MARIKANA - Labour analysts say that the deadly Marikana wage strike that began this week 10 years ago was preceded by years of instability and neglect of important issues in both the workplace and society in general.
While the men who were then employed by Lonmin – now Sibanye-Stillwater - took centre stage, there was a myriad of other issues that influenced their resolve.
Historians have opened up about how the culmination of the strike in a massacre was chillingly reminiscent of the mass killings of protesting black people by the apartheid police in many areas, including Sharpeville in 1960.
And similar to that dark period in South Africa’s history, the Marikana Massacre too was layered with many elements reflective of a society that failed to prioritise the livelihoods and conditions of the marginalised.
It’s a Tuesday afternoon at hostel number one near Sibanye-Stillwaters’ platinum mining operations in Marikana.
Men, women and children spend the public holiday sitting outside their tiny little flats, with music pumping from speakers as some mineworkers return from work while others leave to report for their new shifts.
To the undiscerning eye, this picture is ordinary but for those who lived and worked in Marikana 10 years ago, the peace and stability among the workers even at the hostel is a remarkable testament to a transition in relational dynamics among workers in Marikana since the historic deadly labour strike at the mine, then owned by Lonmin, 10 years ago.
Tensions that had been simmering among mining unions and members as they battled over territory on the North West platinum belt, with assassinations a common feature, exploded in 2012, leading to the unprotected strike that began on 9 August.
Mining labour analyst, Mamokgethi Molopyane, unpacks the cocktail of issues that laid a fertile ground for the action by workers.
"The shift in power of the union dominating the sector, uncertainty about policies, the restructuring of mining operations that impact workers," Molopyane said.
Labour consultant, Tony Healy, agrees that the foundations of the deadly strike cannot be intersected through a single lens.
"There was just this accumulation of pressure on miners," Healy said.
Molopyane and Healy, who have visited Marikana in recent weeks, said that the peace that reigned in the area was a marvel to behold.
More so in light of the many leaps that were yet to be realised by the mine and government in improving the general quality of life for the residents of Marikana.
Their cries for basic services such as tarred roads, housing, flushing toilets, among others, were weaved into the mineworkers’ struggles.
