Submitted by Sargeant
South African miners in pay dispute which turn bloody – photo credit: BBC

So what’s going on in South Africa?  Eighteen years after the election of a Black Government comes the news that the South African Police have killed 34 miners who were in the midst of an industrial dispute and were seeking a wage increase. These killings hearken back to the worst days of apartheid under the former white Government.

The miners worked at a platinum mine and this dispute was a relatively short one (one week) but there were ongoing clashes between rival trade unions which claimed the lives of 10 people including two policemen.

How could a demonstration provoke such a harsh response from Policemen who presumably have been trained to handle crowds given that South Africa recently hosted the World Cup?

What is troubling is that this incident has not provoked much condemnation in the rest of Africa and President Zuma has launched an inquiry. Based on his history one wonders whether Zuma was the right person to lead South Africa in the first place.

We will be hearing more about this in the coming days.

57 responses to “Zuma's South African Police Slaughters Black Miners”


  1. yes sarge SA might have won the battle but not the war . with a new energised youth who seems to understand the dynamics and the barriers which are standing in the way of total freedom and must be broken down it may well be that the war has just begun.


  2. Tutu said the shooting at Marikana reminded him of events under apartheid.

    “In 2012? In a democracy? In a new South Africa? Have we forgotten so soon? Marikana felt like a nightmare, but that is what our democracy is in 2012.”

    The Marikana tragedy, in which police gunned down 34 striking mineworkers, has been described as probably the lowest point in South Africa’s short post-apartheid history and prompted much soul-searching in the economically divided nation.


  3. the irony of the story is

    Spoor says white-owned businesses — the ones that exploited black workers during apartheid — have sold or given away many assets to black-owned businesses as part of South Africa’s black economic empowerment scheme.
    But there’s a bitter irony: Black South African-owned companies may now literally have to pay for the crimes of apartheid. Companies implicated in the lawsuit declined to comment.


  4. Hey very nice website!! Man .. Beautiful ..
    Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds additionally? I am happy to search out numerous useful information right here within the submit, we’d like develop more strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing.
    . . . . .


  5. One must practice the comic scripts beforehand at home. It is an industry norm that you offer a hotel room for the comedian at the same time.
    Well, it can easily be because the audience has been watching her in the TV for the
    past 6 years, but nevertheless, her FACTS are easy to remember and apply to everyone.

Leave a Reply to SargeantCancel reply

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading