A Tale of Two Realities
* first published: http://www.groundup.news/article/ekapa-and-zama-zamas-fight-over-mining-rights/ “I was an armed robber” he tells me without a hint of bravado or exaggeration. “But after I was released from prison I wanted to work and provide for my family. But there were no jobs for a convict and so I ended up mining as a Zama-Zama.” Today, after years of panning the dry and dusty floors of the diamond rich floors outside Kimberly, this zama-zama, together with over a thousand other desperate individuals, have managed to avoid a life of crime, maintained their dignity, and have peacefully eked out a living from the wealthy abundance of the South African land. Their humble hope is to keep their family’s fed and clothed, even if this means working for weeks and months without any income, living in harsh conditions with only a shack as protection, with no access to water or to ablution facilities, while having to defend their meagre possessions ...