EFF statement on the fourth anniversary of the Marikana massacre 

16 August 2016

The Economic Freedom Fighters marks the fourth Anniversary of the brutal mass murder of black mineworkers by the ANC government on this day in 2012. The workers of Lonmin had been on a sustained strike demanding a living wage of R12, 500 when the ANC government, after declaring the workers as criminals, sent police to kill them. We remember this as a day when the ANC was exposed for what it truly is, an anti-black organisation that is prepared to kill black people in protection of white monopoly capital.

The workers of Marikana were not asking R12, 500 from the government or from any politician. They were not disrupting or distracting any public property when the ANC politicians, led by Cyril Ramaphosa, Nathi Mthethwa, Susan Shabangu conspired with the head of the police, Riah Phieya to spill the blood of innocent and unarmed black mineworkers. To this day, none of these politicians have been held accountable for the role that they played in the massacre.

Today we reaffirm our position that the ANC government killed black workers in Marikana in protection of white capital. We restate that this marks the ANC as an enemy of the African Revolution. Through this act alone, the ANC reaffirmed itself as an organisation that is never prepared to help black people access to real economic security beyond the status of being cheap and easily disposable labour. 

We further note that mines in this country have exploited the labour of our people and our environment for more than a century without even contributing adequately to our tax base. The extractive industries in South Africa are led criminal organisations and multinationals engaged in illicit financial practices; tax base erosion, transfer pricing and profit shifting. Evidence was led to this effect at the Farlam Commission that Lonmin could actually afford the worker's demand for a living wage of R12, 500, but elected to deny it.

The EFF will never forget and will never rest until all mineworkers receive their dignity and are paid a living wage. Today, we renew our vow that we shall never rest until all who are responsible for the brutal murder of workers are held accountable. No government spills the blood of black people and nothing is done; the government of the day will be removed soon, as did the apartheid regime, for the brutal mass murder of workers in Marikana.

Issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 16 August 2016