South Africa has waited ten years for justice for the dead striking miners
South Africa has waited ten years for justice for the dead striking miners
South Africa has waited ten years for justice for the dead striking miners.
Nolufefe Noki is still no closer to securing justice ten years after her 30-year-old brother was slain when South African police opened fire on striking miners.
Mgcineni “Mambush” Noki, also known as “the man with the green blanket,” had emerged as the spokesperson for the 2012 Marikana platinum mining demonstrations, which took place northwest of Johannesburg.
With a commanding raised fist, he addressed hundreds of his fellow miners while leading from the front. Up until the day of his death, a green blanket was draped over his shoulders.
The gunshots on August 16, 2012, which resulted in a total of 34 fatalities and 78 more injuries, were the bloodiest police operation since apartheid ended in 1994.
However, Noki’s sister claims that she is still waiting for information regarding what what happened that day.
The 42-year-old stated, speaking from inside the family’s residence in the southern village of Mqanduli, “We don’t know what occurred.”
She only knows that “many people were slain” after the cops broke up a wildcat protest on a hill.
That day, the globe and South Africa were horrified by television pictures showing police firing on protesters and creating a crest of dust at the base of the hill.
The savagery brought to mind police shootings during the apartheid era.
An official investigation blamed the deaths and injuries on police “tactics” and suggested that those accountable be looked into and brought to justice.
‘The government is indifferent’
However, a police oversight organization, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, stated that the case was “still under investigation” ten years later.
Only around half of all compensation claims, according to the nation’s solicitor general, Fhedzisani Pandelani.
He replied, “It’s unfortunate that we sit here and talk about things that happened ten years ago.
The recollections are still very recent for both the survivors and the victims’ relatives.
His sister claims she was unable to properly say farewell when Noki’s remains were returned home, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in the south of the country.
In Mqanduli, where lush hills can be seen for miles, she claimed, “I was told I couldn’t see him because he was too gravely hurt.”
“I’m in a lot of pain still.”
Many of the employees in South Africa’s platinum mines are from outlying regions like Mqanduli, and they only go home for the holidays.
Noki was laid to rest on a hill nearby, where his tomb is now covered with grass.
His family, however, is still too traumatized to visit the gravesite to pay their respects.
During the same police crackdown, Mzoxolo Magidiwana, a fellow striker, was shot nine times but survived.
He was able to negotiate a wage raise, and he now resides in a settlement close to the hill where the miners were shot in a single room furnished by his company.
Magidiwana claimed, “The administration doesn’t care about us.
“Since it has been ten years, our lives have undoubtedly improved. Our lives have actually gotten worse.”
Where is responsibility found?
Days before to the Marikana mine shootings, tensions had been building.
Due to competition between two different unions for dominance and harassment of employees who chose not to participate in the strike, the strikers were dissatisfied with their representation.
Since the protest’s beginning, ten individuals have already passed away.
According to Aisha Fundi, her husband Hassan, a mine security guard, was assassinated by striking workers.
The 49-year-old mother of two boys claims that the employment at the mine she was provided as part of restitution is insufficient.
She remarked, “Me and my kids want to see justice.
She claims that she is still unsure of who killed her spouse and worries that they might be cooperating with her.
She hasn’t yet been paid in any way, either.
After calling for a crackdown on the strikes, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was a non-executive director of the mine at the time, was cleared of any wrongdoing in the killings.
Opposition organizations, miners, and activists want Ramaphosa to apologize.
This May Day, at Rustenburg, a sizable town close to Marikana, miners yelled at him, forcing him to end his rally speech and get into an armored police van.
Victims and their families, according to sociology researcher Trevor Ngwane, lack closure.
Justice hasn’t been served, he claimed.
The neighborhood in Marikana “remains traumatized.”
At a memorial speech last week, political pundit Onkgopotse JJ Tabane stated that the Marikana incident was still “an open tomb.”
He questioned, “Where is the accountability?”
