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08 August 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs
Zama Zama
Michelle Goliath played a major role in establishing the first ethically sourced, fair, women-owned, artisanal diamond process.

Michelle Goliath, a PhD student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the UFS, has a passion for helping the most vulnerable people in society who have run out of conventional employment options. 

“My research includes ‘Zamaism’ psychology, a philosophy which looks at the contestation of space and rules, how people navigate the illegal when they are faced with desperate choices,” she explains.  

Michelle has been working with approximately 3 000 diamond mining ‘Zama Zamas’ (criminal miners) over the past three years. Together, they negotiated an agreement with private sector mining and public sector stakeholders to include the Zama Zamas as legal artisan miners in the formal mining economy.

One of the highlights of her career so far was being part of a big first: the complete, ethically sourced, fair, women-owned, artisanal diamond process.

Michelle explains: “A rough stone includes the story of the women who dig it from the earth, legally (under permit), ethically sourced. Instead of being exploited, the same women now sell their diamonds for full value to a legal tender house through a legal buyer or directly to the cutter and polisher. The cutter and polisher also train the women to cut and polish the stones themselves. The women then sell the stones to jewellery gold- and silver-‘smiths’ who artisanally craft this into an engagement ring or ‘Wakanda gem spear’, to be sold in the open market locally and internationally.”

She believes these products will become priceless works of art. “Like Picasso paintings, they are each uniquely produced by hand with a story and Kimberley process certificates,” she adds.

The story of the women

This project had a big impact on Elisa Louw, a former street seller and domestic worker. She tells her story: “I was tired of domestic work and decided to work at the mines as a Zama Zama. I began with nothing and had to borrow tools and learn from others.”

Elisa started working in the mines in 2013; in 2014, she found her first 75-pointer diamond which she sold for R1 500 on the black market. “The black market was good then,” she said.

She later recruited other Zama Zamas to register and obtain legal permits for mining. Elisa mined from 08:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:00 she recruited people to start a legal mining co-op. “It was difficult then. People did not understand what it meant to be legalised,” Elisa explains.

But she worked hard and at the end of 2016, the Batho Pele Primary Mining Cooperative was established.

However, it was a hard and difficult journey before they were given their permits early in 2017. The mines took their IDs and issued them with eviction letters. “They called us names – terrorists, robbers, rapists, etc. But in a meeting with the South African Police Service, the Department of Mineral Resources, the Sol Plaatje Municipality, and the international Swedish Housing Company, Michelle spoke for us.”

“She represented the Swedish Housing Company and we thank the Lord for sending her to us. She informed all parties that we did not want to fight, but that we were looking for a licence to work. She helped us to obtain our legal permit to mine.”

“It was such a relief when we received the permit. I could go home and sleep without worrying about the safety of the old people and children who are mining.

“The permit changed my life as a woman. My voice is heard; my words count. I am proud of myself,” says Elisa. 

The two cooperatives they created, Batho Pele Primary Mining Cooperative and the Women in Artisanal Scale Mining, have already signed agreements with Canada and the USA for the export of fair-trade-certified gem products.

Blood, sweat and tears

The journey towards this big achievement took two years of literally blood, sweat, and tears. “Society labels Zama Zamas negatively as terrorists. In a way, you become a Zama at heart once you live with people every day who are fighting for economic inclusion. You fight the illegal diamond trade that exploited people as digging slaves. You fight formal mining, which is a difficult sector to enter as a woman. You literally fight others with stones for territory. You fight political fights, land fights, the system at every level, to seek an existence,” Michelle explains.

She believes the mining industry can be a tough environment. “It is exploitative at many levels. It showcases rare talent, but under duress. At artisanal scale it is even worse. The only future women have, is to lead themselves, to create their own fairer system, to redesign a full value chain that allows broader participation,” states Michelle.

News Archive

#Women'sMonth: PSP provides scholarly support system for Prof Wilson-Strydom
2017-08-17

Description: Merridy Wilson-Strydom Tags: National Research Foundation, Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom, Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development, Prestige Scholars Programme, writing retreats, higher education literature 

Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom loves asking questions and
therefore has a strong focus on research.
She also enjoys supervising PhD students.
Photo: Sonia Small


Publishing her first book and receiving a rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) are career highlights for Prof Merridy Wilson-Strydom. As an emerging scholar, the Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP) of the University of the Free State (UFS) played an important role in reaching these goals. 

According to the Associate Professor in the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development, the PSP provided an important scholarly support system, both through the coordinators and the other researchers who are part of the programme.

Writing retreats made book possible
“I found the support and advice provided during the process of applying for funding and rating really helpful,” she says about receiving a NRF C2 rating, based on her work over the past eight years.
She compliments the PSP writing retreats, which “provided a wonderful space for writing and it was during the writing retreats that I did a lot of the writing for my book that was published by Routledge in 2015.” Her book, University Access and Success: Capabilities, Diversity and Social Justice, moving back into academia from institutional research, working closely with undergraduate students as research participants, and postgraduate supervision, are all highlights of her work.

Her book makes a valuable contribution to higher education literature related to access and transition to universities. But, contrary to the mainstream approaches to access which rely on school performance and admissions tests, she poses the issue of social justice at the centre of the analysis.

Student project produces E-book
Another project headed by her and funded by the NRF Thuthuka Programme, was a study to understand the lives of 40 undergraduate students (on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus) who attended township high schools. The study had a particular focus on identifying institutional practices that either enable or constrain students’ capabilities for success in undergraduate study.

One of the outputs was the writing of an E-book called In our own words: Perspectives on being a student. It was written by 30 undergraduate students and the purpose was to provide a platform for students to tell their own stories about life as a student. 

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