Five people are missing and presumed dead amid the collapse of an abandoned diamond mine at Kleinsee on the Northern Cape’s west coast yesterday morning.
The SABC reports that they were trapped for hours.
Multitudes of fortune seeking Zama-Zamas have been flocking to the area over the last few years following the abandonment of the mines by diamond mining giant, De Beers.
The current incident is not the first. Disused mines in the area have claimed several lives in the past few years, whilst skirmishes between the Zama-Zamas and mine securities have also resulted in scores being injured.
The Zama-Zamas are quite often charged with trespassing and have been dubbed illegal-miners. On the other hand they have been claiming rights to mine and calling on government to provide them with equipment and fasttrack their legitimacy.
Mayor of Nama-Khoi Municipality Riaan Cloete has made it to the area. It remains unknown whether rescue or efforts to retrieve the bodies are being undertaken at this stage.
By Thabo Mothibi – thabo@ncnn.live
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Thabo Mothibi is a former broadcast journalist (TV and Radio) – with specialist reporting experience; SABC Political/Parliamentary and TRC Teams over a period of five years (1995 to 2000).
One key foreign assignment - is the 11-nation African Connection Rally – overland journey from Africa’s northern-most pole in the coastal Tunisian city of Bizerte to the southern-most pole in South Africa’s Cape Agulhas. From the journalistic years, Thabo then delved into Government media liaison and serving two former Ministers and three MECs. He became the Northern Cape Provincial Government’s first department based Communications Director at Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development - 2008-2010 – where he also served as Head of Ministry from 2003 – 2008.
As a former anti-apartheid activist, his political background and professional training aided him in spearheading the Northern Cape ANC’s 2004 National Elections media and publicity campaign and that of the 2006 Local Government Elections.
Whilst based in Waterkloof in Pretoria -2010 to end 2011, he consulted for Manstrat Agricultural Intelligence, then returned to the Northern Cape in 2012 to date, to consult independently and pursue other entrepreneurial interests in media and communications through KwaVuko Communications and Marketing.
Thabo Mothibi obtained his NQF7 through Wits University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) in Johannesburg, a Unilever Mandela Rhodes Academy for Marketing and Communications Academy (UMRA). The goal of the NQF7 programme was to educate and train public and private sector professional communicators and marketers in government communications..
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