Migrant Workers When the British set out to

Migrant Workers §When the British set out to break the power of the African Kingdoms in South Africa §The main reason was to create a continuous and reliable source of the labour by dispossessing Africans of their land §When deep-level gold mining started on the Witwaterstrand, there was huge demand for cheap labour because the new mining methods were hughly labour intensive.

In order to force african peopleinto miigrant labour system whch needed to feed the gold mines with labour a few things needed to be done: §A n hut tax was introduced that had to paid in money. This meant that Africans had to find work in the economy. §Chamber of mines did two things, one it colluded with the ZAR Volkraad to force thousands of African tenant farmers off white owned land because they did not own land in ZAR, and second Chamber f mines set up an recruitment system to get African farmers to work in the migrant labour system and stations was set up around the country to which Africans would come. The Africans were promised jobs on the mines in return for wages and accommodation but they had to sign a contract that forced them to work on the mines for a stipulated amount of years

Three measures were implemented: �Migrant workers were issued passes. The passes prevented them from terminating their contracts early and from moving from one mine to another �African trade union were banned so that migrant workers had no method of bargaining for better conditions or higher wages �A tot system was introduced where part of there wages was alcohol. This led to workers spending more money on alcohol

Burden on women in the reserves and erosion of families Life for families of migrant workers became very hard without the help of the men Women in reserves § Females had to do the work of the men as well as house chores. § Women had to leave children without inadequate food § People left behind had no knowledge about the farming methods. § Migrant were unable to provide food for their families § Many women in reserve had to find work to earn money so that they could buy food and other necessities from trading stores

The erosion families � Men were forced to stay away from their families for long period of times � Men became involved in city in the way of life Eg drinking and gambling � Children grew up without a father and mother due to mothers having to work Skilled and unskilled white workers § Deep level mining was new to South Africa and experienced miners were need. § Mines workers from oversea had to be imported who were skilled. § These mine workers were paid 18 -22 pounds a month and unskilled workers earned 2 -3 pounds a month. § The reason for this discrepancy in wages were because skilled workers were in short supply and mine owners offered high wages for skilled workers and they had strong trade unions

Forms of labour resistance � Harsh conditions in the compound and in mines resulted in different forms of labour resistance. For example: -Desertion: Many unhappy workers ran away from the mines -Go slow : Worker purposely worked slowly as a form of protest -Boycotts : worker did not look for work a the mines and preferred the railway and domestic services -Strikes : Workers went on a number of strikes in which they refused to work until the conditions improved

The role of unions § The white miners went on strike and the manger dropped the wage of the black mines and he tried to do the same with the white miner. § This was the first strike by white skilled miners and they won it with very little trouble Job reservation § Also know as the colour bar reserved certain jobs for whites. This prevented unskilled people from doing skilled jobs, however there was no point for black people to learn skills because they would not be allowed to do skilled jobs