Overview

In 1889 a gold rush broke out on the Witwatersrand, changing South Africa's history forever. More than 130 years later the mining industry is still one of the biggest drivers of the economy but this was at the expense of those who worked underground. Broke & Broken is the story of the thousands of men from South Africa and beyond its borders who paid with their lives for generations. These are men who left their homes as healthy, ambitious youngsters and returned broke, broken and bitter; victims of the shameful legacy of gold mining. The book seeks to say the names of the mineworkers who, through their sweat, blood and tears, have built this country's economy, because their own stories and their own spirits need to be magnified. The precious stone they spent most of their lives digging brought no shine to their lives - only pain, tears and death. #SayTheirNames, remembering some of the men eaten, chewed and spat out by the gold mines: Mokete Bokako has a speech defect which was allegedly caused by complications from silicosis. He worked on South Africa's gold mines for many years before he was retrenched. He now lives alone in poverty in Roma, Lesotho; Alloys Mncedi Msuthu of Ramafole in the Eastern Cape suffers from silicosis. He was paid R76 000 after he was declared medically incapacitated, but that money was too little to sustain him and his family and to cover medical costs. He now struggles to survive; Mthobeli Gangatha was told to 'go home and die' in 2001, when he was 37 years. He now owns a small grocery store in Nkunzimbini village where he comes from; Zwelendaba Mgidi was 23 years old when he left his village of Kwabhala near Flagstaff. He returned home in 2011, aged 52. He was diagnosed with silicosis in 2008, aged 48.

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9781928337300

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Lucas Ledwaba is a Johannesburg-based journalist and author. He is the co-author of We Are Going to Kill Each Other Today - The Marikana Story [Tafelberg-2013]. His work was also published in legendary photographer Jurgen Schadeberg's book Voices from the Land [2005]. Ledwaba has published works of fiction in the journal Botsotso, Litnet and DRUM magazine. He is a three-time nominee and two-time category winner of the CNN\MultiChoice African Journalist Award for feature writing. He has also won the Standard Bank Sikuvile Award for Feature Writing and the Vodacom Journalism Award for Feature Writing. Leon Sadiki is an award-winning photojournalist. His work on Marikana won him the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Award Story of the Year 2013 and CNN MultiChoice African Journalist Award in the same year. His striking images of the Marikana massacre were published in his book, 'We Are Going to Kill Each Other Today' - The Marikana story. The photographs were also exhibited at South Africa's seat of the Constitutional Court, Johannesburg to mark the first anniversary of the massacre. He is currently a senior photojournalist at the City Press national newspaper in South Africa.

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