Riaan Van Wyk should have seen it coming. In the weeks before Christmas the mine safety engineer looked on as diamond prices plunged and production at Namakwa, a South African mining company, was scaled back. Even so, when he was handed his cards last week along with 350 other workers Mr Van Wyk says it was “a great shock”.

Mr Van Wyk is one of 14,000 expected job losses in the mining sector but he will not be the only South African to be taken by surprise as falling metal prices and slumping global demand drive the country closer to recession.