South African police shoot dead striking miners

[Jan Klimkowski]

Rub away the shiny, politically correct, facade and the Reality of Power, of Global Capitalism, remains.

South Africa is home to four fifths of the world's known platinum reserves but has been hit by union militancy and a sharp drop in the price of the precious metal this year. At least three people were killed in a similar round of fighting in January that led to a six-week closure of the world's biggest platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum. Such incidents are seen as tarnishing South Africa's reputation among investors.

This week's violence has forced Lonmin to freeze production at all its South African operations, which account for 12% of global platinum output. The company's London-listed shares plummeted more than 7% on Thursday.

Video at the link.

South African police shoot dead striking miners

Up to 18 people killed at Lonmin platinum mine where strike over pay has escalated into alleged turf war between unions

Share 4
Email

David Smith in Johannesburg and Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 August 2012 19.10 BST


Police have been accused of a "massacre" after opening fire on mine workers in one of the deadliest days of protest in South Africa since the end of apartheid.

In scenes that evoked memories of some of the country's darkest days, national television showed pictures of police in helmets and body armour shooting at workers on Thursday amid shouting, panic and clouds of dust at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine. After around three minutes of gunfire, bodies littered the field in pools of blood. It was claimed as many as 18 people may have been killed.

Newspaper reporter Poloko Tau tweeted from the scene: "auto guns creacking [sic] and cocked like 100 at a time, scary … warzone down here, 1st shot fired … journalist running, diving and hiding amid shots, water canon spewing water at the strikers … my contact has just been shot dead …"

The fatalities came after a week of turmoil at the Marikana mine which had already seen 10 people killed, including two police officers and two security guards. Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer, was forced to suspend production at the mine, about 60 miles north-west of Johannesburg, after what it called an illegal strike escalated into an alleged turf war between rival unions.

His voice shaking with anger, the union leader Joseph Mathunjwa accused the Lonmin management of colluding with a rival union to orchestrate what he described as a massacre.

Mathunjwa, the president of the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), told South Africa's eNews channel: "We have to send condolences to those families whose members were brutally murdered by a lack of co-operation from management."

He added: "We have done our bit. If the management had changed their commitment, surely lives could have been saved."

The official death toll is not yet known. A Reuters cameraman said he saw at least seven bodies after the shooting, while the AMCU estimated 12 deaths. A reporter for the South African Press Association (Sapa) said he counted 18 bodies. An unspecified number suffered injuries.

The violence reportedly flared when police laying out barricades of barbed wire were outflanked by some of an estimated 3,000 miners massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine. Witnesses claimed that some of the miners were armed with pistols and fired first, while also charging the police with machetes and sticks.

The Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) said: "According to a Sapa report, police tried to disperse striking workers gathered on top of a hill, wielding pangas and chanting war songs. It ended in a three-minute shootout between the two groups, after police fired teargas and then used a water cannon to disperse the strikers, who retaliated by firing live ammunition at the police."

The protests began last week when workers demanded a pay increase to 12,500 rand (£976) a month but turned deadly when the AMCU clashed with South Africa's dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

The NUM rejected the charge of collusion with mine bosses. Spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said: "We are not surprised by his allegation … It is not true. Everyone can see through these lies."

Seshoka blamed the AMCU which has been poaching NUM members in platinum mines for instigating the bloodshed. "These people said today they want to die on the hilltop. They said they will bring their children to die there. That is why we must say the ringleaders must be arrested."

The trouble comes against a backdrop of growing frustration with the governing African National Congress and its mainstream union allies for moving too slowly to deliver wage increases and public services. Radical and militant voices are making gains in some areas.

Patrick Craven, the national spokesman for Cosatu, which is aligned to the ANC, said it would "convene an urgent meeting of the unions' leaderships to discuss what is emerging as a co-ordinated political strategy to use intimidation and violence, manipulated by disgruntled former union leaders, in a concerted drive to create breakaway 'unions' and divide and weaken the trade union movement."

He added: "Cosatu calls upon all workers to remain vigilant but calm in the face of the most serious challenge to workers' unity and strength for many years."

South Africa is home to four fifths of the world's known platinum reserves but has been hit by union militancy and a sharp drop in the price of the precious metal this year. At least three people were killed in a similar round of fighting in January that led to a six-week closure of the world's biggest platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum. Such incidents are seen as tarnishing South Africa's reputation among investors.

