(in South Africa) the laws and structures under which black contract labourers from rural areas, the homelands, or neighbouring states were recruited to work in the cities and mines.
Just over a decade after independence, we now see a return of the migrant labour system in a new globalised, and perhaps even more vicious form.
The migrant labour system was physically, socially and politically disruptive and has had a lasting impact on these and other Namibian communities.
Because of the economic arrangement of South Africa, we as the Eastern Cape contribute to the migrant labour system.
Indeed, some have suggested that it is precisely their wealth in cattle that prevented them from being sucked into the contract migrant labour system that wrought such social havoc in other areas beyond the Police Zone.
Initially, this loss was fuelled by a migrant labor system that encouraged highly skilled male crafters to seek employment in the mines and the cities.