The Impact of Labour Decline on the Swazi Migrants and Their Families 1960s-1990s

Abstract

TThis article examines the impact of labour decline on the lives of Swazi ex-mine workers and its overall bearing on their families and their communities. Current scholarship on labour migration predominantly focuses on workers, labour markets, or communities in receiving countries. While labour migration significantly impacts migrant’s well-being, this dimension has not received much scholarly attention. This paper addresses the impact of retrenchment, risks to occupational health, and compensation for injuries among Swazi ex-miners, given the hazardous nature of mining work. It explores the experiences of Swazi migrants who worked in South African mines during the 1960s and 1990s. The decline in migrant labour had serious repercussions in the country, more especially in the southern part of the Swazi region, an area that had always supplied more mine recruits than the other regions of the country. Using a snowball research design, the study investigated the experiences of exmine workers after retrenchment, particularly focusing on their lives and welfare in their home communities. The paper highlights the challenges faced by these ex-miners, including psychological and health risks and inadequate compensation for work-related injuries. It argues for increased attention to the well-being of migrant workers and improved policies to ensure their safety and fair compensation. By focusing on the narratives of Swazi ex-miners, this study contributes to a broader understanding of the impacts of labour migration and the need for better protection of migrant workers’ rights. These migrant workers have lost not only their income, but also the unpleasant experience of losing a job denied them their social roles as household heads. The article has shown how the changing economies of the mines and new policies, such as the internalisation of mine labour by the South African government, led to massive retrenchment, which created a new set of problems for the Swazi ex-miners, such as integration and assimilation in their communities and household