This week's violence has forced Lonmin to freeze production at all its South African operations, which account for 12% of global platinum output. The company's London-listed shares plummeted more than 7% on Thursday.

A spokesman at Lonmin's head office in London confirmed the strikers had been served with a final ultimatum to return to work on Thursday or face dismissal, but he denied the move might inflame the situation.

"The mine cannot operate without the rock drill operators," he said. "The company tried every avenue it could to negotiate a settlement and we were left with no option."

[Peter Lemkin]

Warning shots would have been enough to stop them. Or tear gas. Instead, what I saw were Police with automatic weapons mowing down protesting miners...unclear [but not really important] if the few nearest the Police were heading in the direction of the Police or not - they were still far away. It was outright murder.....and I'm sure they'll be a 'commission of inquiry' and nothing will happen to any of the Police....that's how it works.

[Magda Hassan]

Marikana Shows that we are Living in a Democratic Prison

Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Wed, 2012-08-22 12:57. Marikana shows that we are Living in a Democratic Prison
by Bandile Mdlalose
South Africa has the most beautiful Constitution amongst all countries. Its beauty is well documented and respected. But we are living in a Democratic Prison.
We must acknowledge the fight of Doctor Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and the community struggles of the 1980s, the youth of 1976 and the workers of 1973. The struggles of the past defeated the White Boers and brought us democracy with all these beautiful rights on paper. We have so many documented rights, like the right to housing and to protest. But every day our rights are violated by the Black Boers. They vowed to protect our rights but the vow was a fake vow.
Instead of supporting the people's struggles so that we can make democracy real and make our rights real they are sending out their securities and police to evict the poor, to lock us out of the cities and to smash our struggles. Instead of working with the people to transform the society they are repressing the people to protect the unequal society that they took charge of 1994.
The politicians have not joined hands with the people. They have joined hands with the capitalists. The result of this new alliance between politicians and capitalists is that there is a 1% of elites that is taking most of the fruits of this democracy for themselves. The middle classes still have their nice lives but for the poor, employed or unemployed, things have got worse and they continue to get worse.
The arrests, beatings, torture, destruction of people's homes and killing has continued after apartheid. Now the massacre is here too. Every year the Black Boers tell us to remember 1976 but they say nothing about the repression of our struggles after apartheid. They say nothing about Thembinkosi Mpanza and Vukani Shange shot dead by the Farm Watch in eMasangweni in 2006. They say nothing about the police attacks o Abahlali baseMjondolo in 2008, the armed attacks on our movement in Kennedy Road in 2009 and the repression of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless People's Movement and the Unemployed People's Movement. They say nothing about the police murder of Andries Tatane last year or the long list of people that have been killed by the police while protesting.
Now that the strikers in Marikana have been killed they speak as if it is a natural disaster whereas in fact it is a political disaster perpetrated by the capitalists and the politicians.
Are we going to sit back and watch each of our movements crushed one by one? How many of us must die before we are recognised and included in the society? How many of us must die before the land and wealth is shared fairly and everyone has a say in all decisions that affect them? When will the oppressed stand up and talk with one voice?
We are treated like this because we are poor. We are not allowed to practice our rights in front of the government. Rights are for everyone on paper. In reality they are only there for the rich. Our rights are well known to be documented but not implemented. The alliance between the politicians and the capitalists has created a Democratic Prison. We can vote but only for our own oppression. We can vote but the state still ignores the law when it comes to the poor. It is normal for us to be evicted and repressed even though these things are illegal. This is why the people are starting to call the politicians the Black Boers. Yes they govern the country but they do not govern it for us or with us.
For years community struggles have been attacked. Who would have known that today worker's struggles would also be attacked by the police? The struggle is spreading from the shacks to the mines and from the mines back to the shacks. Looking at the silence of Cosatu and all the partners of the Black Boers I can't stop wondering what will happen next. It seems that the poor are on our own. It seems that many of us will have to be jailed, beaten and killed before we count to this society.
I wish for each and every person to look thoroughly at this so called democracy. I wish for each and every person to ask if we are being realistic when we say that we are in a democracy or if we are really living in a Democratic Prison. It is clear that we do not have the rights and freedoms that are written in the Constitution in reality. It is clear that our governors use armed force to exclude us from society and to repress us when we resist. Look at what happened to Abahlali baseMjondolo in 2009. Look at what happened to the Landless People's Movement in 2010. Look at what happened to Andries Tatane last year. Look at what happened to the Unemployed People's Movement recently. Look at what happened to the Marikana strikers.
Let's not fool ourselves and say we are in a Democratic Country while we are in a Democratic Prison.
The Black Boers think that we the poor are "Dom". They think that by letting us vote for them and reminding us of the struggle against the White Boers we will think that we are "Free". We were only liberated from the apartheid regime and the rule of the White Boers but the same system that makes some people rich and others poor still exists. The same system that locks the poor out and represses our struggles still exists.
It is clear that this country is led by the Bloody Hand and that it was taken by the same Bloody Hand and that we will continue to shed blood. But we as the poor need to put a stop to that and to liberate ourselves in a way that our kids will be happy to live in our country. We must shape our own future because the one we are living in is the future of the Black Boers. We need a country with no more Boers of any colour. We need a country where we are all just people, people who all count the same and have the same rights.
No one will deliver Freedom to us. We will have to fight to take our own freedom into our own hands. But the politics of the Bloody Hand is the politics of the Boers, black and white. Our politics must be different and better. Our politics must be a politics of an organised, united and determined people.
http://www.abahlali.org/node/9061

