Socio-economic impacts of mine retrenchments on household 
livelihoods in Lesotho.
 A Study Presented to the School of Development Studies 
Faculty of Humanities
 University of Witwatersrand 
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in 
Development Studies
 By Nthabiseng Molefe
 0418792P
 May 2009
Abstract
 While mining has been a source of livelihood for many Basotho families since the 1970s, 
the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s, have seen progressive decline in the number of 
migrant mine workers in South Africa?s mining companies. This decline has forced many 
families to adjust their livelihood activities to replace income lost from mine migrant 
wage labour. In view of various livelihood transition options, former mine migrant labour 
families have reverted to rural subsistence agricultural livelihoods as well as capitalized 
agricultural activities based within rural areas. These livelihood options are significantly 
influenced by investment options undertaken while still employed within the mining 
industry. Although these livelihood transitions have necessitated adjustment of 
expenditure patterns, these adjustments have in many instances not significantly altered 
gender based decision making practices and responsibilities of adult household members. 
In spite of limited income generation activities by husbands, in most families the husband 
continues to be seen as the head of the household, responsible for making decisions 
pertaining to investment and disposal of assets, expenditures related to ploughing of 
fields and caring for livestock, while the wife?s decision making activities are confined to 
matters pertaining to caring for the children, including their schooling. 
Keywords: Livelihood resources, Livelihood transitions, household relations, household 
decision-making 
2 2
Declaration 
I declare that the research report entitled ?Socio-economic impacts of mine retrenchments 
on household livelihoods in Lesotho? is my own work and has not been previously 
submitted to another University.
 Candidate                                                                  
Nthabiseng Molefe.                                                   Date: __________________
 _________________________
 3 3
Acknowledgements
 I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the interviewees who agreed to go 
through this study with me. In addition I would like to thank the two young men Karabo 
Molelekoa and T?epo Pita who walked the village with me pointing out the appropriate 
interviewees as identified by the study.
 My friends Mosilinyane Makhetha-Antoni, Mrs NoAngelina Debeshe, Mrs Thabang 
Motsamai-Shabangu and my husband Molefe S. Molefe have been most helpful. Pushing 
me to finish the thesis through the times during my health challenges. And for that I 
thank them. 
To my supervisor Dr Bridget Kenny I?m most greatfull for her guidance, utmost interest 
in the thesis and in me as a person, and support through my health challenges throughout 
the study. 
Finally, I would like to thank God and my Ancestors for the strength to go through this 
thesis through trying health related challenges. 
4 4
Table of Contents
 Abstract................................................................................................................................2
 Declaration ..........................................................................................................................3
 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................4
 List of Tables.......................................................................................................................7
 Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................10
 1.1Introduction and Problem Statement............................................................................10
 1.2Rationale.......................................................................................................................12
 Chapter 2 Research Design  ..........................................................................................14
 2.1 Aims.... ........................................................................................................................14
 2.2 Research Questions .....................................................................................................15
 2.3 Research Design .........................................................................................................15
 2.4 Determining eligibility for the study ..........................................................................16
 2.5 Sample size and representation ...................................................................................16
 2.6 Recruitment of informants...........................................................................................18
 2.7 Informed consent.........................................................................................................18
 2.8 Data collection.............................................................................................................18
 2.9 Data analysis ...............................................................................................................21
 2.10 Ethical considerations................................................................................................21
 2.11 Limitations of the Study............................................................................................22
 Chapter 3 Literature Review .........................................................................................23
 3.1  History of mine migrant labour in Lesotho................................................................23
 3.2  Impacts of the migrant labour system ........................................................................24
 3.2.1 Impacts of the migrant labour system on household relations.................................24
 3.2.2 Impacts of migrant labour on livelihoods.................................................................28
 3. 3  Impacts of retrenchments ..........................................................................................30
 3.3.1 Impacts of retrenchments on livelihoods .................................................................30
 3. 4  Livelihoods approach  ...............................................................................................36
 3.4.1 Livelihood options post retrenchment .....................................................................43
 Chapter 4 Presentation of Findings and Discussion .....................................................52
 4.1 Demographic profile of interviewees..........................................................................52
 5 5
4.2 Livelihood activities post mining ...............................................................................58
 4.3 Household relations post mining  ...............................................................................68
 4.4 Household relations post mining  ...............................................................................72
 4.5 Gendered decision making within households............................................................74
 4.6  Gender relations within households............................................................................77
 Chapter 5 Analysis of study findings.............................................................................84
 5.1 Household Livelihoods ...............................................................................................84
 5.2 Household relations and Decision Making..................................................................88
 Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations .............................................................90
 6.1 Main Findings..............................................................................................................90
 6.2 Recommendations .......................................................................................................95
 7 References...................................................................................................................98
 8 Annexure A...............................................................................................................104
 8.1  Questionnaire Guide ................................................................................................104
 8.2 Consent (verbal consent to participate).....................................................................105
 8.3 Questionnaire: male interviewees..............................................................................106
 8.5 Questionnaire: female interviewees...........................................................................109
 9 Annexure B...............................................................................................................113
 9.1 Information leaflet ....................................................................................................113
 6 6
List of Tables
  Table 4.1  Demographic profile of interviewees..........................................................52
 Table 4.2  Income generation assets per household ......................................................56
 Table 4.4 Assets applied in Share cropping arrangements  ..........................................63
 Table 4.5 Household livelihoods post retrenchment .....................................................67
 Table 4.6 Gendered responsibilities within the household............................................74
 Table 4.7 Historical conflict in household relations .....................................................79
 7
List of Figures
 Figure 3.1 Occupational/residential routes for peasant producers in the de-
 agrarianisation process ...............................................................................46
 Figure 5.1 Livelihood activities post mining .......................................................83 
8
Chapter 1 Introduction 
1.1 Introduction and Problem Statement
 In Southern Africa, since the 1870s, poverty as a result of failure of agricultural 
production, inadequate employment opportunities in the home country, as well as 
increasing needs for cash forced rural communities to migrate to mining areas in South 
Africa in search of waged employment (Murray, 1981). In Lesotho and other countries of 
Southern Africa, migrant labour to the mines has provided an economic livelihood for 
many families with a majority of men between the ages of 24 to 54 having migrated to 
the mines to engage in wage labour (Sechaba consultants, 1994 in Coplan and Thoahlane, 
1995). Income from such labour has gone into satisfying financial needs such as school 
fees, uniforms and books, purchases of agricultural implements and inputs, investments 
to facilitate accumulation of assets, as well as to support alternative sources of income 
such as agriculture and other micro-enterprises (Head, 1995). 
Although mining wages were low, the numbers of migrant workers continued to increase 
until the late 1980s when economic and policy implications resulted in massive 
retrenchments of migrant workers from within as well as from outside South Africa. 
From the gold mining industry there was an average 34% decline in the number of mine 
employees between 1986 and 1992 (Crush, 1995:23). In Lesotho, having had 20% of its 
population engaged in migrant labour in 1970, the proportion had fallen to 8% by 1990 
(Paton, 1995:205). Retrenchments in the mining industry have continued into the next 
9
century with a total 4% decrease in mining as a percentage of total private non-
 agricultural employment between 2000 and 2004 (Chamber of Mines, 2004). 
Research by Chirwa (1997) on the impact of retrenchments of Malawian workers from 
South African mines, as well as by Bezuidenhout et al (2003) on the impact of 
retrenchments from textile industries within South Africa outline the dire consequences 
of retrenchments as a result of a loss of a stable income. Experiences from Malawi 
however indicate that through accumulation and investments built during employment on 
the mines, some ex-mineworkers have developed micro-enterprises in various forms of 
trade, supplemented by farming, to generate economic livelihoods. The most hard-hit by 
retrenchments have been those who have dwelt on the hope of re-employment in the 
mines traveling to and from recruitment centres to await and check for possible job 
vacancies. A bulk of their retrenchment packages has been spent on immediate needs 
such as finishing a house, buying food and clothing, and sending children to school, as 
well as transport costs to and from recruitment centres (Chirwa, 1997).
 In Lesotho the situation of retrenched mineworkers is not much different. Literature 
points to a dire situation of poverty and loss of an economic livelihood following 
retrenchment from the mines. In an environment of high unemployment, the National 
Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has set up cooperatives to absorb retrenched mine 
workers. These have, however, only absorbed 500 of the 180 000 Basotho ex-
 mineworkers retrenched during the late 1980s (Philip, 1995). Ex-mineworkers therefore 
have had to find ways of creating their own alternative livelihoods. 
10
1.2 Rationale
 The purpose of this study was to investigate how ex-mineworker households in Lesotho 
are adapting their livelihood strategies since the loss of employment in mining.  It 
focused on what ex-mineworker households have spent their wage remittances on, i.e. 
whether consumables and or accumulation of assets; what retrenchment packages have 
been spent on; what assets ex-mineworker households have accumulated; how they have 
invested their assets; what market networks they have created to build alternative 
livelihoods; and how household decision-making dynamics have influenced such 
decisions. Thus, building from the histories of mineworkers? accumulation of resources, 
the research explored in detail the livelihood strategies which ex-mineworker households 
have embarked on after retrenchment.
 The study also investigated how the loss of a mine wage income by the male 
breadwinner, usually a husband and a father, has impacted on decision making roles 
between adult males and females in the household, as well as traditional gender 
relationships both within the household and outside. Where the loss of a mine income has 
forced the female members of the households to become primary income earners, what 
choices and options did they have in achieving the status of primary income earner? What 
have been the implications of their breadwinner status on gender relationships within the 
households and outside?  
11
The study was carried out in a rural village in Lesotho, and the methodology involved 
interviews with former mineworkers and their wives with the intention to find out 
whether and how household livelihoods; decision making statuses of both husbands and 
wives; and the household relations have changed from the era of mine migrant labour to 
the current status of mine migrant labour retrenchee households. Only households which 
had mineworkers that had been retrenched for at least two years and had worked for the 
mining industry for not less than five years were recruited for the study. 
This report is structured into six chapters. Subsequent to the introductory chapter and the 
research methodology chapters is the literature review which examines the history of 
mine migrant labour in Lesotho, the impact of migrant labour on livelihoods and 
household relations, the impact of retrenchment on livelihoods and household relations, 
and livelihood options post retrenchment. The next chapter discusses the study findings 
which indicate that there is a link between livelihood decisions and household relations 
during the migrant labour era and into the post-retrenchment era. Chapter five contains an 
analysis of the findings, and chapter six contains conclusions and recommendations of 
the study.   
12
Chapter 2 Research Design  
2.1 Aims 
Most literature focusing on the experience of retrenchments has been limited to reporting 
statistics relating to the loss of mining jobs for Basotho men in South Africa (Chamber of 
Mines, 2004, Philip 1995, Sechaba consultants in Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995). Some 
literature has also discussed the impact of the loss of mine remittances on home 
communities (Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995, Cobbe, 1995, Foulo, 1991). In addition, other 
literature has shown the failures experienced by ex-mineworkers engaging in agriculture 
as an alternative source of livelihood (Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995), the same 
agricultural failures that have been experienced in Malawi (Chirwa, 1997). There is 
however limited literature on how ex-mineworker households are creating alternative 
economic livelihoods to cope with retrenchments. It is therefore the purpose of this study 
to investigate how ex-mineworker households are creating livelihoods post-
 retrenchments. The study further seeks to find out whether the changes in the roles of 
men and women as income earners as a result of mine retrenchments (Francis, 2000) 
have brought about a shift in decision-making roles between genders within the 
household; whether there is a shift in the traditional (under male migrant labour) male 
breadwinner and female household manager roles; whether there is a shift in gender 
relations as they relate to males as providers of income in conjugal as well as 
concubinage relationships; whether there is a shift in expenditures on consumption and 
accumulation; whether any relationship conflicts have arisen as a result; and how they 
have been handled.
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2.2 Research Questions 
The issues raised above give rise to the following research questions which guide the 
study design as well as formulation of the questionnaire: 
1. What are the existing natural and produced resources that ex-mine worker 
households have accumulated?
 2.  What are the expenditures, and who makes decisions about expenditures within 
the household?
 3. On what have retrenchment packages and other financial benefits accruing from 
mine employment been spent? 
4. What are the current sources of income for the households of retrenched mine 
workers? 
5. How are livelihood decisions made and how do gender relations within 
households affect them?
 6. In what way if at all, have the roles of adult household members changed with 
changes in economic relations? 
7. What are the future aspirations to ensure sustainable livelihoods for retrenched 
mineworkers and their families?
 2.3 Research Design 
A retrospective panel study of former mineworkers and their spouses, retrenched for two 
years or more was conducted. Interviews were conducted to determine the historical 
livelihoods standards of individuals and their families while still employed on the mines 
and the change in livelihood standards and decision-making strategies following 
14
retrenchment. The study investigated how a shift in livelihood strategies from migrant 
mine labour to current livelihoods have influenced decision making roles within 
households between adult male and females, how social relations within households have 
changed in term of roles of income earners, and roles of household managers responsible 
for ensuring subsistence income streams.
 2.4 Determining eligibility for the study 
The ex-mineworkers that formed part of the study were retrenched for at least two years, 
and they had all worked for the mining industry for not less than five years. The two 
years limit on retrenchment was to ensure that study participants have adequate 
experience of a way of life as retrenchees, and the five year limit on mine employment 
was to ensure that study participants have adequate experience of the way of life as mine 
employees as well as adequate time to accumulate significant financial retrenchment 
benefits.
 2.5 Sample size and representation 
A snowball and intensity type of sampling was used to select the appropriate village in 
which to conduct the research. The village of Malimong, in the district of Berea in the 
lowlands region of Lesotho was selected as a case of interest. This area has been chosen 
by using the information provided by Mineworkers Development Agency (MDA) who by 
virtue of their experiences working with retrenched mine workers know what cases/areas 
are information-rich. Malimong is a village comprising about 150 households . The 
village, although located not more than 50km from the commercial centre/town, the poor 
15
nature of transport facilities isolates it from intense interaction with the commercial 
centre/town except by those with private transport infrastructure or through migration. 
Like most rural areas in Lesotho, this area satisfies the requirements of an information-
 rich area manifesting the phenomenon of retrenched mineworkers intensely, but not 
extremely (Miles and Huberman, 1994 in Punch, 2000). The researcher was born, raised 
and schooled in Lesotho and therefore possesses adequate knowledge of various areas in 
Lesotho. The researcher?s personal knowledge of the way of life in Lesotho as well as the 
Sesotho language was complemented by the work of TEBA and MDA. 
A total of 12 households comprising 21 interviewees were selected for the study. By 
talking to authorities such as traditional leaders within the village, households of ex-mine 
workers were identified. From this sample, the households were then stratified into 
relative (as defined by the researcher) higher income, middle income and lower income 
households. A random selection of households was then carried out so that there was a 
representative distribution of households in the three income levels identified. A 
retrospective recollection of the way of life as a household with mine employee income 
and the livelihood thereof, how the retrenchment benefits were applied, as well as the 
way of life as a household of a former mine worker formed the basis for formulation of 
the questionnaires. Retrenched adult male members of the household as well as their 
spouses were interviewed. Field research was carried out over a period of two months 
(February and March 2007) where household members were each visited three times to 
conduct interviews and observe livelihood activities.       
