By Akani Nkuna
The Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) staged a powerful protest at the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources on Wednesday, delivering a symbolic coffin to honour artisanal miners who have lost their lives.
The demonstration highlighted the ongoing dangers faced by zama zamas, with demonstrators demanding justice, accountably and formal recognition to protect their rights and ensure their contributions benefit local communities.
Macua national coordinator Meshack Mbangula told the hundreds of protesters gathered at Jubilee Park in Pretoria where the march started, that they were going to deliver a signed coffin to the department, awarding it for the deaths of miners.
“We are going to give that coffin to DMPR; reason being… they have been killing us, whether [it’s] pollution, contaminated water, poverty… so we are going to take that coffin and put messages there and award them,” he said.
Mbangula said that in the past, Macua had delivered a list of demands to the department, but the dire situation for mining communities remained the same.
A representative of the Women Affected by Mining United in Action, Daisy Tshabangu, pleaded for compassion and leniency from Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe for the Stilfontein community in the North West.
This follows hundreds of miners being trapped underground and many of them dying after the government and police blocked mine shafts to stop illegal miners accessing food and supplies to force them to resurface.
“Gwede Mantashe, wherever you are, let our words not fall on deaf ears. Please show mercy to the people of Stilfontein. And the police from Stilfontein; please make a difference. Have a conscious and do not kill our brothers,” she said.
General Industries Workers Union of SA president Mametlwe Sebei described the events at Stilfontein as a massacre, saying the deaths were not an accident.
He said the deaths were the result of the police acting under the instructions of the mining capitalists and corporations collaborating with the government.
“When you listen to the Gwedes of this world, you will be mistaken to believe that those miners who came underground emaciated, dehydrated, who are the ratchet of the earth, are the problem we have in the mining industry, and not the big monopolies that have monopolised the ownership of the minerals, the exploitation of the minerals and the mining industry.
“And have concentrated in their hands, an enormous amount of wealth at a time when [South Africa has] devastating levels of unemployment, poverty, lack of development, hunger and starvation in our communities in the midst of the wealth and the wonders that our land and our labour produces,” he said.
Macua once again called for artisanal miners, also knowns as zama zamas, to be recognised and incorporated into the formal economy.
Mbangula told Inside Politics that foreign investors continued to exploit local mineral resources, extracting wealth while leaving communities in poverty.
He said it was an unjust system that sidelined artisanal miners, who struggled to make a living.
“We want to see zama zamas being formalised and be able to contribute to the economy of the country and be able to put bread on the table. And not having the so-called investors who are coming to loot minerals without benefiting us, and taking them to the Western countries,” he said.
One of the miners who was trapped underground at Stilfontein, Ayanda Ndabeni, said he could not criticise the police for following orders. Instead, he held the government and those in higher echelons of power responsible.
He condemned their decision to use force against the zama zamas, whom he said were merely trying to survive and make a living.
“Today, [it is] said that we were killed by the police. We were killed by… the government [who people voted for] to represent our interests. They instead sent police on us; that they kill us because they have labelled us criminals,” he said.
“Blood has to spill for them to hear our cries and give in to our demands,” Ndabeni said.
Mantashe is in Cape Town where he attended the African Mining Indaba.
INSIDE POLITICS