[Keith Millea]

Hey,it's only Black People!..Move along folks.....Be Happy....Fuck...

South African Black Boers:



American Police:

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2...w-michigan.cnn

Compare and weep America!!!

[Peter Lemkin]

AP) MARIKANA, South Africa - South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday told striking miners the nation's leaders are mourning with them but he refused their request that he visit the dusty site where police killed 34 strikers and wounded another 78. The killings have caused outrage and eroded support for the party that brought down apartheid and has governed for the nearly two decades since.

Zuma came to this mining town northwest of Johannesburg as demands for higher wages spread to at least two other mines, raising fears the instability could inflame protests at more of the South African mines that provide 75 percent of the world's platinum. South Africa's miningweb.com Web site calls it "a possibly ominous development" that could have a "devastating effect on the South African economy" since metals and minerals sales provide such a large part of the country's export income.

"What has happened is very painful. We cry with you, all of us," Zuma told miners in his native Zulu.

There was none of the usual applause or ululating that normally greets Zuma. The hundreds of miners and community members were near-sullen.

When Zuma told them he had come to Lonmin PLC mine in Marikana the day after last Thursday's killings, some people shouted "You're lying!"

S. Africa official says sorry for shot miners
Most South African miners ignore ultimatum
Mine shooting highlights growing S. African rift

Zuma had rushed back home from a regional summit in neighboring Mozambique and flown straight to the area, but he visited only with wounded miners. Those who have continued to strike have been angry that he did not come to address them until a week later.

Strike leaders asked Zuma to visit the nearby site of the shootings, but he failed to visit the dusty bush site that miners are sanctifying like the scene of a martyr's death. When the presidential cavalcade left, workers followed its clouds of dust, expecting Zuma to stop at the site where hundreds more miners had gathered. But the convoy just drove past.

Strikers also asked Zuma if the 256 strikers arrested on a range of charges from public violence to murder could be released temporarily from jail to attend memorial services programmed Thursday. Zuma did not respond. And they told their president that they were striking, and would continue to do so, because they want to be paid a monthly minimum wage of R12,500 ($1,560). Zuma did not respond. The current minimum for a mine worker is R5,500 ($690).


Platinum mines, already hit by low world prices and flagging demand, especially from vehicle makers who use the metal to control carbon emissions, may not be in a financial position to seriously consider the demands, some industry analysts say.


The shutdown at London-registered Lonmin PLC mine at Marikana where the Aug. 16 shootings occurred has cost hundreds of millions of dollars in share value. The company said Tuesday it may have to renegotiate with bankers debt payments that are due on Sept. 30. Lonmin also said it will be unable to meet its annual target production of 750,000 ounces.


Any slowdown in South Africa's platinum production will have little short-term effect internationally, since the platinum industry has allowed the world market to build up a surplus estimated to last between 18 months and two years, according to mining industry specialist Jan de Lange of Sake24.com, an Afrikaans-language business news Web site.


