Marikana was proof ANC will choose business over people – SAFTU
Monday marks the 9th
anniversary of the Marikana Massacre which took place on August 16, 2012.
In one of the bloodiest days in post-apartheid South Africa, 34 striking mineworkers were gunned down by police at the Lonmin mine in Marikana.
Some 78 others were injured.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) says deaths of the striking miners is proof that the African National Congress (ANC) will always choose business over people.
The trade union federation’s general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says that day brought an end to the illusion, created by the ANC, that it would not massacre people in the defence of business.
“Marikana massacre demonstrated more clearly the class character of the ANC to the rest of the working masses. . . the ANC government succeeded to brutalise students and workers in FeesMustFall and OutsourcingMustFall, and community activists in service delivery protests, thus cementing its character as biased to business and not the people.”
Vavi says the massacre has left families in poverty, with the children of the mineworkers contemplating leaving school to start working to support their families.
“In a seminar last year, some of the children of the slain mineworkers considered dropping out of school to look for work to assist their families. Should they drop, they will be joining 40% learners who drop out of the schooling system before reaching matric in South Africa.”
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