South African Miners Ordered Back to Work

President Jacob Zuma has declared this “a week of national mourning” in South Africa.

The country is still in shock, after 34 striking miners were shot dead by police last Thursday. The miners were demanding better working conditions and improved salaries.

Operations at the platinum mine where the shooting took place are still on hold. This despite a call by the Lonmin company, which owns the site, for the striking workers to report back to work.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to the BBC’s Nomsa Maseko, who is in Johannesburg and says last week’s shooting is still fresh in many miners’ minds.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman; this is The World. President Jacob Zuma has declared this week a national week of mourning in South Africa. The country is still in shock after thirty-four striking miners were shot dead by police last Thursday. The miners were demanding better working conditions and improved salaries. Operations at the platinum mine where the shooting took place are still on hold. That’s despite a call by the Lonmin Company, which owns the site, for the striking workers to report back to work. The BBC’s Nomsa Maseko, in Johannesburg, says last week’s shooting is still fresh for the miners and their families.

Nomsa Maseko: People are still reeling in shock, you know, and the mine had called on its employees to return to work today or face being dismissed. And only thirty percent of the workforce actually heeded that call, but the thousands of others refused to go back to work, saying that if they were to go back today, it means their thirty-four colleagues who were shot dead by police last week would have died in vain.

Werman: So what happens if these miners don’t go back to work? What do they face?

Maseko: In fact, the Lonmin bosses say they’ve now extended their deadline. The deadline was today, but now they are saying mineworkers who didn’t report for duty today won’t be dismissed, or face any potential disciplinary actions. And of course, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare trying to ascertain who didn’t come to work, because we do know that more than two hundred and fifty of the mineworkers were also arrested shortly after the deadly attack with police last Thursday.

Werman: How long is Lonmin, the mine operators and owners, willing to tolerate the standoff?

Maseko: Well, it’s only for tomorrow. I mean, Lonmin has fired thousands of workers earlier this year in another of their mines where there was the same thing. Drill operators were on strike, they did not want to return to work: all of them were fired. And mine bosses and union representatives had to go and, you know, negotiate, making sure that these people are reinstated back in their jobs.

Werman: As far as what happened, the government of Jacob Zuma urged the country, right after the shootings, to not point fingers and not assign blame. But is the narrative of the police opening fire on these striking workers getting more clear?

Maseko: You know, at this stage, it’s only now, it’s only today that police have actually come forward and made an appeal to members of the press, asking them that whoever had footage, or has footage, of the shooting as it took place, to bring it forward so that it can form part of the investigation into… In fact, in today’s, I mean it was all over the newspapers today, and of course, all over the news channels, where we see footage of a mineworker shooting at police before the officers opened a barrage of fire.

Werman: Now, the mineworkers who were shot at are members of a radical labor union splinter group that broke away from the National Union of Mineworkers, and apparently the striking miners say that the mainstream union, the NUM, is too allied with President Zuma’s party, the African National Congress. Do people there suspect that that could have influence on the investigation into the massacre in Marikana?

Maseko: They do suspect that that could be the case. That is why, in fact, President Zuma has now called on a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate what had happened there. Which means a judge will then sit and investigate, and the judge will have powers to subpoena witnesses and to also bring about evidence, and which also means that the findings of that commission of inquiry could mean whoever is found wrong, could be prosecuted.

Werman: So what kind of pressure has this incident brought on President Zuma?

Maseko: President Zuma is in a very difficult position at the moment, because, I mean, the former ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, has been calling him to step down, saying that the tragedy happened on Mr. Zuma’s watch. And of course, we are seeing opposition political parties trying to score some political points. I mean, they have addressed the thousands of mineworkers who, who stayed away from work. So every political party in this country is trying to score some points by going to the mineworkers and speaking to them.

Werman: The BBC’s Nomsa Maseko telling us about the ongoing aftermath in South Africa, of last week’s deadly shooting by police of thirty-four striking miners.

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