Do they represent the white pioneer miners or the many black workers without whose cheap labour the extraction of the diamonds from the depths of the Kimberley Hole would not have been economically viable? The specific identity of the idealised workers represented is highly ambiguous perhaps deliberately so. While the rhetoric of Wald’s Diamond Diggers’ Fountain would appear to have its sources in official Eastern-bloc sculpture, the irony is that it celebrates the achievements of high-capitalism in South Africa’s diamond mines. The idealisation of the worker was also a feature of euphoric socialist-inspired imagery in Israel after its foundation in 1948, as is reflected in Wald’s ceramic Chalutz Harvester (1953-1954). If Wald did not see it, he must at least have been aware of it through the media. Mukhina’s huge Worker and Collective Farm Girl (1937) was seen on the Soviet Pavilion at the World Fair in Paris the same year that Wald departed for South Africa. The doctrine of Socialist Realism which became the official style of all public sculptures in Soviet Russia under Stalin and epitomised by the gigantism of Vera Mukhina (1889-1953), set a trend that was emulated elsewhere. The image of the “hero-worker” in this fountain was well-established sculptural rhetoric in Eastern-bloc countries like Hungary after some fell under Communist rule after World War I, when Herman Wald was still in his early teens. The work was commissioned by De Beers at a cost of £10 000 The presence of such a fountain in the dry mining city was obviously intended as a symbol of hard work, economic success and good government. This heroic five-figure fountain-ensemble was commissioned from Herman Wald to honour the men “who pioneered the diamond industry” for the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Gardens in Kimberley. The road around the Oppenheimer Gardens was originally name Jan Smuts Boulevard but was renamed to Sol Plaatje Drive. The gardens are a relaxing spot for visitors where a quiet moment can be enjoyed between the activities of the day. It depicts five life-size miners holding up a diamond sieve and each of the five figures represents one of Kimberley’s five big diamond mines, namely Kimberley Mine, De Beers Mine, Bultfontein Mine, du Toitspan Mine and Wesselton Mine. This stunning working fountain was erected in honour of past miners of the Kimberley Mine. It was designed by Herman Wald, a South African Sculpture, born in Hungary in 1906. The most striking feature of the Gardens is the Diggers Memorial Fountain. The bust of Oppenheimer, in marble, sits proudly overlooking the Rose Garden and Diggers Fountain. He was the founder of the global Anglo American Corporation, in 1917, a mining magnate and first elected Mayor of Kimberley when Beaconsfield and Kimberley were combined into a city in 1912. These Oppenheimer Gardens are a picturesque memorial to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer.

The Gardens are a memorial to the late Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, diamond magnate and the first elected mayor of the municipality of the city of Kimberley when Beaconsfield and Kimberley were combined into a city in 1912.

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