SA Time: August 28, 2012 5:43:17 AM CDT
Marikana was
the uprising of the poor
REUTERS
Protesters sing as they hold weapons outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, August 16, 2012. South African police opened fire on Thursday against thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, leaving several bloodied corpses lying on the ground. A Reuters cameraman said he saw at least seven bodies after the shooting, which occurred when police laying out barricades of barbed wire were outflanked by some of an estimated 3,000 miners massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)
And they mowed them down with automatic guns. Just like in the movies… except, there were no sound effects. No slow motion for emphasis. Just dust. It sounded like fireworks going off. A thunder of explosions that could excite or terrify. Fast and gritty. A memory snatched by time amid the recollection of a dream. It was a dream, so quickly was it over. I blinked and it had never happened.
Except for their colourfully draped bodies sprawled in the lingering dust. Silver and red shacks and a mournful sky witness not only to their death, but to their living. Blood dripping and nourishing the parched earth.
Pangas laid down in reverence to the occasion, glistening with the blood of betrayed forgiveness, hopes and dreams. The police brotha turned with an apologetic smile to the camera. “Look what they made me do,” the smile said. There was a boyish fear in those eyes groomed to shrug off discomfort. A fear looking for approval.
This is the scene you will meet when you find my heart. I grieve for the miner and the police brotha who continues to do the master’s bidding. I grieve for his soul. I grieve more if he takes pleasure from it. I grieve for the woman who must raise a family on her own on a meagre salary, if any. I grieve for the dream that gets dimmer with every welfare grant. I grieve for those who have become desensitised to our struggle.
The gloves are off. It has been a long time coming. Those who have tried to quell the tide have failed because they are one-dimensional, and black is the only dimension they can manipulate.
Fana Mokoena said something interesting on Twitter the other day. We now have a people called The Poor, and their struggle is not ours. Yes, they are black, but the other black. We have othered ourselves. Distanced ourselves from ourselves.
3689 SAMA award-winner, Simphiwe Dana performs on the set of music show Afro Cafe. Red Pepper Studios, Linden, Johannesburg. 280710 - Picture: Jennifer Bruce
INLSA
We have crossed the line. And found that we are, after all, not out of the woods of apartheid. Those in the know have known all along.
The debates on social networks are heated. For and against the workers, police, unions and Lonmin.
Are we asking the right questions? On July 18 someone going by the name of Youngster penned a letter to Madiba. It was brutal and touched a lot of people. Youngster was accusing Madiba of selling out black people. Blasphemy! Youngster asked a lot of uncomfortable questions backed by facts. Youngster was angry and calling for an apology. Out of all the noise that followed, the only answer that made sense was that Madiba and his generation had done what they could. That each generation has its struggle.
What boggles my mind is why the patronage. If it is our struggle, allow us the fight. Our generation is babysat by freedom fighters who only know how to fight in trenches, not in boardrooms. Our generation’s struggle is economic apartheid. There’s no guidebook for that in the trenches. In the trenches we know we must fight and destabilise the system. We are led by people who only know to destroy. Not to build. The era for that is over and we are grateful for their contribution. They earned us a milestone. This next part of the struggle needs a different consciousness.
We need planners to chart an economy that works for all. We need Bikos from all sectors of industry to chart the way to a better life for all. It is becoming glaringly obvious that the ordinary black person has been shortchanged. Yes, black. The struggle has been black for centuries and the past 18 years have just been a Band Aid on a festering wound. That approximately 16 million people are on welfare should set off alarm bells. That is almost a third of our society.
Down with cadre deployment. The ANC, as the ruling party, needs to head-hunt thought leaders from different sectors of industry to lead us. We cannot go on like this.
“Sikhathele,” the miner said, we are tired. James Baldwin said a man with nothing to lose is a dangerous man. We have done this to our own people. There is something about the comfort of money that gives one amnesia. All black people used to march to the same beat as The Poor. They fought, died, for their freedom. A pity that this freedom was for some, not for all.
I can imagine The Poor feel a great sense of betrayal. If I could relive 1992 I would be that person who got shot for charging at Madiba screaming “stick to your guns” over and over again.
