ANA reports that thousands of Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) members braved the windy, dusty weather on Wednesday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Marikana tragedy.
Dressed in green union regalia, mineworkers and union members gathered at the foot of the infamous koppie (hill) in the Nkaneng informal settlement to remember 34 of their colleagues who died when the police shot them on 16 August 2012. Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said the Marikana massacre was different from the Sharpeville and Langa massacres because it happened under a constitutional democracy. He also called for a change in the electoral system to allow the electorate to elect the president directly and said that by 2019 he could lead a Labour Party, and make sure there were only two parties — the labour party and the democrats. Mathunjwa claimed that from next year mineworkers would earn over R12,500 per month. Lonmin CEO, Ben Magara, urged workers to work together with the mine to fix the conditions at the mine and in Africa.
- Read this report in full at The Citizen
- Read too, Marikana massacre no different to Sharpeville massacre, says Amcu, at News24
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