Diamond dig at heritage site stopped
PLAQUE: This marks Canteen Kopje as an official historic monument IF David Morris hadn’t driven past a certain spot in the rugged Northern Cape recently, one of the country’s oldest and richest archaeological sites would have been destroyed for the sake of some diamonds.
“I happened to be driving out to another site on that day, and I pulled up at Canteen Kopje and saw fences being erected.” Two days later, he stopped again and saw that a huge hole had been started “right in the middle” of the site.
“I knew that a mining operation had commenced, and I immediately raised the alarm. Word went out to our international research partners.”
Canteen Kopje, near Barkly West, is of international significance as an archaeological site.
It includes the earliest stone tools in Southern Africa, suggested to be 2.3 million years old, and deposits that document the first contact between local inhabitants and the earliest miners in South Africa.
Morris is head of archaeology at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, professor of heritage studies at the Sol Plaatje University and part of a large international team, including researchers from the universities of Toronto, Pennsylvania and the Witwatersrand.
Like the rest of the team, he immediately knew what was at stake and why: an irreplaceable heritage site was being plundered for diamonds. “It was an absolute shock,” Morris said.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency was alerted, but Morris and others involved in the archaeological dig were initially in the dark about who was mining the area.
Jacky M Wesi Mining has an almost nonexistent public profile. Company records show it has a single director, 59-year-old Jacky Mary Wesi of Windsorton in the Northern Cape, and was set up last year.
The company is not listed in the phone directory and could not be reached. Calls to three cellphone numbers and a landline associated with Jacky Wesi proved fruitless.
According to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, the company is based at Wesi’s home address in Windsorton.
“The big thing is, we knew for sure TREASURE TROVE: A Canteen Kopje skull from the late Stone Age was found in 1929 they didn’t have a permit from the heritage authority,” said Morris.
He went to the police when he saw the hole being dug. “I spoke to various legal people and it quickly became apparent a court interdict was going to be the only way to stop it.” He and the rest of the team around the country stayed up all night preparing their application, filing it the next day. It was granted on the Saturday.
Morris and his Canadian partners started a website to raise awareness and the people of Barkly West began commenting on Facebook.
Meanwhile, it appears Wesi is codirector of a second low-profile company, Jalalu Mining, set up in 2014 with Laetina Sonnenberg, aged 39.
Sonnenberg’s cellphone played a voicemail message on Thursday and Friday belonging to Lukas Sonnenberg.
A man by that name was the contractor who started excavations on behalf of Jacky M Wesi Mining at Canteen Kopje last week.
He did not respond to questions left on his voicemail.
Department of Mineral Resources spokesman Martin Madlala said a mining permit was granted to Jacky M Wesi Mining on October 31 2014, which appears to pre-date the company’s official registration.
“The permit will expire on October 30 2016. The department only became aware of concerns after the permit was issued.”
The department would abide by any further steps taken by the South African Heritage Resources Agency, Madlala said.
The mining company has until this Friday to challenge the interdict.