An informal miner in Kimberley, South Africa. Informal mining has become more
common practice across the country. Miners search for diamonds that have been left
behind. Photo: Ryan Lenora Brown/Christian Science Monitor
By Christian Science Monitor, adapted by Newsela staff
More than 150 years ago, a man called Swartbooi ("Black boy") found a huge diamond in South
Africa. The diamond was worth a lot of money. People soon came to the area to search for more
diamonds. Many people started mining businesses and became wealthy by selling diamonds and
gold.
Mining pushed millions of residents from their land. Black migrants worked in the mines and
helped South Africa's economy grow. Mining helped to create apartheid, a system of
segregation based on race.
Mining in South Africa has declined dramatically since then. In the 1980s, mining accounted for
20 percent of products made in South Africa. Today, it is just 8 percent. The gold industry today
employs about 100,000 people; that's one-fifth the number working at its height. The country's
economy faces other problems, too. Unemployment is high, reaching 30 percent, and two major
rating agencies have downgraded the country's economy to so-called junk status. This means
that the government does not have enough money to pay back its debts.
Kimberley was once a busy mining town, but it has declined as well. Now tourists visit the Big
Hole, an abandoned mining site. The place is almost five football fields long and 700 feet
about 50 stories - deep. In Kimberley and other abandoned towns, thousands of people search
old mines for diamonds and gold.
A Big Diamond Could Change Their Lives
About 10,000 to 30,000 illegal miners work in South Africa. Those workers together earn about $500 million annually. The country's legal mining industry produces about $45 billion per year.
But individual miners don't earn much. Most miners never find a diamond worth more than a few hundred dollars. Despite their low incomes, though, many prefer working at the mines because they work for themselves. They also know that finding a big diamond could change their lives.
The president of South Africa is Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress (ANC). He has promised to bring jobs and development to places like Kimberley. Ramaphosa once worked in the mining business and has promised to revive the industry.
But some people in places like Kimberley don't believe Ramaphosa can bring back mining. A party called the Economic Freedom Fighters has different ideas. The party was created by a former ANC activist named Julius Malema in 2013. The EFF wants to make South Africa more just and equitable. It wants people with lower incomes to get more of the country's wealth. It says it will distribute earnings among the Black communities that have made the mines successful but seen little of their enormous profits. It also urges people to take over unoccupied land.
The Stories Of Black Miners Are Not Told
On July 16, 1871, Esau Damoense found another valuable rock. That diamond started one of the most important diamond mines in the world. The land was owned by a family called the De Beers.
As thousands of workers frantically searched for diamonds, the former hill became a big hole. Meanwhile, a city grew around the mine. Originally called New Rush, the place changed its name in 1873 to Kimberley. Like many mining settlements, it was a racially diverse place. In its early days, the city had Black civil servants and Black prospectors. Black men with high enough incomes were allowed to vote in local elections.
Many white residents did not like that situation. Working-class white workers wanted rules to keep them more powerful than Black miners. By the 1960s, Kimberley's society was strictly divided into Black and white people. The role of Black South Africans in mining history was not often mentioned.
Black men's work led to the mines that made people rich and improved life in South Africa. But many Black people in that country, life is still difficult. A man named Shimi searches the same land, hoping to find diamonds. He doesn't expect to get rich. He just hopes to find a diamond worth enough money to pay his rent or buy food.
Which sentence from the article states a MAIN idea of the article?
Mining in South Africa has declined a lot since then
it might not be able to pay back all the money it owes.
It was worth a lot of money
it had Black civil servants and Black prospectors.