Thandi Modise, premier of North West Province where the platinum mines are located, warned Tuesday that the protests may spread if authorities don't deal with the massive and growing inequality gap that has many South Africans feeling they have not benefited in the 18 years since black majority rule replaced a racist white minority government. South Africa has become the richest nation in Africa but still has more than 25 percent unemployment -- nearer 50 percent among young people. Protests against shortages of housing, electricity and running water and poor education and health services are an almost daily affair.


That poverty is contrasted by the ostentatious lifestyles of a small elite of blacks who have become multimillionaires, often through corruption related to government tenders.


Zuma came to the troubled Lonmin mine a day after striking miners here heckled a committee of government ministers sent to help the grieving community with identification of bodies of slain miners, burial arrangements and bereavement counseling.


"If Jacob Zuma doesn't want to come here, how does he expect to gain our votes?" one man shouted at the Cabinet ministers.


"Don't you know if the miners here don't vote for you, the ANC is going down?" another piped up, referring to the ruling African National Congress party.


Defense Minister Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula responded with the first official apology for the police killings.


"As a representative of the government, I apologize," the minister said. "I am begging, I beg and I apologize, may you find forgiveness in your hearts."


South Africa is the world's leading producer of platinum and ferrochrome, the fourth-largest producer of iron ore and is among the top 10 gold producers in the world.

[Peter Lemkin]

South African Marikana miners charged with murder

Workers arrested at South Africa's Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police.:loco:

The 270 workers would be tried under the "common purpose" doctrine because they were in the crowd which confronted police on 16 August, an official said.

Police opened fire, killing 34 miners and sparking a national outcry.

The decision to charge the workers was "madness", said former ruling ANC party youth leader Julius Malema.

"The policemen who killed those people are not in custody, not even one of them. This is madness," said Mr Malema, who was expelled from the ANC (African National Congress) earlier this year following a series of disagreements with President Jacob Zuma.

"The whole world saw the policemen kill those people," Mr Malema said, adding that he would ask defence lawyers to make an urgent application at the high court.

The killing of the 34 was the most deadly police action since South Africa became a democracy in 1994.

The decision by the South African authorities to charge 270 workers with the murder of 34 of their colleagues who were shot dead by police is politically controversial.

The prosecution is relying on the "common purpose" doctrine, once used by the former white minority regime against black activists fighting for democracy.

At the time, the African National Congress (ANC), the former liberation movement now in power, campaigned against the doctrine.

Now, its critics will accuse it of behaving just like the apartheid regime and turning victims into perpetrators.

The government has already been strongly criticised over the shooting, which has been dubbed the "Marikana massacre" and compared to the atrocities committed by the apartheid-era police.

The National Prosecuting Authority is officially an independent body but most South Africans believe it has close links to the ANC and this decision is likely to lead to more condemnation of President Jacob Zuma's government.

Six of the 270 workers remain in hospital, after being wounded in the shooting at the mine owned by Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer, in South Africa's North West province.

The other 264 workers appeared in the Ga Rankuwa magistrates court near the capital, Pretoria.

Their application for bail was rejected and the hearing was adjourned for seven days.

About 100 people protested outside the court, demanding the immediate release of the men.

'Flagrant abuse'

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Frank Lesenyego told the BBC the 270 workers would all face murder charges - including those who were unarmed or were at the back of the crowd.

"This is under common law, where people are charged with common purpose in a situation where there are suspects with guns or any weapons and they confront or attack the police and a shooting takes place and there are fatalities," he said.

South African lawyer Jay Surju told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the "common purpose" doctrine was used by the former white minority regime against activists fighting for racial equality in South Africa.

"This is a very outdated and infamous doctrine," he said.

"It was discredited during the time of apartheid."

The decision has also been condemned as "a flagrant abuse of of the criminal justice system" by constitutional lawyer Pierre de Vos.

The best known case was that of the "Upington 14", who were sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of a policeman in 1985.

The trial judge convicted the 14 activists, even though he acknowledged that they did not carry out the killing.

The strike has halted production at the mine for three weeks

Anti-apartheid activists around the world protested against the ruling, which was overturned on appeal.

During a visit to the mine after the Marikana killings, President Zuma told workers he "felt their pain" and promised that a commission of inquiry would investigate the killings.

