In his book ‘Discipline and Punish’, French philosopher Michel Foucault describes how the carceral system - the architecture of the prison - is similarly replicated in society and, we might argue, contrived recreation and professional areas, whether ‘spontaneous’ such as tourist resorts, or even areas like gyms, as well as universities and schools.

His book, identifying how and why this penetration is pervasive, articulates that the mechanisms of classification, utilisation and control flows as a working of power through these institutions. We might logically extend this regulated system as a framing for the use of bodies as useful labour and ‘docile bodies’ whose gestures and activities are controlled by disciplinary power, particularly at mines.

Internal documents of the minutes between Zimbabwe’s Diamond Mining Corporation and Zimbabwe’s National Union of Mines, Quarrying Iron and Steel Workers, have disclosed the regulated system of Zimbabwean miners working for foreign corporations. Their normalised routine is determined by a ‘quasi-military force’ treating them as loathed prisoners deserving of punishment.

‘Security guards are being trained under a quasi-military approach as if they are part of a private military arm…Furthermore these security guards are made to perform their duties under a standing order as if they are still part of the army or police force.’

The wages of labourers, in spite of the harsh conditions, were revealed to be $100-$250 per month, excluding the costs of travel. Their contracts also did not take into account overtime, housing, night or bush allowances, nor were they protected from being unlawfully dismissed. Employees were pressured to sign short multi-week contracts in addition to the three month probation contracts enabling management to disadvantage miners if they opted for dismissal.

The Union claimed that employees were referred to as dogs and that the primary source of food available was rotten sausages or ‘degrading food such as chicken necks and porridge’ which was making them ‘very ill’. The dormitories, ‘which are squashed and easily susceptible to the hot weather conditions’ and had no electricity at night, also had no ventilation. Meanwhile, employees at the diamond sorting plant, exposed to large volumes of dust, were provided with no protective masks. In contrast, the Union noted that Arab and Indian employees enjoyed food and housing of a far better quality. In particular, the Union claimed that physical and verbal assault was common.

Going by Foucault’s logic, the difference between the treatment of prisoners and that of mine workers in Zimbabwe, we might conclude, is one of degree only.

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* Khadija Sharife is southern Africa correspondent for The Africa Report, a contributing researcher for the Tax Justice Network and visiting scholar at the UKZN Center for Civil Society.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.