S. Africa's president visits site of killings
Source: Agencies |
August 23, 2012, Thursday
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SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma traveled yesterday to a mine where police killed 34 strikers and wounded another 78, causing outrage and eroding support for the party that has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid.
Demands for higher wages spread to at least two other mines, raising fears the instability could inflame protests at more of the South African mines that provide 75 percent of the world's platinum.
The shutdown at London-registered Lonmin PLC mine at Marikana where the August 16 shootings occurred has cost hundreds of millions of dollars in share value. The company said Tuesday it may have to renegotiate with bankers debt payments that are due on September 30. Lonmin also said it will be unable to meet its annual target production of 750,000 ounces.
Thandi Modise, premier of North West Province where the platinum mines are located, warned that protests may spread if authorities don't deal with the massive and growing inequality gap that has many South Africans feeling they have not benefited in the 18 years since black majority rule replaced a racist white minority government.
South Africa has become the richest nation in Africa but still has over 25 percent unemployment - nearer 50 percent among young people. Protests against shortages of housing, electricity and running water and poor education and health services are an almost daily affair.
That poverty is contrasted by the ostentatious lifestyles of a small elite of blacks who have become multimillionaires, often through corruption related to government tenders.
Zuma came to the troubled Lonmin mine after striking miners here heckled a committee of government ministers sent to help the grieving community with identification of bodies of slain miners, burial arrangements and bereavement counseling.
"If Jacob Zuma doesn't want to come here, how does he expect to gain our votes?" one man shouted at the Cabinet ministers.
Defense Minister Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula responded with the first official apology for the police killings.
"As a representative of the government, I apologize," the minister said. "I am begging, I beg and I apologize, may you find forgiveness in your hearts."
Demands for higher wages spread to at least two other mines, raising fears the instability could inflame protests at more of the South African mines that provide 75 percent of the world's platinum.
The shutdown at London-registered Lonmin PLC mine at Marikana where the August 16 shootings occurred has cost hundreds of millions of dollars in share value. The company said Tuesday it may have to renegotiate with bankers debt payments that are due on September 30. Lonmin also said it will be unable to meet its annual target production of 750,000 ounces.
Thandi Modise, premier of North West Province where the platinum mines are located, warned that protests may spread if authorities don't deal with the massive and growing inequality gap that has many South Africans feeling they have not benefited in the 18 years since black majority rule replaced a racist white minority government.
South Africa has become the richest nation in Africa but still has over 25 percent unemployment - nearer 50 percent among young people. Protests against shortages of housing, electricity and running water and poor education and health services are an almost daily affair.
That poverty is contrasted by the ostentatious lifestyles of a small elite of blacks who have become multimillionaires, often through corruption related to government tenders.
Zuma came to the troubled Lonmin mine after striking miners here heckled a committee of government ministers sent to help the grieving community with identification of bodies of slain miners, burial arrangements and bereavement counseling.
"If Jacob Zuma doesn't want to come here, how does he expect to gain our votes?" one man shouted at the Cabinet ministers.
Defense Minister Nosiviwe Noluthando Mapisa-Nqakula responded with the first official apology for the police killings.
"As a representative of the government, I apologize," the minister said. "I am begging, I beg and I apologize, may you find forgiveness in your hearts."
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