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South African Police Open Fire On Platinum Miners

Jetboogieman

Jetboogieman

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Miners killed at South Africa's Lonmin Marikana mine

Police in South Africa have opened fire during clashes with striking workers at the Marikana platinum mine, leaving at least 12 people dead, witnesses say.
Police opened fire after miners carrying machetes, clubs and spears refused to disarm, eyewitnesses said.
A witness told the BBC he saw 18 bodies on the ground after the shooting.
The mine, owned by Lonmin, has been at the centre of a violent pay dispute, exacerbated by tensions between two rival trade unions.
Ten people had previously died in violence since the strike began last Friday.
The striking miners had gathered on a rocky hill overlooking Marikana, the third-largest platinum mine in the world.
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BBC News - Miners killed at South Africa's Lonmin Marikana mine

This has big implications for my beloved Republic and for the world as platinum is a huge commodity and this will effect world wide platinum commodity prices as not only this mine but South Africa is one of the largest platinum producing nations in the world if this trend continues it could create huge problems for this commodity which is essential for global trade today.

Now I am South African, living in Canada and I will try to be as objective as I can.

According to news reports I followed, the week prior to this incident 2 police officers and 8 protesters have been killed.

The police were expecting violence, according to the footage (which to be fair is sketchy) and accounts of the incidents police encountered protesters that broke through police lines with machetes, they then encountered small arms fire in the form of pistols at which point the line of police officers opened fire on the advancing protesters.

Look, I understand where the protesters were coming from, they are being paid ****ty wages to do a ****ty job, but I can say from personal experience as I have had several family members in the South African Police Service that they are attacking people in the same situation as them as police are paid just as bad to police the most violent democracy in the world after Iraq...

At the same time, there should have been officers armed with rubber bullets that could have subdued the crowd without the spraying of bullets that occured although having said that I was not there, there may have been but a way to resolve this without what happened... at the same time when live ammo is fired at you, I completely support the police returning live ammo fire back.

What follows is a video of the incident. POSSIBLY NSFW. Not blood and guts graphic though.

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I saw the video on tv. Horrible, just horrible. As of today, CNN reports that 34 miners were killed in this "shoot-out". From what I can see, and what I know about US riot-squad training, there should have been attempts at using non-lethal means to disperse the miners first... tear gas, water canons, bean-bag and rubber bullets. None of that happened. They just aimed their assault weapons and mowed them down.

This does not pass the smell test with me, frankly. I await further info about the incident, and hope the America media doesn't just shove it aside as "yesterday's news".
 
DiAnna said:
I saw the video on tv. Horrible, just horrible. As of today, CNN reports that 34 miners were killed in this "shoot-out". From what I can see, and what I know about US riot-squad training, there should have been attempts at using non-lethal means to disperse the miners first... tear gas, water canons, bean-bag and rubber bullets. None of that happened. They just aimed their assault weapons and mowed them down.

This does not pass the smell test with me, frankly. I await further info about the incident, and hope the America media doesn't just shove it aside as "yesterday's news".
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As I understand it the miners were running toward the police officers with machetes, "traditional weapons" which I guess means spears and some guns. Horrible what happened but it looks self-defensive to me.
 
Lol... people act as if apartheid really ended in the 1990s and the police officers in S.A.- regardless of their race - aren´t hired to protect the interests a mostly white (but increasingly black) rich minority. It´s just another day in South African politics.
 
DiAnna said:
I saw the video on tv. Horrible, just horrible. As of today, CNN reports that 34 miners were killed in this "shoot-out". From what I can see, and what I know about US riot-squad training, there should have been attempts at using non-lethal means to disperse the miners first... tear gas, water canons, bean-bag and rubber bullets. None of that happened. They just aimed their assault weapons and mowed them down.

This does not pass the smell test with me, frankly. I await further info about the incident, and hope the America media doesn't just shove it aside as "yesterday's news".
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They are firing what appear to be tear gas canisters at the beginning of the video. I don't believe the pops heard in the first 10 seconds of that video are lethal gunfire. Keep in mind, 2 cops had been hacked to death by machetes two days earlier. From what I can see in that video, this looks like a legitimate act of self defense.

I mean when a group of police officers have their guns pointed at me and are yelling "stop", i'm not going to charge straight at them. And it's hard for me to muster up sympathy for anyone who does and then gets shot. Why would you do that? It's suicidal. The situation is tragic, but I don't see how you can scapegoat the cops here.

Still lots of unknowns at this point, though.
 
the_recruit said:
They are firing what appear to be tear gas canisters at the beginning of the video. I don't believe the pops heard in the first 10 seconds of that video are lethal gunfire. Keep in mind, 2 cops had been hacked to death by machetes two days earlier. From what I can see in that video, this looks like a legitimate act of self defense.

I mean when a group of police officers have their guns pointed at me and are yelling "stop", i'm not going to charge straight at them. And it's hard for me to muster up sympathy for anyone who does and then gets shot. Why would you do that? It's suicidal. The situation is tragic, but I don't see how you can scapegoat the cops here.

Still lots of unknowns at this point, though.
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Bing, exactly. If you watch carefully, you will see that many of the cops are scared, backing away as they are firing. I suppose from a reasonable desire not to be hacked apart by a crowd possibly armed with machetes and whatnot, as had happened to two of their fellows already.
 
Just awful. Their struggle continues.

My thoughts and condolences go to those workers who died struggling for a better life in South Africa. It would be appropriate if the press actually gave more insight into the tensions between the rival trade unions, the daily realities of the miners of Marikana and their families including their actual living conditions and what drives them to demand a salary raise.

Lonmin management have a lot to answer for here. They should have done more. However paying men and women more to go underground to mine ore, would have cost implications. As always, it comes down to profits.


 
This is sad, but very few people realize in the United States that not so long ago in our history, this was reality. Things like the Ludlow massacre and Harlan County etc.
 
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