‘We need to see them behind bars’ says Marikana widow about cops

Nandipha Gunuza has not known peace for the last eight years.

Her husband, Bonginkosi Yona, was one of the 34 workers who were killed when police opened fire on them during a wage strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in the North West’s Marikana on 16 August 2012.

To date, no-one has been called to account for any of the deaths that took place that day – including Yona’s.

“We need to see them behind bars,” Gunuza said of those responsible on Wednesday.

She was speaking outside the North West High Court, on the sidelines of the trial of half a dozen policemen who have been charged with the deaths of five people – including three mineworkers and two from within their own ranks – during a clash at the mine on 13 August that year, in the lead up to the massacre that claimed her husband’s life.

Nandipha Gunuza a widow of one of the miners shot to death during the Marikana Massacre sits at the North West High Court to attend the trial relating to the events that lead to the death of three mine workers and two Police officers in August 2016, 21 October 2020. Picture: Jacques Nelles

Gunuza was one of a handful of widows who turned up at court this week to watch proceedings after weeks of the gallery standing empty.

“Some of us lost loved ones on the 13th, while others of us lost people on the 16th,” she said, the pain in her voice palpable,

“We just want to see the people who were behind those terrible things that happened behind bars. We want to hear them tell of what happened whilst they are behind bars and not relay these stories while they are out free”.

Gunuza said so far, being in court had only worsened her pain.

“All of this has yielded no results,” she said. “For us to get closure as families, we need to see people being jailed.”

Asked whether she believed justice would ultimately be served, she was hopeful.

“We want to see justice unfold. That is the mindset we have right now,” she said.

She also said, however, that those who had lost loved ones in the violence that unfolded in Marikana during the course of that bloody week wanted to meet with government.

“We did get financial compensation for losing our loved ones but for us to find peace, we need to meet with government. We have never met with government and been able to find that closure. Government needs to hear from us what is within us and we need to hear from them too.”

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