ABSTRACT
The City of Matlosana Municipality is in the centre of the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality. Klerksdorp, the City of Matlosana's main urban centre and the economic hub of the greater municipal area, was established in the late 1800s as a service centre for the gold mining areas of the Rand and the diamond mining areas of the Cape. This chapter looks at mining and economic development in South Africa and the influence of mining on Matlosana's development. It then describes three phases of Matlosana's history. Gold mining was the most prominent mining sector for more than 100 years, until the early 1990s, when it began to decline because of declining reserves, the increased depth of the mines, which increased costs and labour accidents, and a changing labour regime. Between 1996 and 2011 there was a large-scale decline in the mining economy and in the employment rates in the Greater Klerksdorp area.
