July 2, 2015 Three years after the situation at the Lonmin’s Marikana mine in South Africa, where the country’s police shot dead 34 striking miners, an inquiry has been released on the matter, blaming the mining company, police and unions. President Jacob Zuma’s inquest found Lonmin’s response to the risky strike of August 2012 lacking, and has faulted it for failing to comply with its social and housing obligations.
The judicial inquiry also recommended that the police officers involved should be criminally investigated.
Jackson Ngalo, a Lonmin miner agrees with the report.
“I think this would be right if they do it that way, because they are the ones who got into our issues while we were fighting for our rights, and the police killed us, our brothers died,”
Another Lonmin worker, Samkelo Mkhize however, is unhappy about the inquiry’s findings, saying not enough has been done.
“Myself, hearing the report has come out, it doesn’t make me happy, especially the way I was thinking about it and how it’s come out. The reason why I’m saying this is that there’s people that died there, and the government sees that there’s a problem with what they had done to us, but they are not doing anything to show they acknowledge that there’s a problem,” “We have women that have their families affected and lost their families because of the government, but there’s no action to show they know there was a problem. Why have they not taken any action until now? We are still not happy about that,”
The commission that looked into the case suggested some experts form a panel that will revise public-order policing policies and investigate “the world’s best practices” for crowd control “without resorting to the use of weapons capable of automatic fire”.
The commission also called for a criminal investigation into all police officers involved in the incident. Police Chief Riah Phiyega, will also be investigated to decide on his ability to hold office. Some arrested and injured miners however, are still insisting on lawsuits.