16
2.6 Recruitment of informants
 Informants were identified by speaking to the local chief, who was willing, and able to 
identify some of the families of retrenched mine workers. These families (as identified by 
the chief) were then requested to identify similar families of retrenched mineworkers. 
Preliminary interviews were then held with individual families to identify whether they 
fitted the pre-determined criteria (retrenched for at least two years, and mine migrant 
work experience of at least five years). Only families that fitted this pre-determined 
criteria were recruited into the study. 
2.7 Informed consent
 All interaction with the community, as well as interviews commenced with an 
information session to highlight to the informants the aims of the study, the researcher?s 
expectations of informants and the informants? right to participate or not to participate in 
the study (See Annexure A). The informants were also assured of the confidentiality of 
their participation in the study, as well as confidentiality of any information they may 
provide during interviewing. Verbal consent was obtained.   
2.8 Data collection
 Although the study made use of qualitative methods of data collection, some quantitative 
data about the ex-mine workers was collected. Structured questions formed the 
preliminary structure of the questionnaire to investigate the frequency of occurrences of 
ex-mine workers who were able to either maintain the same levels of expenditure before 
and after retrenchment, those who improved their livelihood by accumulating more assets 
17
following retrenchment, and those who had a to sell off some to their assets to generate a 
livelihood for themselves and their families following retrenchment. This section of the 
questionnaire was also used to investigate the current form of livelihood strategy (i.e. 
sources of income), assets accumulated, as well as exposure and access to levels of 
schooling and education, entrepreneurship training or mentoring and possession of 
alternative employment skills as well as assets owned and how these were acquired (i.e. 
were they inherited, purchased through mine wages, purchased through retrenchment 
packages, or purchased through income generated after retrenchment). 
Qualitative data was then collected by means of semi-structured questionnaires 
administered face to face, to ex-mineworkers as well as their spouses (see Annexure A). 
A similar format of interviews was again used with representatives of MDA and TEBA. 
Only one-on-one interviews were administered so that in-depth information about each 
study participant would be obtained. The one-on-one interview was preferred so as to 
increase the willingness of study participants to divulge personal and confidential 
information such as income levels, challenges and successes. Through in-depth 
interviews the study was able to investigate the socio-economic interactions in the 
community in the form of study participants? actions, decisions, behaviour and practices 
through their eyes and perspectives (Roberts et al, 2003). This method provided a 
contextual perspective on the issues being studied which would otherwise not be possible 
if structured questionnaires were to have been used (Roberts et al, 2003:52). This form of 
interviewing was useful as the study required that detailed information be collected from 
a small number of participants. The semi-structured nature of the interviews allowed the 
18
respondents to share their thoughts on particular issues. Structured interviews on the 
other hand are restrictive to the respondents, not allowing them to express the context that 
coins their responses. Through unstructured interviews, respondents are able to use their 
own words to describe their experiences which is also important in studying the context 
and emotion that goes into the responses (Roberts et al, 2003). 
Individual study participant families were observed to assess the general livelihood and 
relations in the community. This form of research allowed the researcher an opportunity 
to observe the activities of the households as they unfold in their natural social setting 
(Roberts et al, 2003). I observed how people access basic needs such as transportation 
and food, the different types of housing in the community, existence of entrepreneurship 
strategies, and their ownership in relation to the notion of asset accumulation and 
investments by migrant mine worker households and or ex-mineworker households, and 
relationships between individuals within households. Written notes were taken by the 
researcher to keep a record of observations, and these formed part of the field notes.  
 
Documents containing information about the population dynamics such as the census, the 
general community livelihood such as documents from non-governmental organisations, 
etc was also analysed. These documents filled an information gap on the wider social and 
economic dynamics of the country as well as the localities where the study will be 
conducted.    
 
19
2.9 Data analysis 
Field notes were read and re-read as a way to understand the gist of the answers and to 
make sense of the findings, thus drawing conclusions on which areas have a bearing on 
the research questions. This process involved making sense of trends, contradictions and 
exclusive responses within the data (Roberts et al, 2003).
  
The next step was to identify the main themes and sub-themes, as well as aligning themes 
with research questions. Then data was coded and aligned to themes and sub-themes, 
research questions and theories (Roberts et al, 2003).
 Lastly, data was displayed and presented in a form that conclusions could be drawn in a 
clear and presentable manner. This was achieved through development of summary tables 
and figures which were used to measure the frequency of occurrences; noting patterns, 
grouping persons and activities with similar characteristics, developing relationships 
between variables, and relating findings to general theoretical frameworks. 
2.10 Ethical considerations
 Given the setting of the research in a rural area, in a poor country with high levels of 
poverty and unemployment, it is expected that the researcher may come across incidents 
that raise ethical considerations requiring intervention. It is for this reason that an 
information pamphlet was drawn up giving interviewees information on where to get 
assistance in case of adverse poverty, morbidity, abuse or related problems (see Annexure 
A). Information to be posted on the information pamphlet was sourced from relevant 
20
government departments and confirmed with local government officials and chiefs at the 
site of the research.
 Only one incident that posed ethical considerations arose during the research, involving 
physical abuse between the husband and wife. The husband reported that the wife was 
physically abusive towards him, and similarly the wife reported that the husband was 
abusive towards her. Both parties were given the information pamphlet and advised to 
contact the community safety police. 
2.11 Limitations of the Study
 Since the study is limited to one village, the results cannot be generalised to other villages 
or rural areas in Lesotho. The results are only a reflection of what is happening in the 
village in question. In addition, the sample size of 12 households in a village of about 150 
households may also not be a true reflection of what is happening in the village but an 
indication of what might be happening in the village in the midst of high unemployment 
rates following retrenchment from the mines. 
21
Chapter 3 Literature Review 
3.1 History of mine migrant labour in Lesotho
 In Southern Africa, migrant labour to the mines in South Africa, as a livelihood strategy 
is as old as mining itself. Since the beginning of diamond mining in the 1870s, black 
people have left their home areas for wage labour in the mining industry in South Africa 
(Allen 1992: 35). Although early migrant labour in the Southern African region includes 
job seekers in the commercial agricultural sector, in the homes of white colonial 
?masters?, into construction, manufacturing, railways, and into the public service for 
wage labour, I focus here only on migrant labour to the mines. Allen (1992: 87) details 
the complex reasons for the history of migrant labour in Southern Africa: 
 Defeat  in  war,  loss  of  guns,  economic  destruction,  the  loss  of  cattle, 
annexation of land, increased burden of debt, an inability to pay rent or 
tribute,  eviction from farms,  anti-squatter  laws,  vagrancy laws,  hut  and 
poll  taxes,  compulsory  labour,  improved  administration  of  labour  laws 
combined with a decline in the authority of chiefs, intensified population 
pressure on the land, famine resulting from drought, cattle diseases and 
finally the continual oppressive presence of British imperial armed forces 
were all factors in totality which increasingly impoverished them to the 
point of absolute starvation. In consequence, many African families were 
either made homeless with no means of subsistence or they were rendered 
so  impoverished  that  they  had  to  find  a  supplementary  source  of 
subsistence. There was only one escape route for these people and that 
was to enter the labour market.     
This process signifies de-agrarianisation and a transition to migrant labour to the mines in 
South Africa coming from Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi and Swaziland with 
22
Malawi  exporting  the  largest  number  of  mine  migrant  labour.  By  1972  Malawians 
comprised 38% of the foreign migrant labour force but by 1989, following withdrawal of 
Malawian labour (by the Malawian government), Lesotho comprised the largest exporter 
of  migrant  labour  to  the  mines,  comprising  54% of  the foreign  migrant  labour  force 
(James,  1992:36).  By 1990, an average 125 000 Basotho men were employed on the 
mines, each having an average of six dependents. This translated to a total of 750 000 
people dependent on the mining industry (Foulo, 1991:5). A majority of migrant mine 
workers  from Lesotho  have been  from the  rural  areas  with an average  47% of  rural 
households  compared  with  an  average  25% of  urban  households  having  at  least  one 
household member as a migrant worker (Foulo, 1991:31). 
These  migration  patterns  follow  the  neo-Marxist  theory  which  sees  migration  as 
influenced  by  systemic  factors  and  structures  of  production  and  reproduction  i.e. 
penetration  of  capitalism  in  Southern  Africa,  commodification  of  production  which 
undermined  subsistence  farming,  and  proletarianisation  thus  putting  pressure  on 
households to accumulate capital (Pule and Matlosa, 2000).
 3.2 Impacts of the migrant labour system 
3.2.1 Impacts of the migrant labour system on household relations
 Owing to migrant mine labour, the prolonged absence of husbands and fathers was 
associated with high rates of conjugal breakdown and desertion. Migrant labour induced 
a repetitive cycle of illegitimacy and instability in arrangements for rearing children, 
while the concentration of earning capacity among younger men subverted the authority 
23
of the senior generation (Murray, 1981:171). The fact that men spent long periods of time 
away from home, leaving their wives and children behind often generated economic 
insecurity due to inconsistencies or inadequacy of remittances, marital disharmony due to 
emotional misery often leading to problems of social immorality and legitimacy of 
children, and heavy domestic responsibility (Murray, 1981). Mosoetsa (2005), in her 
research conducted in Kwazulu Natal points out that men?s household head status has 
always been linked to their economic status, and through remittances, men were able to 
become absentee heads of households. With retrenchments, financial insecurity within 
households has been exacerbated. With loss of breadwinner status, the men?s statuses as 
heads of households is undermined, and women have had to migrate as primary income 
earners, with an impact on household relations (Mosoetsa, 2005). 
In his study of the effect of mining retrenchments in the Eastern Cape, Ngonini (2002) 
talks about some level of collapse of marital relations following retrenchment of men and 
loss of wage income. Some of the former mine workers, embarrassed by their loss of 
breadwinner status as a result of loss of mine jobs, have deserted their wives. Similarly, 
some women have been driven away by their husbands? loss of income. On the other 
hand, Murray (1981) refers to some level of collapse of marital relations due to long-term 
absence of men due to migrant labour. In spite of the reported (Ngonini, 2002, Murray, 
1981) collapse of marital relations due to retrenchment and loss of breadwinner status by 
husbands, Larsson (1995) in research conducted in Qwaqwa points out that men as heads 
of households bring with them dignity to the household even if they don?t contribute 
money. i.e. the presence of men gives dignity to the home, the love of a father, discipline 
24
to the children, protection of the household from public violence and criminal elements, 
the capacity to carry out certain traditional and cultural rituals assigned traditionally to 
adult male members of the household  ? regardless of the ability to contribute financially. 
Women headed households lack this status (Larsson, 1995:57). 
The study investigated how intra-household relations in Lesotho have changed as a result 
of retrenchments, where men are no longer absent from home for long periods of time, 
and in an environment where although mine remittances were inadequate (on their own) 
to cater for all household needs, retrenchments have meant loss of a primary source of 
livelihood for many households. 
Owing to the migrant  labour  system,  many rural  areas  which comprise  a majority  of 
feeder  communities  for  the  mining  industry,  have  been  characterized  by  a  periodic 
absence of young, able-bodied men. The result has been a system of oscillating migration 
with a high proportion of widows and female-headed households (as a result of relatively 
high incidents of occupational diseases and accidents)  and a distorted sex ratio in the 
middle-age  ranges  as  a  result  of  absence  of  male  migrants,  and  a  numerical 
preponderance  of  villages  of  the  young,  the  female  and  the  elderly  with  a  lower 
propensity  to  migrate  (Murray,  1981).  A  World  bank  report  (1995  in  Coplan  and 
Thoahlane, 1995: ) finds that in Lesotho.
 About 54% of all households are headed by women. About 25% are formally 
(de jure) headed by women (who are single, widowed, divorced or abandoned 
by their spouses); and about 29% are effectively (de facto) headed by women, 
25
because the male head of the household is absent. The other 46% of households 
are headed by men who live at home. 
This pattern of de jure and de facto absence of fathers and husbands has a potential to 
threaten the gender roles of fathers and husbands within the household. But as Murray 
(1981) points out, although absent from home because of migrant labour, owing to their 
financial status in mine jobs, Basotho men were able to maintain their breadwinner and 
head of the household status. As indicated by Pule and Matlosa, this stems from the 
common law and customary law practices. 
Under common law practice,  access by women to all assets including fields, 
homesteads,  property and cash income is through men, and under customary 
law,  a  woman  is  considered  a  perpetual  minor,  Before  marriage  she  is  the 
responsibility of her father/male guardian, upon marriage the responsibility of 
her husband. . . .  (although) under common law a women is (only) a minor until 
she reaches age 21, the majority age, this has deepened the male domination in 
most facets of social life. . . . men are therefore the final decision makers in their 
households even in their absence, when the homestead is managed by women 
(2000:7-8). 
But acting within these restrictions brought on by the customary law, women on the other 
hand maintained a household management status, carrying out instructions on how to 
exercise expenditure of the remittances received from the mines into activities such as 
house building, purchasing furniture, and purchasing agricultural inputs. Because of their 
long-term absence from home, men often lack comprehension of immediate household 
needs, and their (men?s) instructions at times tend to disregarded immediate household 
needs (such as food, ploughing needs, clothes and children?s school fees) as assessed by 
the wives (Murray, 1981).    
26
3.2.2 Impacts of migrant labour on livelihoods
 Notwithstanding  the exploitative  nature of  mining  systems  on mine  workers,  migrant 
labour has been of benefit  to the individual migrants and their  families,  as well  as to 
labour exporting nations through revenue derived from the deferred pay system. While 
the system of deferred pay was compulsory for employees from Lesotho, Malawi and 
Mozambique, Botswana and Swaziland?s systems were voluntary. Through the system of 
deferred  pay,  employees  could  defer  between  60% and 90% of  their  wages  to  bank 
accounts in their home countries which could be accessed by their families in the home 
country or by themselves on their return home (James, 1992 36). The deferred pay served 
as  a  credit  system for  the  various  labour  sending  governments  (James,  1992:36).  By 
1988,  Lesotho  was  receiving  R348  million  in  deferred  pay  and  remittances  which 
comprised  64%  of  total  remittances  and  deferred  pay  to  Lesotho,  Mozambique, 
Botswana, Malawi and Swaziland (James, 1992:37). 
A reduction in migrant labour from the neighbouring countries therefore has resulted in a 
reduction in employment opportunities and wage income for individual mine workers, as 
well as loss of revenue for labour exporting states. Because of high unemployment in 
labour exporting states, as well as the historical economic reliance of men on migrant 
mine labour, labour exporting states were also desperate (especially in the 1980s, when 
South  Africa  started  engaging  in  measures  to  decrease  foreign  migrant  labour  to  the 
mines) to ensure continued foreign recruitment of mine labour (James, 1992: 50). The era 
27
of  decline  in  mine  labour  has  exacerbated  the  problem of  unemployment  for  labour 
sending areas. 
The system of migrant labour meant that men ?were not available at home to mend roofs, 
build houses and storage bins, to clear the land, hunt small game, fish and farm their own 
fields and cattle. Gradually many of these tasks were taken over by (male) artisans and 
paid for out of migrant wages? (Roesch, 1986 in Head, 1995:135) thus providing a source 
of income for those not engaged in migrant labour. Across labour sending communities, 
some mine workers used their wages to establish themselves in agriculture, sometimes 
increasing their income by ploughing others? fields for payment, as well as to increase 
agricultural produce for purposes of sale in towns, to engage in trade, by investing in 
agricultural  and  other  tools,  building  material,  watches,  radios,  sewing  machines, 
bicycles, motorbikes, and motor vehicles, paying lobola and at times food (Head, 1995: 
135). Mining has in essence been positively used as a channel for accumulation of assets, 
and migrant workers were able to provide a diverse source of economic livelihood for 
themselves and their families.
