Hating the compound, but … Mineworker housing needs in post-apartheid South Africa

The South African mining industry has been built around migrant labourers housed in single-sex hostels. Since the early 1970s some attempts have been made to provide a larger degree of family housing to mineworkers. However, despite these attempts and a comprehensive housing policy developed after 1994, the mining compound remains the main housing possibility for mineworkers. This paper examines the needs from the mineworkers’ perspective, and concludes that despite a large degree of dissatisfaction with the compound system among mineworkers, a large percentage of mineworkers would like to continue residing in such housing, while many cannot afford any form of family housing. Although a larger number of mineworkers are no longer residing in the vicinity of the mines, this does not mean that they are residing in adequate housing.