Creating A Bloodbath
In South Africa, at the site of the Lonmin Marikana platinum mine tens of thousands of workers live out their lives like indentured slaves, working for a minimum pittance. They live, tens of thousands of poor South Africans, in shanty towns near the shafts that produce enormous mineral wealth for the British owners, and also incidentally for the state.The South African government has a lucrative understanding with the foreign British owners of Lonmin's platinum mine.
And the largest union representing those workers also has a close alliance with the South African government, with a shared understanding that they work in tandem for the good of the union officials and the South African administration anxious to maximize profits and please the British mine owners.
When another, unauthorized union appeared, whose purpose was to represent the interests of the miners, things turned ugly.
Protesting their miserable lives and the work expected of them for inadequate recompense, workers whom the new union represented went on strike and in so doing, rather upset expectations and the order of things as they were. There were some fatalities as workers, armed with spears and clubs wrought revenge against some of those who represented their severe task-masters.
Two police officers and two Lonmin security guards had been killed in the protests that occurred before the larger strike that lasted several days at the Lonmin mine, in mid-August. Police, citing concerns that they had no option left to them but to use optimum force in responding to the spear-and-club hoisting strikers, had killed 34 people.
There has been an enquiry, a South African investigation panel. Currently hearing opening statements revolving on the August 16 fatal shooting at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine. During the confrontation, no police were killed, let alone injured. But 34 of those who struck for better living conditions and an improved pay scale were killed.
"[Evidence shows] that no less than 14 striking miners were shot from behind. That would be wholly inconsistent with the claims of necessity that the South African Police Service will advance", stated Dumisa Ntsebeza, a lawyer representing the families of 21 of those killed, speaking to the Marikana Commission of Inquiry.
Police, on the other hand, contend force was used only as a last resort. All of the shooting had been justified. The situation was tense, and was shifting, and they felt threatened. And three guns were later found in the possession of some of the strikers. "The evidence will regrettably show that some of the protesters intended a bloodbath", claimed the police lawyer.
So, then, the police did what police do. They took the initiative of lawful authority given them by the state, and through the power of lethal arms, and acted to avoid a bloodbath, by creating one of their own devising.
Labels: Africa, Britain, Economy, Misadventure, Natural Resources, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, October 24, 2012
<< Home