South Africa’s alluvial diamonds have the potential to create sustainable jobs, drive inclusive growth and aid our economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. But that will only happen if we change the archaic, rigid diamond mining legislation strangling the junior diamond mining industry in this country.
In 2004, there were an estimated 2,000 small diamond companies employing about 25,000 people in South Africa. Today, there are fewer than 200 alluvial diamond operations employing just 5,000 people. We accept the need to work safely and responsibly, but the legislation must be enabling rather than restricting.
The junior diamond mining sector produces job-creators, rather than job-seekers. We wouldn’t only create businesses and wealth for ourselves, but also help to create jobs for others – thus ending generational poverty in some of South Africa’s most impoverished areas.