SACP condemns killing of NUM Chairperson in Marikana
Johannesburg - Monday, 21 October 2013
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is noting with shock and dismay, how members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are mindlessly and brutally killed in the Rustenburg platinum belt (North West province), in the areas particularly of Nkaneng and Wonderkop. NUM leaders, members and workers supporting the union are being systematically targeted, brutalised and killed, sometimes for wearing red t-shirts.
These killings are part of an agenda to intimidate and instil fear as a broader counterrevolutionary campaign involving an attempt to liquidate the NUM. The union's chairperson at Lonmin platinum mine, who has been at Marikana Commission of Inquiry as a witness, is the latest to be killed, reportedly from eight shots, on Thursdaynight.
The Communist Party condemns the killing to the contempt it deserves. The Party sends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, comrades, all workers and the NUM for the loss suffered from the coldblooded murderers who must be arrested as a matter of urgency and brought to book.
Violence, killings, sowing of divisions among workers and vigilante unionism as strategies of industrial organisation, as well as criminal activities, are the worst form of barbarism. Such tendencies can only benefit the capitalist class and opportunists who masquerade as trade unionists, progressive people and revolutionaries whilst in fact they feed on worker disunity and scavenge their carcases for popularity.
Life in communities surrounding the Rustenburg platinum belt, especially for NUM members, leaders and workers supporting the union, has become a misery. The violence, brutal killings and other forms of malice that were started against the NUM, its members, leaders and supporters at a workplace, Lonmin Platinum and near-by mines, have spread to torture community life - thanks to the heartless mine bosses.
The SACP is calling on NUM members to remain resilient with commitment and conviction to build and defend their union as well as continue mobilising for the unity of the mine, construction and energy workers. We are calling on other workers in the sectors to join the NUM. As the SACP we are saying to workers "unite on an industrial basis and as workers of the world; for there is no other road to victory against capitalist exploitation".
The SACP reiterates its call for the Minister of Police to prioritise dealing with the violence that has escalated around mining areas and the killings of NUM members. This should involve well-resourced specialised task team to stop the violence and killings in a just manner.
We are calling on the Marikana Commission of Inquiry to complete its work. The slow pace of the commission's performance is reinforcing unnecessary perceptions and plays into the ongoing killings. This might as well be giving space to the vigilantes to go on with their barbaric activities unabated.
Statement issued by the SACP, October 21 2013
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