Massacre in South Africa: Police Defend Killing of 34 Striking Workers
at Platinum Mine
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/21/massacre_in_south_africa_police_defend
South African police shot dead 34 striking workers at platinum mine last
week, setting off a wave of protests. In what has been described as
"South Africa's first post-apartheid massacre," the miners were killed
after demanding more pay and walking off the job at the Marikana mine,
the world's third largest producer of platinum. South Africa's national
police chief Riah Phiyega is drawing public outrage for defending her
officers. She said, "It was the right thing to do" though "we are sorry
that lives were lost." For more, we're joined by Gavin Capps, a member
of the group "Land Reform and Democracy in South Africa" at the
University of Cape Town in South Africa. [includes rush transcript]
*Gavin Capps <http://www.democracynow.org/appearances/gavin_capps>*,
member of the group Land Reform and Democracy in South Africa at the
University of Cape Town in South Africa
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Transcript
*AMY GOODMAN:* We turn now to what some are calling "South Africa's
first post-apartheid massacre." Police shot dead 34 striking workers at
the South African mine last week, setting off a wave of protests. The
victims were killed more than a week after walking off the job at the
Marikana platinum mine in a call for higher pay. Police say they shot
after workers armed with machetes ignored calls to disperse. On Monday,
259 miners appeared in a court in Pretoria to face charges ranging from
murder to public violence. However, the workers' union says the police
committed a massacre.
One of the mourners told a reporter from South Africa's /City Press/
newspaper what she believed happened.
*MOURNER:* [translated] I came to Lonmin to look for a job. I didn't
like what happened, that the police came here to kill people, while
they were fighting for their rights. The miners were not rioting.
It's the police who started firing, but they keep saying they were
shot at first. The miners were seated on a hill, not at the stadium,
not at the mine. They were seated peacefully when the police
approached. All the miners want is a wage increase.
*AMY GOODMAN:* The Marikana mine is owned by Lonmin, which is the
world's third largest producer of platinum. After the shooting, the
reopened mine is reportedly laying idle, since fewer than a third of the
workers have turned up. Lonmin announced a deadline for striking miners
to return to work or face dismissal. The company has insisted the
shooting was a result of an illegal strike that, it says, got out of
hand. This is Lonmin's chief financial officer, Simon Scott.
*SIMON SCOTT:* What happened was that an illegal strike took place.
Employees chose to not to come to work. And then that very quickly
escalated into an issue of public violence, which was beyond our
control and one that needed the intervention of the South African
Police Services.
*AMY GOODMAN:* Meanwhile, South Africa's national police chief Riah
Phiyega is drawing public outrage for defending her officers. She said,
quote, "It was the right thing to do" though "we are sorry that lives
were lost."
As tensions escalate, South African President Jacob Zuma announced a
week of national mourning, as well as the formation of a commission of
inquiry. A separate independent inquiry into the shootings will
reportedly also be launched by a group called Justice Now for the
Marikana Strikers and Communities.
The shooting marked the worst mass killing in South Africa since the end
of apartheid. The head of South Africa's Association of Mineworkers and
Construction Union said it evoked memories of the Sharpville massacre of
1960.
*JOSEPH MATHUNJWA:* I thought the history that I read about
Sharpville massacre was a history. I never thought that in 2012 we
will experience the same massacre under the democratic-elected
government by ourselves.
*AMY GOODMAN:* For more on the mines, we're joined via /Democracy Now!/
video stream in London by Gavin Capps, chair in Land Reform and
Democracy in South Africa at the University of Cape Town.
Gavin Capps, welcome to /Democracy Now!/ Can you talk about what took place?
*GAVIN CAPPS:* OK, indeed. But first of all, just a small correction:
I'm not the chair. I'm a member of that chair.
