Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
History module 3 : pg 16 - 24 (Life for the workers on the gold mines (the…
History module 3 : pg 16 - 24
Life for the workers on the gold mines (the compound system )
Living conditions
Treated like prisoners
Black workers
Controlled by mine owners - no rights
Overcrowded , dirty , unhealthy
Huts contained 20 to 50 workers
Slept on concrete bunks built one above eachother like shelves
Floor - earth floors - raining became damp - it was too crowded workers had to sleep on damp floors
1903 - baths were put in middle of bunks - people could wash clothes and themselves
Badly built - no lights , windows , had cracks in walls , had to use rags to keep the wind from blowing in
Only heating - “imbandla” - bug tin of hot coal giving off highly dangerous smoke fumes
Food
Given food rations in all compounds (not more than 5 Ibs of mealiemeal plus 2 Ibs of meat a week to save costs) - not enough food for doing manual labor for 10 hours or more every shift
Workers had to buy own food - 1909 - reported that many of the workers spent half of wages on food
People of the compounds
compound manager - in charge of the compound and underground section
induna - keep order amongst the workers and settler their quarrels - black worker - payed more - got extra beer and meat - had his own room - appointed by compound manager
compound policemen - appointed by compound manager -allowed to carry knobkerries or sticks - guarded compound compound gates - controlled queues in kitchen + washing rooms
workers - 3000 men in each compound - divide into 3 main language groups (Sotho, Xhosa , Zulu) - groups didn't know each other = separate
Violence
detention room (handcuffed + locked up) - in mines workers punished to work harder - supervisors would hit and kick workers (against the law)
A working day underground
native day shift - go down mine from 4 - 6 am - some got coffee + some didn't - start by getting tools and filling up holes where dynamite hadn't exploded (dangerous +terrible accidents)- spend hours lashing + throwing broken rock into trucks to be taken to the surface - after lashing they drew new holes - take till 7pm
during mining for 15 hrs workers would not get food - had to get own food
‘1000 ways to die’
1903 - 5022 workers died
causes : pneumonia , + meningitis , changes in temp , weakness, intestinal infections (bad food), accidents , bacillus's , tuberculosis
spare time
in the compound most workers had little money and also spent it on heavy drinks or dagga so that they would forget where they were - made it hard to save money and remember family needs
land act and life on the reserves
1898 - boers against british = golf fields in transvaal
1902 - british won war
1910 - boers (orange free state + travaal) and british (cape + natal) became united in to 1 country = the union of "south africa"
prime minister - Louis Botha
deputy - Jan Smuts
why did the south african government pass the land act ?
force thousands of black people into wage labour - not enough land for 80% of population so forced african people to work for the whites
ensure that white commercial farmers had enough land and land labour - everyone who worked for the whites could live there but the people who didn't had to go
ensure that black farmers could not support themselves -stopped africans from renting land from white farmers
ensure that the witwatersrand gold mines had labour - forced africans to work mines + easiest job = mines were always short of labour
1913 - government made a law - devided blacks and whites = Natives' land act
the law - black could only got to whites if they were employed and sites weren't allowed to go to their side
black people} - 80% population
}7% - land [reserves]
African societies - no ownership
life on the reserves - the circle of poverty
more africans showed up at the piece of land and then there were too many people so lots of men were sent to go live on the mines which left the women ,children and the sick to do the men's jobs
the land had to be cultivated
taxes had to be paid
children had to be cared for
the sick had to be nursed
the dead had to be buried
women , children and the sick worked very hard but the harder they worked the weaker and poorer the land got and as soon as the men were old enough to farm they had to work for whites on their farms because their land was too little and too poor
nothing grew in the reserves - they just became poorer
act - purchase a piece of land by natives