Mr Lesenyego said the commission would rule on the conduct of the police.

"It's a separate case," he said.

The commission and an internal police review are expected to take several months to complete.

Police said they started shooting after being threatened by large groups of miners armed with machetes.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed during the protests before the police shooting.

The protests were triggered by demands for a huge pay rise and recognition of a new union.

[Magda Hassan]

A hang over from the 1950's 'Riotous Assemblies Act' which was never repealed. This is a common thing in any country that has a new 'change' of government. The old apparatus remains intact. The same thing happened in Chile with Michele Bachelet. Pinochet's illegal constitution and laws were never touched. They should all be wiped out and new laws passed more in keeping with the sort of society to be built. But the real owners never change and the governments merely window dressing come and go.

[Peter Lemkin]

A hang over from the 1950's 'Riotous Assemblies Act' which was never repealed. This is a common thing in any country that has a new 'change' of government. The old apparatus remains intact. The same thing happened in Chile with Michele Bachelet. Pinochet's illegal constitution and laws were never touched. They should all be wiped out and new laws passed more in keeping with the sort of society to be built. But the real owners never change and the governments merely window dressing come and go.

Somehow I don't think theyll get away with this one!.....unless they want a second revolutionary struggle.....Zuma is horrible. I hope Mandella or someone of his stature will speak up soon!

[Jan Klimkowski]

A black leader using apartheid-era law against black workers.

South Africa needs another revolution.

[Magda Hassan]

Minister Demands Explanation Of Murder Charges, Marikana Mine Massacre Grows More Sinister: What Must Be Done?

