Diamond Community Worse Off Post-1994

Mining Weekly reported near-mine communities in South Africa are worse off now than they were under the Bophuthatswana regime.

As quoted in the market news,

Motlhabane, who was addressing the fourth of six AngloGold Ashanti/Motjoli Resources’ Mining for Change seminars chaired by AngloGold Ashanti’s government relations manager Zandie Mlambo, recalls that the then Bophuthatswana president,Lucas Mangope, and members of his family, would regularly help themselves to diamonds from the area, without any benefit for the local community.

Synergy director Paul Kapelus, the meeting’s keynote speaker, describes the politics of land ownership in South Africa as “a ticking time-bomb” that is linked to the development of near-mine communities.

Click here to read the full Mining Weekly report.