The Mineral Revolution in South Africa is one of 8 topics in the Grade 8 Social Sciences CAPS syllabus, covered across 3 lessons on Study Vault. Below are real practice questions from this topic with full worked answers.
Sample practice questions
Easy
1. What was a close compound?
Fenced, guarded living quarters where black mineworkers were housed during their contracts
A type of diamond-cutting workshop
A school built for miners' children
A government office that issued mining licences
Answer: Fenced, guarded living quarters where black mineworkers were housed during their contracts — Close compounds were fenced, guarded living quarters where black mineworkers were housed for the length of their contracts, cutting them off from the surrounding town.
Easy
2. What is migrant labour?
A system where workers leave home for months to work far away, then return home
A system where workers are permanently relocated to a mining town
A type of mining machine
A government department that managed diamond sales
Answer: A system where workers leave home for months to work far away, then return home — Migrant labour is a system where workers leave their homes for months at a time to work far away, then return home, rather than settling permanently near their workplace.
Medium
3. Name ONE African kingdom defeated by British colonial forces in 1879, as described in this lesson.
Answer: the Pedi Kingdom or the Zulu Kingdom — The Pedi Kingdom was defeated by British colonial forces in 1879, and the Zulu Kingdom was also defeated by the British in 1879 in the Anglo-Zulu War.
