Introduction

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter draws parallels between the Marikana confrontation between police and striking platinum miners in 2012 and the longer history of mining in South Africa. Then as now, mining has been dangerous work performed mostly by migrant workers under the eye of brutal management and a violent state. For most of the twentieth century, South Africa’s gold mines were the most profitable sector of the national economy yet faced formidable challenges in containing costs, dealing with health crises and recruiting sufficient number of workers. It was in the context of the ongoing threat to their viability that the mining houses entered debates about the character and incidence of occupational lung disease, set up clinics and hospitals, employed medical staff, collected (or avoided collecting) statistics, negotiated with public officials, funded research, contracted with insurance companies, influenced the flow of information and helped shape the public perception of risk. The chapter places this dynamic in the context of current scholarly debates about the development of scientific knowledge. It then links post-apartheid political changes with the settlement, in 2019, of a massive class action by former gold miners for occupational injury. The chapter concludes by outlining the concept of manufactured ignorance. Precisely how such ignorance was made, contested and dismantled has informed the research and writing of this book.