'He still has not come here': Mpofu says Ramaphosa still owes Marikana families an apology
Saturday marked the 13th anniversary of the massacre when 34 mineworkers were killed by police during a strike at Lonmin Mine in Marikana in North West.
Mineworkers had downed tools and participated in unprotected wage strikes. A total of 44 people lost their lives during the strike. Police allegedly shot 34 on August 16 2012.
WASP and SYM believe the massacre was not a police operation that went wrong, claiming it was a deliberate act of violence to protect the profits of Lonmin (now Sibanye-Stillwater) and the capitalist mining industry.
'In its execution, it was premeditated. The ANC government, under Jacob Zuma, deployed police to crush worker resistance, proving once and for all that the ANC is no longer a movement for liberation but a bloody instrument of mining monopoly capital,' said WASP national executive committee member Mametlwe Sebei.
Sebie said WASP and SYM were demanding the nationalisation of the mines under workers' control and a living wage for all workers — a R15,000 minimum wage now and a universal basic income grant of R1,500.
He said Cosatu should break away from the ANC, as should all trade unions aligned with other capitalist parties, to unite into a united working class front, and a mass workers' party to fight for socialism.
'Even today, no-one has been held accountable. Cyril Ramaphosa, then a Lonmin director who called for 'concomitant action' against the strikers, is now president — showing the ANC's true allegiance. The Farlam commission was a whitewash and the police and politicians who ordered the killings remain free,' Seabi said.
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