This is an important documentary every South Africa should see. It corrects the propaganda by the police and government that the police were operating in self-defense. It is now clear from video evidence and evidence before the Farlam commission that the Marikana massacre was premeditated and planned - from the pre-ordering of hearses for 32 bodies to the issuing of 4000 rounds of live ammunition on the morning. At the Farlam commission, Brigadier Adriaan Calitz, acknowledged that the roll-out of barbed wire by police sparked agitation and from his crowd control experience, the police should have foreseen that possibility of an attack when they decided to use barbed wire. He said that generally, in similar unrest situations, when barbed wire was used the crowds run away and start screaming things. Much video evidence is now available and it shows clearly that the last conversation at the hill, before the miners left was for them to disperse. Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa, had convinced them to return to their homes and return to work. It was while they were dispersing that the razor wires were pulled around them that forced them into a confrontation with police who had gone into a tactical phase. Gen William Mpembe (the commander at the scene on the day) acknowledged at the commission that there was no escalation at the scene which led to them going into a tactical phase and that in fact the escalation was caused by the police going into a tactical phase. The reason the police were cooperating with Lomnin management to end the strike was because Cyril Ramaphosa (now our South African Deputy President) had been engaging with the minister of mineral affairs and the minister of police (as has been shown in several emails). The plan was to criminalise the strike and the protest (which was in fact perfectly legal and constitutional). The reason - because the mine did not want to pay a living wage.This primary reason behind the massacre is important to understand. The SA government decided to protect the financial interests of an extremely-privileged-politically-connected-extremely-wealthy few at the expense of the fundamental RIGHTS of the poorest of the poor who for generations had been exploited and had their basic rights trampled on. This collusion and subsequent cover-up between government and capital is extremely concerning for the future of our democracy. In addition to this, the levels of police brutality which have been tolerated, excused and in fact commended by the National Commissioner of Police, Riah Phiyega as the best of responsible policing and something the police should give themselves a hand for. Forensic evidence was led at the commissions about the 17 deaths at scene 1. The forensic pathologist argued that 10 of the lives had some chance of being saved if these people had received medical attention. The report further investigated the injuries and the medical facilities available (hospitals nearby etc), and argued that 3 miners would definitely have been saved if they had received medical attention on the scene and then further argued that one would have been saved if he only had a sock or any cloth to put in his wound. Captain Loest, who is the police officer seen in the footage at scene 1 calling ceasefire, acknowledged he failed in his duties to tend to the injured at the crime scene. He too was medically trained and had attended to the wounded police officers at the shooting earlier in the week on the 13th. It was established that scene one was secured within 6 minutes of the shooting and ambulances were held back from the scene for a full hour. Police simply refused to allow ambulances to the scene. After the massacre at scene 1, shootings continued for about 20 minutes at scene 2 where police hunted down miners running away. Furthermore, much of the footage at the commission has shown police laughing, swearing, and joking about the people they had killed. Injured persons had the police put boots on their heads and bodies were dragged about in a very undignified manner. Again much testimony has acknowledged that this was very inappropriate and unprofessional. Much of the testimony has focused on whether there was an element of the shootings (especially those at scene 2) being driven by revenge. Police had widely distributed photos on their cell phones of the two police officers who were killed earlier in the week. The question has to be asked - was this massacre (especially the shootings at scene 2) part of the worldwide police code that you do not kill police officers or you will be killed. In other words much of the killings were revenge killings. Much forensic evidence has also shown execution style killings and many mine workers shot in the back while they were running away. It is important to understand that the mining strike we are in now, which has resulted in our economy entering a recession, is a continuation of the original struggle that began with just 3000 workers in 2012. The current strike is about far more than wages, it is about ending the cycle of extreme poverty that has continued for generations despite the billions of Rand in profits mining companies have taken offshore from our soil. #ItAffectsUsAll #Marikana #GetInformed
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:40:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015