What happened? Well, I think really we have to start from the big
picture of what's been happening with the platinum mining industry in
South Africa and its place within the South African and indeed the
global economy. Eighty-eight percent of the world's platinum resources
are concentrated within South Africa, and South Africa accounts for
around 70 percent of global platinum production. Now, historically, this
was a mining industry which was pretty small. As most people will know,
the South African mining economy was dominated by the giant gold-mining
industry and the diamond industry and, after that, coal. However, gold
mining has been in long-term decline. And the problem for the platinum
producers always was, there was never enough demand for their metal.
However, this began to change from the late 1990s, where demand
massively increased. And one of the factors which led to that increase
was, ironically, the use of platinum in catalytic converters to lower
exhaust emissions in cars, particularly as a result of environmental
legislation in the West. Suddenly, the value of platinum began to rise.
Suddenly, there was a scramble to get the mineral out of the ground. And
suddenly, there was a massive, massive expansion of platinum-mining
activity within South Africa. And that expansion of mining activity with
South Africa has coincided with the advent of democracy since 1994. And
where this new mining is taking place is within predominantly rural
areas, predominantly, on the one hand, within the North West province,
where the Lonmin mine is located, and also, as well, within Limpopo
province. And this rapid expansion has brought with it all kinds of
social problems. It has led to land loss. It has led to the destruction
of the environment. It has led to the displacement of local rural
communities. And it has led to absolutely hideous exploitation of the
workers working underground, digging the metal out of the ground. And I
think, really, that's where we need to start from.
*AMY GOODMAN:* Can you talk about the worker conditions in the mines?
*GAVIN CAPPS:* Sure. The conditions of the mines are, for mine workers,
generally pretty appalling. It's certainly true that they have improved
since the dark days of apartheid. There are less mine deaths, for
example, now. But they've only improved because of the struggles of mine
workers themselves and of the strength of organized labor. Nevertheless,
it remains one of the most dangerous and deadly industries in the world.
The average life expectancy of a mine worker is very, very low. This is
due in large part to dangerous conditions underground, where there are
many, many injuries, if not less fatalities, but still many, many
serious injuries, and also, as well, because of the rampant spread of
HIV/AIDS throughout mining communities, which is a reflection of the
extremely poor social conditions under which mine workers are living.
So, what you would find around a mine like Lonmin are enormous shanty
towns, shanty towns which are made of small corrugated iron shacks in
which mine workers are now living and where there are no proper
services---there's no water, there's no electricity---where there is
desperate and appalling poverty, because, of course, it's not just the
people who are employed in the mines who are there, but it's also the
desperate work seekers who have come across South---from across South
Africa and, indeed, southern Africa, drawn towards one of the few mining
industries which has been expanding. So there is a huge concentration of
social problems around these mines. It is an extremely explosive situation.
*AMY GOODMAN:* Al Jazeera is reporting safety remains a major concern
for the mine workers who return to work. Apparently, intimidation,
threats of violence have kept many more away. I wanted to turn to
Lonmin's chief financial officer again, Simon Scott, who says people
should return to work as soon as the situation gets under control.
*SIMON SCOTT:* With regard to our own employees, we have asked them
to return to work. We've---you know, we understand that the
situation is one where perhaps there is intimidation taking place.
But as soon as that is---comes under control and as soon as the
South African Police Services, you know, affect the situation so
that the people aren't intimidated, they should return to work.
*AMY GOODMAN:* Who owns this mine? And what about the South African
government's involvement here?
*GAVIN CAPPS:* OK. Well, first of all, I'd just like to comment on Simon
Scott. This, I think, represents, really---it encapsulates the
callousness of the mine bosses in South Africa. Thirty-four people were
massacred last week by the police. Another 10 have died in violence
around that strike in the week leading up to that. That is 44 mine
workers dead and up to 80 mine workers injured, and there may be more
joining the dead. It's a tense and explosive situation. People are
mourning. They're in shock. They have been victims of a massacre. This
is not the time to be threatening people with losing their jobs if they
don't return to work.
And indeed, just to update you, the mine workers have stayed away.
They've stayed strong. And as a result of this and increasing political
embarrassment of the government, pressure has now been put on Lonmin to
step down and not face non-returning mine workers with the sack. But the
fact that they're even prepared to do that at all, under such
circumstances, I think tells a much bigger story.