 Migrant  labour  households  in  rural  areas  have  generally  done  better  than  their 
counterparts who maintain livelihoods through rural employment and some form of rural 
entrepreneurship.  Chirwa?s  (1997:634)  studies  in  Malawi  show  that  migrant  labour 
households would often have a ?good? house with imported domestic items, a reliable 
non-agricultural source of income, an ability to pay school fees for the children, an ability 
to care for the extended family, and they have a bank or postal account. They also have 
28
an ability to accumulate and invest in micro-enterprises that enable them to sustain their 
economic and social well-being (Chirwa, 1997:634).   
3. 3 Impacts of retrenchments 
3.3.1 Impacts of retrenchments on livelihoods 
De-industrialisation, especially in the mining industry in the late 1980s have, however, 
seen  a  decline  in  foreign  migrant  labour  from  both  within  South  Africa  and  from 
neighbouring states. The causes of the decline in migrant labour have been varied and 
include,  a  drop  in  the  global  price  of  gold,  mechanization  of  mining  operations, 
improvement in conditions of labour thus making mining attractive to South Africans, as 
well as policies within South Africa to recruit locally. ?Whereas in 1976, 48% of Basotho 
men in the age group 20 to 54 were mine workers, the figure had fallen to only 38% in 
1986 and to 35% in 1993. By 2001 the figure was 17% (Sechaba consultants, 1994 in 
Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995: 140). Wason and Hall (2002) estimate that in 2002, only 
7% Basotho men were employed on the mine in South Africa. 
Such  mine  retrenchments  have  adverse  effects  that  spread  from  individual  migrant 
workers to their families as well as all sectors of the community and commercial life 
(Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995:140). But while macro-economic literature indicates that 
because of higher wages the absolute total of remittances have been kept level over the 
years in spite of retrenchments, an average of dependents per retrenched family have lost 
a breadwinner due to loss of mine labour (Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995:140). This notion 
is  reiterated  by  the  Chamber  of  Mines  reports  (2004)  where  the  total  numbers  of 
29
employees in the South African mining industry has continued to decline over the years 
from a high of 598 000 in 1995 to a low of 407 000 in 2001, with a slight increase in 
figures during 2003 to 2004. The general proportion of non-agricultural employment in 
the mining industry has however continued to decline from a high of 17% in 1995 to a 
low of 9% in 2004. But higher wages for employees have ensured a continued increase in 
total  remuneration paid to employees in mining from R15.5 million in 1995 to R33.3 
million in 2004 (Chamber of Mines, 2004).  
Still, 
?the  consequences  of  losing  a  regular  salary  are  unavoidably  severe  for  a 
Lesotho  migrant  worker  household.  A  good  retrenchment  package,  well 
invested, can provide the basis for making a living in Lesotho. In a majority of 
cases however, even an equitable package is largely spent on immediate needs 
such as completing a house, buying clothing and paying school fees, assisting 
close kin and meeting outstanding obligation? (Coplan and Thoahlane,  1995: 
146). 
Research  conducted  in  Malawi  following  the  recall  of  about  100  000  migrant 
mineworkers from South Africa shows that retrenchees who had the economic drive and 
entrepreneurial skills were able to use the proceeds of their labour migration to improve 
their households? economic lives. But the failure rate of the businesses was high owing to 
lack of business acumen, inadequacy of capital resources, lack of fallback resources in 
the  event  of  failure,  the  nature  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  individual?s  improvidence 
(Chirwa,  1997:632).  Failure  of  most  businesses  was  however  attributed  to  the  wider 
economic context indicated by an increase in the cost of farming inputs, climatic and 
weather variations leading to failure of farming investments, increase in the cost of spare 
30
parts  and  bad  rural   roads  which  demanded  frequent  maintenance  led  to  failure  of 
investments  in  motor  vehicles  and  taxis,  with  a  general  negative  impact  on  rural 
enterprises due to bad roads. 
On the other hand itinerant cross-border trade was found to have the highest success rate. 
There is however limited literature to indicate how ex-mineworkers have invested their 
retrenchment packages to provide themselves and their families with a basis for making a 
living.  At retrenchment,  those hoping to  be rehired spend the little  money they have 
traveling to and hanging around at retrenchment offices (Chirwa, 1997). There is again 
limited literature to show how those who choose not to seek re-employment in the mining 
industry make a livelihood for themselves and their families, within an environment of 
limited job opportunities and mining skills that  are not readily marketable outside the 
mining sector (Setsabi et al, 1992 in Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995). 
Consequences for the retrenched living in urban areas are even more dire with many 
having to live off the income of other household members or on handouts. Some families 
have reported having to take their children out of school due to their inability to meet the 
costs of books, fees, uniforms, lunches, etc, and some families of the retrenched have had 
to  send their  dependents  away to  live with family members  who have a  more  stable 
income.  In a study conducted by Bezuidenhout  et  al  (2003) among retrenched textile 
workers in South Africa,  90% of the respondents reported being unable to meet their 
minimum basic needs since retrenchment compared to the 80% who were able to meet 
their  basic  needs  while  still  employed.  But  even  in  this  dire  situation,  many  were 
31
determined not to go back to a rural life following retrenchment (Bezuidenhout et al, 
2003:24). Again a majority of those who lost their jobs living in the urban areas, renting 
residential premises could not engage in agriculture as an income generating activity due 
to inavailability of arable land.  
In  the  case  of  Lesotho,  farming  as  an  alternative  source  of  livelihood  following 
retrenchment  has  however  been  less  than  successful  with  many  farmers  reporting 
relatively higher produce while they still had access to wage labour on the mines (Coplan 
and Thoahlane,  1995).  The alternative  of wives engaging in  migrant  labour  has been 
unacceptable to most men who fear losing their wives to employed men in South Africa 
or in the urban areas within Lesotho (Coplan and Thoahlane, 1995:149). Within a system 
of migrant labour which has been a source of livelihood for many households in Lesotho, 
the ideology of the male breadwinner and female domesticity has been perpetuated. But 
retrenchments and loss of alternative employment  for ex-mineworkers,  sees more and 
more women taking on the role of income earner with many taking up shebeening and 
street trading, while others found employment in clothing factories (Sweetman, 1995 in 
Francis, 2000). 
This role reversal in income earning responsibilities due to decline in availability of work 
for ex-migrants raises tensions over gender ?responsibilities for maintaining livelihoods 
and the powers that these responsibilities should confer? (Francis, 2000:96). Reversal in 
the  income  earning  roles  of  men  and  women  bring  about  ?changes  in  domestic 
responsibilities  which  call  into  question  deeply  held  assumptions  about  the  roles  of 
32
husband, father, wife and mother? (Francis, 2000:97). Francis (2000) notes in research 
conducted  in  Lesotho,  that  the  role  of  women  as  primary  income  earners  following 
retrenchments of men from the mines brings about various responses within household 
relations. While in some households men continue the role of decision-making on their 
wives? incomes, in other households there is some level of joint decision making with 
women taking on the greater role of stretching the household budget to meet all basic 
needs. In both cases tensions arise resulting from the women?s loss of control over their 
incomes,  and from men?s  loss of decision-making power due to  loss  of  their  role  as 
breadwinners  (Francis,  2000).  Does  role-reversal  in  income  earning  capacity  also 
translate into men taking over the role of household- manager previously taken over by 
women?  
The literature above paints a grim picture of impacts of retrenchments in Lesotho. In the 
light  of  de-agrarianisation  which  pre-empted  large  scale  migration  to  South  African 
mines  by Basotho men,  returning  men,  retrenched  from the de-industrialising  mining 
industry  are  faced  with  a  challenge  of  creating  livelihoods  outside  agriculture,  and 
outside mine  migrant  labour.  Mosoetsa (2005)  in  research conducted  in townships in 
Kwazulu Natal and in Mpumalanga, identifies three scenarios of livelihood progression 
for  households  retrenched  from  textile  industries:  first,  ?financially  sustainable 
households? with a steady and reliable income, as well as savings to cater for risk periods; 
second, ?coping households? with just adequate income to meet basic needs, but unable to 
move  out  of  poverty;  and  third,  ?declining  households?  with  no  regular  income,  and 
unable to meet basic needs. Many in the category of ?coping households? were in this 
33
category (coping households), because of their access to government transfers in the form 
of child grants and old-age pensions (Mosoetsa, 2005).     
With government  transfers limited  to  a meager  R150 (scheduled to  increase to R200 
during 2007) in old age pensions, declining agricultural output which cannot adequately 
provide a livelihood,  dwindling mine migrant  labour opportunities,  as  well  as limited 
employment opportunities within Lesotho, what alternative livelihood strategies are being 
pursued by retrenched mineworkers  and their  families? Under what  conditions  would 
households of retrenched mineworkers progress into scenarios of ?improving household?, 
?coping household?, or ??declining household? described by Mosoetsa (2005). 
Ngonini (2002) in his research on the impacts of mining retrenchments in two villages in 
the Eastern Cape found out that those who have been retrenched have been able to create 
alternative livelihoods through employment in local shops as cashiers or security guards, 
employment in factories in nearby towns, trading in scrap metal,  vegetables, domestic 
work by women or parents? old age pension grants. Some have even gone into illegal or 
socially unacceptable livelihoods such as concubinage, where women engage in social-
 sexual relations as a means to gain income to support their families (see also Hunter, 
2002),  or  production and sale  of dagga.  It  should however  be noted that  wage-based 
livelihoods are not new in these areas, ?rural people in Nyanisweni and Dutyini (in the 
Eastern Cape) for decades, never specialised in livestock or crop farming to the exclusion 
of other income generation activities. Livelihoods were diversified through employment 
in nearby sugar cane or forestry plantations? (Beinart, 1982 in Ngonini, 2002:64).  
34
As indicated below, most of the livelihood activities described by Ngonini (2002) thrived 
in the presence of migrant labour and remittances. It is questionable whether the same 
activities can be relied on to create reasonable livelihoods in an era of large-scale 
retrenchments. At the height of mine migrant labour in the 1970s, activities in the 
informal sector flourished in order to ?soak up? migrants? surplus cash. In Lesotho these 
activities include beer brewing, retail of imported in season fruit, production and sale of 
crafts such as hats and scarves, as well as ?concubinage?(Murray, 1981:157). These 
activities were not meant to build capital but rather to satisfy everyday household needs 
such as paraffin, sugar, tea, and soap. This research seeks to investigate whether in the 
era of dwindling migrant job opportunities and retrenchment from existing jobs, these 
activities are still viable as part of a diversified livelihood strategy. 
3. 4 Livelihoods approach  
Labour migration, rural non-agricultural labour diversification or non-agricultural rural 
employment (NARE), change of agricultural labour form or capitalist farming with 
displacement of peasant farming and socio-economic ostracism or social and economic 
marginalisation are processes of creation of the alternative livelihoods strategies in 
transition from agrarian livelihoods. Chambers and Conway (1992 in Scoones, 1998:5) 
define a livelihood as comprising of capabilities, assets (including both material and 
social resources) and activities required for making a living. Livelihood strategies should 
be able to provide gainful employment on or off-farm, as part of a wage labour system or 
in the form of subsistence production; should be able to keep poverty at bay; should 
35
enhance the intrinsic well-being of people; and to ensure sustainability, livelihoods 
should be resilient to vulnerabilities. For instance, livelihoods should be able to cope and 
recover from stresses and shocks and must have a sustainable natural resource base. 
The ability to pursue different livelihoods is based on tangible and intangible assets that 
people posses. These would be in the form of personal capabilities, tangible assets and 
intangible assets. These assets and capabilities, also referred to as livelihood resources, 
can be classified into natural capital (natural resources, as well as the environmental well-
 being), financial or economic capital (cash, credit, savings, other economic assets 
including infrastructure, production equipment and technology), human capital (skills, 
knowledge, ability to labour, good health and physical capability), produced capital 
(basic infrastructure, production equipment) and social capital (social resources in the 
form of networks, social claims, social relationships, affiliations and associations upon 
which people can draw when pursuing different livelihoods) (Bebbington, 1999). These 
capitals form resources or inputs that make livelihood strategies possible. These capitals 
are also assets that give people capabilities, as well as outputs that make livelihoods 
meaningful and viable (Bebbington, 1999: 2029).
 The ability to claim, defend, transform, receive assets as well as to challenge the market, 
state and civil societal rules that govern their distribution, control and transformation 
rests on individuals? capabilities to act within relationships, within households, within 
organisations and with other individuals (Bebbington, 1999). In this setting, assets can 
either be invested in commercial markets, sold, loaned or exchanged through wage 
36
employment, commodity sales, rental of tools or facilities, receipts of income from state 
transfers or from private individuals, or subsistence activities in the bid to enhance 
income streams (Smith and Wallerstein, 1992). Owing to the setting of the study, in a 
rural area with no formal organisational structures, as well as financial limitations which 
would not permit deeper investigation of other forms of organisational structures, this 
study only analyses activities of individuals and their relationships within households as 
an income pooling unit.
 Smith and Wallerstein (1992) define a household as an ?entity responsible for the basic 
and continuing reproduction needs such as food, shelter and clothing? by putting together 
different kinds of income (wages, market profit, rental income, transfers and subsistence 
income). It is expected that on an annual basis, or at least in a lifetime, all members of a 
household will contribute some kind or a combination of different kinds of income to the 
household (Smith and Wallerstein, 1992). If the income received by a household is 
reduced, such as through retrenchment from wage employment, the household must 
either live on less income or find substitute income by investing its labour power in 
subsistence income, securing market income or rental income activities. Ironically, a 
household that relies heavily on wage income is least flexible to find substitute income 
since ?the ability to obtain wage income is a function of the offer made by someone 
outside the household? (Smith and Wallerstein, 1999). 
Although Mosoetsa (2005) notes that alternatively, under conditions of reduced income 
as a result of retrenchments from wage employment, individuals conglomerate to form 
37
larger households as a means to escape poverty, in which case the limited resources are 
then stretched too far and cannot cope with the expanding size of the household, this 
research found all families, high income, middle income and low income, living within 
the nucleus family with only the husband's parents in-law forming part of the household. 
But as indicated by Whitehead (1984 in Moser, 1993:24) the household is not necessarily 
a collectivity of mutually reciprocal interests. Self interest is often the predominant 
motivation for decisions on distribution of resources within the household. Even where 
an ideology of sharing exists this does not necessarily mean that an equal distribution of 
resources occurs. Decisions within the household are influenced by the fact that men and 
women not only have differing access to resources, but gender power relations and 
gender determined responsibilities also result in differences in the management and 
distribution of resources within the household. Cultural traditions determine which 
aspects of collective expenditure each must cover and rarely are women?s and men?s 
income allocated to the same expenditure categories (Moser, 1993:25). 
