No image available
/ 3 November 2006
As ballots are counted from Sunday’s historic vote in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), rhetoric from candidates and false poll results circulating via e-mail and SMS have prompted warnings from electoral officials. Authorities fear a repeat of first-round election violence related to news of results.
A ragged gold miner dives into a chocolate-coloured pool of sludge, resurfacing minutes later with a handful of stones containing slivers of gold ore. He and others like him earn about R925 a month selling the gold dust that they get by smashing the rocks to middlemen in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The illegal exploitation of the DRC’s gold resources is of pressing concern on the political front, however.