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COMMISSION
  
OF
  
INQUIRY
  
INTO
  
SAFETY
  
AND
  
HEALTH
  
IN
  
THE
  
MINING
  
INDUSTRY 
 
 
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-the powers of inspectors to close mines or parts of mines should be circumscribed 
in the Act; 
 
-the GME should have a panel of experts on safety problems to help him in special 
enquiries into accidents; 
 
-procedures at inspector’s inquiries should be simplified and achieve results; 
 
-the jurisdiction of inspector’s courts should be increased, but ensure a fair hearing; 
 
-a Ministerial Commission should hear appeals from GME’s decisions; 
 
-Sub Inspectors should be restricted to welfare work; 
 
-a new grade of Senior Sub Inspector should be appointed, one to each inspectorate; 
 
-mine plans should be inspected more thoroughly and frequently.  Systematic 
inspection should be resumed; and 
 
-the Welkom inspectorate should be divided into two. 
 
We consider that it is relevant by way of background to report what was said in 
paragraph 29 of the Marais Commission Report: 
 
“Mining is inherently dangerous both to life and health.  Those who wish to extract 
anything from under the surface of the earth by digging a hole must be prepared to 
devote some of their resources to safety.  It is an unnatural activity giving rise to 
unnatural conditions. 
 
But safety measures invariably cost money and the employer must bear its 
expenditure.  Thus a perpetual conflict of interest arises between employer and 
employee as to the nature and extent of the safety measures that may be considered 
reasonably practical and reasonably necessary”. 

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COMMISSION
  
OF
  
INQUIRY
  
INTO
  
SAFETY
  
AND
  
HEALTH
  
IN
  
THE
  
MINING
  
INDUSTRY 
 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
 
A REVIEW OF THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY 
 
2.1 
HISTORY AND ORGANISATION 
 
2.1.1  The Chamber of Mines (COM), and the influence of the migratory labour 
system which led to the establishment of compounds and hostels. 
 
The Chamber was formed over 100 yeas ago.  It is a voluntary association of private 
sector mining finance houses, mining companies and mines.  It has over 80 members 
drawn from South Africa’s gold, coal, diamond, platinum, antimony, asbestos, 
maganese, lead and copper mining sections (Appendix 4).  The members account for 
about 85% of the mineral output of South Africa.  Some significant mining 
organisations such as SASOL remain outside the Chamber, together with a large 
number of small mines. 
 
The Chamber’s primary function is to promote and protect the interests of its 
members, doing this through joint action, at industry level, in areas where it is 
considered by the Chamber to be economically beneficial, prudent, and desirable for 
members to co-operate and act in concert.  The services it offers members extend 
over a wide range of technical, legal, medical, social and environmental issues.  It 
operates through a range of committees on which sit representatives of the major 
finance houses and mining companies, and at which policy agreements are arrived 
at. 
 
The Commission heard evidence (Wilson pp 730/824) on the historical perspective 
concerning the employment of labour in South African mines.  Professor Francis 
Wilson is an authority on this subject, being the founder Director of the South 
African Labour and Development Research Unit in the University of Cape Town, 
and the author of many books on the subject. 
 
A central feature of the gold mining industry is that there has been an oscillating 
migratory labour system in South Africa.  Labour has been brought in on a 
temporary basis for a fixed period and then returned to the rural areas.  In the first 
phase of this development, for many decades, men came for short contracts of nine 
to twelve months and many did not return at all, or returned only once or twice.  
More recently, in the second phase of this development, some 90% of mineworkers 
spend more than 10 years of their lives on the mines in total, but they remain 
migratory workers.  Their position is akin to “guest workers” in Germany and 
elsewhere in Europe and the USA.  This distinction is important from the point of 
view of training and environmental exposure to dust, radiation, noise and other 
contaminants.  From the point of view of the worker himself, and particularly his 
family, he remains a migrant.  He is divided in half as a human being; that is, a 
labour unit working at a mine, and a family man with his family in the rural areas. 
 
In the early days of South African mining, cheap housing was a way of controlling 
labour.  As far back as 1890, when the COM was formed, mining compounds were 
established to control labour, and the Chamber established recruiting agencies.  In 
these early days of the Chamber’s history one of its primary functions was stated to 
be – “to reduce native wages to a reasonable level because they wanted to prevent  
 

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COMMISSION
  
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INQUIRY
  
INTO
  
SAFETY
  
AND
  
HEALTH
  
IN
  
THE
  
MINING
  
INDUSTRY 
 
 
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competition”, and to find ways and means of recruiting labour.  The wages paid 
were sufficiently high to induce people to make the long journey from their homes 
and serve in the dangerous and arduous mines.  Accordingly a whole process of 
recruiting labour from all over the subcontinent was established.  By 1899, 100 000 
black mineworkers were needed on the mines, and at that time 60% of the labour 
came from outside South Africa, mainly from Mozambique. 
 
At the same time the color bar was fought for by white mineworkers and the 
management felt obliged to go along with their demands.  The COM played a 
specific role in putting in place the Pass Laws, which played a critical role in 
maintaining the migrant labour system for over 100 years.  From the employer’s 
point of view it was necessary to try to ensure a regular supply of labour at wages 
which the mining industry felt reasonable.  The Commission was reminded by 
Professor Wilson of the quotation from Cecil John Rhodes when introducing the 
Glen Grey Act in support of an argument for a hut tax in order to obtain labour for 
the mines: 
 
“You will remove them, the natives, from the life of sloth and laziness, you will 
teach them the dignity of labour, and make them contribute to the prosperity of the 
State and give them some good return for our wise and good government.”  The 
mining industry was locked into the migrant labour system which gave it a control 
over the labour force so that there was no question of strikes, which were illegal, and 
there was a dominance of management over labour: what mine management said 
went.  By 1910 workers were being recruited from all over Southern Africa but far 
from Johannesburg itself. 
 
Certain historical events changed the picture. 
 
In April 1974 some Malawian mineworkers were killed in an air crash which caused 
Dr. Banda, the President of Malawi, to ban further recruiting from his country.  In 
the same month the political coup in Lisbon spelled the end of the Portuguese 
empire, causing Angola and Mozambique to become independent, and not wishing 
to be seen as being linked to the apartheid labour system in South Africa.  In one 
month the Chamber of Mines was faced with a loss of 50% of its labour force from 
Malawi and Mozambique.  From then on there was a rapid increase in wages, which 
had already been assisted by the rapid increase in the gold price since 1971, and a 
rise in the influence of unions. 
 
For many years the COM expressed its opposition to the apartheid system but even 
today, with the apartheid system ended there exists a hangover from that system in 
the mining industry, where by and large black workers are at the bottom of the 
organisational pyramid, while white workers are further up.  Job reservation for 
whites was formally abolished only in 1986. 
 
From the evidence heard by the Commission it was clear that certain tensions and 
disagreements do still exist between the Chamber and the National Union of 
Mineworkers and other unions.  With regard to the white mineworkers union their 
views are dealt with later in Chapter 2.1.2.2. However, there was a broad measure of 
agreement on the following matters between all the parties: 

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