Ex-politician blames miner deaths on ANC
Source: Agencies |
August 19, 2012, Sunday
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EXPELLED South African politician Julius Malema blames senior members of the governing African National Congress for police killing 34 striking miners this week, and says South African police had no right to fire live ammunition at the men.
The youth leader, who was expelled from the ANC earlier this year, was welcomed as a hero yesterday by thousands of strikers. He is the first politician to address them at the site and says he has come because the government has turned its back on them.
Strikers complained that President Jacob Zuma had not come to them when he flew to the area on Friday and visited hospitalized miners who were wounded in Thursday?s shootings.
Zuma rushed home from a regional summit on Friday and announced an official inquiry into the police shooting of striking miners that left 34 dead and 78 wounded, an incident police claimed was self-defense despite video recordings suggesting the protesters were not attacking them but running from clouds of tear gas.
Wives of miners at the Lonmin platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg searched for loved ones missing from Thursday?s shooting and staged a protest, demanding to know why officers fired automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns at the strikers, many of whom had been armed with spears, machetes and clubs.
"Police stop shooting our husbands and sons," read a banner carried by the women on Friday. They kneeled before shotgun-toting police and sang a protest song, saying "What have we done?" in the Xhosa language.
At least 10 other people have been killed during the week-old strike, including two police officers battered to death by strikers and two mine security guards burned alive when strikers set their vehicle ablaze.
Tensions remained high on Friday among strikers, who are demanding monthly salary increases from US$625 to US$1,563.
"They can beat us, kill us and kick and trample on us with their feet, do whatever they want to do, we aren?t going to go back to work," winch operator Makhosi Mbongane said. "If they employ other people they won?t be able to work either. We will stay here and kill them."
South Africa faces myriad problems 18 years after white racist rule ended.
The youth leader, who was expelled from the ANC earlier this year, was welcomed as a hero yesterday by thousands of strikers. He is the first politician to address them at the site and says he has come because the government has turned its back on them.
Strikers complained that President Jacob Zuma had not come to them when he flew to the area on Friday and visited hospitalized miners who were wounded in Thursday?s shootings.
Zuma rushed home from a regional summit on Friday and announced an official inquiry into the police shooting of striking miners that left 34 dead and 78 wounded, an incident police claimed was self-defense despite video recordings suggesting the protesters were not attacking them but running from clouds of tear gas.
Wives of miners at the Lonmin platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg searched for loved ones missing from Thursday?s shooting and staged a protest, demanding to know why officers fired automatic rifles, pistols and shotguns at the strikers, many of whom had been armed with spears, machetes and clubs.
"Police stop shooting our husbands and sons," read a banner carried by the women on Friday. They kneeled before shotgun-toting police and sang a protest song, saying "What have we done?" in the Xhosa language.
At least 10 other people have been killed during the week-old strike, including two police officers battered to death by strikers and two mine security guards burned alive when strikers set their vehicle ablaze.
Tensions remained high on Friday among strikers, who are demanding monthly salary increases from US$625 to US$1,563.
"They can beat us, kill us and kick and trample on us with their feet, do whatever they want to do, we aren?t going to go back to work," winch operator Makhosi Mbongane said. "If they employ other people they won?t be able to work either. We will stay here and kill them."
South Africa faces myriad problems 18 years after white racist rule ended.
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