Africana Periodical Literature 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
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| Title: | Housing, hostels and migrancy: a case study of accommodation practices at JCI's gold mines |
| Author: | Hunter, Peter |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Periodical: | Labour, Capital and Society |
| Volume: | 25 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 88-103 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | miners workers' housing gold mining |
| Abstract: | In the 1980s important changes in the political economy of South Africa's gold industry induced management to explore alternative ways of housing their black workers. Three of the mining houses introduced programmes which allowed workers to opt out of the hostel system. These included a living-out allowance, or rent subsidy, and various forms of bond (mortgage) subvention. This article looks at the interaction between corporate, State and union policy in the case of a single mining company, the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment (JCI) Company. JCI's initiatives are at the forefront of the new mining policies. With respect to upgrading existing accommodation, developing home ownership schemes and making provision for workers preferring to live in local townships, the company is in advance of its parent, Anglo American Corporation. Given the shortcomings of the rent-subsidy scheme and the barriers to home ownership, relatively few workers have chosen to live off the mines. In particular, foreign workers remain bound by law to the migrant system, while costs, legislation and other barriers constrain the choice of South African workers. Partly as a result of the problems experienced with the rent-subsidy and mortgage-subsidy programmes, the companies have recently moved toward a so-called 'clean' wage. Workers get some freedom of choice but only by assuming a greater burden of housing costs. Notes, ref., sum. in French. |