I am truly shock this evening after seeing a full length documentary on AlJazeera of the massacre at Marikarna. The indiscriminate shooting of the striking miners as they began to leave their sit-in protest for wages and better condition at this Lonmin owned mine.
It
wasn't far short of the dreadful sight of man's inhumanity to man when
they opened the gates of the Belson concentration camp. The horror of
the camp was contextually completely different but modus was similar,
the aim of the authorities was to kill and exterminate as many people as
possible.
It was like a cattle run only the cattle were people, herded and corralled into areas where they were trapped and shot down like animals.
The strike had becomes deadlocked with the management refusing to negotiate before the workers returned to work. The miners initially negotiated through their Union the NUM but had lost faith in the union believing them too close to management.
The sit in was on national TV with opinion divided on whether the miners had right on their side or should the economic argument produced by the Lonmin management carry the day.
In the lead up to the massacre a number of people had been killed, including two policemen a move which meant that the Police Commissioner made it clear on the day of the killing, "the sit in would end today no mater what the miners did". To back up her announcement she assembled a force of 650 police, numerous police semi armoured vehicles, rolls of barbed wire and over 4000 rounds of ammunition.
As daybreak broke, the police cordoned off all escape routes with barbed wire and blocked the exits with armoured police vans. The miners having been addressed passionately by one of the NUM reps begging them to move away and return home began to move peacefully from the koppie. Disengaging from any confrontation they showing no sign of rebellion or posed a threat to the police but as they slowly passed the parked vehicles the police opened fire.
The sight of heavily armed police shooting repeatedly into the crowed mass of people who were sitting ducks waiting to be mown down was terrible. The police were in a killing frenzy, no fire was returned and yet they continued to shoot. Some of the miners escaped into the surrounding koppies (small hills) where they were pursued like game to be shot. No mercy was shown.
This was not a white, ideologically warped Apartheid police force dealing with a so called inferior class of people as in the days of Sharpville but a black on black state led violence which was sickening to watch. Round after round fired into the tightly packed group of human beings struggling to get away from the bullets, hoping to stay alive, in a panic, full of fear.
I'm not sure whether this footage and the unfurling story was shown in South Africa but no one was found culpable, no one was charged, no heads rolled other than the miners on that black day in South Africa.
It was like a cattle run only the cattle were people, herded and corralled into areas where they were trapped and shot down like animals.
The strike had becomes deadlocked with the management refusing to negotiate before the workers returned to work. The miners initially negotiated through their Union the NUM but had lost faith in the union believing them too close to management.
The sit in was on national TV with opinion divided on whether the miners had right on their side or should the economic argument produced by the Lonmin management carry the day.
In the lead up to the massacre a number of people had been killed, including two policemen a move which meant that the Police Commissioner made it clear on the day of the killing, "the sit in would end today no mater what the miners did". To back up her announcement she assembled a force of 650 police, numerous police semi armoured vehicles, rolls of barbed wire and over 4000 rounds of ammunition.
As daybreak broke, the police cordoned off all escape routes with barbed wire and blocked the exits with armoured police vans. The miners having been addressed passionately by one of the NUM reps begging them to move away and return home began to move peacefully from the koppie. Disengaging from any confrontation they showing no sign of rebellion or posed a threat to the police but as they slowly passed the parked vehicles the police opened fire.
The sight of heavily armed police shooting repeatedly into the crowed mass of people who were sitting ducks waiting to be mown down was terrible. The police were in a killing frenzy, no fire was returned and yet they continued to shoot. Some of the miners escaped into the surrounding koppies (small hills) where they were pursued like game to be shot. No mercy was shown.
This was not a white, ideologically warped Apartheid police force dealing with a so called inferior class of people as in the days of Sharpville but a black on black state led violence which was sickening to watch. Round after round fired into the tightly packed group of human beings struggling to get away from the bullets, hoping to stay alive, in a panic, full of fear.
I'm not sure whether this footage and the unfurling story was shown in South Africa but no one was found culpable, no one was charged, no heads rolled other than the miners on that black day in South Africa.
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