On 16 August 2012, 34 striking miners were shot dead by
police at the British-owned Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, north of
Johannesburg. Rock drill operators earning 5,000 rand ($421) per month were
demanding parity with workers earning 12,000 rand ($1,046) per month at the
nearby Impala platinum mine. Less than a week after setting down their tools,
the police opened fire.
The Right Reverend Rubin Phillip, bishop of the Anglican
Diocese of Natal, said: ‘And so again, the truth of our country is in dead
black bodies littering the ground. The truth of our time is that people
asserting their rights and dignity have been brought down in a hail of bullets…
Has nothing changed in our place, when its truth remains that the armed might
of the state acts for the elite of powerful and wealthy, and against our
people?”
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