Protesters sing as they hold weapons outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest
of Johannesburg. South African police opened fire Thursday, August 16, 2012, against thousands of striking miners
armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, leaving several bloodied corpses lying
on the ground. A Reuterscameraman said he saw at least seven bodies after the shooting, which occurred 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. (Photo: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)
South Africans held a memorial service Thursday, August 23, 2012, at a hill near the Marikana mine, where police
killed almost three-dozen people in an incident that revived memories of apartheid-era violence and laid bare
workers' anger. Some 500 people crammed into a marquee pitched at the platinum mine, near what has been
dubbed the "Hill of Horror" where police shot dead 34 striking miners. (Photo: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko)
A week of violence that began on August
10, 2012, at Lonmin's Marikana plat-inum mine near Rustenburg, South
Africa, culminated on August 16 when
police shot into a crowd of striking
mineworkers and their supporters, killing
34 and wounding 78. Another 10 people
had been killed in violent incidents dur-ing the week prior to August 16. The
immediate cause of the violence was
credited to rivalry between the long-established National Union of Mine-workers (NUM) and the relatively newer
Association of Mineworkers and Con-struction Union (AMCU). AMCU has built
membership, in part through threats and
intimidation, as the NUM has come to be
seen by some as being too friendly with
mining companies and the government
and not sufficiently forceful in represent-ing the interests of its members.
Lonmin is the world's third-largest
platinum producer, accounting for about
12% of world platinum production.
Marikana is its largest mine and account-ed for more than 96% of its production of
metals in concentrates in 2011.
Lonmin's local workforce at Marikana
numbers 25,000, plus a further 10,000
contractors, most of whom were not on
strike but were unable to work during the
violence, when production was halted.
Leading up to the deadly shooting by
police, Lonmin reported August 12 that,
"Two Lonmin employees have been killed
and six injured in three incidents of sus-pected inter-union conflict at the compa-ny's Western Platinum operations. The
company immediately requested the sup-port of the South African Police Services
to try to contain the violence in support
of its own security procedures.
"The incidents followed an illegal
work stoppage and protest march on
Friday, August 10 by approximately
3,000 Lonmin rock drill operators which
quickly spiraled into criminal actions by
rival factions," the company stated.
On August 16, just prior to the large
number of deaths and injuries resulting
from shooting by police, Lonmin reported
that the number of deaths resulting from
ongoing violence in the area of its opera-tions had increased to include two
policemen and eight Lonmin employees.
Following the deadly shooting, South
Africa's President Jacob Zuma declared a
week of mourning beginning August 20
and ordered an official inquiry into the
violence. During that week, a wide range of voices, some seeking to gain political
capital from the tragedy, variously placed
blame for the violence on loss of hope
among the poor in South Africa, on South
Africa's national government, on the
police, on the unions, on Lonmin man-agement, and on industry-wide labor
relations practices. Other voices ex-pressed concern that the confrontation at
Marikana might be a prelude to further
labor-related troubles throughout the
South African mining industry. Still oth-ers sought reconciliation and a return to
a sustainable peace.
On August 24, South Africa's Labor
Minister, Mildred Oliphant, convened a
meeting that brought together represen-tatives of Lonmin management, the
National Union of Mineworkers, the
Association of Mineworkers and Con-struction Union, Solidarity, the United
Association of SA, the Federation of
Unions of SA, the National Council of
Trade Unions and the Congress of SA
Trade Unions. The participants agreed to
conclude a peace accord by August 29.
(Editor's note: This report on the tragic
events at Marikana and subsequent
developments was written August 26,
2012. E&MJ will provide an update to
the report in its October issue, including
information regarding Lonmin's efforts to
return the mine to production.)
As featured in Womp 2012 Vol 09 - www.womp-int.com