I have resisted writing on the Marikana disaster for a few weeks now because of how the tragic events quickly degenerated into a political football in a disgusting blame game match. The tragedy has simply descended into an awfully obscene orgy of politicians, media, analysts and many other armchair critics. But now I can’t ignore […]
Lonmin
Posted inNews/Politics
Dear Whitey
I hope you are well. Even though I’m sure you are not really interested, I am fine. I know that you are not too concerned about others, until you hear about them on Twitter, or Facebook — or someone at the office sends you an angry email, summarising something they’ve heard about that could ruin […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Who’s behind the Marikana murder charge?
The decision to charge the protesting Marikana miners who were arrested by police with the murder of their 34 colleagues who died at the hands of the authorities is patently misguided. In this regard not only will the state’s efforts to prove the necessary dolus required for murder remain elusive but the alleged employment of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Marikana: Time to rethink mining rights?
By Takura Zhangazha The tragic and fatal shooting of 34 mineworkers in South Africa has sadly brought back memories of the violence of the apartheid years. And because memories of apartheid are not only limited to South Africa, the killing fields of Marikana must also be viewed as part of the Southern African narrative of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
After 33 years of stability, the labour landscape shudders
The tragic shootings at Lonmin’s Marikana mine is a wake-up call to South Africans who imagined that the hard yards had ended with the advent of democracy. It is also a seismic shock to a labour-relations system that has weathered more than three decades. At the very least, the shooting to death of 34 miners […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Finding rainbows in the gutter
Why are South Africans so good at doing bad things together, but not good things? A lot of people like to say “the rainbow nation is dead, we can never get on”. But every day people are proving that fact wrong. White and black policemen working together, manning the machine guns like brothers, mowing down […]
Posted inGeneral
Tales from a mine shaft
Ever since I was a child many people – young and old – from my village have worked in the mines, from uncles, cousins to friends. One thing remains common, despite their hard work digging precious metals, they have very little to show in monetary terms. They come home at end of the year with […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Makana, Mandela, Marikana — endings and beginnings
Marikana is a name like Soweto, June 16. Like Sharpeville. It is a turning point. History will record it. Future generations will shudder. There are few South Africans whose hearts are not broken by those eight letters. Here where I live in the United States, Americans have bought into the South African Dream, the Rainbow […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Lonmin tragedy exposes the farce of a transformed police force
The killing of more than 30 mineworkers by police on Thursday is a watershed in post-apartheid policing and politics. Whatever the challenges confronting police in the face of an agitated and armed group of workers, the numbers of miners killed seems to reflect an action that seriously transgresses the limits of a reasonable response. The […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Workers of Lonmin, my heart bleeds
By Gugu Ndima I watched the bodies drop, I was hoping at some point it would stop. The news reader had cautioned the footage was graphic. Men dropped like bricks on the soil of Lonmin grounds. I teared up and gasped. It was as if I was watching a documentary of a massacre from the […]