The search for diamonds along the West Coast is an unequal one. Photos: David Harrison
The search for diamonds along the West Coast is an unequal one. Up against big companies, private security firms and the police, illegal miners who want legal permits have to fight for their existence.
“I was caught putting food on the table,” says Andrew Arnolds, an illegal miner in Port Nolloth, in the Northern Cape who has been arrested more than six times since he started the activity in 2012.
Arnolds worked for a mine owned by the De Beers Group. He was one of many workers who lost their jobs when the company suspended production at its Namaqualand Mines in 2009, after the global financial crisis of 2008.
De Beers holds one mining right in the Northern Cape, the Buffels Maine Mining Right (BMMR) in Kleinzee, according to its communication officer Jackie Mapiloko.
PODCAST | War for diamonds – An unequal battle
“The company is in the process of seeking a purchaser for the BMMR, a process that will also involve local communities. We believe that the re-establishment of mining activities in the Kleinzee area will go a long way to create the much-needed jobs and reduce illegal mining in Namaqualand,” she said.
When the De Beers mine closed in 2009 Arnolds received an early retirement package, but the money had dried up by 2012. He went back to mining, this time joining the informal diggers who in many cases operate illegally at abandoned mines.
A man called Kriek leads a group of illegal miners, including Arnolds, in Port Nolloth. They collect gravel from abandoned mines on private and state-owned land but do the searching for diamonds in a backyard in the town.
Unlike other illegal miners, many of whom belong to diamond syndicates, Kriek and his group want mining permits.
“This thing we do is illegal. We are still fighting for permits. Government does not want to put us in their plans,” says Kriek. “The government is doing nothing, they came [during] elections, they came and promised us [permits]. Today? Nothing.”
The Mail & Guardian contacted mayor Cornwall Knoph and municipal manager Sydney Adams to discuss the obstacles and solutions regarding illegal mining but neither responded and Knoph failed to show up for a meeting.
Kriek says the process of allowing informal miners to dig need not be complicated but is “made tough by the government”.
The reason illegal miners dig is so they have money to buy food, he says. “It is all about eating, we must eat.”
The group’s plea for permits has received scant attention from state-owned company Alexkor, which has been implicated in the Zondo report on state capture.
In 2020, Kriek and his group apparently had an informal agreement with Alexkor’s then chief executive Lemogang Pitsoe to mine on state-owned land at Muisvlak mine. They were allowed to dig at Muisvlak, about 10km north of Port Nolloth, for two hours a day for four months.
But during the third month of the agreement, the miners were told to leave. An altercation ensued between the miners, the police and private security guards. Kriek and other miners say they were injured during this altercation.
Pitsoe allegedly told the miners they had to suspend mining activities at Muisvlak for a month and a half, after which he would have mining permits for them. The miners left Muisvlak but never heard from Pitsoe again, despite trying to call him, Kriek says.
Contacted by the Mail & Guardian, Pitsoe neither denied nor confirmed the informal agreement with the miners, but said he would discuss the matter if Alexkor’s new interim chief executive, Trevor Fowler, permitted it. He did not.
Fowler said: “The management of Alexkor is not aware of any such agreement nor is it aware of any agreement that Mr Pitsoe may have signed in his personal capacity or otherwise.”
After being chased from Alexkor, Kriek and his group started to mine on De Beers land, as well as at abandoned open mines. But this can be dangerous.
It is a “hit and run” situation, says Arnolds, referring to the many times the miners are shot at by police and private security guards. His stories are similar to those many other miners such as Piet Makgetla tell.
“You can rape, rob, hijack but when you mine illegally that is a crime in the Richtersveld,” says Makgetla, who works at the abandoned Nuttaboy mine.
Richie Jantjies, Patrick Molai, Sarah Cloete and Carmen Cloete also accused the police and private security guards of sometimes injuring the diggers.
Jantjies, who left school in grade 10 to start mining, says the two risks he faces every day are the police and the tunnels.
A dispute at Port Nolloth between community members and the mayor over the mining of diamonds.
The illegal miners spoke often about a security company, Vetus Schola, saying people had been shot dead by its guards and that their families could not get closure because these fatal shootings were not investigated.
Barend Kellerman, Vetus Schola’s legal representative, told the M&G that harmful interactions between the security guards and illegal miners have taken place, but “these matters are sub judice and we are unfortunately not at liberty to comment”.
He said that after any death, the company conducts an internal investigation. The incident is also investigated by the police and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority.
Asked what problems the illegal miners posed, Kellerman said: “It is a massive challenge. They are well-armed and well organised, and they have much at stake. The remoteness and vastness of the area pose unique challenges.”
Two illegal miners were shot dead by security personnel on 5 and 6 June. “Police investigations into both incidents are continuing. No arrests [have] been made,” Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock said in a statement.
Northern Cape spokesperson Colonel Mashay Gamieldien says police in the province have prioritised illegal mining, “specifically in the Namaqua area where illegal mining is predominant in the Port Nolloth and Kleinzee areas”.
Illegal miners in Port Nolloth collect gravel from abandoned mines on private and state-owned land but do the searching for diamonds in a backyard in the town
“The police, in conjunction with external stakeholders and departments, are currently in the process of addressing this concern as a matter of urgency.”
According to Gamieldien, from 2018 to 2021, the police made 868 arrests for illegal mining and mining-related offences in Port Nolloth and the Kleinzee area. Mining equipment such as jackhammers, generators and drills was also confiscated.
Aside from the arrests and losing their equipment to the police, miners describe scenes of police brutality at the abandoned mines.
According to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s communication officer, Lizzy Suping, two cases involving alleged police brutality are being investigated.
In the backyard in Port Nolloth, a young man rhythmically moves his sieve from right to left in water.
He says: “I’m 26 years old and I’m tired.”
As he overturns the sieve that holds the smaller rocks sorted from the gravel, there is silence. Dozens of eyes are scanning the overturned rocks. As if in one voice, the group of miners shout “Diamond! Diamond!”
There, in the middle of the rinsed rocks lies a diamond. Still uncut, the stone does not glisten, yet it means a glimmer of hope for those who found it.
In this four-part series, mining in the Northern Cape is explored largely through the lens of informal miners whose efforts to obtain legal mining permits have been futile. They are not among the informal miners who work for syndicates who are not trying to get mining permits. The series hopes to bring forward the voices of the people of Namaqualand, a place often forgotten by many.
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