Households comprise of multiple actors with varying preferences and interests, and 
differential abilities to pursue and realise those interests through consumption, production 
and investments. But evidence from many regions reveals persistent gender inequalities 
in the distribution of household resources and tasks (Agarwal, 1997). For rural people, a 
person?s bargaining power within the household, against subsistence needs, depends on 
the following factors which are linked to forms of capital in the sustainable livelihoods 
approach: ownership and control over assets (e.g. land); access to employment and other 
income earning means; access to communal resources; access to traditional social support 
38
systems or social networks such as credit to relatives or friends, or intergenerational 
transfers of assets between parents and children; support from NGOs and/or support from 
the state (e.g. pensions, increased access to employment, assets, credit, infrastructure, 
etc); social perceptions about needs; contributions and other determinants of 
deservedness; and social norms (Agarwal, 1997). These factors have an influence on a 
person?s ability to fulfil subsistence needs outside the household.  Hence, the greater the 
person?s ability to physically survive outside the family, the greater would be his/her 
bargaining power over subsistence within the household (Agarwal, 1997). But, social 
perceptions may influence bargaining power beyond actual contributions, needs and 
abilities. A person?s contributions, needs and abilities can in this way be undervalued as a 
result of factors such as gender or race. Incorrect perceptions can thus reduce a woman?s 
bargaining power in relation to household subsistence (Agarwal, 1997).
 In spite of the influences of the ability to fulfil subsistence needs outside the household 
on intra-household bargaining, then, social norms can impinge on bargaining as they set 
limits on what can be bargained about.  They are a determinant or constraint of 
bargaining power.  They determine whether bargaining will be conducted covertly, 
overtly, aggressively or quietly; and, they themselves constitute a subject to negotiate and 
change (Agawal, 1997). For instance some traditional social norms are accepted as 
natural, and therefore not open to question or contestation. These include, in some 
societies, gender division of labour outside the household, with some occupations 
segregated according to gender; whether women should work outside the home; who can 
participate in certain household decision-making processes; land ownership rights which 
39
are usually awarded to men; lack of acceptance for assertiveness and explicit bargaining 
methods by women; etc. These social norms have an impact on intra-household 
bargaining power between genders (Agawal, 1997).  
Focusing analysis around the five forms of capital in the sustainable livelihoods approach 
provide us with a useful means of differentiating livelihood processes and decision-
 making in Basotho households. 
Natural capital: 
Access to natural capital in the form of land has traditionally been through expropriation 
by chiefs, or through inheritance. Only married males who are citizens of the political 
community where the chief has jurisdiction are allocated usufructuary title to cultivate the 
land and dispose of its outputs. Married women and widows can therefore only retain 
their husbands? title to the land (Murray, 1981). But access to as well as productivity of 
the land have been greatly reduced as a result of increase in population, decline in soil 
quality due to mono cropping and drought. Shrinkage of agricultural output has been 
further affected by decline in financial capital which traditionally financed farming 
inputs, owing to retrenchments from mine employment. 
Financial/economic capital
 Mine labour has provided financial resources for households which have enabled 
households to claim, defend, transform and receive other forms of capital. Mineworker 
remittances have been used to pay for health care and children?s education, to purchase 
40
farming inputs, to enhance social networks through shared resources and to honour 
lobola arrangements (Murray, 1981).  
Human capital:
 Mining jobs have for a majority been either unskilled or semi-skilled, characterised by 
low levels of formal education with some lacking even the basics of formal education. 
Although at retrenchment many have acquired some mining related skills, such skills 
have rarely been transferable to alternative employment or entrepreneurship initiatives 
(Phillip, 1995). On the other hand mine labour has been characterised by the strongest 
and most productive male population between the ages of 20 to 54 (Murray, 1981). This 
has meant an absence of productive male labour from productive activities such as 
agriculture and maintaining homes, back in the home communities. Women have had to 
embrace the role of maintaining the household and being responsible for production of 
subsistence income. 
Produced/Physical capital: 
Mining jobs have provided households with means to accumulate various forms of 
produced/physical capital. Mine wages and remittances have afforded households 
opportunities to accumulate assets such as farming equipment, bicycles, sewing 
machines, livestock and at times vehicles. Through social networks, these forms of assets 
have been used to create income streams with assets borrowed out, exchanged, sold, or 
used in shared labour activities (Murray, 1981). 
41
Social capital:
 Social capital ensures relationships that allow access to other forms of capital (human, 
financial, produced and natural capital) (Bebbington, 1999). Access to all these assets 
centres around social capital which affords individual and households an opportunity to 
invest, sell, loan or exchange assets as a way of increasing income streams. Traditionally, 
households have made use of sharecropping practices to share agricultural cost and to 
pool assets as a way of creating income streams that would not be possible if individuals 
or households acted independently (Murray, 1981).  
Thus we see that each of the forms of capital is relevant for describing the context of 
household livelihoods in Lesotho. The forms of capital also help to disaggregate arenas of 
gendered decision-making within households.  In addition, we need to pay attention to 
how livelihoods have changed over time to fully understand these forms of capital.
 3.4.1 Livelihood options post retrenchment 
In Lesotho, the early 20th century was characterized by high agricultural productivity with 
export of grain crops, wool and mohair and self-sufficiency in food (Murray, 1981). But 
the following years (from the 1930s) saw rapid de-agrarianisation as a result of both 
natural and man-made economic impacts. Declining agricultural output, as well as 
increasing cash requirements compelled many Basotho, primarily men, to seek alternative 
livelihoods in migrant mine labour in South Africa. Although migrant labour was the 
primary source of income for many families, still, many families used migrant 
remittances to finance agricultural inputs. In the era of massive retrenchments from the 
42
mines in South Africa from the late 1980s, ex-mineworkers and their families have had to 
find alternative livelihoods. In view of de-agrarianisation, which facilitated migration, 
and subsequent retrenchments and return to rural areas characterized by agrarian outputs 
that are heavily dependent on inputs supported by migrant labour remittances, what 
alternatives do ex-mine worker households have in creating alternative livelihoods. This 
study has however established that although Lesotho is no longer a grain exporter, in 
spite of migrant labour, families never stopped engaging in agrarian livelihoods to 
supplement their migrant labour wages. Through investments in inputs such as farm 
implements and livestock, many families have been able to continue to subsist through 
agricultural produce post retrenchment, and many other entrepreneurial households still 
engage in agriculture to supplement their non-agricultural income in the post-mining era. 
In spite of the status of agrarian livelihoods in Lesotho, the world is generally currently 
undergoing a process of de-agrarianisation with trends having been reported since the 
1960s. Table 3.1 below, indicates that while in the 1960s, African countries had on 
average 85% of their population living in rural areas with 79% comprising labour in 
agriculture, by 1990 the proportion had dropped to 69%, and the labour force in 
agriculture to 68% (UNDP, 1992 in Bryceson, 1997a). Similarly the European Union has 
seen a decline in the proportion of agriculture as a share of national output, from 3.3% in 
1979 to 1.7% in 2001. 
Bryceson (1997a: 4) defines de-agrarinisation as an asynchronic long-term process of 
occupational adjustment; income-earning reorientation; transformation of social 
43
identification, and spatial relocation of rural dwellers away from strictly peasant modes 
of livelihood. This has been as a result of increase in population density leading to 
constraints on availability of arable land, increased investments in education which have 
led to increased levels of disinterest in a strictly agrarian livelihood for the youth, and 
competition from global products and market controls which have rendered many African 
commercial farmers unable to compete in an open market (Bryceson, 1997a: 8). 
Commodification of resources (previously freely available) such as water, wood and 
land, and cash requirements to cater for health, education, transport and agricultural 
inputs have further influenced acceleration of the de-agrarianisation process through 
increased demand for NARE and proletarianisation of rural livelihoods. Rural households 
themselves cite profit maximization, risk minimization due to climate conditions, market 
prices, changing access to land, or personal misfortune (such as illness), and income 
stabilization as reasons for engaging in NARE as a source of income. But in spite of these 
reasons people still engage in agriculture driven by the high cost of food, declining value 
of ex-migrant workers? pensions, as well as people?s attachment to the rural values of 
their agrarian ancestors (Bryceson, 1997a: 9). This is indeed still so in rural Lesotho. 
Table 3.1 African de-agrarianisation and de-industrialisation statistical indices
 African de-agrarianisation and de-industrialisation statistical indices
 Rural Population % of total % of labour force
 1960 1990 1965 1989 % Decline/Increase
 85 69
 Agriculture 79 67.6 -11.4
 Industry 8.1 7.7 - 0.4
 Services 12.9 24.7 + 11.8
 Source: Adapted from UNDP, Human Development Report 1992
 44
While there is no synchronic route through which society progresses to de-agrariansation 
(see Figure 3.1 below), there is a general gearing away from peasant modes of existence. 
In the processes of de-agrarianisation the following alternatives have been explored: 
permanent or temporary migration of labour as a result of limited opportunities for rural 
employment or agricultural intensification, gain or loss in rural labour autonomy, 
agricultural labour diversification and labour drop-out representing efforts to mitigate 
economic constraints and seize new opportunities (Bryceson, 1997b: 244-245). Migration 
is often characterized by emigration by men to obtain employment with beneficiaries at 
home surviving through remittances. Deagrarianisation has led to changes in rural asset 
ownership ? while some voluntarily relinquish their peasant means of livelihood, others 
transcend peasant agriculture to become capitalist farmers, others engage in wealth 
enriching economic activities. Better-off rural households tend to be involved in activities 
similar to their poorer neighbours, but they operate on a larger scale, with more resources 
be it capital or labour thus gaining higher returns and more reliable income streams 
(Bryceson, 1997b: 250). This is more so in most agricultural activities where more well-
 off families have improved their quality of livestock through purchasing of  improved 
breeding stock, thus also improving the quality of their wool and mohair quality. 
Similarly in crop agriculture, well-off families have been able to improve the quality of 
their produce by investing in fertilisers, insecticides; as well as the quantity of their 
produce by investing in mechanization of production as well as by engaging in share 
cropping arrangements within their communities.  
45
Figure  3.1          Occupational/residential routes for peasant producers in the de-  
agrariansiation process
 Forces causing dissolution of the peasantry           Reduced peasant farming is replaced 
with: 
Economic Opportunity 
Economic Compulsion 
Source: Bryceson, 1997b: 244. 
The occupational and residential routes defining livelihood strategies for peasant 
producers as described by Bryceson (1997b) in the above figure are defined by 
Bebbington (1999: 2026-2028) as livelihood transitions comprising of the following 
alternatives: 
46
 Labour Migration
 Rural Non-agricultural 
income diversification
 Change of agricultural 
labour form
 Socio-economic 
ostracism
 Cyclical 
Urban 
Declining 
consumption 
Destitution 
Banditry 
?Migration ? due to decline in agriculture and lack of rural employment with the 
alternative being temporary or permanent migration. While in some instances migration 
is merely a survival strategy, in other instances migration has allowed significant family 
accumulation through remittances which allow families to combine subsistence 
agriculture with improvement in housing conditions
 ?Capitalised family farms comprising successful cases of accumulation and 
intensification of agricultural economies through access to land, finance, labour, an 
ability to gain access to higher value product markets, and presence of supportive state 
policy. This often involves migration playing a critical role in gaining access to funds to 
purchase land and requisite inputs.
 ?Rural proletarianisation without necessarily abandoning rural livelihoods has led to a 
change in the agricultural labour form. This includes urban dwellers as well as members 
of peasant families employed in capitalist rural enterprises such as commercial fruit and 
other horticultural farms. 
?Rural non-agricultural income diversification which includes: 
1. Rural industries such as leather shoe making and textile industries have 
allowed families to combine industrial work with agriculture. This has 
allowed continued rural residence. This however requires the skill and 
market networks that link rural families to wider markets and chains of 
production. 
2. Rural and peri-urban commerce which refers to building rural livelihoods 
around commercial activities such as trading connections with urban and 
peri-urban areas. 
47
Livelihood transitions pre-empted by de-agrarianisation can be traced back to cheap 
labour procurement dating back to the colonial era. They have primarily involved cyclical 
migration of men between the ages of 16 to 60 with younger persons out-migrating and 
older men returning from wage labour back into incorporation into rural live (Gaidzanwa, 
1977). Returnees tended to have cash reserves which could be invested in small trade and 
commercial enterprises to sustain their livelihoods during retirement. But migration, 
which signifies permanent or temporary spatial relocation of rural dwellers away from 
strictly peasant modes of livelihood has been declining due to contraction of urban 
employment as a result of macro-economic policies which have led to diminished 
prospects for urban employment for would-be rural emigrants. The industrial sector, 
which comprises mining and extractive industries, power generation, water management 
and reticulation and construction, has been on the decline, signifying a process of de-
 industrialisation. De-industrialisation, signifies the growing dominance of trade and 
service activities in the economy and a significant shrinkage of the industrial sector 
(Bryceson, 1997a:11). Mining in Africa and throughout the world has experienced 
significant de-industrialisation as a result of volatility of the global price of minerals, 
increased mechanization of production processes and exhaustion of the finite mineral 
resources. De-industrialisation has been a trend both in Africa (see Table 1. above) and in 
developed countries (i.e. within the European Union) where the proportion of industry as 
a share of national output has declined from 23% in 1989 to 19% in 2000 (Bryceson, 
1997a).
 48
Lesotho has experienced a transition from self-sustainable agrarian livelihoods in 
livestock and grain farming (Murray, 1981) to migration for purposes of employment in 
South African mines. Migration as a livelihood has been accelerated as a result of de-
 agrarianisation because of a variety of factors including market forces, climatic 
conditions and livestock diseases (Allen, 1992). But de-industrialisation especially in the 
mining industry has led to shrinkage of opportunities for pursuing migration to the mines 
as a livelihood. In the light of this de-industrialisation Basotho ex-mineworker 
households have continued to pursue agriculture as a livelihood option, either as a 
primary source of livelihood or as a supplement to the non-agricultural sources of 
livelihood. It should however also be noted, according to the findings in this research, 
that although through mine migrant labour the status of agriculture as a primary source of 
livelihood declined, migrant households continued to engage in agriculture as a primary 
activity for obtaining food within the household. 
 
Trajectories in this literature review disprove the notion of modernization/neo-classical 
theory which assumes that the pathway to development requires support by an expert 
knowledge system which ignores local people?s knowledge and experiences. ? i.e. the 
Green revolution. The modernization trajectory assumes that in the light of the capitalist 
economy's  proletarianisation  and  commodification  of  production  which  undermined 
subsistence  farming,  small  scale  and  peasant  farming  would  gradually  disappear  and 
would be replaced by large scale, intensive capitalist farming (Pule and Matlosa, 2000). 
Lesotho is however characterized by a co-existence of small scale production, peasant 
farming,  and  entrepreneurial  forms  of  agricultural  organization.  These  forms  of 
49
livelihoods  are  pursued  independent  of  government  or  NGO  programmes,  with 
households  using their  indigenous  knowledge  systems,  as  well  as knowledge  of  their 
communities to create livelihoods. 
