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The Star reports that the Association of Mining and Construction Workers Union (Amcu) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to meet the widows of the miners who died in 2012 in the Marikana massacre.
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said the widows had been traumatised by the massacre. He advised that some of the living conditions of the widows were deplorable, while others had taken their husbands’ places working at the mines. “Can you imagine going underground in that cage full of males, going down at night, 3am and 4am, and you still have to take care of children? This is heartbreaking,” said Mathunjwa. He advised that he had written a letter to President Ramaphosa, but Ramaphosa had not responded. Around 34 miners died in Marikana on 16 August 2012, after an instruction by Ramaphosa – then a non-executive director of mining company Lonmin – for officials to take “concomitant action” during a wage strike at the mine. According to Mathunjwa, Ramaphosa had been invited to the Marikana memorials, but had never showed up. He commneted that the union thought Ramaphosa would be forthcoming because of his background in trade unionism. “We thought it was a good opportunity for him to close the chapter and move us into a stage of healing, but I was wrong … maybe he is still thinking of it,” Mathunjwa remarked.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Itumeleng Mafisa at The Star
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