patients attending TB clinics in Maseru District’s three main hospitals and ascertain compensation of mineworkers affected by occupational lung disease including tuberculosis. A structured questionnaire was used to interview 421 adult male TB patients at Queen Elizabeth II, Saint Joseph and Scott hospitals in Maseru. 38.5% of participants in the study were mineworkers (former and active) in South African mines. Among these mineworkers, 70.4% were employed in goldmines. 30.7% of mineworkers were considered eligible for compensation. 42 mineworkers received compensation for previous and current tuberculosis whilst 33 mineworkers had not.

This dissertation presents a biographical study of Philip Murray (1886-1952) who was one of America's premier labour leaders of the twentieth century. The work examines the major influences and historical events that shaped Murray's career. The thesis argues that Murray's career has been unfairly dismissed. It explains how the enduring effects of his formative years in Lanarkshire, Scotland, shaped his character as a trade unionist. It examines his early role as an official of the United Mineworkers of America (UMW A) in the 1920s and 1930s; his leadership of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) during the stormy era of its organising drive of America's industrial workers and of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC); and his subsequent presidency of both the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the CIO during and after the Second World war. Murray's Catholicism and his relationship with Communists occupy a central position in the historical narrative. This thesis contends that Murray's motivations were not based on the crude antiCommunism of the McCat1hyism period following his death, and it seeks to prove the hypothesis that, in spite of his purging of the left-led unions inside the CIO, ironically, Murray throughout his life consistently strove to adhere to his class consciousness and uphold his convictions as a sincere advocate for labour's adversarial role inside capitalism. This thesis questions Murray's purported belief in class collaboration, as advocated in the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragessimo Anno (1931), and argues that, even if Murray agreed with the sentiments of the encyclicals' support and sympathy for the rights of workers and trade unions, he was never naive enough to reject the social and political reality of class struggle as an intrinsic, or motive, force in capitalist society.

This thesis is about the quest to build effective strategies to support the development of enterprise on the margins of the economy, to create jobs and reduce poverty. A core part of this challenge includes grappling with the role of markets in development, and of markets as a critical part of the context in which enterprise development in rural and peri-urban areas can either provide a path out of poverty – or instead serve to lock people into poverty. The thesis explores these issues by tracking the experience of the Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) as it attempted to grapple with this challenge. MDA is the development wing of South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) , and was set up to create jobs and support enterprise development for communities affected by the loss of jobs on the mines. The thesis covers a fourteen-year period in MDA’s history, from its inception in 1988 until 2002. It tracks the learning process across several phases in the development of MDA’s approach. These included the development of worker co-operatives, the establishment of business service centres, value-chain work in the craft sector, and the commercialization of a juice product from the indigenous marula berry. In the process, MDA engaged with an emergent paradigm in the development sector called ‘Making Markets Work for the Poor’. Can markets really be made to work for the poor? Or even just made to work ‘better’ for the poor? Or is the process of inclusion in markets inexorably and inevitably one of making the poor work for markets? The thesis explores these issues in the context of MDA’s experience, locating this within a wider set of theoretical concerns over the role of markets in society, and the ways in which societies have protected themselves from the negative impacts of the development of market economies. It draws on wider political economy approaches to argue that markets are institutions that are socially constructed, and explores what scope there might therefore be to construct them differently. While recognising the importance of social protection, the thesis argues that there is a need to go beyond defensive strategies aimed at protecting society from markets, to identify new terms of engagement within markets to shape markets, and to harness their wealth-creating potential in ways that have different distributional consequences, as part of a long-term agenda of eradicating poverty.

