The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) says its members at Sibanye Stillwater, formerly Lonmin Platinum, will not report for duty on Monday, as the country marks the 9th anniversary of the Marikana Massacre.

Thirty-four workers were killed by police in the North-West area.

The union has been calling on government to declare this day a national holiday.

Meanwhile, the union says the standing agreement with the employer is that employees will not work on this day.

Phuthuma Manyathi, regional secretary of AMCU in Rustenburg says: “We just reminded Sibanye that there is a standing agreement. The only difference is that Sibanye never experienced the 16th of August within the week, on a working day. In 2019, when they arrived here it was on Saturday, in 2020, it was on Sunday. So hence, we had to engage them and say, look – there is a standing arrangement here that on the 16th August we don’t work.”

Live stream on 9th Marikana Massacre commemoration: 

 

Justice must prevail

A community activist in Marikana says all political parties represented in Parliament must take responsibility for government’s failure to ensure justice for the people of Marikana.

Napoleon Webster says had politicians pushed hard, they would have brought the much-needed basic services to the area.

One of the demands from mine workers during their strike in 2012, was an improvement of their living conditions.

Webster says in the same way that parliamentarians advocated for the removal of former president Jacob Zuma from the highest office in the land, they must call for the development of Marikana and justice for the victims of the 2012 massacre.

“These people if they were able to chase Jacob Zuma out of parliament and now, he’s in jail, I’m sure they can be able to make sure that the mines comply with the charter, and that communities are better educated and defended by political figures. We’ve been complaining and crying for a very long time about service, bad living conditions, the collapsing of drainage system, the roads that are still bad and all of that.”

Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has appealed to people to refrain from politicising the Marikana massacre.

NUM, which was at loggerheads with AMCU at Lonmin mine in North West says all mineworkers from both unions were affected by the death of each of those involved.

NUM has also asked for the speedy compensation of the affected mineworkers’ families including ten people that were killed before the tragic deaths that were caught live on television.

SABC News Reporter Tebogo Phakedi, who is in Marikana, gives an update on the commemorations: