Marikana victims didn’t die for nothing
A YEAR has passed since 44 people lost their lives during a wildcat strike at a mine owned by Lonmin in the Marikana area, near Rustenburg.
On 16 August, police shot dead 34 mineworkers and injured 78 in South Africa’s single most lethal use of force by security forces against civilians since the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the end of the apartheid era. The other 10 had been killed earlier that week and casualties included striking miners and police officers.
It has been 12 months and South Africa and the world still awaits answers to what exactly happened on that bloody afternoon. The commission of inquiry into the massacre has yet to resume after adjourning due to funding issues.
A documentary of events at Marikana on eNews Channel Africa shows police chiefs declaring that 16 August was the day they would do whatever it took to disperse striking miners who had gathered illegally on a koppie since the beginning of that week.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, fingers were pointed at Lonmin management, police, labour brokers and trade unions.
There was a school of thought that the two trade unions that claimed to represent the striking workers fuelled the strike.
Those that blamed Lonmin felt employers needed to look at remuneration and working conditions of miners, arguing mining companies had got away with murder for far too long.
The police’s use of live ammunition to disperse the strikers was also questioned. However, police argued they first used teargas and water cannons and resorted to live ammunition as a tit-for-tat response. Whether this is true or not will never be known until financial troubles that halted the commission of enquiry are cleared.
Role players in the corporate sector, unions and government should hang their heads in shame. Surely someone has to fund the commission of enquiry into the tragedy.
Do it in honour of those that lost their lives. Their blood was not spilled on the koppie for nothing.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing the mineworkers affected by the tragedy, has requested funding for his legal team.
He previously signalled his intention to file papers with the Constitutional Court for a ruling on whether the State should fund his work at the commission.
The Marikana massacre was one defining moment in the history of South Africa, and it’s a great injustice that it should be halted due to financial difficulties.