I was alarmed a few weeks back when we sent the army to the Cape Flats because the police could not control the violence. I was alarmed that the violence had escalated that badly to warrant a call for the army. Imagine a country at war with its people/itself. I was alarmed to hear that during the Khayelitsha protests people had thrown petrol bombs at police and police had responded with live ammunition.
“Sikhathele,” these words must sink in. Let them marinate in the bowels of your fear.
People do not want welfare. They want education and jobs so they can be just like you. Have a house in Sandton if they so choose. They will take the welfare rather than starve still. And people are tired of being mules for the rich.
Now that the rainbow nation bubble has burst, perhaps we can get back to the real work of freeing blacks.
The same business our people are killing each other for is the same business that traded in our pain during apartheid. It is unacceptable.
“It is not AMCU or NUM that said we shouldn’t go to work – it’s us, the workers”.
It seems we have found the man with nothing to lose. The miner risks his life every day in his job. He has gone beyond fearing death and he is gatvol of economic apartheid.
It seems the only language SA understands is violence, because the people have begged and pleaded to no avail.
This was an uprising of the poor. A declaration of war.
We in our comfortable homes and offices can speculate and debate till we are grey. It will not change the fact that The Poor have lost faith in leadership and are taking matters into their own hands. The Poor are willing to die so their children can have a better future.
We need a renegotiation of the terms of our freedom because seemingly it is not working for blacks. We need leaders who will be pro-people, not pro-business and investors. The people are the engine that runs business. The people are not happy. They say it is enough. They have written this declaration with their blood.
Let us not raise our security walls and call in the police in response. Introspection is needed here. Let us open our hearts to the plight of The Poor. Imagine ourselves in their shoes and then do the right thing.
Simphiwe Dana is a musician and cultural activist.
__________________________
Marikana shootings
highlight failure of key
South African Institutions
Monday 27 August 2012
COMMENT: Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo, ISS
Lonmin mine workers in Marikana, North West.(SABC)
Could the situation at the Lonmin mine in the Marikana area in North West have been handled differently to avoid the tragic loss of lives? From the conflicting accounts emanating from different quarters it is difficult to reach a conclusive response. The events that culminated in the death of 34 protesting mineworkers on 16 August, when officers of the South African Police Service (SAPS) shot at workers using live ammunition, were initially sparked by a rock drillers strike on 10 August. The rock drillers were demanding a more than 300% salary increase, from R4 000 to R12 500 per month.
The shooting incident resulted in one of the worst death tolls in violent protests since 1994. A total of 44 people have lost their lives, including 10 other individuals killed in attacks shortly before the deadly incident. In addition to the deaths, 78 people were injured and the police arrested 259 individuals. The only other post-1994 public protest recording a higher death rate was the 2006 security guard strike that resulted in 50 deaths over a three-month period.
While President Jacob Zuma has declared a seven-day official mourning period, which should offer all a moment of reflection, the Lonmin management, in what has been described by some as crass insensitivity, issued the striking mineworkers with an ultimatum to return to work immediately or face dismissal. At the time of writing, the miners are mostly refusing to return, saying that it would be an insult to their colleagues killed during the police crackdown. At the present moment the situation at Marikana is one of uneasy calm.
The leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has traditionally organised in the mining sector, has been locked in a blame game with the breakaway Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). Each union blames the other for instigating the violence that led to the deadly confrontation with the SAPS. There are suggestions that the NUM has been losing its influence in some areas such as the platinum mines in the North West.
This, it is argued, is as a result of infighting within the NUM, which led to workers in the platinum sector withdrawing their allegiance from the union. One recent controversy has been the alleged political interference in the 2010 NUM elective conference that saw Frans Baleni, a supporter of Zuma, running unopposed for the position of secretary general. His opponent in the 2010 elections was Archie Phalane, who had been nominated by a majority of platinum workers. Phalane was told at the last minute that he could not run for secretary general of NUM because he was an employee of the union. This created tension and feelings of disgruntlement among many of the platinum mine workers who supported him.
