The Marikana Massacre - When a billionaire slaughtered his own workers

South Africa's president is relatively beloved. However, many have forgotten about his fricked up past and how he is responsible for the worst massacre in South Africa since apartheid. In this relatively short post, I want to outline the events of the Marikana massacre and the shitshow that ensued.

Mining in South Africa

As you probably already know, South Africa is one of the worlds mining hub, producing the overwhelming majority of the world's platinum and gold. This was in part made possible through aparheid which built ghettoes near mines as a means of acquiring cheap labour. Of course, this had several negative effects, including the destruction of the nuclear family.

Regardless, when apartheid seized, a question arose: what to do with all these mines? They were generating the majority of the country's wealth, yet they were exclusively owned by whites. This was obviously not a natural occurrence of a free market and it was only possible because of apartheid laws. On the other hand, they couldn't just hand over the mines to Black people who had no knowledge on how to manage the mines. Thus, a conclusion was reached: the mines would be given grants to improve the communities they were located in, and to give their workers a better standard of living.

It should be mentioned at this point that mine workers were paid very poorly, often were injured on the job, and suffered long-term health effects from inhaling dangerous substances. Another problem that made things worse is that male workers were separated from their families who still lived in the rural homestead. Consequently, many workers would start second families in the ghettoes, meaning that their menial salaries were split among two families, sometimes consisting of 6,7, or even 8 children. As you can imagine, many of these children were underfed and did not go to school.

The Workers Have Had Enough

Well, the time came when workers had decided that enough is enough. They were working long hours, suffering greivous injuries, and yet were being paid peanuts while their bosses were amongst the wealthiest people in the nation.

Hence, South Africans did what they did best - protest. Now, there's a lot of drama between the different workers unions, but that's not the focus of this peice. All you need to know is that on 10 August 2012 a strike began. It was led by rock drill operators who suffered some of the worst injustices because they worked long hours in dangerous conditions. They marched to Lomnim Platinum Mine offices, but nobody agreed to meet with them which angered the workers. Lomnim was heavily protected and had its own private security. This isn't a surprise as the business deals with very valuable goods. Hence, the owners of Lomnim set their security on the protestors. The security guards fired rubber bullets at the crowd, injuring many. This would only be the start of the violence.

This wasn't enough to deter the protestors. In the subsequent days, they returned to protest even more and in greater numbers. But this time, their beef wasn't just with Lomnim. They also had a problem with their Workers Union, NUM, which refused to negotiate on their behalf. They visited the headquarters of NUM, some of them carrying guns, and they opened fire. It is not clear how many people died. Some sources say 2 died, but others say the 2 were only injured and did not die. When asked about the incident, the workers claimed that they were acting in self-defence.

After this event, the workers were PISSED. They hired a traditional healer (witchdoctor, sangoma) to protect them from violence and they vowed to return with even more people because they really wanted a raise. There were more clashes between August 12 and August 15, resulting in the death of 15 people. If you know anything about the cycle of violence, you'll be aware that violence only begets more violence. So neither party backed down. NUM did not support their workers, the workers did not back down, and Lomnim refused the raise that the workers were demanding. During these clashes, an estimated 10 people died, including three mineworkers and two policemen in a single altercation; and, in other confrontation, an additional three Lonmin mine employees and two Lonmin security officials died.

Things got from bad to worse. Workers burned cop cars, attacked police, and dodged rubber bullets. However, all of this chaos would be nothing compared to the disastrous events of August 16.

The Marikana Massacre

The cops had had enough of the protestors. The poors were killing cops! So, they got together and orchestrated a plot called D-Day. They had nothing good on the mind. A press conference was held where it was announced that they were ending the matter. Grave words indeed. These were the exact words: "The plan is that we intend to ensure that today we end this strike. If they resist, like I said, today is a day that we intend to end the violence."

So, the police readied themselves. They packed barbed wire to keep the protestors from the police, and they stocked themselves with R5 ammunition. For those who don't know, this is a variant of a South African rifle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vektor_R4

You can watch them getting shot here:

The protestors were aware that the police were planning on escalating matters, but they believed they were safe because they had received protection from witch doctors. An opposing workers union, AMWU was against the strike, and he begged and pleaded for the workers to not go ahead with the protest because he could see that the police were willing to use lethal force. However, his warnings were not heeded. Hence, the massacre began.

