The liberation dialectic: control and resistance in the reordering of the mining landscapes in South Africa

Andries Bezuidenhout, Crispen Chinguno and John Mashayamombe

Chapter 20 in Handbook of Labour Geography, 2025, pp 350-362 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The colonial and apartheid regimes worked with mining capital to implement spatial schemes to control mineworkers in South Africa. Historically, this was achieved by a combination of land dispossession, taxes, oppressive workplace orders, and the use of migrant labour housed in compounds. Mineworkers, though, resisted these efforts through strikes and the capture of mining compounds. In the post-apartheid era, mining capital is seeking to create new landscapes of control. However, its efforts – in partnership with the state – are likewise facing opposition. At the same time, divisions between formally- and informally-employed mineworkers have led to inter-mineworker struggles. This is, then, not a simple story of resistance and liberation in the industry but, rather, a complicated story of the changing nature of space, social actors’ understanding of place, fluid workplace orders and the creation of a new socio-political-economic order in South Africa. The concept ‘liberation dialectic’ is used to frame this process.

Keywords: Liberation dialectic; Colonialism; Insurgent agency; Space; Mining; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781785363399
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