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ecruitment and regulation of the labourers’ movements, employers also
received assistance in as far as accommodation of labourers was
concerned. In order to establish tighter control over the labourers and
decrease labour costs, the compound system was set up in the 1880’s.
Under this system, the labourers were confined to closed compound for the
entire period of contract. One study has described compound life as follows:
The compound system was mainly applicable to the mines
although it was later used as an accommodation device for
other sectors. The compound was an enclosure mostly
surrounded by a high corrugated iron fence and covered by
wire netting. The men usually lived in groups of up to
twenty in a room, in huts or iron cabins built against the
fence. They went to work along a tunnel, bought food and
clothing from the company stores and received “free”
medical treatment but no wages during sickness, all within
the compound. Men due for discharge were confined to
detention rooms for several days, during which they only
wore blankets and fingerless gloves padlocked to their
wrists, swallowed purgatives and were examined for
stones concealed in cuts, wounds, swelling and orifices. -
J. and R Simons (1983).
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