At the centre of the feud is the question: who has the right to organise a memorial service for the 34 killed when the police opened fire on striking miners last week?

The "Friends of the ANCYL", led by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, claimed the miners have given them the mandate to organise a memorial service.

"The workers have asked us to organise a memorial service for their slain colleagues, which will happen tomorrow (today) in Marikana," said suspended ANCYL spokesman and member of "Friends of the ANCYL" Floyd Shivhambu.

The announcement about the memorial follows reports that the striking workers had vented their anger at the inter-ministerial committee led by Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane. The workers apparently rejected the committee's offer to organise a memorial service.

However, yesterday the committee announced that a different memorial service for the dead would be held today in Nkaneng - an informal settlement outside Marikana, where some of the miners lived.

"The memorial service is organised by the inter-ministerial committee in conjunction with the Marikana mayor, religious leaders and the miners," said spokesman Harold Maloka.

Yesterday, Shivhambu also announced that they had "organised a team of lawyers" to defend the more than 200 miners arrested in connection with the violent protests at Marikana.

He said the lawyers had agreed to represent the miners pro-bono (free of charge).

The "Friends of the ANCYL" have also helped the families of the dead miners to lay charges of murder against the police.

This is despite the fact that President Jacob Zuma has announced his intention for a judicial inquiry into the deaths of the miners.

• This article was first published in the printed newspaper and eEdition on 23 August 2012. Click on this link to view the eEdition

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Wed Jun 19 20:05:03 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 24, 2012

Papage

Sad state of affairs, this is the story of the Government today. I wish people could just stop and think a bit, come back to their senses before it is too late. ANC is losing the plot, they must sort out their issues with the expelled Youth or else, ke mathata feela. Why is Vavi so quite about the murdered miners? does he know something, we dont know? is Numsa and the New Union not affiliated to Cosatu?
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Aug 24, 2012

lamolath

Good Morning

This time i think we must give credit to Malema.Government organised the memorial service and the community organise theirs as well and invited malema.at the memorial service which was organised by gorvernment no one showed up. only the government officials.and they decided to join the community on their memorial service were Malema was at.

If what he said after given a platform was true about ZUMA's trust getting money from all the mines in SA....Freedom charter.The people shall share but it seems like only the ANC bosses are sharing the wealth of this country.

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Aug 24, 2012

swona

where is COSATU? SA is in the hands of wrong people, Zuma promised a lot of things, he is yet to deliver a single promise, the only thing he's about to achieve is to built a 2billion rand mall at Nkandla, and that was not in the center of his campaign, to learn the amounts paid to directors at this mines and SA companies in general and the salaries of poor black workers makes one's blood to boil! there is soo much inequality in SA labour sector and I have a feeling COSATU is enjoying a gravy train
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Aug 24, 2012

swona

malema as well must claim to be poor or on our side, his lifestyle makes me sick hence I dont want anything to do with him, he's an oportunist and a looter!
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Aug 24, 2012

RobinH

This is just one huge clusterf*ck and everyone is trying to get a piece of the desert. Absolutely disgusting. Going around creating false hope and gushing false sympathy. What a worthless, spineless lot our empty vessels are.
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Aug 24, 2012

GUERRILLA

ANC is driving us down the drain its time fior them to step down they played thier role let them give other opposition an opportunity..............
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Aug 24, 2012

GUERRILLA

what an unfortunate country being ruled by illiterate leaders... (MALEMA, ZUMA)
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Aug 24, 2012

KEKGATHETSE

sickning... if i was one of the bereveaved, ke ne ke tlo le tshela ka metsi a chesang out of my place. why treat such a moment of pain in the lives of the survivors to a power struggle. sies! malema, all of you
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Aug 24, 2012

mokudubete

typical politcians always scoring points at the expense of our pains,this people are selfish.
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Aug 27, 2012

ndhandhazi

Government does not own mines. Julius Malema is grandstanding. He is the one who organised the violencebecause Cyril Ramaphosa who fired him from ANC is a shareholder in that mine. Wake -up South Africa,
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