A small town in the Karoo
“We are the burnt out stompies of South Africa. When we are healthy and strong, we are in great demand. But we all get old and ill before...
“I don’t cough, I cry”
Nkalegeng Kaizer Mamailana lives in the village of Mmafefe – beneath the old Darlton Asbestos mine. He was a young man when he worked at...
Sharing a beer with a hot potato
He sat there with a cigarette hanging from one of the gaps in his teeth. He had a glass in his hand and his little son on his knee. It...
Death in the air
The Olifants River flows gently through the green valleys of the Strydpoort mountains. Thousands of people live in villages on the river...
The day 6500 workers lost their jobs
A BLACK CHRISTMAS At about 12 o’clock on the morning of the 6th November, a trade union got a phone call. The phone call did not last...
The muscle of unity
For two days in November, most factories and firms in the big cities of the Transvaal were empty and silent. The workers were showing...