Kagiso Morake

Mining compounds remain some of the harshest reminders of South Africa’s labour history. They were built to enforce control, separate workers from their families, and manage labour as if it were machinery. The effects of the compound system went beyond the mine boundaries. Compounds shaped social divisions, weakened communities, and left scars that continue to affect mining towns to this day. Many of these sites now stand abandoned. Their buildings are collapsing, their grounds are unsafe, and in places such as Vaal Reefs, they attract illegal mining and crime. What were once centres of economic power have become zones of neglect.

This research argues that leaving compounds to decay prolongs the violence they represent. It is not enough to view them as relics of a closed industry. They are lived spaces, still occupied by families, migrants, and workers who carry the weight of their history daily. The Vaal Reefs compound captures this urgency. Its rows of single units and courtyards once served as instruments of confinement. Today, they could serve as the framework for a new model of housing that restores dignity and belonging for mine workers and the Vaal Reefs community. 

The study draws on the social and architectural history of compounds, on-site investigation, and engagement with the Vaal Reefs community and surrounding areas. It explores how adaptive reuse can shift a space of control into one of care. The proposal is for a housing village that preserves memory while offering safety, permanence, and a sense of community life. Rehabilitation is presented here as both a moral obligation and a design project. To transform compounds is to repair landscapes of harm, to recognise the resilience of those who lived in them, and to build environments where families can thrive rather than endure.