I take deep pride in my SA identity. I know that the rights and freedoms i enjoy today have been fought for me by those who have gone before me. In the same breath,I feel a sense of responsibility to never take them for granted whilst navigating the possibility to question my experience in SA as a black person with the prevalence of the same freedoms and rights.
The Gauteng SAWIP team recently watched Miners Shotdown:The Marikana documentary.
We watched how Lonmin miners’ requests and grievances for better and humane working conditions led to their demise. It is also important to note that these are black men who used to wake up everyday beating daunting odds to provide for their families. These are our uncles and fathers who work to the bone to afford us food,shelter and education.
I began to see that perhaps some lives are worth more than others in this country. I have seen how the miners remained resolute to negotiate their remunerations. They indicated that their predicament has been like this for the longest time. They also feared that their employer potentially had the power to relieve them of their duties had the strike continued to employ new employees who would still be subjected to the same realities and injustice.
This utterance by the miners coupled with the fact that i experienced miners being shot at by police, seriously angered me. Equally shameful is the fact that the police officers did all these but Mrs Riah Phiyega(Police Commisioner) did not expressly regret their actions of killing miners who posed no material threat to the police.
I began to ask myself how does it become my constitutional right to strike but still face a risk of being shot at with live ammunition from the very people who are tasked to protect me-the police officers? A recent example was during the fees must fall protests at the University of Cape Town where white students stood in the fore front as human shields from the police.
There is no way we can discredit these South African realities. We need to bring the perpetrators to book for these injustices and the victims’ families need to be compensated accordingly. Some of the miners have been charged with criminal charges whilst the perpetrators walk free,with no charges. Is this the freedom our forebears fought for? Who is the law protecting and who is it not?
People lost their lives because they wanted better work conditions that can afford them the dignity that their labour rightfully deserves.
What are we as the general public doing to speak truth to power and name and shame all people,companies and policies which are systematically eating away at the core values of our constitution. Yes we are upset with our country’s junk status rating,we are upset about Nkandla story,but are we showing the same level of discontent with miners being shot down? I’m talking Miners who were merely vocal about their dissatisfaction with remunerations that keep them in the claws of poverty.
Systems of oppression and injustice were not dismantled fully in 1994. Had they been dismantled,you wouldn’t be reading my blog on Marikana right now,would you?
At the end of the day I’m still a black South African child who lives in this country and who is aware of the plight of people with the same skin colour as me. I’m aware that in this country although I’m “free”, I continue to encounter specific difficulties which have a lot to do with my skin colour ,heritage and how society views blackness or black people’s daily struggles.
The time is now to be woke and defiant in the face of all injustices in our country. The time is now to throw selective activism in the garbage can-which is where it belongs
#RememberMarikana.