Marikana: 10 years later
Victims are still fighting for justice a decade after Marikana and have vowed to continue trying to hold President Cyril Ramaphosa and others accountable for the massacre as so much, but so little, seems to have changed.
By Greg Nicolson
"We realise after a couple of the people have died that this is not the rubber bullets. It is the live ammunition. That is when the people started to run." - Marikana miner and eyewitness. Read the story
As the country remembers that horrific day 10 years ago, the victims’ families tell Daily Maverick of their sense of betrayal and justice not served, giving their lingering grief an acute edge.
By Nonkululeko Njilo
As a photographer, a storyteller who uses images to communicate with people, that day when police opened fire, killing 34 striking mine workers, has never left me.
By Felix Dlangamandla
If you value the work our journalists do and want to support Daily Maverick’s efforts to hold those in power to account, consider becoming a Maverick Insider.
In the direct aftermath of the Marikana massacre, the narrative put out by police was that mine workers were shot by cops in danger acting out of self-defence. This might have stayed the official story of Marikana — were it not for a brave team of researchers and one battle-hardened journalist.
By Rebecca Davis
Despite an inquiry, reports, recommendations and promises, nothing seems to change and the shrinking South African Police Service is still beset by problems and bad leadership.
By Caryn Dolley
Some of the miners killed in the 16 August massacre at Marikana appear to have been shot at close range or crushed by police vehicles. They were not caught in a fusillade of gunfire from police defending themselves, as the official account would have it. Greg Marinovich spent two weeks trying to understand what really happened. What he found was profoundly disturbing.
By Greg Marinovich
“He was one of the survivors of the shooting – probably Scene Two – which is where he killed himself eventually. He had been arrested on 16 August, along with some 200 other survivors, and most likely charged with murder. All survivors were, as far as I know. The tree he hanged himself from was alongside the tree where Mr Nkosiyabo Xalabile’s body was found [body O, according to forensic evidence]. On the day I went to the scene of the hanging with miners, we found several presumably police-spent cartridges from the 16th just 2,8 metres away,” – Acclaimed photo journalist Greg Marinovich.
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Read an excerpt from Daily Maverick’s book, We Have A Game Changer, on how the publication covered the Marikana murders.
The previously unpublished image from Greg Marinovich’s portfolio of photographs on the Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012.
While between 3,000 and 5,000 striking miners were marching five kilometers to deliver their demands to Lonmin management, the police, it seems, were quite busy at Small Koppie. As luck would have it, Greg Marinovich and a bunch of attorneys were there soon after. Result: Small Koppie keeps delivering wallops of disturbing information.
By Greg Marinovich
Marikana is now a key part of Sibanye’s profitable portfolio. A change of ownership and a surge in prices have pulled the mine back from the brink.
By Ed Stoddard
From the archives
Marikana murders: The world now believes
Our nation is standing on the brink. The events at Marikana and its immediate aftermath are no longer in doubt, nor are Rustenburg’s massive mining issues. We face a national emergency – the greatest one facing President Zuma, Mangaung included. By GREG MARINOVICH.
Marikana, one year later: the hell above and below ground
It is a year since the event that shook South Africa to its core. There is no need to belabour what occurred in the dusty veld of Marikana on 16 August 2012, other than to say it was the first massacre by South African security forces in a democratic epoch. GREG MARINOVICH looks at what a year has wrought, and goes into the heart of mining darkness. Photographs by THAPELO LEKGOWA & GREG MARINOVICH.
Memories of Marikana, through the eNCA lens
Over the past several days, the eNCA satellite television news network has rebroadcast – and then placed a link to the entire hour-long programme on the network’s website – a dramatic documentary on the Marikana Massacre of miners from the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg. J. BROOKS SPECTOR spent hours watching this documentary several times to get the full flavour of it.
Marikana: Police torturing their way to intimidation
Thought the times when we were reporting on torture in custody would never come back again? That the minority’s use of the repression and violence against the majority were over? How wrong we all were. By GREG MARINOVICH.
25 October 2012: A day of reckoning at Marikana
Pay-day approaches for miners at Lonmin’s Marikana facility, and rumours are rife that the promised 22% pay increase due some workers won’t materialise. Meantime, Lonmin’s finances are looking shaky. Could month’s end bring more chaos? By GREG MARINOVICH.
Marikana: The debt-hole that fuelled the fire
An investigation by the National Credit Regulator revealed the shocking exploitation of vulnerable mining communities by unscrupulous micro-lenders. There is every indication that the practices – including docking debt re-payments straight from a worker’s wages – may have played a role in creating the conditions leading to the current unrest in the mining sector. By REBECCA DAVIS.
Photo credits:
Image 1: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Felix Dlangamandla
Image 2: EPA/STR
Image 3: EPA/STR
Image 4: EPA/STR
Image 5: EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Image 6: Felix Dlangamandla / FOTO24
Image 7: Felix Dlangamandla / FOTO24
Image 8: Greg Marinovich
Image 9: Greg Marinovich
Image 10: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images
All photos by EPA. Form shows most recent first and tournaments include the 2018 World Cup. DM