50
Chapter 4 Presentation of Findings and Discussion 
4.1 Demographic profile of interviewees
 The 12 families interviewed comprised 10 families of husband and wife households, one 
widowed husband and one widowed wife (see table 4 below). All households comprised 
husband and wife living together with their own children within the household. All 
families had children within the household, with some families having only a couple of 
children, while others had as many as seven to eight children. One household where there 
were two wives had 12 children. The children were ranging in age from nine to 22 years, 
and six of the families were living with the husband?s parent(s). None of the families 
were living with any other family members. All husbands except one had worked for the 
South African mining industry for a period of 10 to 25 years or more. Only one of the 
husband interviewees had worked for the mining industry for six years. At the time of the 
interview all husbands had been retrenched from the mining industry for a period of three 
to five years. Most mine terminations were as a result of mines closing or downsizing. 
Only two of the interviewees had been dismissed. 
Table 4.1           Demographic profile of interviewees 
Marital 
Status
 No. of 
children 
Activities of the 
children 
Other 
dependents
 Duration of 
work in the 
mines
 Reason for 
leaving the 
mine
 Family 1 Widowed 
husband
 6 Younger ones in 
free primary 
education, older 
ones out of school 
due to lack of 
affordability
 Living with 
husband's 
mother
 15 Mine closure 
51
Marital 
Status
 No. of 
children 
Activities of the 
children 
Other 
dependents
 Duration of 
work in the 
mines
 Reason for 
leaving the 
mine
 Family 2 Married 8 3 are working, 5 
are in primary and 
high school 
None 25 Retrenched
 Family 3 Married 4 1 working, others 
inactive
 Living with 
husband's 
parents
 10 Retrenched
 Family 4 Married 4 1 working, others 
at school 
Living with 
husband's 
mother
 17 Dismissed
 Family 5 Married 3 All children 
inactive
 None 6 Dismissed for 
theft
 Family 6 Married 3 All children in 
school 
None 20 Retrenched
 Family 7 Married 2 1 working, 1 at 
school 
Living with 
husband's 
mother
 10 Retrenched
 Family 8 Married 7 1 working, 3 
inactive, 3 at 
school
 Living with 
husband's 
mother
 10 Retrenched
 Family 9 Married 4 2 working, 2 in 
active 
None 26 Mine closure 
Family 10 Married 6 1 in school, 1 
working in a 
temporary job, 1 
married, 2 in 
active with matric
 Brother and his 
children living 
in an 
independent 
household 
within the 
village
 26 Mine closure
 Family 11 Married to 
two wives
 12 2 children 
working, 10 still 
at school
 Living with 
husband's 
parents
 20 Mine closure
 Family 12 Widowed 
wife
 2 Children working 
in South Africa, 
grand children in 
Living with 3 
orphaned 
grand children 
Husband had 
worked 15 
years 
Retrenched
 52
Marital 
Status
 No. of 
children 
Activities of the 
children 
Other 
dependents
 Duration of 
work in the 
mines
 Reason for 
leaving the 
mine
 school 
As is traditionally the practice among mine worker communities, all mineworkers sent 
remittances home to cater for everyday family household needs such as food, clothing 
and children?s school fees; accumulation of household assets such as the house and 
furniture; purchase of income generation assets such as vehicles for rental, livestock, 
farming implements, grain milling machines; and purchase of various equipment for 
rental. At the time of mine migrant labour, families therefore had mine wages as their 
main or only source of income, supplemented by some subsistence agriculture.. 
Post retrenchment, all families are still engaged in agriculture, whether as a form of 
subsistence livelihood or as an income generating and entrepreneurship type of livelihood 
activity. All families, except the family of the widowed wife, own off residence 
agricultural land where they grow wheat, maize, sorghum, potatoes, beans and peas. 
Agricultural produce from off residence agricultural family fields is supplemented with 
produce from sharecropping activities as well as home-based gardening of fruits and 
vegetable crops. Apart from crop farming, all families own varying forms of livestock in 
the form of traditionally reared chickens, sheep, goats, cattle and horses.  
Following loss of mine migrant labour, all agricultural produce from the fields, from the 
gardens or livestock has been exploited in varying forms to support livelihoods. Three of 
the 12 families are living a subsistence type of life: selling off livestock, or brewing 
53
traditional beer to satisfy cash needs. Traditional beer brewing relies heavily on 
agricultural produce with the bulk of the inputs comprising wheat flour, mealie meal and 
malt obtainable from off residence agricultural activities. Agricultural produce is also 
consumed within the household with most families believing that buying food that can be 
obtainable from local agricultural produce (i.e. mealie meal, wheat, flour, beans, peas, 
vegetables) is either laziness or a waste of money. Nine of the 12 households have 
exploited agricultural practice to build income generating livelihoods. Most families also 
have farm implements which are rented out within the community or used during share 
cropping arrangements. One family has purchased a tractor to plough fields for cash and 
to operate as bulk transport within the community; two of the families have purchased 
grain-milling machines accessed by a majority of families within the community for 
milling of own grain crops at a fee; and two other families have invested in assets that 
afford them an opportunity to diversify their income generating activities to include non-
 agricultural livelihood sources. These include a mini-bus taxi, and a bakkie for bulk 
transport between the community and the nearby town, public phones in the nearby town, 
and one-roomed flatlets for rental also based in the nearby town (see table 4.2). All 
families that have invested in exploitation of their assets to build income generation 
livelihoods have reported being able to earn more money than while they were employed 
in the mines, with the added advantage of being at home to take care of their assets and to 
make decisions about savings and reinvestment of outputs thereof.  
54
Table 4.2           Income generation assets per household 
Assets accumulated Form of income Current income category 
Household 1 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Occasional sale of a sheep, 
a goat or a cow
 NB: No beer brewing since 
the husband is widowed
 Low
 Household 2 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
? Leather sewing 
machine 
? Leather cutting 
machine 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Sale of leather belts and 
sandals
 Shoe repairs
 Medium
 Household 3 ?A house
 ?Sheep, goats, cattle 
?Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Sale of traditional beer brew
 Low
 Household 4A house
 Sheep, goats, cattle 
Ox-drawn planter and plough 
Grain milling machine 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Fees from grain milling 
machine 
High
 Househol 5 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
Occasional sale of a goat, a 
sheep or a cow
 Sale of traditional beer brew
 Low
 55
Assets accumulated Form of income Current income category 
Household 6 ?A house
 ?Sheep, goats, cattle 
?Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
?Bakkie
 ?One roomed flatlets
 ?Two Public phone
 Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Rental income from bakkie
 Rental income from one 
roomed flatlets
 Fees from public phones
 High 
Household 7 ?A house
 ?Sheep, goats, cattle 
?Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
?Plate compactor
 Rental fees from plate 
compactor leased to 
government roads agency
 Medium 
Household 8 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
? Bakkie 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Rental income from bakkie
 Medium 
Household 9 ?A house
 ?Sheep, goats, cattle 
?Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
?Grain milling machine 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Fees from grain milling 
machine
 High 
Household 
10
 A house
 Sheep, goats, cattle 
Ox-drawn planter and plough 
Bakkie
 Mini-bus taxi
 Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Fees from grain milling 
machine
 Fees from mini-bus taxi
 High 
56
Assets accumulated Form of income Current income category 
Household 
11
 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
? Tractor
 Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Rental income from tractor
 Medium 
Household 
12
 ? A house
 ? Sheep, goats, cattle 
? Ox-drawn planter and 
plough 
Seasonal sale of wool and 
mohair
 Sale of a sheep, a goat or a 
cow
 Sale of garden vegetables
 Low
 NB:Low income denotes, income significantly lower than mine wage income. Middle income 
denotes, income equivalent to mine wage income. And high income denotes, income significantly  
higher than mine wage income.  
4.2 Livelihood activities post mining 
Interviewee families were stratified into three categories, namely: families owning 
diversified income generation assets; families with only one income generation asset; and 
families selling off assets to generate income. 
The first category of families is classified as high income entrepreneurial households. 
High income in this case denotes income significantly higher than the interviewee?s mine 
migrant labour earnings. 
57
With the grain milling machine and sales of wool and mohair, I?m 
currently earning about three times more than I was earning from  
the mine. 
These families own both agricultural assets and non-agricultural assets based within the 
rural area as well within the nearby town. These assets are invested and multiplied in an 
entrepreneurial manner to generate increasing income streams, and to multiply the value 
of the assets. In addition to assets, these families are exploiting all forms of capital 
(natural capital in the form of land; produced capital in the form of farming equipment 
and other assets, human capital in the form of their intellect to invest their remittances in 
income generation activities; financial capital in the form of cash to finance agricultural 
inputs; and social capital in the form of networks with the community) to improve their 
income (see table 4.3 and 4.4 below). 
The second category of families is classified as middle income entrepreneurial 
households. Middle income in this case denotes income equivalent or not significantly 
different to the interviewee?s mine migrant labour earnings. Similarly, families in this 
second category are, although to a comparatively lesser extent, making use of all forms of 
capital to generate income and a livelihood for their families. Although the income is 
sustainable, in the event that the one asset that the family relies on for income becomes 
obsolete or is unable to generate income, this category runs the risk of falling into the 
third category of low income subsistence livelihood households (see table 4.3 and 4.4 
below).
 58
The third category of families is low income households leading a subsistence type of 
livelihood, selling off their assets to generate income for the household. Low income in 
this case denotes irregular income that is also significantly lower than mine migrant 
labour earnings. These families rely primarily on their social capital in the form of social 
networks within the community, as well as natural capital in the form of land and their 
own labour for survival. To a lesser extent they also make use of their produced capital 
(selling off assets such as livestock) to generate a livelihood. These activities are then 
from time to time supplemented with traditional beer brewing. There are no 
entrepreneurial livelihood activities within this category (see tables 4.3 and 4.4 below).    
59
Table 4.3          Forms of capital applied to generate livelihoods  
Household 
category 
Capital employed Form of income 
High income 
entrepreneurial 
households
 Produced Capital Entrepreneurial assets such as farm implements, 
livestock, bakkie, mini-bus taxi, grain milling 
machine, one-roomed flatlets
 Natural Capital Farm land
 Human Capital Capability to work
 Capability to invest for purposes of entrepreneurship
 Financial Capital Entrepreneurial investments, purchase of agricultural 
inputs, labour hire
 Social Capital Share cropping arrangements 
Rental income, service 
fees and agricultural 
produce from own land 
and from sharecropping 
arrangements.
 Middle income 
entrepreneurial 
households
 Produced Capital Entrepreneurial assets such as farm implements, 
livestock, bakkie, tractor, plate compactor, leather 
sewing and cutting machine
 Natural Capital Farm land 
Human Capital Capability to work
 Capability to invest for purposes of entrepreneurship
 Financial Capital Entrepreneurial investments, purchase of agricultural 
inputs, labour hire
 Social Capital Share cropping arrangements 
Rental income, service 
fees and agricultural 
produce from own land 
and from sharecropping 
arrangements.
 Low income 
subsistence 
livelihood 
households
 Produced Capital Farm implements, livestock
 Natural Capital Farm land 
Human Capital Own labour to work for a wage 
Social Capital Share cropping arrangements 
Agricultural produce from 
sharecropping 
arrangements
  
As indicated in table 4.3 above, both diversified income households and one income 
households employ the same types of capital to generate livelihoods, the difference is that capital 
investments by diversified income households are much larger, and so are the outputs from such 
investments. 
60
Share cropping as a form of social capital is exploited by families in all three categories 
of high income, middle income and subsistence livelihoods (see table 4.4 below). 
Without financial capital to finance agricultural inputs, or limited produced capital to 
invest in agricultural activity, families within the low income subsistence livelihoods 
category engage in share cropping activities to ensure continued agricultural produce and 
therefore their subsistence. Share cropping is a form of agriculture in which a number of 
household pool their various forms of capital for purposes of agricultural production. 
Often households within the subsistence livelihoods category would contribute land, their 
own labour, farm implements if available, or (if available) cattle to pull ploughs to the 
share cropping arrangement. Families from the other categories of high income 
entrepreneurial category and middle income entrepreneurial categories, use their diverse 
sources of capital to contribute other forms of capital such as fertilizers, insecticides, a 
tractor if available, or cattle to pull ploughs, planters, etc; to hire additional labour, etc 
required to ensure a productive share cropping arrangement. The produce is then shared 
according to the agreed value of each family?s contribution into the sharecropping 
arrangement. While low income subsistence livelihood families engage in share cropping 
arrangements because they cannot otherwise afford to be productive on their own, high 
income entrepreneurial households and middle income entrepreneurial households on the 
other hand participate in share cropping activities to supplement their general food 
production capacity, and where possible to sell the produce or to use it as animal feed.   
61
Table 4.4          Assets applied in Share cropping arrangements   
Household 
category 
Income level Assets applied in 
sharecropping 
arrangements
 Outputs from 
sharecropping 
arrangements
 Use of outputs from 
sharecropping 
arrangements 
1.  High income 
entrepreneurial 
households
 High Hired labour
 Farm implements
 Seeds, fertilizers, 
insecticides
 Agricultural produce To supplement 
household food needs
 Animal feed
 Sale of grain crops
 2. Middle income 
entrepreneurial 
households
 Medium Own tractor
 Own bakkie
 Farm implements
 Seeds, fertilizers, 
insecticide
 Agricultural produce To supplement 
household food needs
 Animal feed
 Sale of grain crops
 3. Low income 
Subsistence 
livelihood 
households
 Low Land
 Own labour 
Agricultural produce Household subsistence
 Beer Brewing inputs
 Within low income subsistence livelihood households, life is hard with reports of high 
school going children kept out of school as a result of the poor financial situation of 
families. Primary school going children on the other hand are able to stay in school, as 
this is free. For many families, the migrant labour era meant they had money to send their 
children to school but retrenchment has resulted in limited income, and poor families 
have no option but to sacrifice their children?s education for subsistence of the household. 
Poor education, and lack of alternative skills to either explore entrepreneurship or get 
alternative employment spells a perpetuation of poverty without means to access 
consistent income streams from a job or from a family enterprise. Prospects for an 
62
improved standard of living are however also limited by the fact that families are not 
doing anything to improve their income generation situation, they are rather hoping to get 
another job, which would be very difficult given the high unemployment rate within the 
country and in nearby South Africa, lack of job prospects within the community, and the 
low level of skill. Other families are hoping their children could get jobs so they can 
support the parents, or to get their daughters married off so they can get lobola to live off. 
Inspite of the financial hardships, all families have a modestly furnished corrugated iron 
roof house as well as a thatched roofed house, both financed partly out of remittances 
from mining activities and partly out of retrenchment payouts. 
Subsistence agriculture is a way of life of families in all three categories of high 
entrepreneurial income households, middle entrepreneurial income households and low 
income subsistence livelihoods households. 
It is known that money should not be used to buy food, rather food is  
obtained from agricultural activities. (male interviewee)
 All families perform both off residence farming activities producing wheat, sorghum, 
maize, beans, and at times potatoes, peas and pumpkin; on-residence activities include 
production of vegetable crops and some fruits; and in addition, families rear cattle, sheep, 
goats, chicken, and at times pigs. These provide sustenance for the family, and it is a 
belief within the various households that buying food is a waste of money and a sign of 
laziness. Only supplementary food such as fish, fruit that cannot be produced locally 
through agriculture, rice and processed flour are normally purchased or obtained by 
63
battering with agricultural produce. Grain crops from off residence farming activities are 
processed (into flour) locally through local grain milling machines or bartered for the 
industrially processed flour produce from local shops or through community networks. 
