Over the past year, Jacques Pauw has documented the extraordinary stories of the many people inextricably linked by Namaqualand’s wealth.
PART 1
A diamond is not forever: Blood, fear and brutal warfare in Namaqualand
Jacques Pauw writes about the bloody battle between police and the thousands who came from all over Africa to the Northern Cape’s once-prosperous diamond fields, now a derelict wasteland of gaping craters, towering mine dumps, rotten machinery and forsaken recovery plants to dig for treasure in the ground.
PART 2
The Diggers: Extortion, torture, murder and overnight riches in Namaqualand’s illicit diamond mines
In the frontier towns of the Northern Cape’s barren, almost otherworldly, mining landscape, life is cheap. Rumours abound about dead zama zamas slashed open in search of loot in their bellies, and stories swirl of smuggling, robberies, and loose tongues causing death. In the second part of his series documenting Namaqualand’s diamond wealth, Jacques Pauw looks at how the area was pillaged, amounting to organised crime in overdrive.
PART 3
The Tycoons: Diamond flogger Louis Liebenberg and the businessman with presidents as friends
Namaqualand’s riches have attracted greedy con men, international business barons, common criminals, and the down-and-out. In the third and final story of his investigation into the Northern Cape’s diamond industry, Jacques Pauw meets the evasive mining boss who rubs shoulders with presidents, and alleged Ponzi scheme mastermind Louis Liebenberg.
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This investigation was done in association with Truth First, a non-profit organisation that promotes investigative journalism.
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