Double Precarisation of Labour and Social Reproduction: Zambian Mineworkers’ Experience of Electricity Pricing

Abstract

This article explores how increases in electricity tariffs for mining companies and domestic consumers affect the lives of Zambian mineworkers. It shows that, on the one hand, mining companies retrench workers, citing falling rates of profit, in a context in which unions are weak and workers have limited recourse, meaning loss of employment and uncertainty. On the other hand, given their low wages, the withdrawal of company social benefits, wage inflation and high indebtedness, increasing tariffs undermine mineworkers’ ability to meet their cost of living. In addition, it leads to conflicts about the efficient use of electricity at household level, increasing use of dirty fuels and vulnerability to criminality. This article argues that, for mineworkers, electricity tariff increases lead to a double precarisation – of labour and reproduction. The article draws on ethnographic field research conducted between 2015 and 2023 in two mining communities and two underground mine sites on the Zambian Copperbelt.