Subsistence farming activities are also at times exploited to generate income. This 
includes use of grain crops as inputs for traditional beer brewing sold by many families 
within the subsistence livelihoods household strata to generate income. Maize meal, 
wheat flour, and malted sorghum are major inputs for brewing traditional beer thus 
stressing the importance for subsistence livelihood households to possess adequate 
agricultural produce so that they do not have to purchase inputs necessary for beer 
brewing. In addition to beer brewing, excess off-residence and on-residence produce, as 
well as livestock can also be sold to generate income for the family. 
Whenever the family needs money, we sell a sheep or a goat, and  
once a year we sell a cow.
 Sheep and goats are exploited by most families for their wool and mohair outputs. All 
families interviewed own some livestock with families within the low income subsistence 
livelihood households owning the fewest number of sheep and goats (between 20 and 
50), while entrepreneurial high income and middle income households own a 
comparatively higher number of sheep and goats (up to 200) with an intention to increase 
the numbers thus also increasing the level of income from sales of wool and mohair.  
Cattle, defined as beasts of burden are used in share cropping activities to pull ox-drawn 
harrows, planters and ploughs at different times during the ploughing season. At times, 
64
cattle and farm implements are rented out to community members who do not have their 
own cattle or farming equipment as a means to generate income or as contribution to 
share cropping arrangements in order to generate additional off farm produce for the 
family. 
Other families have however gone further to exploit agriculture into income generating 
activities. Such activities are most common within diversified income as well as in one 
income households. For instance, a tractor, or a bakkie provide an ongoing source of 
income through rental transportation activities within the rural community or between the 
rural community and the nearby town, or the tractor can be used for off-residence 
agricultural activities such as ploughing fields.  The most successful of the agriculture 
related activities has been the investment in a grain milling machine. This has been an 
asset purchased solely for generation of income, accessed within the community to 
process grain crops into flour, at a fee. Families engaged in this type of activity have 
reported currently being able to produce income significantly higher than earnings from 
migrant mining activity. 
Since leaving the mine life has become more and more easier 
because I had invested a lot while I was still working. 
Life is good at home because I?m able to earn a higher income 
compared to while I was still working for the mines. 
65
Although some families have sought to diversify their livelihood means beyond 
agricultural activities, some entrepreneurship activities have not been successful due to 
lack of business management skills. One family that had started a shop, a restaurant and 
had purchased a bakkie through investment of remittances and retrenchment payout have 
not been able to sustain their business.
 We did not have good business skills. The money from the 
businesses was good but the family was careless about using it.  
Because of this the businesses fell apart. 
Another family had however purchased a leather sewing machine to support a leather belt 
business. The success of the business (in the post retrenchment era) had allowed the 
family to invest further in a leather-cutting machine, thus further improving the capacity 
of the business to generate sustainable income for the family. Another family had 
invested in property, in the form of one-roomed flatlets located within the nearby town 
(the family had maintained its residence within the rural village) has also proved very 
successful, providing income streams significantly higher than what the family earned 
from migrant mining remittances.  
Table 4.5          Household livelihoods post retrenchment  
Assets accumulated Livelihood sources Household expenditure Future aspirations to 
maintain livelihoods 
High income 
entrepreneurial 
households. 
A house
 Agricultural land 
Cattle, sheep and goats
 Planter, plough and 
harrow
 Subsistence crop 
agriculture
 Sale of wool and mohair
 Own use and rental of 
farm implements 
Children?s schooling
 Household subsistence
 Medicines for livestock
 Farm inputs (seeds, 
fertilizers, insecticides)
 Purchase more livestock 
Build more flatlets
 Buy another grain milling 
machine
 Educate the children well
 66
Assets accumulated Livelihood sources Household expenditure Future aspirations to 
maintain livelihoods 
Grain milling machine
 One roomed flatlets
 Fees from grain milling 
Rental of flatlets
 Additional livestock
 Maintenance of capital 
investments
 middle income 
entrepreneurial 
households
 A house
 Agricultural land
 Cattle, sheep and goats
 Planter, plough and 
harrow
 Tractor
 Plate compactor
 Bakkie
 Leather sewing and 
cutting machine 
Subsistence crop 
agriculture
 Sale of wool and mohair 
Own use and rental of 
farm implements 
Sale of leather belts
 Transportation activities 
Children?s schooling
 Household subsistence
 Medicines for livestock
 Farm inputs (seeds, 
fertilizers, insecticides)
 Additional livestock
 Maintenance of capital 
investments  
Purchase more livestock to 
improve wool and mohair 
income 
Educate the children well
 low income 
subsistence 
households 
A house
 Agricultural land
 Cattle, sheep and goats
 Subsistence crop 
agriculture
 Sale of livestock, 
Sale of wool and mohair,
 Traditional beer brewing,
 Month to month 
government employment 
on rural roads construction 
and maintenance.
 Children?s schooling 
Household subsistence
  
Get a job
 Marry-off the daughters 
and live-off the lobola
 4.3 Household relations post mining  
All families interviewed are accepting of the notion that the husband is the head of the 
household. This notion was reported by both male and female interviewees who believe 
67
that the husband is the head of the household and has the responsibility to financially 
provide for his family?s needs, taking decisions pertaining to acquisition and disposal of 
assets, children?s discipline, and maintaining social networks within the community. 
God is the one who makes the man head of the household, and 
the other partner takes over when the head of the household is 
absent. (male interviewee)
 Although the husband?s household head status is linked to an expectation for the husband 
to be the bread winner who has the responsibility to financially provide for his family, 
even where the husband is unable to financially provide for the family, the expectations 
(from the wife) for him to be able to provide for the family maintains his status as head of 
the household. This is more visible within low income subsistence households where the 
source of income for the family is beer brewing by the wife, but the husband is still 
considered head of the household by both the wife and the husband himself. 
The head of the household is the husband providing food, shelter  
and clothing for the family. (female interviewee)
 A wife becomes a man?s child after they are married, so he has to 
provide everything for her. (male interviewee)
 Head of the household is the father ? this is a well known 
activity, with the head of the household holding the responsibility  
to work and provide for the needs of the dependents,The role of  
68
the wife is to make children and to provide good care for them.  .
 (male interviewee)
 The husband is the head of the household ?because I provide 
everything for the family? (family with grain grinding machine)  
(male interviewee)
 The head of the household is the husband ?because I?m the bread 
and butter? (family depending on agriculture and beer brewing).  
(male interviewee) 
Head of the household is the husband and he has the 
responsibility to make sure all the needs of the family are met,  
and to make decisions for the family ? the role of the wife is to 
feed the children, wash them, feed them and work at the fields  
(family with leather cutting machine) (male interviewee) 
Head of the household is the husband and he has to make sure all  
the needs of the family are met and to make decisions for the 
family. (male interviewee) 
It was however within low income subsistence livelihoods households where husbands 
were not able to provide financially for their families that wives, although accepting of 
69
the status of the male as head of the household, they felt that if the wife is the bread 
winner she should also be accorded the opportunity to be head of the household. 
The wives in these households expressed the unfairness of the notion that the husband 
should continue, as deemed in society, to be head of the household even when he is not 
the breadwinner. 
I also go out job seeking like the husband and should therefore 
also be considered head of the household. (female interviewee)
 The husband is accepted as head of the household and through societal and community 
expectations, does not cease to be head of the household when he ceases to be the family 
breadwinner. Within low income subsistence livelihood households, in spite of the loss of 
breadwinner status, husbands have not lost their status as heads of the households. 
Husbands in these households still make decisions pertaining to, with whom to go into 
share cropping arrangements with, when to carryout various seasonal agricultural 
activities, and when to sell livestock and what type of livestock to sell, and how to spend 
what ever income comes out of these activities. Within these households the wife cannot 
engage in beer brewing activities unless the husband has agreed to it. The husband 
himself can also propose that the wife prepare some home brew for sale should he need 
cash for the household or for himself. Monies generated are then viewed as household 
money, with the husband making decisions on how it should be spent.  
There were also indications that the status of household head was not based only on the 
bread winners status, but also on the male gender.
 70
The head of the household is, me, as the man. 
Within high income as well as within medium income entrepreneurial households, where 
mining remittances and retrenchment payouts had been well invested to ensure continued 
household incomes post retrenchment, the husband?s status as head of the house hold was 
accepted without question. With the husband taking decisions pertaining to investments 
and therefore production of income for the household, he successfully maintains the 
status of head of the household, with the responsibility to provide financially for the 
family. 
4.4 Household relations post mining  
The role of the husband as head of the household is directly linked to household decision 
making roles. This was most obvious during the process of seeking permission to conduct 
interviews within the household. While all wives could not give consent for the 
interviews to go ahead without the husband?s permission or ?knowledge?, all husbands 
were willing to give immediate consent to be interviewed without necessarily seeking 
their wives? permission, consent or ?knowledge?. This is so within all families regardless 
of income or livelihood status.
 The husband?s decision making role covers decisions pertaining to purchasing or selling 
of livestock, savings decisions, when and what to plant in off-residence agricultural 
activities, etc. The wife?s decision making is left to taking care of the children. 
71
Decisions about caring for the children are taken by their  
mother. (male interviewee)
 The wife is the child even though she has to take care of the 
children while I do everything else. (male interviewee)
 Decisions about purchasing or selling of assets are made by the husband, while decisions 
about caring for the children are taken by the wife. This notion is linked to the role of 
husbands as income earners; they would make decisions or give instructions on how their 
earned income should be spent or invested. Since assets such as vehicles, leather cutting 
and sewing machine, livestock, farm equipment, etc were purchased out of remittances or 
retrenchment payout earned by the husband; income earned out of investment of these 
assets becomes income earned by the husband, and he becomes the decision maker for 
such income. A portion of the earned income is then allocated to the wife to use in 
household subsistence and to care for the children. 
Women can lead people to darkness if one is not careful, they like 
big things, that is why I usually do not negotiate with them. 
All decisions are taken by the husband
 The wife is the child even though she has to take care of the 
children while I (husband) do everything else. 
72
4.5 Gendered decision making within households
 Roles for carrying out livelihood activities are divided by gender, with men as decision 
makers on entrepreneurial activities, while women on the other hand are tasked with the 
responsibility to carryout certain entrepreneurial instructions (see table 4.6 below) as well 
as to play the home-maker role of taking care of the household and the children. Within 
high income and middle income entrepreneurial households, men see themselves as 
income earners. This is based on the fact that men see the entrepreneurial activities a 
product of their mine wages and retrenchment payout and therefore their earned income. 
Head of the household is the husband and he has the 
responsibility to make sure all the needs of the family are met,  
and to make decisions for the family ? the role of he wife is to 
feed the children, wash them, feed them and work at the fields.
 Women can lead people to darkness if one is not careful, they like 
big things, that is why I usually do not negotiate with them on 
money matters.(male interviewee) 
Table 4.6          Gendered responsibilities within the household  
Men Women
 Decision making on financial 
expenditure
 Taking care of the household (nutrition and general 
household maintenance) 
Decision making on entrepreneurial 
activities
 Taking care of the children (their clothing, nutrition, 
and schooling)
 The decision on whether to be 
interviewed for this study.
 Carrying out instructions from male partners:
 1. Collection of rent
 73
2. Who to go into sharecropping arrangements with
 3. When to plough the off-residence land
 Children?s discipline
 Acquisition of assets
 Disposal of assets
 Although all female interviewees were of the opinion that ?one partner?s rights fits into 
another?s rights? and that ?each partner within the household has the right to listen to 
the other and be listened to?, with the husband and wife making decisions together, the 
practice was different. During mine employment, remittances would be sent home with 
instructions of how they should be spent, and accordingly, wives would comply. Some 
female interviewees also indicated that while the husband sent remittances home for 
schooling and other household needs, the rest of the money was invested by the husband, 
having taken the decision on his own. 
The husband made all decisions pertaining to investment of  
remittances and retrenchment payout, but he would also give me 
money to spend on the children and household maintenance, this  
is why we are living well now. (female interviewee with grain 
grinding machine) 
Often decisions are made by the father as head of the household 
who has to be cared for and to fulfill his responsibility to care for 
us as his dependents. (female interviewee). 
74
Every decision of the family is made by him as head of the 
household ? because he is my husband (female interviewee)
 The head of the household is the husband, he is the head of the 
household because is the one responsible for everything, he gives 
us money and we are all his dependents, except the two children 
who are working. (female interviewee) 
Women in return have expressed no rejection of this practice, but have continued to 
comply with the practice of men as decision makers; both during the time of employment 
in the mines as well as post mine employment. Within high income entrepreneurial 
households as well as middle income entrepreneurial households, where wives are 
responsible for the management of the businesses (collection of rent, fees for grain 
milling, etc,) income is then handed to the husband to dispense according to his own 
defined needs of the family. 
Not much different is the decision making practices in low income subsistence 
households. In spite of their limited spending capacity, decision making for expenditure 
for whatever income is available is made by the husband. Only one of the female 
interviewees expressed her dislike of the ongoing status of the husband as head of the 
household in spite of the fact that he is no longer the breadwinner.
 75
Because the husband is not working, I also have to go out and 
look for piece jobs, that is why I also want to be the head of the 
household. (female interviewee)
 Although all beer brewing and selling activities are carried out by the wife, she has to 
seek the husband?s approval to carryout this activity, and expenditure of income accruing 
from this activity has to be approved by the husband.    
4.6 Gender relations within households
 A collapse of intrahousehold relations seems to center around historical decision-making 
activities relating to money in the form of remittance as well as the retrenchment payout. 
In most of the high income and middle income entrepreneurial households, household 
relations are ?good? (with no reports of lack of respect of one partner by the other, or lack 
of love of one partner by the other), and this can be attributed to the historical relations 
dating back to the mine migrant labour era. Wives reported adequate remittances, enough 
to take care of the family needs, with additional income from entrepreneurial investments 
to take care of all household needs. In addition, the retrenchment payout was disclosed to 
the spouses, with the wife knowing how much was received and what it would be used 
for. On the other hand, within low income subsistence livelihood households, in addition 
to erratic remittances, or inadequate remittances that forced wives to either take some of 
the children out of school, or to supplement the income with traditional brew for sale; 
husbands did not disclose the value of their retrenchment payout to their wives, or how 
the money would be spent. These income expenditure decisions by the husbands were 
76
construed by the wives to indicate that money is being squandered, by the husband, 
outside the home. 
While he was employed, he ate his money with prostitutes and 
other women in Gauteng, now that he is unemployed, he wants 
me to brew beer so I can take care of him. 
Wives that had reported erratic receipt of remittances, as well as being denied the 
knowledge of how much of the retrenchment payout was received, reported poor 
intrahousehold relations. On the other hand, wives that had reported consistent receipt of 
remittances, as well as significant knowledge of how much and for what the retrenchment 
payout was used, reported good intrahousehold relations. Such family relations had not 
been influenced by the ability or opportunity for the wives to participate in decision 
making concerning household expenditure from remittances or retrenchment payouts. In 
a majority of households, the husbands prescribed how remittances and the retrenchment 
payout would be expended. Wives accepted this as an instruction or decision from the 
head of the household, and some husbands believed women would be wasteful if allowed 
leeway to make decisions pertaining to financial matters. As one husband put it: 
?women like big things, if one is not careful, trouble will befall  
the family?. 
Another husband was concerned that a woman would not be able to make correct 
decisions regarding the correct ploughing, weeding or harvesting season/period, which 
would then lead to poor agricultural output. 
