Resource information
Dr Gavin Capps joined SWOP at the University of the Witwatersrand as a Senior Researcher in January 2013. He is leader of the Mining and Rural Transformation in Southern Africa (MARTISA) project, a six-year research programme funded by the Ford Foundation. His current research investigates and seeks to connect three thematic areas: the political economy of the platinum mining industry; the historic formation of ‘tribal’ land and political relations in South Africa’s racial capitalist development; and the contemporary dynamics of rural class differentiation and struggle in the mineral-rich areas of the North West and Limpopo Provinces. The presentation highlights the relationship between mining, the erosion of land rights and the capture of benefits by the few.