Abstract
M.Tech. (Architectural Technology)
Nineteen years after the abolishment of Apartheid in 1994, South Africa still faces
many socio-economic challenges. The majority of South Africans live in poverty,
characterised in part by mass unemployment and inequality (Smith 2007:1). The
majority find themselves trapped and marginalised, and are faced every day with
the challenges of landlessness, homelessness, lack of basic services, food insecurity
and high levels of crime and violence (Smith 2007:1). These problems are rooted in
a long history of oppression in South Africa and have created a polarised society,
in which the fault lines of race, class and sector run deep. The 2012 Marikana strike
tragedy highlighted some of the issues created by a polarised society and therefore,
the mining industry is viewed in this dissertation as a microcosm of South Africa.
These issues are amplified in the mines where the historical scars read with greater
clarity. The needs of the country are closely related to the needs on the mines of
South Africa and in this way the project deals with broader South African issues and
possible solutions.
This dissertation explores the historical negatives associated with the development
of the mining culture since its inception in South Africa, beginning with an analysis
of the reasons for the unrest and strike action of Marikana and, specifically, the
gold mines. It seeks to present solutions that will contribute to the liberation of the
migrant worker as well as localised workers on the mines. The author looks at two
separate issues in the mining context: the lack of education and skills development
within the mining community, and the challenging and negative spaces on the mine
itself. These issues are dealt with as two separate strands that become intertwined
throughout the text in an attempt to reach a holistic solution to the unrest in the
mining industry.
The first strand argues that education is the tool or enabler to liberate mine workers
from the migrant labour system and provide economic freedom from the labour
‘trap’ that characterises, even to this day, the nature of wage labour on South African
gold mines. Through human development, the choices mine workers have can be
expanded so that they can lead lives that have value, and in the same way improve
their human condition. The aim is to provide an alternative to spending the rest of
one’s life working in a mine. The mine should be conceptualized as a college, where
the workers ‘graduate’ after acquiring the tools they need to create opportunity for
themselves and for their home communities. In this way, the first argument leads to
the development of the programme for the building.
The second strand of thought seeks to provide a humane space in an environment
that otherwise was not designed for humans, but the extraction of gold, so that
education can be carried out effectively. The mining industry is going through a
revolution and the spaces on the mines need to be reconsidered. There is a need to
provide humane spaces in an area where so much of the workers time is invested
– new, empowering spaces that value human experience and quality of life over
industry and profit margins.