Mining, separate development, and uneven impact: Evidence from South Africa’s former homelands during the 2000s commodity boom

Abstract

This paper investigates how the spatial legacy of South Africa’s Separate Development policy shaped the local impact of mining during the 2000s commodity boom. It focuses on the former homelands – territories created under apartheid to confine Black South Africans to politically excluded, under-resourced areas – many of which coincided with mineral-rich land. The study asks whether industrial mining in these areas contributed to local poverty reduction and employment, or whether historical spatial inequality suppressed those benefits. Despite its significance, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how mining activity affects socio-economic outcomes in these structurally marginalised areas.

First, the paper draws on census data from 1970 to 1991 and secondary literature to trace the origins of spatial poverty in the former homelands, showing how the design of Separate Development entrenched underdevelopment. Second, it uses an original empirical strategy that merges individual-level census data from 1996, 2001, and 2011 with geocoded mining data from over 400 mines.

The analysis compares wards located in former homelands with those in non-former homeland areas, and with non-mining wards within former homelands. The results reveal that while mining activity is generally associated with lower poverty and higher employment, these benefits are significantly weaker in the former homelands. The study also highlights the volatility of mining-linked employment, which closely tracks commodity price fluctuations, especially in marginalised areas.