The air is thick with analysis and I don’t know what’s going on.

10 June 2014. Press conference, Department of Mineral Resources, Pretoria, Minister Ramatlhodi. Colleagues (other people from other media organisations) trade in comment interpretation and source discrepancies. The Minister is no longer involved in negotiations. He makes his official announcement on one of the biggest board tables I’ve ever seen. On his recent appointment, he said nothing can be done in mining without solving the strikes. Now, he says the union and platinum companies need to know he has other work to do.

I raise my hand for a question. What to ask? I’m not sure, but I raise my hand. The Spokesperson doesn’t choose me and I lower my hand, listen to the discrepancies between foreign and local news angles.

Who in the room has seen Miners Shot Down (the documentary by Rehad Desai – filmmaker, activist, sometimes contact and all-round interesting-ish guy), I wonder. “Respectable” is one of the words that sticks with me since seeing it on Friday.

In the six days leading up to the massacre in Marikana, the miners appear respectable, I would say. Yep, they kill a handful of people, set off by two incidents – NUM shooting at them and cops deciding to fire teargas on the 13^th. But they appear respectable. Old school values. Old school marching techniques – from Eastern Cape? There’s also old school respect in dealing with authorities. Of course, 34 of them were killed on 16 August 2012 and more have been killed in the battle since. Anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows that unjust deaths lead to more (just/unjust?) deaths.

Desai tries to convey the failure of post-Apartheid leaders to stay committed to improving the life of miners (extrapolate: ANC and black working class). Cyril Ramaphosa was an NUM leader. He’s now rich enough to buy any of the houses in those real estate guides that cater to the rich, selling McDonalds burgers, shakes and a whole lot of other crap for a profit.

Yes, miners’ lives have improved since ’94, but remember the Ernest Cole picture of the mine recruits, naked, being searched, hands in the air in front of a black background in a white room? Pre-1994 isn’t the best base to start from. Today, we see more pay, still lots of deaths on the job but supposedly (surely?) better safety standards, but look at the settlements in Marikana: that’s is where many of Lonmin’s miners live. I’ll tell you: they suck. Nkaneng is perhaps a level or two above the worst I’ve seen in the country. And those places are so kak description beggars words.

Yes, the platinum miners already make decent wages in SA standards. But unlike most people who make the same, they live like this. Something’s wrong, no? What? Why? How will it change? Their ability to strike for so long shows that things have changed. But if things have changed beyond legislation, why the need to strike for so long?

It’s the South African story. Things are better. But if we have such a good story to tell, why the fuck do we have so many problems? Cue the line, “It’s Apartheid’s fault.”

I digress. Let me tell you my thoughts on the platinum strike. The problem was created by colonialism and Apartheid. The blood and humiliation of black workers flowed from one system into another, supporting the system of inequality – subjects and citizens. The rhetoric that gave talented leaders like Ramaphosa the ammunition to rise into prominent positions was true. For black migrant workers, life was hard, and their hardship directly boosted the bank accounts of some white South Africans, and indirectly benefited others.

Minister Ramatlhodi seems like a decent guy. His decision to intervene in the strike reflected many people’s views, just like his comments on the Sunset Clauses in the negotiations for democracy reflected many people’s views that they were bullshit. Those agreements ushered in a reasonably peaceful (to a degree) democracy, but let’s be honest, in light of the ongoing poverty, unemployment and inequality, you have to wonder whether wealth accumulated on the rack of racist, oppressive, degrading laws should be wealth respected.

That’s where the miners are.

But the chief concern isn’t how screwed white rule was. It’s an enormous factor contributing to the current situation, but there’s more. What happened since 1994? AMCU leadership are proving ever harder to reach, but when Joseph Mathunjwa answered my calls he always spoke with incredulity about how little has changed. How can we have the same system – a system that… the system that… the same system that…

A system where workers on strike can end up being massacred by police and turning on each other. For twelve-point-bloody-five.

The withdrawal of the government task team is significant beyond these wage negotiations. I like individuals within the mining companies. But the companies themselves? They’re exploitative, leeching entities trying to benefit their shareholders. But frustrating as they may be, they need to stick within the law.

Those laws are created by the state, which since democracy has been run by the ANC. One of the best pieces of research from the platinum strikes came out of Wits; you can read one of the authors’ explanations here. The study looked at the huge profits the mining companies made before the 2008 global financial crisis and how little of that money went to workers. It recommends a resources rent tax, which could ensure some of that money is invested in South Africa’s future.

For now, however, the platinum boom is gone. We’ve missed the boat on turning mining profit into local development and no platinum producer can claim they’ve done enough for their workers in the last 20 years. The ANC’s managed to enrich a few talented and connected leaders while leaving the overall system of the past intact. The party’s fabric has been interwoven with that of the mining bosses so that when someone outside of its Alliance tries to tear it apart, like AMCU, it wants no part in the destruction.

The mineworkers on strike are stuck in a zero-sum game. If they reach their demand of R12,500 basic wage, which, really, is unlikely, there’ll be job losses and mine closures. The platinum price just isn’t where it needs to be. If they settle for less, it still could be a substantial gain for workers, but what less than their demands can pacify the cries of their exploited ancestors, the dead of Marikana and the failed hopes of those who believed 1994 would lead to a better life, something different from the experience of their fathers?

The post-Apartheid story, whether you believe it’s a good story to tell or a narrative of ongoing repression, can be seen in the platinum strikers. Future historians in the path from tyranny and segregation to democracy will note what happens here. DM