Carletonville, the ghost town at the heart of an industry in its death throes
The death rattle of the industry that once symbolised SA can be heard in the town of Carletonville — on Gold Street. That’s where Paseka Selemela has been guarding cars since 2010, when the scaffolding business he worked for closed. Prior to that, he was an assistant at a now-shuttered mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti. Nor has he found work in other gold mines around the town, home to the world’s deepest shafts. Many of his friends and family members also have joined the legions of the retrenched, including 8,500 people in the area last year alone. "These people can’t find jobs, just like me," Selemela, 34, said under the winter sun, wearing a torn, dirty Chelsea soccer club shirt and jeans that hung loosely on his thin frame. "They try at the retailers, but there is nothing available there. They are employing fewer people because people are buying less. There’s no money." Additional cuts are to come across mines and towns in SA, once the world’s biggest producer of gold. A volatile ...
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