Now, don't be fooled into thinking the protestors were peaceful. Though the majority of them had no guns, they were carrying sticks and rocks and fully meant to intimidate the police. However, many would agree that what the police did next was not proportionate. At first, the police tried, non-lethal means to disperse the crowd consisting of over 100 miners. They sprayed water cannons, used stun grenades and teargas but none of it worked. The crowd continued to progress. Now, you may think the crowd is stupid but just look at things from their perspective. They are not earning enough to feed themselves, yet their employees are literal billionaires.

Chaos started when one of the strikers decided to fire his pistol. In response, the police opened fire with their R5s. This barrage of bullets lasted about 12 seconds, and over 300 bullets were fired. It was complete pandemonium and it was hard for police to keep contact with each other. A Tactical Response Team commander raised his fist and shouted "cease fire", but not all police heard the order, so the shooting continued. In total, 17 workers were killed. It was found that most of the workers were shot on the back, meaning that they were running away. In other words, they were escaping from the gunfire. That is to say, they were in the process of dispersing. What I'm trying to communicate is that they were getting away and were no longer a threat.

At a different scene, things were no better. Cops clashed with protestors. Rocks were thrown and in response, police opened fire with their R5s, killing 17 more workers. Of course, the police defended themselves, claiming that they had given the crowd ample warning and that the protestors were too rowdy and aggressive and that the police feared for their lives. But in general, people in South Africa aren't very sympathetic to the police. One of the reasons this is the case is because police in South Africa have a history of being corrupt and violent. Secondly, when guns were found on scene, it wasn't clear who the guns belonged to, so they essentially "planted" the guns on whoever they could find. Yeah, the police aren't known for their world-class work.

The Role of Cyril Ramaphosa

Cyril is the current president of South Africa and he is a billionaire. He is involved with Lomnim, but he has his fingers in many other pies, including, according to Wikipedia:

Ramaphosa was also a chairman of Bidvest, MTN, and from March 2007, Mondi, a leading international paper and packaging group. His other non-executive directorships included Macsteel Holdings, Alexander Forbes, SABMiller, Lonmin, Anglo American, and Standard Bank. In 2011, Ramaphosa paid for a 20-year master franchise agreement to run 145 McDonald's restaurants in South Africa. He also belonged to the Coca-Cola Company International Advisory Board and the Unilever Africa Advisory Council.

The Marikana Massacre took place prior to Ramaphosa becoming president, but he was one of the board members who gave the okay for increased police force to be used against the strikers. The billionaire caught a lot of heat for this, with many calling him a murderer. But Ramaphosa faced no legal consequences, though he was courteous enough to apologize for his role in the murders.

"Yes, I did put a bid and that was a mistake on my part. It was a mistake; I regret it. It was a mistake to even put up my hand to do so, and I've been chastised by some of my good comrades. Even before they chastised me I did admit that that was a mistake. I regret it because, I mean, it's an excessive price in the seas of poverty… it was one of those moments when I was blind-sighted," Ramaphosa said.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121025233419/http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-10-25-cyril-ramaphosa-the-true-betrayal

Despite this, the man managed to become president of the country. Also, white extinction is long overdue.

Workers and Lomnim reach an agreement

So after all the murders, it was clearly that something had to be done. In total, 40 workers died and 2 police officers were killed. This caused national outcry and the country was furious, especially at Cyril who was a somewhat popular figure due to his billionaire status and being a senior member of the ANC. Eventually, it was agreed that workers would get a raise but it was not much. For example, rock drill operators now earned about $579 dollars. Imagine doing backbreaking work, inhaling dust all day to be paid $579 to feed your family while mine owners earn literally billions.

Aftermath

An inquiry was held to determine who, if anyone, was responsible for this massacre. By the end of it, very few police officers faced any disciplinary action. After all, they were just following orders! The State paid over $70 million to those affected by the murders, and they promised to build houses. But when journ*lists went to investigate these houses, they found that they were shoddily built and likely the result of corrupt tenders. @kaamrev probably knows more about this.

Conclusion

So how do you feel about the whole event? Were the strikers asking for it by not backing down even after being warned? Were the police pieces of shit for firing rifles at poor people with rocks? Does Ramaphosa deserve to be president or in prison? Is it fair that mine owners make billions while workers live in poverty? You decide!