It has been 10 years since the Marikana massacre, a week in August 2012 that sent shockwaves through South Africa and made international headlines. Questions remain unanswered about the brutality meted out by the police and accountability for the murders and ruined lives remains elusive.
The Mail & Guardian has published 42 articles since the massacre, detailing the violence, the grief of families and how the police have yet to be charged for the death on 16 August 2012 of 34 mine workers on strike for a wage increase — and those of four miners, two police officers and two security guards from 12 to 14 August. This is despite an almost year-long commission of inquiry into the bloody week.
In commemoration of a decade since the massacre, the M&G has produced an in-depth documentary about the events leading up to the killings, the massacre itself and the devastating aftermath.
We have spoken to family members of the murdered who, to this day, remain weighed down with grief and are yet to find closure.
A father speaks of how he not only bears the burden of losing his son but also his wife and grandson. Other fathers talk about their devastation and their regret for sending their sons to replace them at the mine when they were no longer fit to work. They say that even though their families have been compensated it is not enough to replace the pain of losing their sons in a tragedy where no one is paying the price for their deaths.
The question remains: who pays the price for the lives lost? Every year, promises are made but the situation on the platinum belt remains unchanged. Miners’ salaries and their living conditions remain poor. Life continues around the koppie where the 34 were killed; livestock roams there and locals pass by.
Some of the widows have had to work at the same platinum mine because they are now the breadwinners. One woman talks about how it took her a year to come to terms with her husband’s death and believes that only an apology from Cyril Ramaphosa, who was then a non-executive director at Lonmin, would bring some sort of closure.