Mapping and Resolving a Health Crisis: 1902–1929

Abstract

AbstractThe history of gold mining in South Africa was marked by several profound crises. This chapter traces the emergence and resolution of the first one. Following official recognition of the disproportionate mortality of miners from North of latitude 22 South, in 1913 the South African government banned further recruitment of ‘Tropical’ labour. Several commissions of enquiry, a series of pioneering Mines and Miners’ Phthisis Acts, the creation of a state supported research community, the commissioning of vaccine for pneumonia and the establishment of a system of compulsory medical examinations helped resolve the crisis politically. Living and working conditions on the mines improved, and deaths from pneumonia were reduced. However, the risk of silicosis and TB infection remained, and repatriations of sick and dying men continued. The first health crisis became a model for how the mining houses would respond to occupational disease. The industry captured the science, framed the legislation and externalised the principal costs of occupational disease onto labour-sending communities.