‘Kings of the Mine’: Rock Drill Operators and the 2012 Strike Wave on South African Mines

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explains why rock drill operators (RDOs) initiated the 2012 strike wave in South African mining. It does so by sketching the history of the specific industrial occupation of rock drilling over a century, describing its central role in the mining labour process and discussing a case study undertaken in 2005 after a strike by over 400 RDOs. It argues that due to the centrality and stability of the machine rock drill, resulting from stalled mechanisation at the rock face, the continued presence of large numbers of rock drillers and other underground workers are still required to mine both gold and platinum. The consequence is a mass-based mining working class reminiscent of early industrial capitalism. This, the argument goes, is the basis of the objective social power recently wielded by the RDOs. For these reasons rock drillers have consequently been singled out for differential treatment by mining companies for over a century. The contemporary evidence for this is the case study of the struggle of a group of RDOs whose independent workers’ committees have been traced back to 1985. When the RDOs went out on a series of strikes in 1999 and 2004, the parallels with the 2012 strike wave in mining are notable. When analysed from the perspective of their historical point-of-production struggles in the labour process, the reasons why the RDOs were at the forefront of the strike wave in 2012 are explained. A fuller explanation of the strike wave, its underlying causes and the ensuing political events, it is argued, must begin by understanding the occupation of the rock driller, the source of their social power and their history of struggle.