transnationalism//Operation Dudula // illegal mining
Mintail's Mine as a lens to the aethetics of superfluity
“Superfluity is not merely extravagance, caprice and eccentricity, the collapse of the distinction between meaning and form. It is the superfluity of weighing, calculating, and enumerating, of converting
quantities into qualities and visa versa. Superfluity is also a mode of psychic experience in which the distinction between things, and thus things themselves, become meaningless. Since things have neither singularity nor originality except through their quantification and their equation with money, their core can be hollowed out, their peculiarity erased and their uniqueness decoloured” -Nutall and Mbembe
Borrowing from Sarah.G Millan’s statement that the mining dumps are a monument of servitude, power, the vanities of death and racial capitalism, the socio political factors of Mintails mine dumps and illegal mining, is analysed.
ILLEGAL MINING The South African history of intersectionality of capitalism and migrant labour, with migrant labour being valued for its industrious contribution. today with the decline in gold and closure of a number of gold mines cheap labour has turned toxic; a curse to the Black nation. The decline in gold has left migrant labours who relied on gold diggings for a living destitute. The marginalised communities are in a direct situation of high rate of unemployment. The South African economy has taken a serious knock, closed mines being one of the contributors to struggling economy. Mintails mining site, the selected hot-spot for this study provides evidence of Illegal Mining. Illegal mining has become an informal industry, growing rapidly with government unable to eradicate it. The South African mining sector need for low-skilled migrant workers, historically from colonial times attracted high numbers of labour migrants from neighbouring countries. This group was vulnerable and exploited by the master at very low wage rates. International best practice requires that states that has a need for migrant labour should get the government to enhance cross-border cooperation among the States and also among the communities affected by migration. Further to strengthen the institutional capacities of the services responsible for security, health and environmental control in the artisanal mining areas. There is no evidence that this international best practice was implemented in South Africa. “The prevalence of “illegal mining” has been part of the South African mining landscape for many years and it has become a flourishing business, one that appears almost impossible to contain”. (South African Human Rights Commission, 2013) Illegal miners (colloquially known as zama-zamas are an informal industry in South Africa. In 2018, it was recommended that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy must put in place a Regional Master Plan to address environmental rehabilitation and the remediation of derelict and ownerless mines. It was further recommended that the plan must specifically refer to legacy issues such as acid mine drainage and illegal miners. The Department in response developed a policy on “Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining”. Included in the policy is a policy statement on Illegal Mining, which links gang violence to illegal mining. Public sentiments according to reports on newspapers and what is happening on the ground in terms of demonstrations, illegal mining is linked with illegal immigrants. Tensions are high between local communities, particularly Black African and African foreign nationals. A huge operation of Zama Zamas was discovered by police at the Mintails mining site. The Bench Marks Foundation identifies closure of mines as a critical step in the mining cycle. Closure of mines have a direct impact on the landscape as well as on people. When Mintails abandoned the mine, workers were part of the process, therefore abandoned as well. Dr Van Dyk of Bench Mark Foundation stated in his interview with ENCA TV Channel on 24 June 2023, that when a mine is abandoned, workers who work there do not leave since mining work was their only source of income. They remain behind, to continue.
XENOPHOBIA Mintails mining site, as the hot-spot selected to provide evidence of ugly occurrences deemed to be the effects of mining intertwined with social injustice and oppression. Mintails demonstrate the double-edged sword of power of a biopolitical structure, where primarily and through spatial planning, acute and widely-spread inequalities are created. Secondary, it brought about struggle for resources amongst black communities and legitimised black hatred which in South Africa led to anti-illegal migration ideology, introducing exclusion and dehumanisation of black non-South Africans. The misery brought about by poverty, the effect of social injustice and oppression, contributed to the formation of movement called Operation Dudula initially in Johannesburg region, comprised of black South Africans, fighting black non-South Africans. Colonisation did not only break the soil in South Africa, but also the social fabric of blackness. Operation Dudula extended its operations to be a nationwide movement. Operation Dudula is an unregistered community organisation, operating under a slogan, “Put South Africa First”. It is argued by reporters and researchers that Operation Dudula’s campaign was motivated by the burden faced by Black South African Society on public health services, job opportunities, social grants due to influx of Illegal Immigrants. The World Bank Report of 2022 titled “Inequality in South Africa”, supported the sentiment where it highlighted that inequality in South Africa is consistent with racial disparities. Hence, the approach adopted by this study that Xenophobia is one of legacies of mining capitalism. In its operations, Operation Dudula targets businesses which hire illegal foreigners, in pursuit of maintenance of low wage bill. The rise in anti-immigrant sentiment has left Immigrants and Refugees fearing for their life. (As reported by Aljazeera on 8 April 2022, Reporter: Thabo Myeni). Xenophobia, presents itself as the second layer of racism, which is based on the principle of inferiorisation and deprivation and not racial in nature. Katsere (2019) states that Xenophobia is exploited as a tool to intentionally dehumanise marginal groups and to justify such inhumane treatment.1The mismanagement of exhausted mines naturally. attracted illegal immigrants, as digging minerals was a skill learned from the mines during the time of apartheid when mining companies were profiting from extraction of gold and other minerals. Nationally, a perception was formed that immigrants from neighbouring African countries are introducing criminal activities in South Africa, such as women abuse, human trafficking, drugs, etc. This perception strengthened to a point where Xenophobic attitudes deepened. Operation Dudula Movement raised concerns of stirring xenophobic sentiments in the country; scapegoating immigrants as reason for compromised nationalistic values. The movement in their drive of “Put South Africa First” embarked on a campaign of exclusion of undocumented, non-South African Others. Ironically, Operational Dudula adopted the same colonial framework to dehumanise and exclude those who have been victims to the loss of land and knowledge systems that the power dynamics of imperialism extended to. Gold mining economy saddled South Africa with, oppressive laws and system, discriminatory spatial patterns, superfluity of black labour. Mintails mining site and Lancaster gold mine broadly displayed capacity to breed toxic environment characterised by radioactive material, polluted soil, water and air, prone to xenophobic conducts and blackness notion. Mintails has given a clear display of ‘blackness’, that black has a particular density right at the bottom of the hierarchical system. Tracking the developments at Mintails mining site, gave clarity to the following statement by Achille Mbembe (2017) “To be black is to be stuck at the foot of a wall with no walls, thinking nonetheless that everything will open up in the end.
