Mining Hostels

The article below forms part of Mike Alfred's series on Joburg personalities from the first decade of the 21st century. Click here to view Kathy Munro's fantastic introduction and here to view the series index. The stories were written in 2005/6.

I meet and talk to Frans Beleni, a senior official, his title is Production Pillarhead, with the National Union of Mineworkers. He works at Union headquarters, 7 Rissik St, an Art Deco building opposite the old SARS. His lifespan embraces the old South Africa becoming new. His forty five years have been packed with protest, change and emergence.

NUM Building Rissik Street (The Heritage Portal)

Blue plaque on the NUM building (The Heritage Portal)

Beleni, not a born Johannesburger enjoys and values its many amenities but is perturbed by the crime. He became a young activist at school, and later a fugitive from the police. This was followed by a period as a miner on the Free State Goldfields, which provided him with both ‘a convenient place to...

In the article below, John Lincoln reveals some of the history of the mining hostels of Cullinan. The piece is enhanced by a spectrum of photographs from the Cullinan Mine Archives. Click here to view the index of Lincoln's series on the history of Cullinan.

In the days before mass mechanisation the supply of sufficient men to enable the mine to process the vast amounts of material to liberate the diamonds was a problem. The mine recruited workers from all over South Africa as well as from the countries that bordered the Republic. To house these workers huge compounds were built. At one stage there were as many as 15 000 workers housed in the compounds. Due to internal fighting between the different ethnic groups the mine split the shifts along ethnic grounds and accommodated them in compounds according to ethnic groups.

In the early days the compounds were very basic with no bunks and with outdoor washing and cooking facilities. The compounds were closed compounds and the workers needed to cook for themselves. The food was bought from a store within the compound run by the Premier Mine Co-operative Society.

Gradually over the years the facilities within the compound improved and when the compounds closed in 1973, they boasted a bowls green, cinema and football fields.

Compounds...