Shacks Demolished at the Marikana Land Occupation

Update: 29 April 2013 10:18 p.m After massive pressure from comrades at the police station the police agreed to release the two arrested comrades at around 9:00 p.m.. At the same time shacks were rebuilt on the newly occupied land.

Update: 29 April 2013 4:18 p.m Two hundred comrades have barricaded the police station. Others are defending the occupation and rebuilding. The Police Commissioner has said that they are being used by the third force.

Address by Bishop Rubin Phillip, Anglican Bishop of Natal(KZN) - at St Philip’s Anglican Church, Fingo Village in Grahamstown, 19th September, 2012.

Remembering Steve Biko: a Bright & Guiding Light in Dark Times

As the Unemployed People's Movement have noted we gather here in Grahamstown to honour the memory of Steve Biko, a man who was indeed a bright and guiding light, at a moment when a dark night is settling over our country. As the light of our democratic dawn dims we all have to look inward and find our courage, individually and collectively, for the struggles ahead. Make no mistake - the massacre at Marikana was a turning point and the path ahead will be difficult and will require real courage.

Marikana Memorial Service: Praying for a Just Peace

Presider: Bishop Ebenezer Ntali
Preacher: Prof. Barney Pityana

The Cathedral of St. Michael & St. George, Grahamstown, 30 August 2012

Excerpt from The Prayers of the People

Help us to shatter the structures
which prosper the rich at the expense of the poor
so that all people of this land
may experience economic emancipation

The service was followed by a march on the local police station.

Marikana Massacre Memorial Service
Friday, 24th August 2012, Emmanuel Cathedral

And so, again, the truth of our country is in dead black bodies littering the ground. Once again, the truth of our time is that people asserting their rights and dignity against systemic injustice 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? No self-righteous declarations of 'tragedy'; no insisting on 'complexity'; no obfuscatory 'commissions of enquiry'; are enough to hide that truth. The truth is plain to masses of the people of South Africa, it is an affront to God.

23 August 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press statement

Marikana Massacre Memorial Service

Abahlali baseMjondolo has held a number of serious discussions about the Marikana Massacre within our movement and with our comrades. It has also been very important for Abahlali to send a delegate straight to Marikana in the North West province to meet directly with striking workers and struggling residents of the Wonderkop shack settlement. We, together with the Unemployed People's Movement, were also able to send two delegates to the meeting held to discuss the massacre at the University of Johannesburg last night. We wish to set the record straight and to say clearly that the account of what has happened that has been given in the media has mostly come from the state. The views and experiences of the striking workers and struggling residents of Marikana has been silenced. It is essential that the media must talk to the striking workers and struggling residents of Marikana and not just about them.

Marikana shows that we are Living in a Democratic Prison

by Bandile Mdlalose

South Africa has the most beautiful Constitution amongst all countries. Its beauty is well documented and respected. But we are living in a Democratic Prison.

We must acknowledge the fight of Doctor Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and the community struggles of the 1980s, the youth of 1976 and the workers of 1973. The struggles of the past defeated the White Boers and brought us democracy with all these beautiful rights on paper. We have so many documented rights, like the right to housing and to protest. But every day our rights are violated by the Black Boers. They vowed to protect our rights but the vow was a fake vow.

Klicken Sie hier für den deutschen text.

8 August 2012

The Marikana Mine Worker's Massacre – a Massive Escalation in the War on the Poor

by Ayanda Kota

It’s now two days after the brutal, heartless and merciless cold blood bath of 45 Marikana mine workers by the South African Police Services. This was a massacre!

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. The amount of poverty is excessive. In every township there are shacks with no sanitation and electricity. Unemployment is hovering around 40%. Economic inequality is matched with political inequality. Everywhere activists are facing serious repression from the police and from local party structures.

Bu makaleyi Türkçe okumak için buraya tiklayin.
Klicken Sie hier für den deutschen text.

17 August 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press statement

Solidarity with Mine Workers at Marikana Platinum

Abahlali baseMjondolo are deeply shocked by the murderous cruelty of the South African police, and those that give the police their orders, at the Marikana Platinum Mine in the North West. The killing of more than 40 mine workers yesterday by the SAPS is immoral and brings great disgrace on our country. There were other ways and much better ways to handle the situation. Yesterday will always be remembered as a dark day in the long history of oppression in South Africa.