AZANIA/SOUTH AFRICA 9 Years later No Justice for the massacred Marikana mineworkers and their widows and orphans

It is almost 10 years since the tragic day where the Apartheid inherited South African Police executed an instruction from the current president of the ANC and Azania/South Africa (Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa) who made it clear that the demand of the workers were criminal and required what he called “concomitant action” from the police. As a result more than 34 workers were massacred in a hail of bullets leaving orphans and widows behind, others were physically disabled yet up until today the ANC government has refused to compensate nor pay reparation for such a gruesome action that has left deep scars not only in the hearts of the affected but the whole working class in Azania and abroad. 

The current case of 328 people affected by the Lonmin massacre in Marikana which is at the High court in Johannesburg is a continuing case, is just another showcase of collaboration between the government and multinational corporates in concealing atrocities of exploitation and human rights violation against the working class and the poor. This matter is another staunch commitment by the ANC government to deny any wrong doing at Marikana that did not only expose the rot within the mining sector but also dragged the Justice system into the bandwagon of inconsistency and collaboration. 

Hence the Farlam Commission on the Marikana Massacre gave no results nor justice in the same way that the 1996 Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) did where the victims also became the perpetrators of their own suffering while the real culprits became the hailed champions of justice and Ramaphosa was even rewarded with the highest seat in the country at the Mangaung ANC conference of 2012 where he emerged as the deputy president of the ANC and later of the country. 

To date we are also exposed to another battle for mineworkers and widows to get what is due to them yet if we take a deeper analysis it was discovered that the judge presiding over the court case at the high court is also one of the shareholders for Lonmin Plc which is now Sibanye Platinum who are also respondents to the matter that seeks justice for the victims of the Lonmin Massacre in Marikana. 

Judge Colin Lamont was discovered to own shares in Lonmin Plc whom after discovery sold those two days before being questioned, to recuse himself from adjudicating this case where widows and mineworkers have a civil lawsuit that is demanding more than R1 Billion from Ramaphosa, the government and Lonmin Plc. 

This discovery is a proof that Ramaphosa and his ilk in the mining sector are fully committed in making sure the Lonmin Massacre in Marikana does not receive justice through various schemes including continuous killings of the surviving mineworkers as in the past 8 years of the manhunt continues like it did in 2012 where mineworkers were killed even when they ran away and surrendered to the police, such schemes are desperate attempts to shut the mouths and the cries of workers who today remain in a far worse conditions than those they were fighting against on the fateful day of the 16th August 2012. 

The case also gets a setback mainly because of the fear from the side of the ANC government that paying compensation or reparation to the mineworkers and the widows would be a public admission of guilt and justify the call for Ramaphosa to be tried for Crimes against humanity where he was key player in the onslaught against harmless workers in the mines. 

The irony of all this is that the very same Ramaphosa was once the secretary of the biggest mineworkers union (NUM). 

It is of great importance that as the Azanian Section of the OCRFI begin to lead the coverage and the support of this lawsuit as it represents a genuine call for workers and widows of the Lonmin massacre where our position remain unchanged that Lonmin massacre in Marikana remain an atrocity against the working class and it should be a call signed by all organisations of the working class and the poor in a call for justice and to put Ramaphosa on trial for his role in the massacre.