蜜芽传媒

In South Africa, thousands of fortune seekers armed with pickaxes and shovels have been flocking over the past couple of weeks to a field in KwaHlathi, in the east, after a local found some stones he believed to be diamonds. Now it's been announced the rocks that have been found are not diamonds but quartz, which are far less valuable.

But the media attention the 'diamond rush' garnered has drawn attention to how few opportunities and services there are for people living there - leading local authorities to commit to try to find ways to encourage economic development in an area where there's approximately 75% unemployment.

Karyn Maughan is a journalist with News24 in South Africa.

"The only value, tragically, is it's highlighted the extremely deprived circumstances in which the community live. They don't have access to roads and have a completely intermittent water supply."

(Photo: A man holds up an unidentified stone. Credit: Reuters)