Working conditions in the diamond mines of Kimberley and the gold mines of Johannesburg were extremely difficult. In 1902, Dimitris Spanos tried to establish a miners’ association in Johannesburg, along with other Greeks. According to the narrations of his contemporaries, Spanos was the leader of the socialist movement
in
South Africa. However, in 1903, for unknown reasons he left Johannesburg and
settled in Lourenço Marques in Mozambique. There he started an agency that was
responsible for the distribution of foreign newspapers and magazines, a pioneer
business in the whole Mozambique. Although he was temporarily absent from the
first line of the working class movement, Spanos distributed the newspaper of
the Industrial Socialist League, International, from 1915 until 1921,
trying to establish a local working association in Mozambique.