77
Many families have to waste money and buy food because they 
let the woman make decisions about when and what to plough.
 Household relations post mining are a reflection of household relations while the 
husbands were still employed by the mines. In cases where wives has reported erratic 
remittances which at times forced the family to take children out of school as they could 
not afford to pay school fees; or where wives had reported that a retrenchment payout 
was received but they were never informed of the value of were never involved in its use 
or do not know how the bulk of it was spent; household relations continued to be bad post 
mining, with wives complaining that 
The husband is lazy and doesn?t want to work
 The husband uses whatever money he earns from part-time jobs on himself with 
little consideration for household subsistence.
   
Table 4.7          Historical conflict in household relations  
Remittances Retrenchment 
payout
 Primary 
Decision 
maker
 Household head Household relations Income 
Household 1 Widowed husband 
(no wife to 
comment about 
remittances)
 Received and used 
for subsistence, to 
settle debts, and to 
purchase livestock. 
?The money seems 
a lot when counted 
Husband Husband She seemed not to 
care for me as when I 
was working ? 
?women do not love 
the person, they love 
money?. 
Low
 78
Remittances Retrenchment 
payout
 Primary 
Decision 
maker
 Household head Household relations Income 
but is little when 
used?.
 Household 2 Erratic 
remittances 
supplemented 
with beer brewing 
with 2 children 
forced to stay out 
of school. 
Received but not 
disclosed to wife
 Husband Husband Not in good relations 
with his wife
 Medium
 Household 3 Inadequate 
remittances 
supplemented 
with beer brew 
Children's 
clothing, furnitur 
debt, and children's 
schooling. The 
wife does not 
know how much 
was received in 
retrenchment 
payout ? it was 
badly used by the 
husband. 
Husband Husband I still love her but she 
has stopped 
respecting me ? 
insinuating that I do 
not want to work. 
Low
 Households 4 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received 
Retrenchment 
payout received 
and discussed with 
the family.
 Purchased 
additional 
Husband Husband Household 
relationship good 
High
 79
Remittances Retrenchment 
payout
 Primary 
Decision 
maker
 Household head Household relations Income 
livestock, 
households needs 
and to complete 
the house.  
Household 5 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received 
No retrenchment 
payout received 
Husband Husband Household relations 
are good. This is 
attributed to the fact 
that ?there is no 
democracy in my 
family, I love my 
wife and she loves 
me?.
 Low
 Household 6 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received 
Used for basic 
household needs, 
increase number of 
flats for rental, 
savings. 
Retrenchment 
payout was 
received ? ?but it 
was not enough for 
someone who had 
worked for the 
mine for 20 years?
 Husband Husband Household 
relationship good 
High 
Household 7 Inadequate 
remittances, 
Retrenchment 
payout not 
Husband Husband Relations are bad 
since I reported not 
Medium 
80
Remittances Retrenchment 
payout
 Primary 
Decision 
maker
 Household head Household relations Income 
forcing the family 
to take a child out 
of school.
 received getting the 
retrenchment payout
 Household 8 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received 
Retrenchment 
payout received
 Husband Husband Household 
relationship good 
Medium 
Househ old 9 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received
 Retrenchment 
payout received
 Husband Husband Household 
relationship good
 High 
Household 10 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
received
 Retrenchment 
payout received
 Husband Husband Household 
relationship good
 High 
Household 11 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence and 
investment 
Retrenchment 
payout received
 Husband Husband Household 
relationship good
 Medium 
81
Remittances Retrenchment 
payout
 Primary 
Decision 
maker
 Household head Household relations Income 
received
 Household 12 Adequate 
remittances for 
household 
subsistence 
received
 Retrenchment 
payout received
 Husband (until 
the death of 
the husband)
 Husband (until 
the death of the 
husband)
 Widowed wife Low
 82
Chapter 5 Analysis of study findings
 5.1 Household Livelihoods 
This study found out that following retrenchments of Basotho workers from the mining 
industry in South Africa, families have had to adapt their livelihood activities to ensure 
that they can still afford their basic household needs. Subsistence and small scale farming 
has continued to characterize the basic livelihood activities in rural Lesotho, with some 
households adapting their agricultural activities to include entrepreneurial activities. In 
line with Bebbington's1999 suggestion of livelihood transitions, following mine 
retrenchments, households have opted for rural non-agricultural activities, rural 
agricultural activities, as well as non-rural activities as forms of income diversification 
activities (see figure 5.1 and table 5.1 below).   
83
Figure  5.1          Livelihood activities post mining  
Livelihood diversification post mining retrenchments         Non migration Livelihood 
activities 
Economic Opportunity 
Economic Compulsion 
Adapted from: Bryceson, 1997b: 244. 
Inspite of Bryceson (1997b)?s analysis of the ?occupational residential rouses for peasant 
producers in the de-agrarianisation process (see figure 3.1), in this research none of the 
former mine workers or their spouses have re-migrated following retrenchments, but 
peasant, subsistence and small-scale farming activities are still common livelihood 
activities. 
84
 Rural Agricultural 
activities (entrepreneurial 
activities) 
Rural Non-agricultural 
income diversification 
(entrepreneurial 
activities)
 Non-rural, and Non-
 Agricultural activities 
(entrepreneurial 
Peasant farming 
Declining 
consumption 
Destitution 
Table 5.1 Income diversification livelihood activities post retrenchments
 Rural non-agricultural activities Rural agricultural activities Non-rural activities 
Leather sewing activities Grain milling One-roomed flatlets for rental
 Transportation activities between 
the rural community and the nearby 
town 
Rental of farm equipment  Transportation activities within 
the nearby town 
Beer brewing 
Subsistence, entrepreneurial and 
sharecropping agricultural 
activities 
Sale of livestock, wool, and 
mohair 
 These livelihood activities (as listed above in figure 5.1 and table 5.1), are a follow 
through from investments of mine migrant labour remittances. This means that these 
livelihood activities existed side by side with mine migrant labour. During the migrant 
labour era, remittances were used to purchase the capital equipment (machinery, vehicles, 
livestock, etc), to service and maintain the capital equipment, and to plough in more 
investments into existing livelihoods (fertilizers, insecticides, medicines for animals, etc) 
so as to increase the quality and quantity of outputs and therefore the family income. 
Following retrenchments, these livelihood activities have had to stand on their own as the 
primary sources of income for the ex-mine worker families. For this reason, aside from 
loss of mine migrant labour income, there have not been significant changes in the 
livelihood activities of ex-mineworker families from the time they were still employed by 
the mines to the era post retrenchments. Access to land,  where families are engaged in 
both on-residence and off-residence agricultural activities has meant that, to varying 
degrees, retrenchee families are still able to meet their basic needs.  This is unlike the 
85
finding by Bezuidenhout et al (2003) where 90% of the respondents who had been 
retrenched from textile industries and were living within an urban area could not meet 
their basic subsistence needs as they could not engage in agriculture. 
Migration by either the wives or the husbands in the post retrenchment era was seen to 
have limited potential given lack of skills as well as poor job prospects in South Africa or 
in the nearby towns in Lesotho. Retrenchees were found to have only low level mine 
worker skills with wives generally possessing no skills except domestic work-related 
activities. Unlike Mosoetsa's (2005) findings that retrenchments of men have forced 
women to migrate and become primary income earners, this study has found out that 
retrenchee households have instead used assets accumulated while still in employment to 
build entrepreneurial and subsistence livelihoods within the home community. These 
home-based livelihood activities, together with limited opportunities for migration due to 
lack of alternative skills and lack of suitable job opportunities have thus negated the 
inclination to engage in further migrant labour by either the husbands or the wives. 
Where women have had to takeover the role or primary income earner following mine 
retrenchment, it has been through beer brewing activities carried out within the home 
community. 
Given the location of this village, prospects for local employment are virtually non-
 existent. While Ngonini (2002) reported engagement of retrenchees in the limited 
employment opportunities such as the timber and sugar cane industry, as well as 
employment as security guards in the local shops, in this village there are no job 
86
prospects. The only available remunerated livelihood activity is the government?s rural 
construction or maintenance; or soil erosion management projects. In these projects 
workers are paid either in the form of food or cash. Owing to high levels of 
unemployment, involvement in these projects is rotational (those employed in a particular 
month, would have to give an opportunity for employment of another group during the 
following month[s]). Local shops are also largely owner run and managed, local teachers 
do their own domestic work or would only employ daily labour, and transport services to 
the nearby town for security work and other low skilled jobs (where some people could 
get employment) cannot accommodate commuters. 
5.2 Household relations and Decision Making
 Relationships between wives and husbands following retrenchments were mixed in most 
cases reportedly influenced by the flow of remittances from the husband to the wife 
during the mine migrant labour era. Within low income households, wives expressed 
concern and dissatisfaction that in the post-retrenchment era, they have had to engage in 
beer brewing activities to raise income for the household due to the fact that their 
husbands had been irresponsible or had squandered their mining remittances and 
retrenchment payout on other women. These are women who inspite of their husbands 
being employed by the mines, had to engage in beer brewing to generate additional 
income for the household, and or to take some of the children out of school as they could 
not afford school fees. In these households, poor household relations were observed with 
the husbands reporting that the ?wife no longer respects me? and the wives reporting that 
the ?husband no longer loves me?.  These reports were consistent with low income 
87
subsistence households. But unlike reports by Ngonini (2002) where some wives were 
reported to have deserted their husbands as a result of loss of breadwinner status, or 
husbands deserting their wives due to embarrassment after losing their breadwinner 
status, all interviewee households had wives and husbands still living together inspite of 
the loss of income, and inspite of poor household relations.  On the other hand high 
income and middle income households reported good or improved household relations 
post retrenchments. Again such good relations seem to have been greatly influenced by 
the satisfactory (as expressed by the wives) flow of remittances while still in mine 
employment, or by the husband?s ability, through investments of remittances and the 
retrenchment payout, to still financially provide for the family. 
Francis (2000) writes that as men lose their bread winner status and women become 
primary income earners, tensions arise within the household as women lose control over 
their incomes, and men lose their decision-making power due to loss of their role as 
breadwinners. This study however found out that this is not the case. Where women were 
engaged in beer brewing, men still made the decision on what the bulk of the income 
would be used for. Similarly, although the husbands would make decisions on who to 
engage in sharecropping arrangements with, the bulk of the work such as weeding, and 
harvesting would be done by women. Without question, the husband was seen as head of 
the household and therefore the decision-maker. This was a social norm, in the name of 
tradition, it goes without saying that the husband is the head of the household and this is 
not up for contestation thus setting limits to bargaining for household headship even in 
the case where the breadwinner status  is reversed in favour of the wife (Argawal, 1997). 
88
Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 
6.1 Main Findings
 Livelihood activities (not limited to mine wage labour) and decision making pertaining to 
expenditure of remittances during the migrant labour era have had an impact on the 
livelihoods and household relations of former mineworkers. Erratic and inadequate (as 
determined by recipients/wives) remittances did not only affect the economic livelihoods 
of families, but also their household relations. 
All families that had reported strained marital relations post retrenchment had had 
historical problems relating to erratic remittances, inadequacy of remittances sent home 
to meet the basic needs of the family (food, clothing and children?s schooling), and 
ultimately, little knowledge of what the retrenchment payout was spent on and how much 
it was. But in spite of poor household relations, and the husband?s loss of breadwinner 
status, families stayed together. It can therefore be postulated in this case that families 
stayed together because of continued existence of means of production in the form of 
agriculture albeit subsistence or disposal of livestock to the detriment of future 
livelihood. 
The notion of families staying together in spite of the husband's loss of breadwinner 
status could also be linked to the husband's continued hold over control of means of 
production in the form of investment of outputs (acquired out of wage labour and 
therefore up to the husband to make decisions over), sale of livestock, with whom and 
whether to go into sharecropping arrangements, and whether to engage in beer brewing 
89
arrangements (although this would be an activity carried out by the woman). Such hold 
over means of production therefore continued to give husbands the status of household 
head in spite of loss of breadwinner status. It would however be interesting to investigate, 
in cases where women have exercised the option to become migrant wage earners for the 
family, whether the households exchange roles, with women giving instructions on how 
remittances should  be expended (and whether men accept to carryout such instruction) 
and whether any outputs from investment of remittances by women remain under the 
control of the women themselves. And whether such control would eventually make the 
women the head of the household. 
All families living off various forms of income generation assets within the high and 
middle income entrepreneurship categories acquired their assets through investment of 
remittances i.e. while still in employment at the mines. In addition to non-entrepreneurial 
assets such as a house and furniture, some investments in agricultural inputs such as 
livestock and farming implements to support household subsistence, these families also 
invested in entrepreneurial assets in the form of a tractor or a bakkie for rental, grain 
milling machines, leather sewing machine, and flatlets for rental. Although still employed 
on the mines, these families already supplemented their mine wage labour income with 
entrepreneurial income. Once retrenched, the payout was then further invested in already 
existing enterprises to enhance the income generation capabilities of the household. 
On the other hand, low income subsistence livelihood households had used their 
remittances primarily for subsistence and to purchase non-entrepreneurial assets such as a 
90
house and furniture. It is also within these families that wives reported that remittances 
were erratic and they had either to supplement income received through beer brewing or 
had to cut back on household expenditure by taking some of the children out of school. 
Since none of the families in all three categories of high income entrepreneurial 
households, middle income entrepreneurial households, and low income subsistence 
income households reported starting any of the entrepreneurial activities through 
investment of the retrenchment payout, it can only be concluded that the ability to create 
livelihood practices that ensure living standards similar or better than those experienced 
during employment has more to do with investment activities while still employed, and 
less to do with investment of the retrenchment payout. It is the contention of all families 
that started investing their remittances in entrepreneurial activities, and then used the 
retrenchment payout to enhance their enterprises that, in the post mining era, their 
families are earning much higher income than what they were earning while still 
employed on the mines.  
Although this study site was not reached by MDA?s micro-enterprise and cooperatives 
development programme which assists former mine workers to build alternative 
livelihoods, a significant number of the households forming part of this study were able 
to independently build alternative livelihoods by exploiting assets accumulated during 
mine-based employment. It is only families that had sought to wait until retrenchment to 
make arrangements for alternative livelihoods that reported that the capital received at 
retrenchment was never adequate to make significant contribution to primary investments 
for alternative livelihoods post retrenchment. As one former mine worker put it: ?the 
91
money (retrenchment payout) seemed a lot when counted, but it is little when used?. 
Within the bulk of the families interviewed the retrenchment payout was used to pay off 
the furniture debt, finish the house, pay the balance of children's annual school fees and 
purchase some basic family needs. It was only in households where income generation 
assets already existed that a portion of the retrenchment payout was invested towards 
purchasing additional assets. Depending on investment choices made during the migrant 
labour era, households are engaged in agricultural, non-agricultural, as well as 
subsistence forms of livelihoods (see table 6 below).  
