Transforming migrancy: Basotho experience and participation in the South African labour system

The question investigated in this study is the migrant labour system with special reference to Basotho workers. South Africa has some of the poorest labour relations in the world, and the migrant labour crisis is an important component of this problem. Questions outstanding include the approach that should be taken in restructuring the labour economy, and what workers voices may contribute to that process. Who in fact are these workers, from where do they come, where do they reside, and what do they wish from the new dispensation? Understanding what migrancy means to working men and women from Lesotho is the objective of this study. Little has been done to analyse the consequences of rapid changes in the structure of employment in the mining industry for migrants and their kith and kin. As the study points out, these changes in the system have implications for everyone, not only Lesotho migrants. Their effects are considered in the context of documented background on the historical evolution of the system. Constructions of labour migrancy have been tied up with notions of identity. Even magical practices play a role in formulating defensive self-identifications in relation to the uncertainties of the system. The study investigates the rules and provisions attached to the employment conditions of citizens and foreigners, revealing the ambiguity of the 'migrant ' label. Such ambiguity is significant not only for the social dilemma workers find themselves in, but also for the restructuring of South Africa's economy. Another perspective expressed in Basotho testimonies is the necessity of taking charge of one's own life. It is clear that change in the migrant labour system has not been shaped by the agency of management alone. Migrants identified problems, and worked out intuitively their potential solutions. Further, they identified and formulated mechanisms to implement their own versions of these solutions. Migrants realize that an exploitative system will perpetuate itself by assuming a different shape while its essence stays the same. Workers want to help in the process of restructuring the problematic aspects of industrial institutions. They can do this more effectively if they are empowered, not only by unionism but through a 'culture of awareness' or mutual consciousness. In sum, the study focuses on the contributions of workers toward restructuring the political economy of migrancy. It is through recognising this aspect that workers voices may ask to be heard. The migrant labour system has long been part of South Africa's economy, and it cannot be ignored in the present crisis. Before we can talk about effective ways of addressing the problems of the system, its workings must be understood. It is necessary to understand the dynamics within this system so as to provide stakeholders with the capacity to manage structural and legal interventions. The thesis uses the testimony of migrants from Lesotho to reveal the dynamics of the system, with its informal knowledge, attitudes, practices, and so on. Migrants tell stories that show not only how unjustly the system is treating them, but how they have survived and even made the most of its limited opportunities. The answers to our economic problems do not lie in xenophobia or blame shifting, but in the active participation of all towards bettering both productivity and working conditions.

Grantor

Social Anthropology

Year dc:date.issued

1996

Author dc:creator

• Mosai, Sello B

• anthropology

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38708

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38708