Page 18 - 100 years of Anglo American

t’s just after 10pm on a wintry Friday
night and, with about six patrons inside
Cappello – a highly recommended night
spot – it doesn’t seem like it will
be a vibrant night.
I Waitresses patiently
watch the entrance while the DJ
sets up. Why does he bother?
Does he expect so few people to
move to his tunes?
“Wait just a little bit, you will
see,” says a waitress when asked if
all Friday nights were this quiet.
Less than 30 minutes later, I
changed my Facebook status to Stefaans
something much more positive – Bosiang
the place was packed. One would
swear patrons were being bused in, but a peep
outside revealed the parking lot was filling up.
As the DJ pumped up the volume, patrons
swarmed the place, transforming it from a
restaurant into a night club, and Kuruman in
the Northern Cape came alive.
“The party never really starts until the mine
boys from Kathu have come into town. It is like
that. The economy of Kuruman is largely New houses and developments have transformed Kathu
dependent on these people from the mines,”
Kuruman and 200km from Upington along the From nowhere to a
says one patron.
Kathu, an iron-ore mining town, is 40km from
pin-straight N14, which stretches as far
as the eye can see, slicing though
semiarid bushveld and sandy plains
dotted with camel thorn and
acacia trees. BIG
The only objects of interest
along the road from Upington
are the large and very social
weaver nests, which resemble
upturned haystacks hanging from
telephone poles.
As you enter iron-ore mining Sana van Wyk BOOM
country, the sandy terrain turns
red, and huge mounds of red soil dug out of
opencast mines come into view. The N14 also
gets busier, with enormous mining trucks and
bakkies swathed in the same red dust as the What happens to a town when a
mining infrastructure and roads around them.
Then Kathu, which means “town under trees”, number of its residents receive
appears. Signs that it is one of the fastest-
growing towns in the country are evident
everywhere you look. From real estate billboards payouts of R500 000? Poloko Tau
advertising new stands in new estate
developments, to brand new shopping centres, goes to Kathu to find out
this small town almost has it all. RE/Max real
estate is one of the biggest in the area and is
selling plots on new golf estates and free- accounts. The lives of scores of mine workers Although many mine workers from all over
standing houses from R500 000 to just more changed when they found themselves pocketing the country went home to enjoy their riches
than R2 million. Residents will tell you the R500 000 in employee share ownership scheme with their families, there are sad stories about
town’s rapid expansion is thanks to the payouts – even those who had only worked at those who resigned from Kumba to invest in
intensification of iron-ore mining, with the Kumba Iron Ore for a few years shared the businesses that failed, and of others who wasted
closest operation now Anglo American-owned benefits. the money and have little to show for it today.
Kumba Iron Ore, which operates the Sishen One mining magazine wrote at the time: “In Moshe Modise, which is not his real name,
mine just outside Kathu. Kathu, there is almost one car for every thorn was 29 when he joined his older brother in
The 2 652km 2 Gamagara Local Municipality, in tree these days,” adding that “money has been Sishen as a mine worker. After a few years on
which Kathu is situated, has a population of flowing like water” since the payouts. the job, he received his payout and says he had
41 617 people, according to the 2011 census. There were so many cars that the town had never seen so much money in his bank account.
Rewind to about two weeks before Christmas to invest in robots. Car dealerships made a Modise, who is from Ganyesa in North West,
in 2011, and Kumba Iron Ore workers get to go killing and several set up shop in Kathu to get doesn’t want to reveal his real name because he
home for the festive season with fatter bank closer to newly rich potential customers. doesn’t want to be “judged” by his colleagues for
18 ANGLO AMERICAN 100 YEARS