Since then, the NUM’s representation among platinum mineworkers has dropped significantly and it is seen by many in the sector as a ‘sweetheart union’ unable to represent their interests. Just how bad things had become for the NUM in this sector became apparent when on 15 August its current national president, Senzeni Zokana, refused to leave a police armoured vehicle to address the striking workers, fearing for his life. It is reported that AMCU national president Joseph Mathunjwa received a rousing welcome and addressed workers.
Mathunjwa had started AMCU after being expelled from the NUM by former union secretary general and current ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe. This resulted in 3 000 people leaving the NUM to join AMCU, which was registered in 2001. However, in this instance, even the AMCU failed to convince workers, some of whom were armed with newly made traditional weapons such as spears and pangas, to stand down from the hilltop where they had gathered. So while the AMCU has been able to move into the space originally occupied by the NUM, it seems it is not yet the dominant union and therefore a labour leadership vacuum exists in the platinum sector.
There is evidence that the socio-economic conditions of these mineworkers have been deteriorating over the past five years.
However, various questions remain as to why the confrontation between the striking mine workers and the police led to such a high death toll. What led to the miners being so angry and heavily armed in the first place? The answer might lie in the overall absence of leadership among the relevant role-players. There is evidence that the socio-economic conditions of these mineworkers have been deteriorating over the past five years. Increasingly, the mineworkers and their families living in the surrounding informal settlements have realised that those in power are not interested in their plight. It was at this moment that they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Following the earlier spurt of violence in which six miners, two Lonmin security guards and two police officers were hacked to death, concerted action by the SAPS, together with mine management and rival union leaders, would have been expected. For instance, representatives nominated from the ranks of the striking workers, traditional leaders in the area, the SAPS and union representatives, together with mine management, could have come together to discuss the concerns of the 3 000 striking workers to prevent further bloodshed. At the very least, the departments of Labour or Mineral Resources should have actively sought to assist with negotiations. The fact that none of this occurred is an illustration of the leadership crisis that South Africa faces.
The effectiveness of South Africa’s domestic intelligence services in gathering credible information is also questionable given this tragedy. The police were clearly concerned that there was a likely chance of violence, which is why they deployed members of two highly trained police units, namely the National Intervention Unit and the Special Task Force. Both these units only become involved in situations that most other policing units cannot handle.
However, in the end these specialist units acted reactively, leading to large-scale deaths that may not have happened if they had adequate intelligence as to the identity of the leaders, or the mood and plans of the striking miners. It is a matter of concern that, despite the failures of intelligence exposed by the widespread xenophobic violence in 2008 and the ongoing violence associated with many labour strikes in South Africa, our intelligence agencies are still unable to play a proactive role to prevent deaths and violence. The politicisation of these structures has clearly taken a heavy toll.
These developments may also have major political implications for South Africa. The tri-partite alliance, consisting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP), is a very powerful entity. However, questions need to be asked about the extent to which it adequately represents the truly poor and vulnerable in South Africa. Some have argued that COSATU and the SACP have largely come to represent a ‘working class aristocracy’ and are too involved in ANC elite power politics to adequately work in the interest of the poor. As a result violent public protests over poor service delivery have been increasing substantially over the past three years.
The Marikana tragedy has pitted an exploited labour force against a cosy elite consisting of private capital and the politically powerful. It is for this reason that populists such as expelled former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema can so easily step into the breach as he did when addressing the strikers over the weekend. His support group, ‘Friends of the Youth League’, is reportedly paying for the legal costs of the 259 arrested miners while ANC leaders have yet to visit the striking workers. This lends support to the perception that those pushing for radical populist policies such as mine nationalisation and land expropriation without compensation are acting in the interests of the poor.
The Marikana deaths have exposed various fault lines in South Africa, with inadequate leadership at the core. The challenges faced by the police, the government and the alliance are arguably the result of a depletion of capable leadership in important structures. These structures, when led by capable, experienced men and women of integrity, should ideally protect and advance citizens’ interests. This, however, is impossible in a system based on patronage rather than merit.
Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo is a Researcher on Crime and Justice Programme at the ISS in Pretoria.
>via: http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/61dee2004c7f5394b688b77dedd74c7c/Marikana-Shooti...