PLATINUM BELT KILLINGS
THETO MAHLAKOANA: No outrage at murders around SA mines
As a result, the violence in the area has continued
There is a crucial narrative that is being erased in the country’s reflection on violence in the mining belt since the focus moved to the Marikana massacre six years ago. That is the role played by trade unions and law enforcement agencies in the violence that has stalked the platinum belt before and after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 34 striking Lonmin mineworkers in the North West. While the horror that accompanied that massacre was rooted in the murders by the police, there has not been equal outrage against other killings on the platinum belt near Rustenburg. Before the police shot the Marikana mineworkers, dozens more had been shot or stabbed by "faceless men" who killed miners on their way to work, in their homes and at work. And there has been no urgency by either the unions or the police to get to the bottom of this. As a result, the violence in the area has continued. Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the splinter union that usurped it, the Ass...
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