Source 2A This source discusses the problems of getting enough labour on the mines
How the mines got their labour
In order to be profitable, the mines needed an ongoing supply of cheap labour. The mine owners therefore had to think very carefully about where they would get labour from and how they would make it cheap. 'We must have labour. The mining industry without labour is as ... it would
be to imagine that you could get milk without cows.' (President of the Chamber of Mines, March 1912) The problem that faced the mine owners was that there was no ready-made
supply of workers whom they could recruit to work in the mines. They had to use many different methods to create and keep a supply of cheap labour. Workers in turn resisted these methods in various ways. Few Africans were willing to leave their fields to work underground. Most
African farmers were not interested in working in the mines while they still had land. Some, like the Pedi, had been prepared to work as migrants for short periods on the diamond mines in order to get money to buy farming implements, as well as guns to defend themselves. Even mine owners had to find a way of turning the migrant system into a
cheap one. In the years between 1890 and 1899 the number of African mineworkers rose from 14 000 to 100 000.
Source:
www.sahistory.org.za/archive/glitter-gold
Source 2B British officials collecting taxes from Zulu chieftains in the early 1900s.
Source: Popperphoto 171
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