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Photo of a previous service delivery protest

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Cyril Ramaphosa, a young black activist, was asked in 1982 to start a labour organisation for mining workers to challenge one of the most important sectors of the country’s economy, then dominated by the white minority.

Ramaphosa not only founded the National Union of Mineworkers, currently one of the most powerful unions in the country, but also became the lead African National Congress (ANC) negotiator in the talks that ended Apartheid in 1994 and gave blacks the franchise.

But his negotiating skills were missing in August, when thousands of workers at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana went on a wildcat strike, which led to the deaths of 44 people. Police shot 34 of them dead on August 16, in what is being seen as one of the worst instances of violence in the country since the end of Apartheid.

Ramaphosa is a board member of Lonmin, having gone full circle from fighting for workers’ rights to owning key shares in a mining firm.

His story, for South Africans, is an exception to the rule that highlights the slow pace of change. While some blacks have been lifted out of poverty and have gained positions of power since 1994, deep poverty and unemployment is the more common reality.

“Too many people in South Africa are not skilled. Our education system here is in crisis. People are not learning the skills they need for work,” says Gareth Newham, the head of the Crime and Justice Programme at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria.

Unemployment hovers at around 25 percent, according to official figures.

The government-sponsored affirmative action programme - Black Economic Empowerment — has not done its job.

Though it created a small black middle class, the programme has notably enriched a small, politically connected elite, which is often accused of being corrupt.

Newham believes that because the ruling ANC is not held accountable, the country regularly finds itself dealing with urgent situations. The party is the dominant political power in the country, garnering about two-thirds of the vote in national elections.

“As long as there is no threat to the people in power in the ANC, and people are not held accountable for their ability to solve problems, then we will always be in a crisis management system,” says Newham.

People in South Africa are slowly getting fed up with the pace of economic change — having gotten the vote in 1994, they now want to see a real positive impact on their day-to-day lives.

Service delivery protests are on the rise. Last year, the number of such protests against government failings to deliver basic services like water, electricity, housing and education reached an all-time high.

Some areas of the country simply offer no hope to residents.

Many of the workers at the Lonmin mine in the North-West province, originally came from the Eastern Cape, where Nelson Mandela was born.

“There are no jobs in the Eastern Cape, there is nothing,” said Primrose, a women in her fifties who sells clothes outside the Lonmin mine.

She moved to Marikana in 1995, shortly after the Apartheid-era restrictions on freedom of movement for blacks were lifted.

Analysts believe that the striking Lonmin miners were joined by hundreds of unemployed people from nearby informal settlements — or shantytowns -who turned a labour dispute into a complaint against the system: the mines, the unions and the government.

“As long as people feel excluded, problems will continue,” says the ISS’ Newham.

The shantytowns around the mine are often no-go areas for police, indicating a lack of trust in the authorities by the growing class of working poor in South Africa.

“The violence by workers is a rejection of inequality,” says one sector analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Moreover, the political leaders who should have stepped up and help resolve disputes before violence erupted have largely shirked their responsibility.

Corruption is a red thread running through the debates about the where the country is heading.

Many top officials in the police, for example, have been fired for graft and other charges, including the past two police chiefs.

Richard Mdluli, the former head of crime intelligence at the police, is facing allegations of fraud and murder.

His unit would have been responsible for gathering inside information from the scene of the Lonmin strike.

But with crime intelligence in total disarray, observers say they are not surprised the police officers facing the angry workers had no clue how to handle the situation, contributing to the brute use of live ammunition that left dozens dead and shocked the nation.

Source: Sapa-dpa

Comments

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Thu May 23 20:11:15 SAST 2013 ::

Sep 4, 2012

Mellow

And the very same man who failed them miners is now spitting at their graves by donating some money for their burials ooohh Cyril really SA must things go this far before people see action we are moving at a snail pace dont think we will ever be transformed DISGUSTING GREEDY LEADERS, anc full of k@k leaders keep voting for them they'll keep treating you like crap
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Sep 4, 2012

CheeseBoy

promises and more promises is what the ruling party is good at. thousands of promises and zero results, you voted and your voices have brought you nothing 20 years after Freedom.

liberation movements have never been successful at delivering promises. until tha masses wake up to that FACT nothing will change.

you are going to get more promises and your leaders will live like kings and build cities in their villages and treat you worse than your collonial masters.

Black man you are on your own , Steve Biko
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Sep 4, 2012

Papage

This is becoming a daily thing, why can't Zuma and the Government address the problems, this Country is going to the dogs, One day people will die like those in Marikane, Please Zuma address the problems, Tell you Ministers to work for the country and not for friends and families.
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Sep 4, 2012

Lehido

The mine could have turned the R2 million money inot some sort of incentives for the worker to prevent them from striking...Instead, not it's used to bury the them.........
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Sep 4, 2012

KEKGATHETSE

the sad thing about all this is that come voting time, the same protesters are returning anc back to power by another majority vote.
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Sep 4, 2012

Batista40

EISH MARA SOUTH AFRICAN LEADERSHIP IS LETTING US DOWN
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Sep 4, 2012

Mellow

@Cheeseboy
So true promises promises lots and lots of empty promises


@Papage What do you mean by one day people will die? For a mere fact that ppl died 44 mense means we sitting on a huge mess they should've died in the first place and alot more have died before in different protests marches its sad honestly zuma must just step down anc as a whole really they are doing jerk all they are good for is adding stress and pain to the current situation
situation
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Sep 4, 2012

Winilen

Inequality that the 1st thing that need to be dealt with, we cant have ppl earning R100000 a month & others earning less than R10000... poor ppl are xploited day in day out.
Corruption is worse & it not a short term solution it will take yrs
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Sep 4, 2012

Moffdat

WHY ARE NGUNI'S SO VIOLENT???.
When we were growing up in Bophutatswana! Mangope didn't want tswana people mingling with them(Nguni people). He considered them unintelligent and greedy. The more i grow the more they prove the old man right. These people don't respect other peoples right to life. Always shouting, complaining and fighting!!!! They leave their homes in Bunduland(EC or KZN) and spark havoc where they don't belong.
Go and look at how they live where they come from. For all their representation in government you think they would have the decency to help out where they come from but... NOOOOOO!!!! Instead they come to places like pretoria, rustenburg and Mafikeng and cause trouble with their ignorance.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH NGUNI'S???
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Sep 4, 2012

SOLUTIONS

Winilen
Inequality that the 1st thing that need to be dealt with, we cant have ppl earning R100000 a month & others earning less than R10000...
------------------------------------------
Uhh,, why not? if those who educated themselves and work hard to earn their R100 000 a month, why not,?you will always need cleaners and people who are in the low income. Why must a garden boy earn the same as me who works my a.ss off to get educated and somewhere in life.


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