*AMY GOODMAN:* I want to thank you, Gavin Capps, for being with us, a
professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
***
*_Marikana Massacre: DO NOT BLAME THE VICTIMS_*
*_By Ronnie Kasrils_*
First it was our new National Police Commissioner who told the nation in
the wake of the Marikana shooting:"This is not the time to point fingers."
Our President reiterated the call, word for word, soon thereafter: "This
is not the time to point fingers." He announced, as is the case in such
events, that an independent judicial enquiry would be appointed to
investigate the causes of the disaster.
Minister in the Presidency, presiding over an inter-ministerial
committee despatched to the scene of carnage, with messages of sympathy
and funeral funds, repeated the refrain "we must not point fingers." It
seems that the National Police Commissioner has set the politician's agenda.
Actually we have heard much from numerous quarters about a militant,
break-away union, said to have instigated the climate of anarchy.
Perhaps they bear some element of responsibility but is that not finger
pointing?
We have heard much about the illegality of the strike and the
panga-wielding strikers who it is alleged brought the disaster on
themselves; a clear-cut case of blaming the victims. Victims mark you
who are amongst the most exploited of our workforce and who labour under
the most dangerous and dreadful conditions -- truly the wretched of the
earth.It is said that some carried firearms and in fact pistols were
discovered amongst the dead. Does that not also constitute finger pointing?
The government does not silence such voices. In fact the President hints
that there is much that lies behind this incident. Sounds like the stuff
of plots and conspiracy.
Of course much lies behind the catastrophe which the judicial enquiry
must examine. Chiefly the exploitative mine owners and the horrendous
conditions under which our country allows the mineworkers to toil. Add
to the mix the trade union rivalry, elements of demagogy, threats,
intimidation, murdersand reprisals; the games of the mine management,
disputes about pay and conditions, empty promises, divide and rule,
victimisation and dismissals.
Whatever manner of exacerbating cause and effect that may be discerned
in the toxic mix there is no escaping where the finger needs to point in
the first instance. And that is right at the point of the
trigger-fingers that slaughtered 34 human beings and brutally wounded
nearly eighty more.
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 in the first place.
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 mine workers had arrived. They will be
exonerated.
Do not point fingers so that the heads of those politicians on high who
bear executive authority shall not roll. Put our faith in a judicial
commission and let the dust settle. Nice and sober talk.
But in a democracy which has sworn to make such state massacres a thing
of the past we need to call a spade a spade and cry out in the name of
humanity and justice. An order was given to deploy almost 500 police
armed with automatic weapons, reinforced by armoured vehicles, horsemen
and helicopters and to advance on a desolate hill occupied by 3,000
striking miners.
That denotes 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. They 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 or ground.Why risk such a
manoeuvre other than to drive the strikers back to work at all costs on
behalf of the bosses who were desperate to resume profit-making operations?
Note how with the blood still warm on the veld and the dead unburied the
Lonmin management have callously threatened with instant dismissal those
who do not return to work forthwith.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 time-line - not a
deployment of state force that could only end in the dreadful manner
witnessed.
Indisputably the mine owners and managers are guilty as we are all
guilty for allowing this extreme exploitation of our working people to
persist into the eighteenth year of freedom. But if by default we fail
to hold our police system accountable for its brutality we run massive
risks to the lives of our people and detrimental to our very security
and democratic freedoms. A judicial enquiry must run its course sooner
than later and hopefully provide the truths we desperately need.
Yet a national crisis like this requires frank comment as one sees it.
There well might be other factors besides the smoking gun. That is
required.
However let us as citizens act fearlessly where the killers have been
seen in the light of day. We will have our say.
Above all our history reverberates with the words: Do not blame the
victims! And we have seen it all before from Sharpeville to Bisho. If
you 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.
The Marikana Massacre is undoubtedly a turning point in our history. If
we fail to act decisively we do so at our peril.If as a young democracy
we are to emerge stronger and better we need the truth and we need to
spare nobody's 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.
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