The headlines scream 'Marikana Massacre'; 'Killing Fields of Rustenburg'. Radio and TV Talk shows and social media all display the anger and expose the psyche of a nation badly wounded. The bloodiest security operation since the end of apartheid has left us shocked...
mineworkers
Echoes of the Past:Marikana, Cheap Labour and the 1946 Miners Strike
Chris Webb On August 4, 1946 over one thousand miners assembled in Market Square in Johannesburg, South Africa. No hall in the town was big enough to hold them, and no one would have rented one to them anyway. The miners were members of the African Mine Worker's...
The Marikana action is a strike by the poor against the state and the haves | by Justice Malala
The shooting at Lonmin's Marikana mine exposes weaknesses at the heart of South African society The story of the London-listed Lonmin's Marikana mine shootings is that of a trade union that cosied up to big business; of an upstart and populist new union that exploited...
The Thick End of the Wedge: The Editor’s Notebook | by Peter Bruce
SO, Julius Malema strides confidently into the midst of what we are told is a 7,000-strong band of armed and angry miners, and calms them down. "Malema takes charge!" exclaimed the front page headline of one of the better Sunday papers. Before him all power — the...
Bid to limit strikes in aftermath of Marikana | by Monde Maoto
The government and the mining industry have taken the first steps to limit illegal strike action in the platinum sector and to refine wage negotiating processes, both seen to be key factors behind the violence at Lonmin last week. Meanwhile, the stage is set for...
Violence could have been foreseen | by Stuart Theobald
SIX weeks ago I went on a tour of Lonmin's operations in the Bushveld Complex near Rustenburg. It was a PR exercise. I was shown the Marikana clinic where the company had invested millions in impressive facilities. With a group of journalists, we saw schools it...
Lonmin toll tells us all about SA’s lived reality | by Aubrey Matshiqi
AS IS always the case under these circumstances, there is no shortage of explanations — "scientific", "academic" or otherwise — for the conflict that led to the deaths of 44 people at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, in North West. Given the plethora of pet...
Slaughter at South Africa’s Marikana mine: the bloody politics of platinum | by Charlie Kimber
Striking South African mineworkers were gunned down by police on Thursday. Charlie Kimber looks at events leading up to the massacre—and the business interests behind it Police in South Africa have opened fire at striking workers at the Marikana platinum mine near...
Platinum Miners
Platinum miners 'will pay for their sins' by André Janse van Vuuren LONMIN and the other major platinum producers of North West will bear the brunt of more violent community protests for as long as discontent over employment, poor service delivery and the harmful...

