Lets talk about #Gold #Mining in #SouthAfrica. Specifically, lets talk about #AngloGold's exit from South Africa & its impact on say, #Lesotho #Migrant #Mine workers...
The latest #news in the #SouthAfrican #Mining #Industry is that #AngloGold Ashanti, the world’s third-largest gold miner, has sealed a deal to sell its last remaining SA asset as it exits the country after 22 years on the #JSE...
I will not be talking about the "WHY" aspect of #AngloGold's exit from the #SouthAfrican #Mining #Industry. Rather, my focus will be on the consequences of such a move for #Labour, #Migrant labour to be precise. Labour from #Lesotho, specifically...
Given the historical / geographical relationship between #Lesotho & #SouthAfrica, it should come as no surprise to most that outward migration from Lesotho to South Africa given the latter's higher relative development proved important (inter alia) for #BalanceOfPayments...
#Lesotho, owing to it's narrow resource base, sent the largest number of migrant workers to #SouthAfrican mines. From 1986 to 1996, Basotho workers accounted for over 40% of the total labour force employed in the South African mining sector...
To put these into context, consider #Miners' income and #remittances from 1989 to 1993. Clearly, in 1993 total miners' income was estimated to be 1.55 billion Maloti, while their remittances constituted 72 per cent of this income... 
Following #SouthAfrica's 1994 #Democratic elections & in light of slowing #employment opportunities for local labour, more priority was placed on #domestic labour in mines as opposed to #foreign labour from say, #Lesotho. This meant, retrenchments and a slowdown in Migrant labour
Lets crystallise this in #Lesotho's context. Consider the figure below. The Figure shows the most recent developments in the number of Lesotho's migrant #Mineworkers in #SouthAfrica...there has been a precipitous decline that continues to this day...
So, lets try and tie things up...we started with the exit of #AngloAshanti from #SouthAfrica...we then dovetailed this with the persistent decline in #Migrant mine #Labour from #Lesotho....what are we seeing?
You can argue that the picture is quite clear, the closure of another big mining house in #AngloGold Ashanti will spell devastating consequences not only for #SouthAfrica but also for #Migrant #Labour sending countries like #Lesotho
In closing, while we internalise ramifications of #AngloGold's exit from #SouthAfrica, country's like #Lesotho (South Africa too for that matter) need to start thinking critically about how to #Reskill & #Reintergrate former miners into economic activity to stave off #poverty.
@threadreaderapp kindly unroll...
