Along South Africa’s northwestern coastline, a stark environmental and economic divide tells the story of the Nama people’s century-long struggle. The journey from Cape Town to the Namibian border reveals breathtaking natural vistas gradually giving way to a pockmarked lunar landscape—visible scars from decades of diamond extraction that generated hundreds of millions in wealth, yet left indigenous communities in persistent poverty.
The Nama people, descendants of the region’s original Khoi and San inhabitants, have faced systematic displacement since European colonization. Their ancestral lands around the Orange River were annexed in the mid-19th century, with forced removals intensifying following the 1920s diamond rush. Despite a landmark 2003 Constitutional Court victory recognizing their inalienable land and mineral rights, the community remains trapped in what leader Martinus Fredericks describes as ‘hand-to-mouth existence’ with sky-high unemployment.
The court ruling should have been transformative. Instead, a controversial 2007 agreement between state-owned miner Alexkor and the Richtersveld Communal Property Association (CPA) allocated 51% of mineral rights to the company and 49% to the community. Fredericks maintains this arrangement was made without proper community consent, and two decades later, residents report seeing no benefits from diamond wealth extracted from their land.
Alexkor contends it has transferred approximately 240 million rand ($14 million) to community entities, but acknowledges through current chairperson Dineo Peta that ‘the community has not received the full economic benefit of the operations,’ blaming previous management’s ‘maladministration and malfeasance.’ A state capture investigation revealed corruption within the company, though no convictions have resulted.
Parliamentary hearings recently revealed that over 300 million rand ($17.6 million) intended for community development remains unaccounted for, with lawmakers describing the CPA as ‘dysfunctional.’ The association failed to respond to BBC inquiries regarding the missing funds.
Beyond financial concerns, environmental degradation poses another crisis. Abandoned mines dot the coastline with minimal rehabilitation, despite legal obligations. Mining giants Trans Hex and De Beers maintain they fulfilled their responsibilities before selling sites, though De Beers committed 50 million rand toward rehabilitation in recent sale agreements.
Fredericks has now initiated legal proceedings against the CPA, seeking to reclaim authentic community representation. ‘A Nama people cannot be a Nama people without control of Nama land,’ he asserts, emphasizing the intrinsic connection between identity and territory that continues to drive their fight for restorative justice.