Pay Rage

Black mineworkers in revolt

It began as a heated debate over an unexpectedly low pay raise for black workers at the West Rand mining complex, one of the richest gold veins in the world. When some of the men refused to enter the mines and others symbolically laid down their shovels, white overseers called out the mines' internal security police. Using riot guns, armored vehicles, tear gas and snarling Alsatian dogs, they attempted to disperse the angry crowd. By evening the confrontation had erupted into a full-scale riot, as 4,000 blacks raged across mine property, stoning the cars of white officials and setting fire to an office building and an infirmary. In the following days, sporadic rioting was reported at other mines throughout the country. By the time police restored order last week, ten workers were dead and more than 300 had been arrested.

The mine owners' reaction was swift and severe. Only hours after the smoke had cleared, thousands of black workers received dismissal notices and were preparing to be bused back to their tribal homelands. At West Driefontein mine, 1,233 blacks out of a work force of 12,000 were fired and sent home; 2,000 were transported from the Kloof gold mine. Those remaining were warned that their contracts would be revoked if they refused to join their work shift. Said one mine manager: "We'll have no trouble replacing the men who left. It will just take some time to teach them the necessary skills."

Such an attitude is common in an industry that is increasingly plagued by unrest. Bound by strict labor contracts, black miners are forced to live in spartan conditions, separated from their families for up to two years at a time. Racial tension at the mines has been aggravated by the vast disparity between pay rates for the nation's estimated 117,000 white mineworkers and their 700,000 black counterparts (the 1980 average: 1,077 rands a month for whites vs. 169 a month for blacks). Black workers, whose base pay raises are set by the South African Chamber of Mines, can receive a higher raise only at the whim of their employers. Blacks are also victims of a system of "job reservation," under which the highest-paid jobs are reserved for whites.

A government commission recommended last September that job reservation, especially the issuing of blasting certificates only to whites, be abolished. Despite a shortage of miners with such certificates, which qualify workers for the best jobs, the government has made no move to enforce the recommendation. Commented the Rand Daily Mail: "Only the mining industry remains [such] a bastion of white privilege."

The all-white Mineworkers' Union is fighting to preserve the job reservation system. Union officials have warned that if blacks are issued blasting certificates there will be a repeat of the 1922 "red revolt," when mineworker riots forced then Prime Minister Jan Smuts to declare martial law. At the annual meeting of the union's general council, Mineworkers' President Cor de Jager denounced the government commission's recommendation that skilled jobs be opened to all races. Said he: "For the sake of the money bosses and the blacks, the white workers are to be placed on an altar for sacrifice."

White workers last week won a compromise 12% pay hike, averting a possible strike. Although the figure was well below the 16% the workers had asked for, it demonstrated the white mineworkers' political and economic leverage in an industry that is already reeling from the depressed price of gold (down to about $328 per oz. from a high of $850 two years ago). Because of the huge racial disparity in pay, the 12% raise for black mineworkers will be equivalent in absolute terms to about one-sixth the raise for whites. Said the Rand Daily Mail: "The real issue is that black pay should not be set by employer largesse alone. It should be the outcome of bargaining with workers, as white wages are."

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