ABOUT Gold mining played a huge role in the rise of South Africa, globally. It significantly impacted the social, economic and political system of the country; transformed Johannesburg into an economic hub number one within the Continent, contributing significantly to the economy of the World. This study examines the legacies of gold-mining as they present themselves today. The objective is to primarily investigate the interrelationships between landscape, people (indigenous communities and migrants being the focused groups) and architecture (spatial features) Secondary, to give proper context to the present situations of social injustice and oppression glaringly visible in the Johannesburg Region and determine the role played by spatial design in the whole process, as well as highlight the need to rethink the landscapes role. Further, to give voice to the mute environment and all seen closer to nature, which includes marginalised communities, land, landscape, and plants. Throughout the study, the concepts of aesthetics, superfluity are identified as framework and expressly related to circumstances of every segment. Compelling segments being labour migrants, displaced communities, toxic landscapes, xenophobia movements. The research is based on a selected mine, namely, Mintails mine with the mining site located in Krugersdorp, West Rand District in Gauteng Province. A number of gold mines got established in Krugersdorp, Mintails being just one of them. The Krugerdorp landscape is characterised of mine dumps, with many of the mines closed or abandoned. The research is carried out through literature review, professional practice and personal experience. The literature review for this study included media publications on mine dumps, which embodies public sentiments
MIGRANT LABOUR Mining Industrial Capitalism, produced an urban poor out of black life. Braudel (1981: Chapters 3 and 4), regards superfluity as a complex area of daily life, which is beyond poverty and necessity. He is of the view that superfluity relates to luxury, rarity and vanity. Whilst Arendt is of a direct opposite view that of superfluity referring to situations of misery and destitution. As far as Mintails related to black life evidence supports Arendt’s theory of superfluity, that it applies to “situations of misery and destitute”. Arendt further motivates his view of relating superfluity to misery and destitute by using an example of European migrants, highlighting that those who migrated to South Africa to participate in mining, were superfluous and unemployed back home and had no option but to migrate for greener pastures. Migrant labour is a critical segment to development of Krugersdorp. It was the bedrock of extraction of gold and today it is the main sufferer from toxicity of gold dumps. The informal settlements around Mintails and the Kagiso residents comprise of this marginalised group. They host all the pollution from the Mintails mine dumps and from other Krugersdorp mine dumps. Subjection to labour migrant system has been historically a condition of Black African workers whose movement was constrained, and was not extended to other immigrant workers. Immigrant White workers.
A just world within all worlds created in this in-between spaces will only be possible if neglect of design’s role in the maintenance of oppression and inequality isn't acknowledged and addressed. “Design is a discipline deeply entangled in the dynamics of inequality.” Extraction has in Johannesburg territory given rise to complex spatial, cultural, economic and political identity. It is interesting to note the shift that has emerged from mine dumps, originally used as a divisive urban tool between the privilege and very rarely, has turned into a new host. Mintails mine dumps and all other abandoned mines, have become a home, operation site for informal/illegal miners, a trading site for hustlers, a baptismal area for some religions, a crime spot for criminals. The mine dumps are a complex spatial feature. These in-between spaces on one hand they provide the gentle side of presenting opportunity for small-scale sub-mining of retrieval of precious metals, on the other hand they present the violent side of enabling crime since policing is non-existent, as well as health disaster from radioactive material concentrated in the mine dump due to the by-products of gold which remain in the dumps, such as uranium. When colonisers arrived in the Johannesburg region, it was regarded terra nulius (a no man’s land), indigenous people moved without any royalties to the gold. After exhausting the gold, the very sites were abandoned, left to assume uitvalgrond status. Africans divided, until today Khoi and San are not classified as African, a remarkable distortion which led to disowning African of their land and gold wealth. Today we stand as witness, piecing together varied elements to arrive at many thoughts and politics around Mine dumps. The study does not look at solving of an epistemological problem, but rather opening a dialogue around how best could the desire, presence, identity and culture of marginalised inhabitants be considered in the spatial planning process.
