KwaZulu-Natal's Premier, Sihle Zikalala raised fears, calling it a potential ‘ super-spreader event’. He thinks people do in fact understand the danger they are facing. However, in a situation of poverty, marginalisation of those communities and a high level of unemployment, "I think the choice between getting some riches or getting Covid-19 is clear: people will go for the diamonds". Pictures posted by locals on social media sites Facebook and Twitter show almost none of the diggers wearing protective masks.ĭuring these times of Covid-19, to see so many people gathering without masks is concerning, Kabemba from SAR Watch says. Other social media users tried to use images to verify the stones and shared their opinions on social media, spreading ill-informed judgements, misinformation and false hope.Įxperts worry deeply about the spread of Covid-19 in the area. The story quickly garnered more than 8,000 views, however. The government only sent experts to the scene a day after the article came out. One news outlet claimed - though only in a headline - that geologists had verified the authenticity of the gems. While the jury is still out on whether the gems are in fact real diamonds, misinformation spread quickly claiming experts had already confirmed their authenticity. The government will need to collect the stones back under a fair price, he adds. "Without that, any trade is illegal," he warns. They will need a Kimberley process certificate, Claude Kabemba says. If the gems turn out to be real diamonds, locals who found them can't just trade them, experts explain. People will be classified as illegal miners," he commented. "You cannot have a rough diamond in your possession unless you have a mining or prospecting license. With the hashtag #diamondrush, people debated in thousands of posts why illegal mining should still be legitimate and why they think people should be able to keep them legitimately.ĭavid van Wyk, a senior researcher at Bench Marks Foundation, an organisation that helps corporations with their social, economic and environmental performance, points out that it's illegal to find a rough diamond and they will need to be handed in at the nearest police station. Rumours of the diamond frenzy spread like wildfire throughout social media. Many continued digging deep into the night as videos show. MzansiTimes later claimed numbers had swelled to around 3,000. Reporters counted around 1,000 adventure-seekers, according to Reuters. If these are diamonds, he expects a struggle for control of these minerals between people and government. His advice to the government is to have a healthy dialogue with the people digging and to develop a structure that they understand. The risk in sending security forces to protect the area from illegal mining is that they may become part of the trade, says Kabemba. People are worried that if the state comes in they might not benefit as they should, he said. Southern Africa Resource Watch executive director Claude Kabemba said that people are concerned about possible government corruption. The hectic digging may have been partly driven by the fear among local diggers that the government might fail to compensate them for their findings. With "a lot of dolerites all over the place there," there is a possibility that the gems may turn out to be quartz crystals, though he doesn't want to rule out the claims of diamonds having been found. which isn't a bulletproof tell-tale sign but one that reduces the oddsĭr Gideon Groenewald, a geologist from South Africa, said in an interview that kimberlite looks similar to dolerite and that in the area of KwaZulu-Natal where people started digging, there are "severe intrusions of dolerites". So far, the current events in the town near Ladysmith have not reached such dramatic scales, partly because experts are still busy authenticating them.Į&T's analysis shows that the site in South Africa is a long way away from the clusters of other established diamond mining sites. The situation culminated in 10,000 illegal artisanal miners working tiny plots, triggering a water, sanitation and housing crisis.
A government takeover accelerated the momentum in subsequent months. Similar scenes last witnessed during the great diamond rush in Marange, Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands, in September 2006, when a mineral rush broke out that had devastating consequences. Images from last week’s scene of labouring gem diggers in the small South African town of KwaHlathi featured exhausted men and women, some with children strapped to their backs. There is hardly space to stand, let alone dig another hole.
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