Geraldine McNamara said today (August 31) that the decision by South African prosecutors to charge 270 Marikana mine workers with the murder of 34 striking colleagues shot dead by police during a protest there earlier in the month, is a decision that defies belief and shows the contempt that south Africa holds for its workers.
This incident is remarkably like those that took place during the apartheid regime except then the police were white and racism was at the core of the divide. Geraldine said serious questions should be asked of the present regime in South Africa about their continued oppression of the poor and those who seek justice within a society that still has a huge rich, poor divide.
It is twenty years since the end of apartheid and to many living in the shanty townships nothing has changed except the colour of the oppressor. Social justice has to take place and equality of the people needs to be in place in order to prevent further protests by the underpaid and poor. Ironically the police said they acted in self defence when they opened fire on workers at a platinum mine outside Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg, killing 34, after a stand-off that had already killed ten including two police officers.
To date no police officer has been charged in relation to this atrocity, but 270 miners which no doubt include family members of those killed, have been charged with their murder. The whole world saw the police kill the workers yet it looks like they will remain free to do this again.
With the end of apartheid there should have been a new beginning where justice was the main objective of the government. This incident shows a very dangerous and oppressive regime still in place in South Africa.
Geraldine expressed her sincere sympathy with the mine workers and the families of those who so tragically lost their lives.
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