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News24 reports that as the country commemorated a decade since the Marikana massacre, Thato Masiangoako of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute pointed out that what happened in August 2012 was "very deliberate" and not an "accident".
On 16 August 2012, 34 people were killed and 78 seriously injured when the police opened fire on protesting miners in Marikana. Masiangoako said about the events on that day that mortuary vans were ordered, ammunition was ordered and the miners, who were trying to leave peacefully, were then killed in cold blood. “A lot of them actually bled out, they could have been saved, but the medical support couldn't get to them in time. Miners then fled and went to hide at scene 2, where police then pursued them and killed them in cold blood. A lot of miners were surrendering, but they were being shot dead,” Masiangoako recalled. She also asserted that the state had fallen short in sympathising with the families: "We are still waiting 10 years later. No one has come to them and matched with them on a human level to say what happened should not have happened. There has been none of that. And because there had been no apology, this (is) hampered the ability of each family to move forward.” Masiangoako added that the families of the 10 people, including two Lonmin security officers and police officers who died in the days leading to the 16 August massacre, often felt when Marikana was spoken about that they were "forgotten".
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jeanette Chabalala at News24
- Read too, Rights organisations are seeking accountability for failed Marikana housing, at Mining Weekly
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page