Women around the Lonmine area where over 40 people have been killed over the last week. On August 16, 2012 over 30 people were reported killed by the authorities., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Capital fails, we turn on each other and our mines become fields of death
17 August 2012
For more than a week now, the ANCYL has observed with horror the escalating, scandalous and horrendous violence that has left 45 people dead and countless more injured at Lonmin`s Marikana Massacre.
Provoked by murderous and unscrupulous elements within the trade union movement - workers, our people, who for years have borne the brunt of hardship, poverty and displacement, have gone on rampage at Marikana. Vulnerable and driven by a basic human need for dignity and a living wage, workers have turned on each other and society killing wantonly security guards, policemen and each other. Both organised labour and capital have failed the many dead, the injured and all of us, South African society.
The Marikana Massacre is a rupture that has long been in the making and irreversibly destined to occur. The signs were loud and clear for all to see during the Impala tragedy.
We refused to see them, we were happy to accept then as we did now that problem is and was trade union rivalry. South Africa`s exploitative mining regime, capitalist greed and the poverty of our people is the cause. How many more people must die before we accept that the festering conditions of inequality and ownership by a select few, a white few in particular, is a time bomb that no longer just ticks, it is ready to explode and is contained only by the deadly determination of some amongst us to maintain the status quo at the expense of the majority. Regardless the cost.
It will never be correct for our society to turn on and kill law enforcement agencies, but the South African Police Service, mandated to serve and protect us, cannot never also turn into a bloodthirsty killing machine. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the use of live ammunition in public order policing and call on Minister Mthethwa to conduct full investigation to explain to South Africans how it is that police turned on our people and killed them, when the right to life paramount. We further call on South African society to work with and support the ANC Youth League in its call for urgent, equitable and just redress to return to the people the mineral wealth beneath the soil and their birthright, our land. This must be done through the nationalisation of mines and other strategic sectors of the economy and expropriation of land without compensation. We demand that mediators are sent immediately to resolve the deadly situation, ensure that the employee and employer find one another immediately to avoid the situation descending into a further bloodbath. We no longer have any faith in the machinations of capital to resolve this calamity the interest of the workers.
Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who have unnecessarily and unfortunately have lost their lives.
Issued by the African National Congress Youth League
For enquiries
Khusela Sangoni-Khawe
ANCYL Head of Communications
079 510 5408
Statement of the African National Congress Youth League on the violence at Lonmin Marikana Mine
15 August 2012
The African National Congress Youth League condemns the unnecessary loss of life at Lonmin Mines. The loss of even one worker is always one life too many but the killing of ten people is a tragedy of epic proportions. We send our condolences to the families of the departed and wish them strength during this difficult time. We further wish those injured in these monstrous actions a speedy recovery.
The manner in which these murderous and heinous crimes were carried out is indicative of an organised and orchestrated campaign against workers. Lonmin, NUM and AMCU must jointly take responsibility for the violence which has escalated unabated over the last couple of days. While law enforcement agencies are expected to act with haste to arrest all implicated in these criminal acts, those who by virtue of election or employment are tasked to exercise vigilance over the safety and wellbeing of these workers must do so and this matter cannot be relegated to a blame session between the unions and the company.
The SANDF and law enforcement agencies must never be expected to clean up irresponsible and dangerous behaviour condoned by those who are meant to be leaders of workers. No union shall be allowed to use the lives of people bolster their support and we remind both NUM and AMCU that freedom of association is an inalienable right enshrined in our constitution.
We are left with no doubt that we were correct when we spoke of the need to democratise workplaces as part of our call for the nationalisation of mines and other strategic sectors of the economy. We have never though at any point assumed such a call would need to be further extended to what we believe to be the revolutionary and progressive trade union movement. We call therefore for an immediate end to the hostilities between NUM and AMCU and for NUM to lead in true tradition of the Congress movement and initiate discussion with all stakeholders to resolve the current impasse. During this time, the African National Congress Youth League echoes COSATU`s call for workers to exercise maximum discipline and restraint in the face of faceless and nameless provocation. The Ministers of Mineral Resources and Labour must also not to be a silent spectator to the process.
Issued by the African National Congress Youth League
Khusela Sangoni-Khawe
ANCYL Head of Communications
079 510 5408
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