Dr. Splagchana Chikarara

In the thesis, The ‘score-card’ and ‘kubotereka’ spatial orders: a comparative study of mine housing strategies at Amandelbult and Unki platinum mines, the candidate compared worker housing arrangements in one platinum mining company that operates in South Africa and another in Zimbabwe. This comparative ethnographic analysis revealed how the South African and Zimbabwean governments play instrumental roles in the unmaking and transforming historically racialised geographies of mining communities. The mining firm seized the initiative to socially engineer spatial orders to their benefit, investing in housing and developing infrastructure where they operate. Workers also respond as they make meaning of these spaces by embracing the reconfigured space and rejecting the mining firm’s attempts to house them in particular locations. The ‘scorecard spatial order’ and the ‘kubotereka spatial order’ conceptually frame the discussion and analysis of the geography of platinum mining communities in the two mining towns.