On August 16 2012 the South African police shot and killed 34 striking miners at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, near Rustenburg in North West.
To mark the first anniversary of the Marikana massacre, the Mail & Guardian published a special project examining the consequences of the killings through the eyes and voices of those most affected: the families of the dead miners.
It was published on August 16 2013 as a 24-page supplement, distributed with the newspaper.
This was the first step of a long-term project by M&G journalists Paul Botes and Niren Tolsi, who spent time with the massacre victims’ families to document their lives since the August 16 2012 killings.
On June 25 2015, President Jacob Zuma finally released a report, by retired judge Ian Farlam’s commission of inquiry, into those deaths and 10 others that occurred during the strike.
In this special report they explore evidence put before the commission that strongly suggests 17 miners, who posed no threat to the police, were executed away from television cameras at “scene two” on August 2012.
They also look at the housing shortage in Marikana, which was one of the motivating factors behind the 2012 strike, and test the current temperature in the town that the government and Lonmin appear to have failed.