Gold or Just Can't See For Dust!

Hi – been reading one of my birthday presents; Maize Turns to Gold, a fascinating insight to the beginnings of South Africa’s most optimistic mining venture, the Free State goldfields. Proven by deep-hole drilling and later, through extensive geophysical exploration, the future of the Free State goldfields was expected to rival the production rate of the already famous Witwatersrand.

That was back in 1947 – for South Africa, the good times were about to roll, and for sixty years they did. Mining towns such as Odendaalsrus and Welkom sprang from the dust, seemingly overnight, but now the wheels are in reverse; mines are being closed, capped and left to marauding bands of out of work locals to strip and thieve whatever they can. Looks like the vicars are spot-on – ‘Dust to Dust’ about fits the bill. Below I have included a quote from General Smuts in a Cape Town Address, March 23^rd, 1947.

GOD’S  BOUNTY

‘I sometimes think that God had something left over and emptied His pockets over this southern continent. He scattered over South Africa not only gold and diamonds and minerals, but beauty and something to appeal to the human spirit.’

If only...

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And on a lighter note, another edit of my own adventures in Africa:

... With pee-stops and tea-stops it took us and our little Morris two more hours to reach Mashaba. First impressions were not good; Rhodesia’s Wild West.

Mother stared through the window in abject horror, for the first time that day she was totally speechless.

‘I’ll find us something cold to drink,’ said dad and parked in front of Mashaba’s hillbilly version of the Co-op. Had a big sign above the door: Gruber & Sager. More cars parked alongside ours and the people stared; we were something new to look at – outsiders. Reckon they were sizing us up as stand-ins for their local ‘hoedown pig-on-a-spit fest’. A skeletal dog sauntered over and peed up our front wheel.

‘You’re new here?’

Mother wound her window down; ‘Yes,’ she said, then, like some recumbent tortoise, drew in her head. The woman climbed out from her pick-up truck and the springs rejoiced. Twenty stone of small-town woman took up the space between the cars.

‘You’ll like it here.’

‘We hope so.’

‘One big happy family. Lived here myself for five years now.’

‘That’s nice,’ mother whimpered and reached for her cigarettes. I watched from my unreachable back seat. As long as the doors held I was safe. The woman’s head was wrapped inside a scarf, haggis-like. Those curler things stuck out the front – end-on like spiky plastic pipes.

Mother opened the box and offered her cigarettes.

‘Thank you,’ the woman nodded. Four fat fingers scrabbled for a grip on a filter. ‘Got no matches.’

Mother lit it for her. Dad came back with bottles of Coca-Cola and mother breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Hello,’ the woman said to my dad. She was bigger than him, broader across the shoulders. Her dress had red flowers on it – a bit like splatters of blood. When she smiled her teeth looked really big. I can remember thinking that maybe she’d eaten her kids. She sort of hovered over my dad like a grizzly bear.

My dad nodded and smiled politely. ‘Is that the road to Gath’s Mine? I’m looking for the General Office.’

‘About four miles,’ the woman nodded, ‘the offices are on the right. Can’t miss them.’ Her eyeballs bulged with obsessive need-to-know-right-now syndrome. ‘Are you looking for a job?’

‘Got one,’ dad said. ‘I start next Monday.’

She seemed disappointed, ‘I could have told you who to see. What do you do?’

‘Carpenter.’

‘That’s nice.’

Dad handed out the cokes and climbed inside. Mother pleaded with her eyes for him to start the engine.

‘We’ll be seeing you then,’ said mother.

‘Friday night at the mine club,’ the woman held on to the door. ‘The company does a free draw for ten pounds, but you have to be there to win it.’

‘We’ll try to remember.’

Dad let out the clutch and the woman let go of our car...

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