Death toll rises to 36 as police shoot miners in South Africa

 
Policemen keep watch over striking miners after they were shot outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, August 16, 2012. South African police opened fire on Thursday against thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, leaving several bloodied corpses lying on the ground. A Reuters cameraman said he saw at least seven bodies after the shooting, which occurred when police laying out barricades of barbed wire were outflanked by some of an estimated 3,000 miners massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine, 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. REUTERS
REUTERS
Dan Newling17 August 2012

Police shot dead up to 36 striking South African workers at a British-owned platinum mine in what is being called a “massacre” reminiscent of the days of apartheid.

The death toll was revealed today by union chiefs as the police ministry announced an investigation into the killings last night at Lonmin’s mine in Marikana, 60 miles north-west of Johannesburg.

Another 86 strikers were injured and the number of dead is expected to grow. Strikers, all of them black, are involved in a walkout which started a week ago to demand a £600-a-month pay rise.

Several thousand massed outside the mine armed with machetes and clubs, witnesses said, when police were called. TV news captured about 50 officers firing indiscriminately into the chanting crowd until a police commander shouted: “Ceasefire.” Bloodied bodies lay in the dust. Police later claimed they were forced to act in self-defence.

Ten people including two police died in the days leading up to the shootings, when the violent protest, exacerbated by rivalries between two mining unions, crippled platinum production.

Molaole Montsho, a witness to last night’s bloodbath, said police first used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades to try to break up the protest.

“And then in the commotion — we were about 900 yards from the scene — we heard gunshots that lasted for about two minutes.”

Hours before the shootings, regional police chief Zukiswa Mbombo spoke about the protesting miners to a press conference, saying: “We will ask them to leave. I do not want to explain to you if they won’t, what then... we will end this matter.”

Police captain Dennis Adriao said after the shootings that officers were “viciously attacked by the group, using a variety of weapons, including firearms. To protect their own lives and in self-defence, the police were forced to engage the group with force.”

The political repercussions are likely to be serious. Eighteen years after the end of apartheid, economic inequality still leaves South Africa’s black citizens worst off. The ruling African National Congress is increasingly criticised by those poor blacks whose support it once took for granted. No senior ANC member commented publicly on the shooting today, while the main opposition party condemned it as a “massacre” and called for an inquiry.

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