Medicine, Politics and Disease on South Africa's Gold Mines

Abstract

South Africa's gold mines were the first in the world to compensate silicosis and tuberculosis as occupational diseases. They were also the first to monitor the health of miners entering and leaving the industry. While those procedures were much admired by scientists and regulatory authorities outside South Africa, mine medicine was designed to protect the financial interests of employers rather than the health of labour. This article examines how that system, which became a feature of the mines under minority rule, was established during the 1920s.