{"id":12411,"date":"2021-08-16T08:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=12411"},"modified":"2021-08-14T09:42:25","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T09:42:25","slug":"marikana-anniversary-16th-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=12411","title":{"rendered":"Marikana Anniversary 16th August"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Justice for Marikana, South Africa House, 2019<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In August 2012 workers at the Marikana platinum mine in Rustenburg demonstrated calling for a pay rise and better working conditions. After a week of protests police opened fire on the miners killing 34 and injuring others. The police attack came the day after Cyril Ramaphosa, now President of South Africa, then a non-executive director of mine-owner Lonmin and owner of the company Shanduka, a shareholder in Lonmin, had called on the the police to take action against the miners, who he called “plainly dastardly criminals”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Protest at Investec, 14 Aug 2015<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although an official inquiry largely cleared Ramaphosa of guilt over the massacre, campaigners still hold him very much responsible for what is often called the “darkest hour of South Africa\u2019s democracy” and still call for him to be brought to justice. Both the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) refuse to invite him to the annual remembrance ceremonies at Marikana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Protest outside Lonmin’s office in London, 2017<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa himself issues a partial apology for his messages and stated “I am determined to play whatever role I can in the process of healing and atonement for what happened at Marikana” but so far this appears to be an empty promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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18th August 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were protests in London in the days immediately following the massacre and there has been an annual protests on 14th August each year since then, either outside offices of Lonmin and other companies profiting from the mine or outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square. When I’ve been in London I’ve gone to take part and to take photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charlie X is shut out of the block where Lonmin have their offices, 2017.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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People place flowers on the portraits of the murdered miners at South Africa House, 2018 <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A woman holds pictures of the murdered miners at South Africa House, 2018<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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South Africa House, 2019<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More on My London Diary:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2012: Solidarity with Marikana Miners<\/a>
2014: Second Anniversary of Marikana Massacre<\/a>
2015: Marikana Mine Murders protest at Investec<\/a>
2017: Marikana Massacre Protest at Lonmin HQ<\/a>
2018: Justice for Marikana vigil<\/a>
2019: Justice for Marikana – 7 years on<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In August 2012 workers at the Marikana platinum mine in Rustenburg demonstrated calling for a pay rise and better working conditions. After a week of protests police opened fire on the miners killing 34 and injuring others. The police attack came the day after Cyril Ramaphosa, now President of South Africa, then a non-executive director … Continue reading Marikana Anniversary 16th August<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[5201,1421,5198,17,1417,5197,5202,83,5203,5204,16,5200,1419,4019,1420,5199],"class_list":["post-12411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-34-killed","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-investec","tag-london","tag-lonmin","tag-marikana-massacare","tag-marikana-miners","tag-peter-marshall","tag-platinum-mine","tag-president","tag-protest","tag-shot-dead","tag-south-africa","tag-south-africa-house","tag-south-african-police","tag-striking-miners"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12412,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12411\/revisions\/12412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}