September 1st, 2012 - by: Danny

Dissecting From South Africa:BBC: SA rethinking mine murder chargesSouth Africa's justice minister demands an explanation after state prosecutors charge 270 miners with murdering colleagues who were shot by police.Ronnie Kasrils, Amandla Journal, The Slayings Grow More SinisterOur initial horror and outrage does not subside but deepens. Credible monitors, independent researchers and investigative journalists engaged in crime-scene investigation, research and interviews are uncovering a web of vengeance and extra-judicial executions. These point to a scenario as sinister and chilling as anything from our horrific colonial-apartheid history.Our gut reaction as we recoiled from the police shootings partially captured on TV cameras, that this was not some Rorke's Drift style defensive action by police, but part of a deliberate punitive deployment, is being compounded almost on a daily basis. I refer to such documentation as the Benchmark NGO monitoring; "The Daily Maverick" account of "The Slaying Fields" (30th Aug); "The Star" (27th Aug) leaks of autopsy results; bizarre murder charges brought against the170 detained striking miners for the deaths of their comrades on the Marikana Hill called Wonderkop. Methinks something in the state of our country is extremely fishy and reprehensible, which must be exposed and cannot be tolerated.I will return to these sinister developments later. First I want to go back to that fateful day on 16th August looking at events as they unfolded and questions I initially raised in a "Sunday Times" article (26th Aug).An order was given to deploy almost 500 police armed with automatic weapons, reinforced by armoured vehicles, horsemen and helicopters; they advanced on a desolate hill where 3000 striking miners were encamped. That denoted an order from on high with a determination to carry out a dangerous and dubious operation to clear an isolated, stony outcrop of desperate strikers armed with the sticks and spears often referred to as "cultural" weapons in our country. Yes pangas (machettes) were sharpened and extremely menacing in confrontation. But the vast majority of strikers carried sticks and I used the term "cultural weapons" so that we be reminded how often crowds of our people traditionally act in circumstances where they wish to show defiance or act in solidarity invariably with no loss of life.These strikers were hardly occupying some strategic point, some vital highway, a key city square. They were not holding hostages. They were not even occupying mining property.Why risk such a manoeuvre other than to drive the strikers back to work at all costs on behalf of the bosses who were anxious to resume profit-making operations?If by occupying that hill the strikers constituted a threat to other workers, officials or rival unionists, then a feasible solution could only be through reasonable, patient negotiations and remedies, no matter the timeline not a deployment of state force that could only end in the dreadful manner witnessed: 34 strikers dead, 76 wounded, their families devastated.In my reaction to the TV news report that fateful 16th of August was that it may well have been instinctive fear that caused the police to open fire as a group of miners apparently desperately charged them, or even possibly tried to get out of the encampment. My question then as now: why put the law enforcers there in the first place?The police manoeuvre was akin to poking a hornets nest with a stick. What mind-set was behind the police intention?Who set the agenda? What was the governments hand in this? This cannot be kept secret, or can it?
First it was our new national police commissioner who told the nation: "This is not the time to point fingers."
Our President reiterated the call, word for word, soon thereafter. He naturally announced that an independent judicial inquiry would be appointed. The usual recourse of government's the world over: shelve the pressing need to take immediate action such as apologising and ensuring that those in charge resign with immediate effect. Above all avoid explanation and hold one's tongue rather than give leadership. And of course judicial inquiries look at legalities and so often when the report is finally delivered are biased in favour of established order.Minister Collins Chabane, presiding over an inter-ministerial committee sent to attend to burials and commiserate with the survivors and families, repeated the refrain "we must not point fingers". It seems the national police commissioner had set the politician's agenda. We dare ask: is this not a recipe for avoiding accountability and just plain stalling until the hue and cry dies down?We have heard much about the illegality of the strike and the panga-wielding strikers who, it is alleged, used muti (medicine to make one invincible) and brought the disaster on themselves, a clear-cut case of blaming the victims, victims who are among the most exploited of our workforce and who labour under the most dangerous and dreadful conditions truly the wretched of the earth. By the way the muti reference in a society where traditional belief systems and superstitions has been allowed to freely gain ground in current South Africa is particularly disingenuous.The President, who believes that a shower post an unprotected sexual encounter can protect one from HIV AIDS, hints that there is much that lies behind this incident. Who knows what is implied? Sounds like the stuff of plots and conspiracy. Watch this space and do not be surprised by more obfuscation.Of course, much lies behind the catastrophe: chiefly the exploitative mine owners and the horrendous conditions under which our country allows mineworkers to toil and their communities to fester. Add to the mix trade-union rivalry, demagoguery and intimidation, and previous killings. Yes ten died the week before the 16th August massacre: six miners, two security guards and two policemen. The reference to the latter is how gruesomely they were hacked to death. Was this the reason why the police sought vengeance? I have heard fellow comrades and former colleagues, including trade unionists, blaming the strikers. My knowledge of trade union struggles and worker strikes the world over from America to Europe and beyond is of the killing of scabs and agents out of desperate struggles to survive. Not pretty but let us not be hypocritical in this case. It is from "The Daily Maverick" (Aug 30th) that we learn of the circumstances in which a group of miners fought their way out of a police ambush on August 13th in which the two policemen died as well as two miners. An event the report links to the police intention to punish the strikers.Then there is as ever the blatant, arrogant, mean, insatiable greed of mine owners and management to blame and confront; disputes about pay and conditions; victimisation and dismissals. Their cynical role must be exposed but whatever manner of cause and effect may be discerned, there is no escaping where the finger needs to point in the here and now.And that is right at the trigger fingers responsible for mowing people down as at a duck shoot. For if we do not point at those who pulled the triggers and who issued the orders, and behind them whoever quite possibly gave the nod of approval, then we allow