This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Sunday Times reports that up until the weekend before last, Kleinzee in the Namaqualand was just a quiet dorp northwest of nowhere. Then, in just a few hours, the town’s population almost doubled.
Almost 1,000 illegal diamond miners, arrested by police in the surrounding mining area, were deposited in an interim holding area, creating administrative mayhem. Not only were there not enough resources to look after the detainees, but by the time they’d been transported to Springbok to be processed, they had to be released, because home affairs couldn’t cope with the workload. Of the 867 arrested, only 67 were processed and transferred to Krugersdorp for deportation. Most went back to the Kleinzee area, and have returned to work in their illegal mines. Mining stakeholders say the bizarre scenes from last week illustrate the scale of the illegal mining problem in one of the most remote corners of the country. The police clampdown, the latest in a series of Diamond Coast raids, has done little to ease tensions in what has become another front in the ongoing battle between the haves and the have-nots — those with mining rights and those without. Some say the massive police operation, which lasted two days and involved three helicopters, has in some ways made the volatile situation worse. Police also bulldozed a notorious Kleinzee hostel where hundreds of illegal miners had been living. The latest police swoop was linked to the recent sale of De Beers’ mine to a new company, Kleinzee Holdings, which asked for police help in securing its area.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bobby Jordan at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page