Labour trafficking rearing ugly head in SA mining, says social scientist
Social scientist Dr Philip Frankel, in publishing a book on the Marikana killings, has opened a can of worms on labour trafficking, which he says is spilling over from illegal mining into formal mining. Camera Work: Shane Williams and Nicholas Boyd. Editing: Shane Williams.
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Labour trafficking had reared its ugly head in South Africa’s mining sector, fuelled by the migrant labour system, mining’s short-term contracting trend and corrupt elements, social scientist Dr Philip Frankel said on Monday.
Unsuspecting people were falling into the clutches of traffickers through poverty and a lack of opportunity, said Frankel, who has just released a 180-page book on Marikana entitled Between The Rainbows and The Rain.
The book, which deals with managing the current crisis in the South African mining industry, includes a chapter that covers the contentious human exploitation phenomenon.
The former University of the Witwatersrand School of Sciences associate professor and current Agency for Social Reconstruction director told Mining Weekly Online in a video interview (see attached) that traffickers used deception to lure unsuspecting recruits into mining and then subjected them to debt bondage.
That bondage went on surreptitiously behind the formal mine structures and was often handed down from one generation to another.
“This is an area that needs to be quite considerably explored,” he said.
Police did not arrest traffickers because there was currently no law in South Africa dealing directly with labour trafficking and human trafficking.
“What we need in this country are trafficking laws,” he said.
He expected such laws to be introduced in the next few months, against the background of South Africa and Southern Africa being one of the world’s largest human-trafficking routes.
He called for a higher level of trafficking consciousness in the mining industry and South Africa as a whole, as trafficking was also taking place in other sectors, including agriculture.
He believed the incidence of labour trafficking in mining in the North West province was an indicator of something that took place in the country more widely.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Columbus Stainless, based in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, is Africa’s only producer of stainless steel flat products. In addition, Columbus is the only...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