the whole bloody event to be diverted and bogged down by the bigger, overwhelming picture. Yes, we can and must deal with this total picture because ultimate responsibility lies with our whole exploitative system, but there is time and scope for that. I say let us get to the immediate truth which is not as complicated as the police, mining houses, government, sections of the media and some analysts would have us believe? We dare not allow the reality of the ghastly killings to be disguised and demobilise a gathering energy of the outraged.Let us not do what the forces of apartheid automatically did in the past and hide the truth about state violence. Let us not create a fog of war around this massacre and declare that fingers must not be pointed, because in effect what that implies is that we shall not point to where responsibility lies.We shall not point to those who fired the weapons; to those who gave the orders; to those who have encouraged the police to maintain a bellicose culture of "shoot to kill"; to those who failed to train them in acceptable methods of crowd control; to those who decided that the time for reckoning with striking mineworkers had arrived. To adopt such a course will mean that leadership will be exonerated and accountability will become yet another victim.If we do not point fingers at the right targets, the politicians who bear executive authority for those who may have given some kind of green light, or by dereliction of responsibility left the police to their own devices will go unscathed.We are asked to put our faith in a judicial commission and let the dust settle. Nice, sober talk. But in a democracy that has sworn to make such massacres a thing of the past we need to cry out in the name of humanity and justice and demand full transparency and accountability.Indisputably the mine owners and managers are guilty for their greed and arrogance. But then we are all guilty for allowing this extreme exploitation of our working people to persist into the 19th year of freedom.
If by default we fail to hold our police system and government accountable for the systemic brutality actually what is beginning to look like a cold-blooded premeditated execution we run massive risks, detrimental to our very security and democratic freedoms.A national crisis like this requires frank talk by all concerned South Africans. We need to mobilise and demonstrate solidarity with the victims. Our history reverberates with the words: Do not blame the victims!
For we have seen it all before, from Sharpeville to Bisho and last years vicious police killing of the activist Andries Tatane during a protest demonstration. If we fail to point to the cause of the gunfire, the fingers will be pointed at the victims as they lie dead in the fields or the streets. And the shootings will continue.
I asked those questions in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. The developments I referred to at the beginning of this article make things look far, far worse.Let us briefly refer to some of the very latest information now pointing to an extremely ominous and sinister chain of events on that fateful August 16th day, indicating a deliberate intention to execute strikers on the spot beyond the range of the media (as reported elsewhere in this issue).The very reliable and meticulous Benchmark NGO that has been studying and reporting on the situation in the platinum mines for months, has reported that the police rolled out their razor-wire fencing to herd the strikers in particular directions, and enclose them into separate sections, so as to deal with them and leave no avenues of escape.Was it no wonder then that with tear-gas being dropped from helicopters there was pandemonium on the hill and the strikers were desperate to flee. Quite possibly those dozen men we saw mown-down on TV were not as supposed charging the police but were desperately seeking to escape the ring….Desperate to escape like the other luckless dead investigated by "The Daily Maverick" (30 Aug),whose Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Greg Marinovich, has revealed the extent of what appears to have been merciless slaughter of some twenty miners at a spot behind the hill and out of sight of the media, where they were trapped with no avenue of escape, tried to hide in crevices and despatched at point-blank range. Those findings make the most chilling reading…It the light of this the leaked autopsy reports referred to by "The Star" indicating that many dead were shot in the back and crushed by police vehicles is believable. We await the outcome.Marikana is undoubtedly a turning point in our history. If we fail to act decisively, we do so at our peril and we leave the space to the demagogues. If, as a young democracy we are to emerge stronger and better we need the truth and we need to spare nobodys position or reputation. Above all we need a new deal for our mineworkers and we need a system based on economic justice for the poor of our land. We need a political leadership not distracted by holding on to their positions at all costs, but one focused night and day on urgently solving our peoples problems and serving their needs. We can achieve that but only by concerted efforts and mass pressure on the powers that be.There needs to be an inquiry by a commission set up by workers and trade unionists and that needs to probe in the first instance the shootings and where full responsibility lies. I stress again the need to focus on the shootings. This will not let all the other role players off the hook. The mine bosses, union rivalry, the wider economic issues, all need to be examined but we must in the immediate period focus on the shootings themselves. Some are making the search for the truth sound like a mammoth exercise. This runs the risk of sidelining police and government responsibility. Already the police have stated that the weakness of public order policing goes back to 1994. They are shifting their culpability to democratic change. They will be assisted by serving politicians eager to allocate blame to the pre-Polokwane Mandela-Mbeki administrations. Yes, there surely is a case for the 1994 compromises on the economy coming back to bite us and that must also be examined. But the statement is a cynical ploy to exonerate the police. Is the truth really as complicated and diverse as some would have us believe disguising the reality of the very massacre? What has happened stems from deliberate police planning, decisions and orders.We need to demonstrate in solidarity with the victims, their families, those on trial.We should collect funds on a vast scale to assist the victims, their families, their children.We need to demand compensation for those killed and injured. All strikers must be given their jobs back.
We expect the working class of our country to unite behind the victims, the dead, injured, striking workers and their families and we expect this from all our citizens who believe in truth and justice.We must not leave an inquiry to the judicial commission alone but encourage investigative journalism and monitoring groups to help get to the bottom of the crime and expose all that is sinister and still at work.Ronnie Kasrils is an author, activist and former ANC government minister
http://newsdissector.net/?p=2679