MARIKANA
Voices from South Africa’s Mining Massacre
Peter Alexander
Luke Sinwell
Thapelo Lekgowa
Botsang Mmope
and Bongani Xezwi
ohio university press
athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Cover photograph: A view from the mountain. Photograph taken from the top of the mountain on 15 August 2012. The area with trees is the hillock. Nkaneng informal settlement lies beyond, on the right near the top of the photograph. The pylons carry electricity to Lonmin, but none of this goes to the settlement. The area between the hillock and Nkaneng is the killing field, where the first deaths occurred on 16 August.
The following photographs are acknowledged and credited:
Greg Marinovich: front cover and p33; Peter Alexander: pp17 and 41; Reuters/The Bigger Picture: p37, bottom photo, and p149; Amandla magazine: p37, top and middle photos; Thapelo Lekgowa: pp49, 59, 63, 141 and 145; Asanda Benya: p55; Joseph Mathunjwa: p137
First published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2012
Revised edition 2013
10 Orange Street, Sunnyside, Auckland Park 2092
South Africa
+2711 628 3200
www.jacana.co.za
© Peter Alexander, Thapelo Lekgowa,
Botsang Mmope, Luke Sinwell and Bongani Xezwi, 2012
© Front cover photograph: Greg Marinovich
© Maps: by John McCann
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First published in North America in 2013 by Ohio University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ƒ ™
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1
hardcover isbn: 978-0-8214-2077-5
paperback isbn: 978-0-8214-2071-3
e-isbn: 978-0-8214-4476-4
Cover design by Maggie Davey and Shawn Paikin
Alexander, Peter, [date] author
Marikana : voices from South Africa’s mining massacre / Peter Alexander, Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope, Luke Sinwell, Bongani Xezwi.
pages cm
First published: Auckland Park, South Africa : Jacana Media, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2071-3 (pb : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4476-4 (electronic) — ISBN 978-0-8214-2077-5 (hc : alk. paper)
1. Strikes and lockouts—Miners—South Africa—Rustenburg. 2. Police shootings—South Africa—Rustenburg. 3. Miners—South Africa—Rustenburg—Interviews. I. Lekgowa, Thapelo, author. II. Mmope, Botsang, author. III. Sinwell, Luke, author. IV. Xezwi, Bongani, author. V. Title.
HV6535.S63A44 2013
968.241068—dc23
2013020687
190
About the authors
Peter Alexander is a professor of sociology at the University of Johannesburg and holds the South African Research Chair in Social Change. In the UK, he gained degrees from London University, was an academic at Oxford University, and held leadership positions in the Southern Africa Solidarity Campaign, Anti-Nazi League, Miners’ Defence League and Socialist Workers Party. He moved permanently to South Africa in 1998. His interests include labour history, specifically Witbank miners, and community protests. He is a co-author of Class in Soweto, published by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press at the beginning of 2013.
Thapelo Lekgowa is a freelance research fieldworker working with the South African Research Chair in Social Change. After school he worked for a platinum mine. He is a full-time political activist, who learns and teaches on the street. A co-founder of the Che Guevara Film Club and a member of the Qinamsebemzi Collective, he is a member of the Marikana Support Committee.
Botsang Mmope is a herbal healer associated with Green World Africa. Over the past seven years he has worked on various projects with the University of Johannesburg, including research on class, strikes and, recently, the Chair in Social Change’s ‘Rebellion of the Poor’. He is an active member of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee.
Luke Sinwell is a Senior Researcher with the Research Chair in Social Change at the University of Johannesburg. He obtained a PhD in Development Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2009. His interests include the politics and conceptualisation of participatory development and governance, direct action and action research. He is co-editor of Contesting Transformation: Popular Resistance in Twenty-First-Century South Africa published by Pluto Press at the end of 2012.
Bongani Xezwi is a freelance research fieldworker who has done work on waste pickers, food production, police brutality and service delivery protests. Recently he conducted life history interviews for the book Mining Faces. He was Gauteng organiser of the Landless People’s Movement and is currently the Gauteng organiser for the Right to Know Campaign.
Acknowledgements
This book includes testimony from strikers who were present at Marikana during the massacre that occurred on 16 August 2012. It offers ‘a view from the mountain’, from the koppie where workers were sitting when police manoeuvres commenced, and where many of our interviews were later conducted. It offers ‘a case to answer’, not the last word, and the judicial commission of inquiry will doubtless yield new evidence about what happened. Nevertheless, given the predominance of official discourse blaming the striking workers for the killings, it is important that their voice is heard.
Funding for our research has come from the Raith Foundation and from the South African Research Chair in Social Change, which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, administered by the National Research Foundation and hosted by the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. We are grateful to Prof. Rory Ryan, Dean of Humanities, Prof. Lionel Posthumus, the faculty’s Vice Dean for Research, and Lucinda Landen, the Research Chair’s Administration Officer for supporting the project.
Interviews were translated by Bridget Ndibongo, Mbongisi Dyantyi, Andisiwe Nakani and the research fieldworkers. Mamatlwe Sebei helped us by conducting preliminary interviews. We also received assistance from Marcelle Dawson, Shannon Walsh, David Moore and Fox Pooe.
John McCann provided the maps, which add considerably to this book. We are also very grateful to Joseph Mathunjwa, Asanda Benya and Greg Marinovich who kindly provided photographs.
The book was peer reviewed, with the reviewers providing supportive reports and valuable advice. James Nichol, Crispen Chinguno and Rehad Desai also read and commented on parts of the manuscript, as did members of Peter Alexander’s family. Encouraging feedback was received at lectures given in Johannesburg, Detroit, Oxford and London.
Staff