Marashea on the Mines: Economic, Social and Criminal Networks on the South African Gold Fields, 1947-1999

Abstract

Since their emergence in the late 1940s, the predominantly Basotho gangs known as Marashea or Russians have maintained close links with mineworkers, especially those working on gold mines. These links intensified and the gangs became more dependent on the mines after the 1963 legislation which denied Basotho the right to work in South Africa other than in the agricultural and mining sectors. This legislation, combined with the opening of the Free State mines in the 1950s, resulted in the locus of Russian strength shifting from the Johannesburg area to the Western Transvaal and the Free State. The gangs divided into two distinct sections, those who worked and lived on the mines and the unemployed who lived in nearby locations and informal settlements. The mineworkers and 'loafers' developed a symbiotic relationship - the unemployed relied on mineworkers for financial support, while mineworkers depended on 'full-time' Russians for access to and control over women. During incidents of large-scale violence on the mines and in the surrounding areas, the two sections of each group united against outside antagonists. The Russians have managed to survive and flourish over the past fifty years because of the mutually supportive relationships the gangs have established between loafers and mineworkers. Their presence in mining communities has contributed to ethnic chauvinism, the regulation of migrant women and the establishment of social, economic and criminal networks that have bound segments of outside and compound communities more closely together.