EFF marks the 8th anniversary of the Marikana Massacre
16 August 2020
The Economic Freedom Fighters marks the 8th Anniversary of the Marikana Massacre. On this day 34 miners were brutally murdered by an ANC-regime in defence of the mining industry and white-monopoly capital. In a perverted collusion between the state and Lonmin, conspiracy to characterize workers demanding a living-wage as criminals was devised, and the sitting Deputy President of the time and Non-Executive Director of Lonmin, Cyril Ramaphosa called for concomitant action to be taken against workers. This communication, in which Ramaphosa calls workers "plainly dastardly criminals" was sent a day before the massacre to the then Lonmin Board.
This led to the brutal murder of workers who posed no threat and were retreating. Workers were caged in barbed-wire and hunted down like animals in various locations around the Marikana Koppie. The chilling details of workers being finished off assassination style, reveal a deliberate agenda to murder workers and leave no survivors. To date, no one has been prosecuted for the murder of workers in Marikana and the widows and children of those whose lives were taken remain without justice.
The conditions that characterized the platinum-belt across the North West in 2012 have not changed. Mining communities remain sites of squalor and under-developed, although they produce incredible wealth with resources that are mined in their land. The families of the miners whose lives were taken remain destitute, having lost bread-winners and their families are torn apart by grief.
The women of Marikana, who sustained the struggle of Marikana workers behind the scenes, remain forgotten. It is these women who kept and continue to keep the Marikana community alive, who look after children, who prepared meals, and remained the anchors of the strikes across the platinum-belt. They are the ones who continue to demand justice for the slain Marikana workers and took up the picks and shovels underground after having lost their husbands, brothers and sons.
We call for justice for the slain Marikana-workers and for the families to receive the compensation due to them. Riah Phiyega, Nathi Mthethwa, Cyril Ramphosa and the Lonmin Executives who conspired with the state to murder people must face prosecution.
We call for Cyril Ramaphosa to account for his role in the murder of the workers of Marikana.
He today sits as a President of South Africa with blood on his hands, orchestrating yet another massacre through the manipulation of COVID-19 data, once again in service of capital interests.
We remember the brave spirit of the miners who faced death for a just cause.
We remain inspired by their defiance, which is in line with the long wars against dispossession in Africa. We will carry the baton in the fight for the mineral resources of Africa to benefit Africans rather than foreign markets and their puppets in the state.
We reiterate our call for the nationalisation of mines into the hands of a state that will ensure the wealth of our mineral resources contributes meaningfully to the lives of African people.
ong Live the Spirit of the Slain Mineworkers of Marikana!
Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 16 August 2020
