Marikana tragedy will remain a part of South Africa’s darkest history: Mpofu

Former legal representative of the families of slain Lomin workers, Advocate Dali Mpofu says the Marikana tragedy will remain a part of South Africa’s darkest history.

Mpofu says the global community will forever remember the massacre as the country’s worst post-apartheid human tragedy.

The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) is hosting a virtual memorial lecture and commemorative event to pay homage to the 44 workers who died during the Lonmin platinum strike in August 2012.

The workers were demanding an R12500 wage when police shot and killed 34 of their colleagues at the Wonderkop Koppie outside Rustenburg in North West.

Mpofu says despite the Farlam Commission’s findings and recommendations, more questions than answers remain.

“Unlike the Sharpville, Langa, Soweto, and Alexandra Massacres and all the other massacres that occurred under the apartheid,  Marikana was the first massacre that happened since the dawn of democracy. However, in those times we could say well it’s the apartheid government, what do you expect?  But now these are the people that ourselves have chosen to lead us out of that mess and they came and did exactly the same thing that was done by the oppressor.”

Meanwhile, the CEO of Sibanye Still Water, formerly Lonmin, Neal Froneman, says the company has succeeded in engaging all parties affected by the August 2012 tragedy, to discuss securing the much-needed jobs.

“We can never fully understand what happened in 2012 but we’ve seen the impact on the community of Marikana and we, therefore, took a continuous decision that we meaningfully contribute towards the solutions by all stakeholders in the short time that we’ve been managing Marikana operations. We’ve succeeded in restoring the operation credibility and securing the license and the jobs that they had.”

In the video below is the commemoration of the Marikana Massacre in 2020: