Whispers in the deep: Ex-miners� widows speak out :: Mmegi Online

Nearly every family in Botswana had a relative who joined the trek to South Africa, whose mines in the last decades provided much needed employment to the regional economy. What was once a pride for families, whose incomes were boosted from the remittances, is now a curse of sorts, as the ex-miners returned sick from unhygienic working environments. Mmegi Correspondent, NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE talks to the widows of those miners who have since succumbed to their illnesses

It used to be assumed that those households lucky enough to have a family member working in the South African mines, had a ticket to riches. After all, the miners returned laden with cash and modern conveniences such as colour televisions and video recorders, then uncommon in the country.

The influx of migrant labour to South Africa’s budding mines began in the early 1900s when that country’s Chamber of Mines founded the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) and the Native Recruiting Corporation (NRC) in 1902 to acquire unskilled labour to work on the South African mines.

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