The village of Luka is located in the mineral-rich platinum mining belt near Rustenburg in the North West province. Despite decades of mining-related economic stimulus, its inhabitants continue to struggle with unemployment, insufficient access to healthcare, housing and other services. Modimowabarwa Kanyane reports on community experiences collected as part of the HSRC’s Democracy@30 Project.
Platinum mine close to the village of Luka, Rustenburg. Photo: HSRC
South Africa’s Bafokeng nation became private corporate landowners in the 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, they owned almost 20% of all black-owned land in the country’s former Transvaal province. This includes the village of Luka, located in the heart of the platinum mining region north of Rustenburg in North West.
In 2024, HSRC researchers visited Luka as part of the HSRC’s Democracy@30 Project. They studied the village’s history and conducted 35 in-depth interviews with community leaders and other community members aged 20 to 75. The participants discussed their social and cultural activities, as well as challenges related to environmental degradation, crime, migration, employment, housing, and access to services such as health and education.
Arts and heritage
Some community members lamented the government’s insufficient focus on arts and heritage in Luka, compared to other places in North West. It can be argued that the provincial government – particularly the department responsible for arts and culture – has failed to unite communities along the heritage lines. Partial support for cultural heritage is tantamount to abandoning the country’s unity project, which risks widening divisions between communities and exacerbating the gap between government and citizens. A participant suggested:
“If all of us can come together … to be honest, back in the day, we used to have a day where the king would call all the villages to come and celebrate our heritage as Bafokeng. That needs to be revived. The crime rate among youth has surged because young people are no longer involved in arts and heritage like they used to be before.”
Social integration/cohesion
Some participants believed there had been progress in social integration and cohesion in Luka. However, more effort was needed to educate the public about cultural tolerance, and these efforts should be instilled in learners from a young age. Most interviewees felt that principles such as respect, Ubuntu, non-tribalism, non-racialism, equality, diversity, inclusivity, and mutual respect among people of different cultures should be prioritised, especially among the youth. A female teacher from one of the local schools said:
“The Zulus think they have power over us … In one of our schools, there is still a war between Basotho, Batswana and Maxhosa. The Batswana do not want learners who are Xhosa or Basotho to be admitted to the school … Even when a school succeeds in admitting learners of different cultures, there is division and segregation among the learners according to their different cultures.”
Inclusive economic growth
One participant, a man involved in entrepreneurship, expressed frustration over the limited opportunities for local businesses to subcontract in the platinum belt:
“One of the reasons I am refuting claims that Impala is serious about widening local economic participation is because … the conditions set by the mine are quite strange and manipulative. The value chain is too narrow and intentional about strengthening the existing monopolies. If you are given a sub-contract to supply toilet paper, light bulbs, high mast bulbs, and door and window handles, for example, they strictly need the ones from Bidvest. Bidvest is a white-owned firm. So where is local economic participation there?”
Housing and spatial development
Most participants indicated that only a few people in Luka had received government support for housing in the form of RDP houses, with many residents still living in shacks made of corrugated iron sheets. During a focus group interview, a female participant, who also lives with a disability, expressed her frustrations with the government on the issue of housing:
“We have a blind man in that other street, completely blind … I can take you there if you want, but you will need to [be emotionally] strong, but what you will see there is quite devastating. That man is staying in a shack; he doesn’t have water and electricity. His neighbours will, from time and again, allow him to use their pit toilet, and they give him water and help him with phone charging. He uses a paraffin stove, and you can imagine the process he follows to feel that the stove is on whenever he wants to cook. He once got his fingers burnt because of that. I raised the issue of this man many times, but no one listened. I wish they could listen to us. If they can’t build houses for people living with a disability, what about others?”
Gender equality
Participants unanimously agreed that the treatment of women by the Bafokeng Traditional Council and the municipality had greatly improved. They noted that women were now recognised and entrusted with leadership roles, especially in the mines and the government. One woman said:
“Coming to this, they try to prioritise women, women have been observed taking up significant roles in sectors that have been known to be dominated by men. Today, we are working in large numbers as females. We also have female councillors who reflect a collective understanding of gender issues … so, yes, I can say that there are changes [in] how women are seen in society.”
Safety and security
The residents of Luka no longer felt safe and said the village had become a crime hotspot due to the mining activities in the area. A female participant said:
“I am happy that we are doing this interview two days after I managed to escape a serious criminal ordeal. They wanted to hijack me … there [pointing to a direction] after the railway. I was assisted by Bafokeng Security because they suspected the combi that was following me, I think they have been looking for it because it was the same car used to commit crime elsewhere. We are not safe here.”
Mining, immigration and migration
Platinum mining started in the 1960s, but villagers claim they were not consulted about the development despite living in Luka for over a century. Over the decades, their surrounding land has been transformed into mine dumps, violating environmental laws. Mining in Luka also brought an influx of people from neighbouring villages and other countries in Southern Africa. Participants expressed mixed feelings about this issue. Some disapproved, worrying about the effect of the influx on healthcare and other essential services. Others worried about competing with foreign nationals for the few employment opportunities in Luka. They also attributed the high crime rate in Luka to undocumented foreign nationals who were not easily tracked by law enforcement. However, some residents welcomed the influx, as residential property owners profited from renting backrooms to newcomers, and entrepreneurs saw business opportunities. A female landlord explained:
“The influx of foreigners in our area does not always come with negative stuff, but we are also making a living out of the situation because we are accommodating them in our backrooms, and this is our income. Almost everyone here has got backrooms, and they are renting … I have been doing this business since my husband passed away 28 years ago.”
Access to health
Many participants believed the local clinic in Luka was not in a good condition and faced capacity constraints, often resulting in people not receiving timely medical care.
“Here in Luka, we have one local clinic, and you can tell that the clinic is overwhelmed and understaffed. Put that aside, one thing I don’t like about this clinic is that it closes at around 5pm, and I ask myself whether this is what they mean when they talk about access.” – a female participant
“As a nurse, I can tell you that I don’t take pleasure in seeing people returning home because we have no medication in the clinic. Some elders will come here and stand in long queues only to be told that we are closing or there is no medication.” – a female nurse
Access to education
Luka has five schools: Thethe and Molotlegi Secondary Schools, and Ramotse, Mogono and Luka Primary Schools. However, focus group interviews with five young people aged between 21 and 27 revealed that access to higher education remains a challenge. This has resulted in a lack of employment opportunities for those who do not progress to tertiary education. The distance from Luka and Rustenburg to Potchefstroom and Mafikeng – where the North-West University (NWU) has campuses – was a hindrance. A satellite campus in Luka or Rustenburg could bridge this gap and improve access to further education for local youth. The widespread unemployment rate among the youth is also attributed to the lack of skills development training programmes in the Luka area.
Concluding remarks
The situation in Luka mirrors the struggles in many communities in rural South Africa. Endowed with natural minerals, one might expect the mining industry to directly benefit Luka. According to the participants, this was indeed envisaged by the country’s mining legislation and social labour plans or agreements entered with Luka. It is, therefore, ironic that Luka remains characterised by poverty, unemployment and lack of access to water, quality healthcare and housing, despite being situated in a platinum mining belt that provides significant economic stimulus for the country.
Researcher contact:
Prof. Modimowabarwa Kanyane is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Management, Commerce and Law at the University of Venda and a former HSRC research director.
