Administration and Casual Employment in South Africa

by Zaheera Jinnah

In 2014 I was working as a researcher at Wits University's African Centre for Migration and Society. With Dr. Aurelia Segatti, we were leading a multi-year research and policy programme on labour migration in several sectors including mining. As part of the fieldwork, our team visited an industrial gold mine. It was the first time I had been inside a mine, and on the drive west out of the city we passed neat rows of homes with beautiful gardens and fences. Everything orderly, everything in its place. At the entrance to the mine, the security guard found our names on a clipboard, checked our identity cards, and waved us through. We were scheduled to interview a manager, and he was a friendly Afrikaans man, neatly pressed trousers, perfectly trimmed moustache, affable and paternal Much of our discussion centred on security and the future of mining. How difficult it is for the mine to remain profitable, and how much the company spends on security to prevent illegal mining in its shafts. After similar interviews at another two companies, it was clear to us that a broader field of study of informal mining was desperately needed to understand labour mobility. What followed was 6 years of work that has culminated in this book. Trained as an anthropologist, my overall approach was to do an ethnography of informal mining. After Aurelia left to eventually take up a position with the International Labour Organisation on labour migration, I put together a team of graduate students, including now, Dr. Janet Munakamwe, who was then a doctoral student, and everyday members of the community who we trained in basic research techniques.

108 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2023