Table 6              Primary livelihood per household category  
Household 
Category 
High income 
entrepreneurial 
households 
Middle income 
entrepreneurial 
households 
Low income 
subsistence livelihood 
households
 Primary 
source of 
livelihood 
Entrepreneurial Agricultural 
activities 
Entrepreneurial non-agricultural 
activities 
Entrepreneurial Agricultural 
activities 
Entrepreneurial non-agricultural 
activities 
Share cropping
 Traditional beer brewing
 Sale of livestock 
In spite of mining income, all families whether within the high income or middle income 
entrepreneurial households, or the low income subsistence livelihood households, 
continued to engage in agriculture as a supplement to their mine wage income. Post 
retrenchment, low income households have continued to pursue agriculture as a primary 
source of livelihood, with middle and high income households also continuing to pursue 
agricultural practices as a supplement to their other entrepreneurial income sources. The 
capacity for low income subsistence livelihood households to practice agriculture, and 
92
thus to have access to an independent livelihood source, does not however overrule the 
hardship faced by these households in taking care of their households. The fact that these 
families are selling off assets to satisfy needs for cash within the households, versus 
investing in measures to multiply their assets so that they become income generating 
assets, renders these low income subsistence livelihood households prone to sinking into 
poverty. The fact that many children in these households are only schooled up to primary 
school education (which is currently free) further puts limitations on these households 
gaining means to lift themselves out of poverty through better employment prospects of 
their children.     
Access and ownership of land ensures that families that would have otherwise graduated 
into destitution can still maintain a livelihood. A case in point is that of findings of 
research conducted in nine Java villages in South East Asia (White and Waradi, 1989 in 
Hart et al, eds). The highest comparative incomes within the villages were income 
averages recorded within families that owned land coming from sales of crops, livestock 
and poulty.  The landless on the other hand had a bulk of their income from agricultural 
wage income in the form of cash and or crops from share cropping arrangements or 
outright farm employment (from those who owned land), with their incomes significantly 
lower than the incomes of those who owned agricultural land.  
Within the village, former mineworker families have managed to maintain their 
indigenous agricultural livelihoods as well as to diversify livelihoods to non-agricultural 
activities. These efforts have not been supported in any form by Modernisation or Green 
93
Revolution initiatives by government or non-governmental organizations. 
Proletarianisation and commodification of production are existing side by side with 
subsistence and small scale farming.  This is unlike what has been predicted by the 
modernization theory that with modernity; peasant farming, subsistence and small scale 
farming would be replaced by large scale capitalist farming. 
6.2 Recommendations 
It is crucial for governments to pursue policies to give agricultural incentives to 
communities to carryout agricultural activities, whether subsistence and individual 
household based, to cooperatives or assisted entrepreneurial agricultural activities. This 
would to a lesser or greater extent deter household members, (in the midst of high 
unemployment rates), from migrating to urban areas or neighboring South Africa to seek 
employment, and instead to have the ability to  build a livelihood within the rural home 
community. It can be deduced from this study that, while former mineworkers in the 
category of ?high income and middle income entrepreneurial households? used their 
remittances and retrenchment payouts to finance their agricultural and none-agricultural 
livelihoods, government assisted agricultural programmes can go a long way towards 
formulating more productive household livelihoods, with growth possibilities to fully 
functional commercial farms providing employment for the local community and the 
landless, higher income streams for the owners and better agricultural yields for the 
country?s economic wellbeing. 
94
Mining companies on the other hand, should, through out the employment period, alert 
employees to the notion that mine employment will at some point end, due to economic 
reasons, depletion of the mineral, etc. This would dispel the notion among some mine 
workers that ?I never thought mining would end?.  At this point employees should be 
encouraged to start investing their remuneration in activities that will ensure continued 
income generating livelihoods in the era: post employment. These livelihoods will then 
create opportunities for independent income generation activities in the post mining era. 
Mines should invest in research to identify viable entrepreneurial activities in the home 
areas of their employees. Such research would assist employees to make entrepreneurial 
choices that would assist their (employees) continued livelihoods post mine employment. 
Research conducted to identify viable entrepreneurial activities in the home areas of 
employees, should also be used to identify viable training opportunities for employees in 
preparation for employment. Such training should include both technical as well as 
business training, preparing employees for future employment in other mines or in 
similar industries. It is however up to individual employees to develop the motivation and 
to create time to study further to improve their skills.  Entrepreneurial training activities 
should not be uniform across all mine employees. Employees should be trained/counseled 
on how to make the best entrepreneurial choices for their unique communities and for the 
employment market. 
Owing to findings in this research, as well as limitations of this study, it is essential that 
further research that covers a number of villages is carried our to extrapolate the findings 
of this research as well as to investigate other possibilities of livelihoods that would be 
95
successful in rural setting such as those in Lesotho. These would include possibilities for 
home industries, fisheries, beneficiation of crop and livestock outputs, and improved 
trade activities with accessible markets. 
Furthermore, in spite of the findings of this study, Basotho women's behaviour should not 
be seen as homogeneous (Epprecht, 2000). For now it can be postulated that different 
women would react differently to the notion of a continuation of the husband as head of 
the household and decision maker in spite of his loss of bread winner status. It would be 
interesting to engage in further research to find out what influences some women to be 
accepting and submissive to men as heads of the household and decision maker in spite 
of their loss of breadwinner status, and why some women would seek to question the 
status of the household head and decision maker, and what factors would eventually 
uplift a Mosotho woman in a rural setting to the status of a household head and decision 
maker. 
96
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De Vaus D. (2001) Research Design in Social Research. London: Sage. 
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Francis E. (2000) Making a Living: Changing Livelihoods in Rural Africa. London: 
Routledge.
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and Jamal V. Eds. Farewell to Farms: De-agrarianisation an Employment in Africa. 
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Migrancy in a Democratic South Africa. Edited by Crush J. and James W. IDASA.
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 agrarianisation an Employment in Africa. African Studies Centre, Laiden.
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8 Annexure A
 8.1 Questionnaire Guide 
Research title: Socio-economic impacts of mine retrenchments on household 
livelihoods and decision-making in Lesotho.
 Introduction
 Name and surname
 Wits university student
 Purpose of research 
? The purpose of this study is to investigate how ex-mineworker households in 
Lesotho are 
o adapting their livelihood strategies since the loss of employment in min-
 ing.  
It will focus on 
? what ex-mineworker households have spent their wage remittances 
on, i.e. whether consumables and or accumulation of assets; 
? what retrenchment packages have been spent on; 
? what assets ex-mineworker households have accumulated; 
? how they have invested their assets;  
? what market networks they have created to build alternative liveli-
 hoods; and 
? how household decision-making dynamics have influenced such 
decisions. 
103
? The study will also investigate how the loss of a mine wage income by the male 
breadwinner, usually a husband and a father, has impacted on decision making 
roles between adult males and females in the household, as well as traditional 
gender relationships both within the household and outside. 
? Where the loss of a mine income has forced the female members of the house-
 holds to become primary income earners, what choices and options do they have 
in achieving the status of primary income earner? What have been the implica-
 tions of their breadwinner status on gender relationships within the households 
and outside?  
Outcome of research 
? The study fill a gap in the academic literature, 
? Will inform policy studies at mine level as well as at government bi-lateral level 
between Lesotho and South Africa on what is required to assist ex-mineworkers 
to succeed in creating alternative economic livelihoods following retrenchment. 
? This research will inform the mines? social and labour plans on how to address 
impacts of mine closure and retrenchments on labour sending areas, in this case in 
Lesotho, and what interventions should be put in place to address adverse impacts 
defined, as well as to enhance the alternative means of livelihoods currently indic-
 ated as showing a potential for success. 
8.2 Consent (verbal consent to participate)
 You are under no obligation to agree to participate in this interview.
 104
If you agree to participate in this interview you are under no obligation to answer any 
questions that you might feel uncomfortable answering.
 The information that you will give to me will be kept confidential.
 Your name will not appear anywhere on the report.
 8.3 Questionnaire: male interviewees
 1. Name:
 2. Age:
 3. Marital status:
 4. Number of Children (ages):
 5. Are the children in school, working, married, inactive: (are the children living with 
you or not ? why)
 6. Other dependents: (are they living with you or not)
 7. How long have you worked in the mining industry:
 8. When did you leave the mining industry?
 9. Why did you leave?
 10. Tell me about your life at home while you were still employed by the mines:
             Probe for information on:
 ? Remittances sent home
 ? What were remittances spend on
 ? Who made decisions on what to spend remittances on 
? Any assets accumulated out of remittances or other mine benefits (i.e. 
livestock, house, farm implements, vehicle, etc)
 105
? Other sources of livelihood (i.e. agriculture, beer brewing, informal train-
 ing, other work/employment by other family members, gifts from friends 
or other family members, etc) 
? How were you able to access inputs required to engage in alternative 
sources of livelihood.
 ? Who made decisions about what other sources of livelihood to engage in
 ? Who is the head of the household (what are the rights and responsibilities 
of the head of the household)  
o i.e. what makes a person head of the household
 ? Depending on the response above (how does the other partner fit into the 
one partner?s rights, responsibilities and role as head of the household?
 11. Tell me about your life at home since you left the mining industry:
       Probe for information on:
 ? Sources of livelihood (e.g. work/employment of self and or other family 
members, agriculture, informal trading, informal employment, government 
schemes, entrepreneurship, beer brewing, gifts from friends [male and fe-
 male friends] or other family members, etc)
 ? How are you able to access inputs required to engage in alternative 
sources of livelihood.
 ? Who makes decision about what other sources of livelihood to engage in
 ? Existence of assets (i.e. land, livestock, vehicle, house, farm implements, 
etc) and use of assets as sources of livelihood
 ? What is income spent on
 106
? Who makes decisions about what to spend income on
 ? Who is the head of the household (what are the rights and responsibilities 
of the head of the household) 
? Define your role in the household in the era after mining era.
 ? Define the role of your wife in the household
 12. Since you left the mines, have you been employed anywhere else?
 13. How was the decision taken within the household for you to take up this job?
 ? Describe the job type and why you left
 14. What are your livelihood plans for the future?
 15. Describe your life at home as an absent husband and father vs a husband and father 
who is always present at home. 
16. Has your wife ever been employed? (what type of job, commuta job or migrant job?)
 17: How was the decision for your wife to seek employment taken?
 18. How are the following decisions made (comparing time before retrenchment and time 
after retrenchment): 
? care of children, 
? schooling of children, 
? investment decisions, 
? savings decisions, 
? spending decisions (and specific kinds of spending, eg, 
o who buys the food, 
o who decides what to spend any extra money on? 
107
19. Describe the relationship between yourself and your wife comparing the time before 
retrenchment and after retrenchment:
 ? Love (probe for explanation and further details) (do you still love her, 
does she still love you?) why?
 ? Respect (probe for explanation and further details) (do you still respect 
her, does she still respect you?) why?
 20. Did you receive a retrenchment payout? How much? How was it used? How was the 
decision made? (i.e. children?s education, investments, house, other assets, general 
consumption, gifts (who received gifts), etc). 
8.5 Questionnaire: female interviewees
 1. Name:
 2. Age:
 3. Marital status:
 4. Number of Children (ages):
 5. Are the children in school, working, married, inactive:
 6. Other dependents: 
7. How long has your husband worked in the mining industry:
 8. When did he leave the mining industry?
 9. Why did he leave?
 10. Tell me about your life at home while your husband was still employed by the 
mines:
 108
Probe for information on:
 ? Remittances sent home
 ? What were remittances spend on (building/improving the house, agricul-
 ture, children?s education, purchasing assets, etc)
 ? Who made decisions on what to spend remittances on 
? Any assets accumulated out of remittances or other mine benefits (i.e. 
livestock, house, farm implements, vehicle, etc)
 ? Other sources of livelihood (i.e. agriculture {including share cropping con-
 tribution}, beer brewing, informal training, other work/employment by 
other family members, gifts from friends or other family members, etc)
 ? How were you able to access inputs required to engage in alternative 
sources of livelihood.
 ? How were decisions about what other sources of livelihood to engage in 
made
 ? Who is the head of the household (what are the rights and responsibilities 
of the head of the household)  
o i.e. what makes a person head of the household
 ? Depending on the response above (how does the other partner fit into the 
one partner?s rights, responsibilities and role as head of the household?
 Tell me about your life at home since your husband left the mining industry:
 Probe for information on:
 ? Sources of livelihood (e.g. work/employment of self and or other family 
members, agriculture, informal trading, informal employment, government 
109
schemes, entrepreneurship, beer brewing, gifts from friends [male and fe-
 male friends] or other family members, etc)
 ? How are you able to access inputs required to engage in alternative 
sources of livelihood.
 ? How are decision about what other sources of livelihood to engage in 
made (incl. Share cropping contribution)
 ? Existence of assets (i.e. land, livestock, vehicle, house, farm implements, 
etc) and use of assets as sources of livelihood
 ? What is income spent on
 ? Who makes decisions about what to spend income on
 ? Who is the head of the household (what are the rights and responsibilities 
of the head of the household)  
o i.e. what makes a person head of the household
 ? Define your role in the household in the era after mining era.
 11. Describe your life at home as a wife of an absent husband and father vs wife 
of a husband and father who is always present at home. 
12. Have you ever been employed?
 13. Why did you take up employment? 
14. How was the decision for you to get a job arrived at within the household?
 15. What did/do you spend your earnings on?
 16. Who made/makes decisions on what to spend your earnings on?
 17. What are your livelihood plans for the future? 
110
18. How are the following decisions made (comparing time before retrenchment 
and time after retrenchment): 
o care of children, 
o schooling of children, 
o investment decisions, 
o savings decisions, 
o spending decisions (and specific kinds of spending, eg, 
? who buys the food, 
? who decides what to spend any extra money on? 
19. Describe the relationship between yourself and your husband comparing the 
time before retrenchment and after retrenchment:
 ? Love (probe for explanation and further details) (do you still love him, 
does he still love you?) why?
 ? Respect (probe for explanation and further details) do you still respect 
him, does he still respect you?) Why?
 20. Did your spouse receive a retrenchment payout? How much? How was it 
used? How was the decision made? (i.e. children?s education, investments, 
house, other assets, general consumption, gifts (who received gifts), etc).
 111
9 Annexure B
 9.1 Information leaflet 
1. Should you be very poor, without any means of subsistence:
 ? Contact the your local chief who will enroll you in the village register for those 
eligible to receive government subsistence support in the form of either food par-
 cels or enrollment in work food programme.
 2. Should you be in an abusive relationship, where: 
? The husband is abusing the wife (physical, emotional, sexual, etc)
 ? The wife abusing the husband (physical, emotional, sexual, etc)
 ? The children abused by either of the parents in any way (physical, emotional, 
sexual, etc)
 o Report your concerns to the chief who will either deal with the matter 
himself or refer you to the community safety police.
 o Should the chief be of no assistance, you should travel to the nearby town 
and report the matter yourself to the community safety policy. Should it be 
necessary, the policy will refer the matter to a family court, which will ap-
 propriately make a legal and enforceable determination. 
3. Note that primary education from Standard 1 to Standard 7 is free. There is therefore 
no reason for you to have your primary school going children out of school. 
4. Should you be raising orphans, or if you have lost a breadwinner in the family, and 
you have high school going children, please report this to the school principal who 
112
will assist the child to apply for an education grant. Note however that the child has to 
perform well at school in order to qualify for this grant. 
5. Should you be over the age of 65 make contact with the local chief who will prepare 
appropriate documentation for you to receive a state pension fund of R200 per month. 
Once this documentation is prepared, you will have to travel to the nearby town to re-
 gister your eligibility for this state pension fund. 
113