Traditional leaders and the politics of labour recruitment in Zimbabwe's platinum mining industry. Issue 4 (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chanakira, Darryl K.; Mujere, Joseph; Spiegel, Sam
• Is Part Of: Extractive industries and society. Volume 6:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 1274
• Page End: 1281
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: Zimplats -- Traditional authorities -- Labour recruitment -- Autochthony -- Belonging; Mineral industries -- Periodicals; Gas industry -- Periodicals; Petroleum industry and trade -- Periodicals; 338.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.exis.2019.09.007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-790X

Abstract

Highlights: The growth of Zimbabwe's platinum mining industry has led to entanglement of traditional authorities with mining capital. Chiefs use autochthony to bargain for jobs for the locals. Chiefs exercise the role of labour brokers for Zimbabwe Platinum Mines (Zimplats) The Company has psychomotor test known as the Dover system that further facilitates recruitment. The Dover system is perceived as anti-local and therefore is a cause of heightened uncertainty amongst locals. Locals wait in uncertainty at the gates as their job prospects are threatened by both presence of outsiders and the use of the Dover system. Locals establish networks of inclusion and exclusion to deal with the threat of outsiders. Protests and negotiations have been at the centre of attempts of dealing with the threat of outsiders. Autochthony is central in laying claims for jobs, determining who gets the jobs and in rallying the locals against the company. Abstract: Whereas much literature on traditional leaders and mining centres on land alienation and displacement, less has focused explicitly on the interface between traditional leaders, articulations of belonging and local labour recruitment dynamics. Using the case of Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Holdings Limited (Zimplats)'s platinum mining operations in Mhondoro-Ngezi district in Zimbabwe, this article analyses the centrality of the politics of belonging in the platinum mining industry's local labour recruitment regimes. The article examines how traditional leaders use autochthonous claims to land to negotiate access to jobs for job-seekers under their jurisdiction and also explores the flaws and contradictions within the local labour recruitment regimes set up by mining companies to appease local communities. The relationship between mining capital and traditional leaders resulted in the emergence of a local labour recruitment regime in which traditional leaders played a significant role. Traditional leaders' demands for jobs from mining companies whose activities led to their displacement can be viewed as a form of 'insurgent citizenship' which led to greater access to mining jobs by local communities. As demonstrated in this study, local communities' access to mining jobs should not be viewed as a result of the corporate paternalism of mining companies, but coordinated efforts by traditional leaders and local communities who lost their land to mining operations. The article also highlights the fraught nature of a local labour recruitment regime that is centred on traditional leaders. Apart from instances of corruption in how traditional leaders manage the local labour recruitment system, the article also highlights the contentious nature of the psychomotor tests used by the mining company in recruiting labour.