They also help explain the long-shot appeal of KwaHlathi and its purported diamonds.Ī satellite village of sorts sprouted here. Those statistics translate into all manner of odd jobs - and risky ones, like venturing into abandoned mines, that have proved deadly. Among young people, the situation is even more dire: About three of every four South African youths are without a job. Unemployment in South Africa is at 32.6 percent, the highest level recorded since the government began producing quarterly labor force reports in 2008. The government said tests had shown that the discoveries were quartz rather than diamonds. “As the man of the house, it makes me feel less than,” he said of the difficulty of providing for his three children. Staples like beef, milk and butter were luxuries he could no longer afford. With his job search hitting dead ends, he has been subsisting on social grants totaling less than 1,100 rand ($77) a month, a quarter of what he had earned at the factory. He had been without a job since October when the textile factory where he worked as a supervisor burned down. It sounded too good to be true, but he had to check it out. Molefe came here after reading on social media that diamonds had been discovered in the field, less than an hour from his rural home village. The chief said he was none too happy about what the diggers were doing to the land, but he understood their plight and did not intervene. Now, it looks like a bare, cratered moon - a treacherous terrain of holes, many of them the size of graves. The diamond rush has completely transformed KwaHlathi, where the chief estimates that about 4,000 families reside.Ĭattle once grazed on the digging field, which sits on traditional land owned by the chief and was until recently covered with Sweet thorn trees and grass. The rumor that diamonds had been discovered in the soil of a grassy, tree-filled slope lured thousands of jobless South Africans to the site.
If they are real diamonds, it means we are winning.” Molefe, 41, who conceded that he had no clue whether they were actually diamonds. Two days of strenuous digging had yielded four stones for Mr.
No one who came seemed the least deterred by the widespread skepticism that the stones were really diamonds. The rumor that a herdsman had found clear stones resembling diamonds in the soil of a grassy, tree-filled slope last month lured thousands of South Africans to KwaHlathi, a sleepy village in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal where cattle roam freely.Ĭoming by taxi and by car, many from hours away, they dreamed of a turn of luck in a nation whose persistent struggles with joblessness have reached new heights amid the pandemic. He took a few more vigorous whacks into the edges of the shallow crater he had dug at the bottom of a hillside, before scooping up a handful of loose dirt and shaking it in search of the sparkle of a gem. KWAHLATHI, South Africa - Sbusiso Molefe stretched the pickax high above his head and hacked into the clumpy black dirt around his feet. Using picks and shovels to search for precious stones in KwaHlathi, South Africa. The government’s claim that the discovery was actually quartz was met with suspicion. When rumors of from diamond find hit social media, thousands of jobless South Africans rushed to a sleepy village. British Airways has cancelled all flights until Nov 23.Diamond Rush in South Africa, Born of Desperation and Distrust
Easyjet, Monarch, Thomson and Thomas Cook have extended the cancellation of their flights to Sharm el-Sheikh until Nov 25. Nasser Hanna, 45, manager of one of the companies handling the Russian flights, said: “Where is Sharm airport supposed to keep all that luggage? It is an airport, not a baggage store.” (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)ĮasyJet said the first batch of luggage from Egypt was expected to reach passengers by courier by the end of yesterday. With the airport’s storage facility full, tourists are being told to leave their luggage in their hotels. The first two have arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh and the resort of Hurghada.īut British passengers are relying on Egypt Air to return their bags to the UK. The Russian defence ministry has arranged for luggage to be sent home in wide-bodied Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 military transport jets owned by the Egyptian government. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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