The Formal and Informal Social Structure of a South African Gold Mine

Abstract

The primary purpose of this article is to examine the structures of domination in a South African gold mine from the perspective of black migrant miners. The formal management organizational blueprint for mine and compound is compared with the actual social structure of the mine. The article concludes that the black miner's experience of domination in the South African gold mines is a complex combination of management-ordained authority and personal power on the part of a series of overlapping, sometimes conflicting, sometimes complementary, black fiefdoms; namely those of the Team Leader [boss boy], Personnel Assistant, Induna, and the clerks.