South Africa police fail to contain ‘diamond rush’
Police in a South African village in Kwazulu-Natal are struggling to stop people searching for what they believe are diamonds as more people arrive at the scene.
The rush comes after a man herding cattle discovered what he thought were diamonds more than week ago.
His discovery has prompted people from other provinces to make the trek to join in the search.
When I arrived hundreds of fortune seekers, many of them unemployed women, were huddled around small fires after having spent the night digging for what they hope are diamonds.
Some women could be heard singing from a distance while pickaxes dug the ground and shovels were used to part the soil.
The government is sending a team of geology and mining experts to verify if diamonds have been found in this area.
The provincial government has described this activity as illegal mining.
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