People/labour leader, miner

Elijah Barayi

Elijah Barayi (1930–1994), labour leader, miner, from South Africa. Linked to gold.

The lucky break

After the 1979 Wiehahn report he helped build the union movement on the mines, and in 1981 became a shaft steward at Blyvooruitzicht for the National Union of Mineworkers.1

The downfall

Detained for two weeks and restricted to the Carltonville magistrate district when the 1986 state of emergency began.1

Legacy

In May 1985 he led 9000 miners at Blyvooruitzicht on strike over the dismissal of two shaft stewards. He became the first president of COSATU. He started in 1960 as a clerk at State Mines, Brakpan.1

Story cards

Sources

  1. Elijah Barayi South African History Online

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Underground mining equipment by Kaupo Kikkas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0).