The main question posed in this study is: How do black mineworkers in the goldmining industry conceptualise and experience fatherhood in present-day South Africa? The following four subsidiary research questions were formulated to address this: * How do the respondents characterise fatherhood? * What are the respondents' own recollections of being fathered? * How do migrant and resident respondents' experiences of fatherhood differ? * What influence do biological mothers or female partners have on father-child relationships as described by the respondents? The scripting perspective chosen underscores this study because it is a multilevel approach that takes the fathers' social milieu into account without ignoring their agency. This perspective focuses on three levels - cultural scenarios, interpersonal and intrapsychic scripting. During 2002 a qualitative study was undertaken by way of in-depth interviews conducted with 30 respondents, with ten being re-interviewed in 2003. These interviews were augmented with general observations and fact-finding interviews conducted with key informants. In terms of the first research question regarding the way in which the respondents characterise fatherhood, it was found that the breadwinner role is salient. However, traces of patriarchy and the so-called "new fatherhood" are often intertwined with the economic aspect of fatherhood. The respondents' own recollections of being fathered were found to include a stern disciplinarian pattern ("father is like a lion"), a "bad fatherhood" pattern and a "good fatherhood" pattern. Resident respondents related more involvement with their children compared with migrant respondents, although varying degrees of distant and involved fatherhood could be detected amongst the migrant respondents. Resident respondents conveyed active involvement in father-child activities such as giving guidance to children and playing with them. Some respondents have little contact with those children they fathered with a woman other than their current partner. Female partners tend to hinder any type of relationship with children born as a result of adulterous relationships but children born from previous relationships may be taken care of. However, respondents who openly stated double standards regarding sexual practices for men and women tend to take care of all their biological children and show little concern for their wives' views. / Sociology / D. Litt et Phil (Sociology)

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 1999 / Refer to document

The main question posed in this study is: How do black mineworkers in the goldmining industry conceptualise and experience fatherhood in present-day South Africa? The following four subsidiary research questions were formulated to address this: * How do the respondents characterise fatherhood? * What are the respondents' own recollections of being fathered? * How do migrant and resident respondents' experiences of fatherhood differ? * What influence do biological mothers or female partners have on father-child relationships as described by the respondents? The scripting perspective chosen underscores this study because it is a multilevel approach that takes the fathers' social milieu into account without ignoring their agency. This perspective focuses on three levels - cultural scenarios, interpersonal and intrapsychic scripting. During 2002 a qualitative study was undertaken by way of in-depth interviews conducted with 30 respondents, with ten being re-interviewed in 2003. These interviews were augmented with general observations and fact-finding interviews conducted with key informants. In terms of the first research question regarding the way in which the respondents characterise fatherhood, it was found that the breadwinner role is salient. However, traces of patriarchy and the so-called "new fatherhood" are often intertwined with the economic aspect of fatherhood. The respondents' own recollections of being fathered were found to include a stern disciplinarian pattern ("father is like a lion"), a "bad fatherhood" pattern and a "good fatherhood" pattern. Resident respondents related more involvement with their children compared with migrant respondents, although varying degrees of distant and involved fatherhood could be detected amongst the migrant respondents. Resident respondents conveyed active involvement in father-child activities such as giving guidance to children and playing with them. Some respondents have little contact with those children they fathered with a woman other than their current partner. Female partners tend to hinder any type of relationship with children born as a result of adulterous relationships but children born from previous relationships may be taken care of. However, respondents who openly stated double standards regarding sexual practices for men and women tend to take care of all their biological children and show little concern for their wives' views. / Sociology / D. Litt et Phil (Sociology)

South African trade unions affiliated to Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have taken advantage of the arrival of democracy and newly found opportunities available through Black Economic Empowerment to venture into the world of business by setting up their own investment companies. The declared desire behind these ventures was to break the stranglehold of white capital on the economy and to extend participation in the economic activities of the country to previously disadvantaged communities. Using the National Union of Mineworkers and the Mineworkers’ Investment Company as case studies, this dissertation seeks to determine whether unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) are advancing the struggle for socialism through their investment schemes. Secondly, the dissertation determines whether, in the activities of the schemes, internal democracy is preserved and strengthened. The theoretical framework of this dissertation emerges from arguments advanced by Lenin and Gramsci on the limitations of trade unions in terms of their role in the struggle against capitalism. In addition, the argument draws on the assertions by Michels regarding the proneness of trade union leadership to adopt oligarchic tendencies in their approach to leadership. Of interest is how, according to Gramsci, trade unions are prone to accepting concessions from the capitalist system that renders them ameliorative rather than transformative. Drawing from Michels’ ‘iron law of oligarchy’, the thesis examines whether there is space for ordinary members of the unions to express views on the working of the union investment companies. By looking at the extent to which the investment initiatives of the companies mirror the preferences of the ordinary members of the unions, one can determine the level of disjuncture between the two. The study relies on data collected through interviews and documentary material. Interviews provide first-hand knowledge of how respondents experience the impact of the investment schemes. This provides a balanced analysis given that documents reflect policy stances whereas interviews provide data on whether these have the stated impact. What the study shows is a clear absence of space for ordinary members to directly influence the workings of union investment companies. It is also established that, in their current form, the schemes operate more as a perpetuation of the capitalist logic than offering an alternative system.