Compound (migrant labour)

This labour arrangement, regulating the flow of male workers from rural homes in Bantustans or Homelands to the mines and jobs in urban settings generally, became one of the major cogs in the apartheid state.

Access to firearms by men returning from the mines was soon curtailed and the institution of closed compounds, designed inter alia to stem IDB (illicit diamond buying), heralded much tighter controls from 1885 onwards.

They provided very basic accommodation with four to six men occupying a small, confined space, and an entire block sharing rudimentary ablution facilities.

From the 1980s, as poverty in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape increased and the relaxation of pass laws, large number of women and children moved into Lwandle, seeking employment and also to join their partners.

[3] Siyambonga Heleba looks into the implications of the perpetuation of apartheid style single sex hostels in the post-1994 period in South Africa.