The Economic Impacts Of Gold Mining In 20th Century South Africa

Large-scale Gold Mining, and later industrial manufacturing, molded the economic and political landscape of 20th century South Africa. The need for cheap, low-cost labor created the necessity for black laborers within the concentrated mining and manufacturing areas in the Transvaal and the East Cape respectively. However, the racial climate of South Africa meant that the conflicting interests of whites in power, as well as the black South African population, would regularly find themselves at odds over government policies created by the racial-infused politics of early South Africa. Mining and Manufacturing pushed black South Africans away from the outskirts and towards the cities, leading to an influx of Africans from the “outskirts” into

Beforehand, South African gold couldn’t be processed because of impurities in the ore and mineral content, however with the industrial revolution came scientific breakthroughs that facilitated for high-quality extracts from previously unmanageable ore. Overseas financiers provided the capital necessary to set up large-scale mining in South Africa, however, they relegated the task of finding cheap, unskilled labor towards the mine-owners setting up operations near the deposits. Likewise, Mine owners were able to find labor; however, this labor pool was limited in scope to migrants from Lesotho and refugees from Zulu wars. Indigenous Inhabitants of South Africa weren’t treated equally to Afrikaner Boers, but they were able to have agency over whether or not they chose to work in the mines or on the land. In order to succeed, a reliable source of labor must be

The squatter movements evolved overtime to become grassroots political movements. Figures like James “sofasonke” Mpanza emerged as charismatic leaders, adept at organizing and mobilizing manpower from their community members towards political action, such as mass boycotts seen later on in the century. Mpanza’s appeal lied in his willingness to accept Black South Africans of different ethnic identities; Mpanza’s vision of true squatter society and politics reduced ethnic identities of “Zulus, Xhosas, Shanganes, Basutos or anything else” as “one black race” towards the height of his movement around the mid-20th century. Of course, The Johannesburg city council labelled him as a “dictator and gangster” because his movement was viewed with shock from the white Afrikaner community, expressing the power of the Black South Africans that they attempted to socially-engineer into subservient