Joseph mathunjwa after the massacre 50

The president of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), Joseph Mathunjwa has lambasted former president Jacob Zuma, saying he should have done the things he is now promising the people while he was in power for nine years between 2009 and 2018.

Mathunjwa said this on Friday while campaigning for the AMCU funded Labour Party in Thabazimbi, Limpopo, ahead of Wednesday’s by-elections.

“He (Zuma) reduced this country into a squalor, to be a dustbin. Then you turn around and say you can change things, why didn’t you change while you were there,” he said.

Mathunjwa also claimed most of the people who are now part of the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party, led by Zuma, were in the ANC when the Marikana massacre of 16 August 2012 occurred. At least 34 miners were killed by police and scores of others injured for demanding a R12 500 living wage at the Lonmin-owned (now Sibanye Stillwater) mine in Rustenburg, North West.

“This is the same government of the ANC that killed our fathers in Marikana, some of them moved to the MK today, but they were the president by then when Cyril (ordered concomitant action against the striking miners.

“Have you ever heard the MK leadership criticising Ramaphosa for Marikana? No matter how much they quarrel, but they don’t touch that issue. They can insult each other and say this is the ANC off Ramaphosa, but they will not say its the ANC of Ramaphosa who killed the workers Marikana, no, they don’t go there. You must aks yourself why,” Mathunjwa said.

The union boss previously praised Zuma and the MK Party. He was even photographed with Zuma and the leadership of the party ahead of the May 29 elections in which the MK dented the ANC’s support to below 50%.

The spokesperson of the MK Party, Nhlamulo Ndhela, did not respond when asked about Mathunjwa’s comments.

Marikana mineworkers on strike for higher pay.

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By Martin Legassick

August 27, 2012 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal-- The massacre of 34, and almost certainly more, striking mineworkers at Marikana (together with more than 80 injured) on August 16 has sent waves of shock and anger across South Africa, rippling around the world. It could prove a decisive turning point in our country’s post-apartheid history.

Marikana is a town situated in barren veld, dry brown grass in the winter, with occasional rocky outcrops (kopjes, hillocks). The Lonmin-owned mines – there are three, Karee, West and East Platinum – are situated on the outskirts of the town. Alongside two of them is a settlement of zinc-walled shacks festooned with lines of washing called Enkanini, where most of the mineworkers live.

Towering over the shack settlement are the surface buildings of the mine, together with a huge electricity substation, with giant power pylons marching across the veld. This is the mineral-energy complex that has dominated the South African economy since the 1890s, basing itself on the exploitation of cheap black migrant labour. But now platinum has replaced gold as the core of it.

South Africa produces three-quarters of the world’s platinum (used for catalytic converters in cars and for jewellery) and has dropped from first to fifth in production of gold. The underground workers at Marikana are still predominantly from the Eastern Cape, the area most ravaged by the apartheid migrant labour system. One third are contract workers, employed by labour brokers for the mines, with lower wages and no medical, pensions or benefits.

Platinum rock drillers work underground in temperatures of 40-45 degrees Celsius, in cramped, damp, poorly ventilated areas where rocks fall daily. They risk death every time they go down the shafts. At Marikana, 3000 mi

Perhaps we can start with a timeline: The event itself, the filmmaking process, the subsequent investigation (known as the Farlam Commission), and where things are now. 

Rehad Desai: A few days before the massacre, I was in Marikana looking into Black Economic Empowerment (“BEE”) projects in the region, and I was just shocked—it was like a dystopia. All the guns and the army and the quality of the housing, it’s just shocking to see.

So I wasn’t actually there on the day of the massacre. But in the lead up I met a few of the strikers and felt duty-bound to get involved. Very quickly, we set up the support campaign and started raising money, two weeks after the commission started. The big argument that arose was whether we were going to participate or assist or boycott this commission and try to set up our own, [i.e.,] a civil society inquiry. And the arguments made by some of the lawyers like George Bizos—who was Nelson Mandela’s lawyer—were, well, the commission has the power of subpoena, powers of civil society, powers that I will never have.

Were there people in the social movement who wanted to set up a people’s tribunal of some sort?

Rehad: Yeah, that was the dominant view. You’ve got to realize who you’re stacked up against. A few public interest NGOs, social movements, some of the workers and community members from Marikana, were up against the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the African National Congress, the Communist Party (SACP), and the trade union federation (COSATU). 

Jim Nichol: You’ve got to ask yourself, why a commission? The commission is a mechanism for preventing the prosecution of police officers and exposing the state. We have to be crystal clear about that. When you look at the film, it’s not rocket science to see that this is a huge murder scene, and that people should be arrested immediately and charged. If you were