Migrant mineworkers and South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Botswana and Lesotho, 1906-2006

Abstract

Migrant labour has played a critical role in the diplomatic relations of South Africa for more than 100 years. The discovery of gold and diamonds in South Africa in the late 1800s transformed the country into a mining giant in Southern Africa. The South African mines needed a large number of mine workers that their country could not provide. South Africa’s demand for mine workers extended to the whole of Southern Africa and beyond, to countries as far as Libya, Uganda, and China. Using the migration diplomacy framework, this article analyses the role and impact of migrant mine labourers in facilitating South Africa’s diplomatic relations with Botswana and Lesotho. It holds that migrant mineworkers facilitated South Africa’s relations with Botswana and Lesotho despite different political systems and major world political changes. It argues that relative economic gains sustained a consistent supply of migrant mineworkers from Botswana and Lesotho to South Africa for more than a century beginning in 1906. Moreover, South Africa’s demand for migrant mine workers enabled capital accumulation at the expense of Lesotho and Botswana. Furthermore, it argues that South Africa’s mining corporations facilitated migrant-based diplomatic relations that remained consistent for more than 100 years.

Keywords

• migration
• diplomacy
• states
• labour
• mines
• political