(Vatican Radio) An official inquiry into the killings of dozens of people near a South
African platinum mine began Monday even as labour unrest continued with workers at
other mines as well as truck drivers continuing protests over pay.
The inquiry
focuses on violence at a Lonmin PLC platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg. On Aug.
16 police opened fire on demonstrating strikers, killing 34 and wounding 78. Around
a dozen people died on other days at Marikana. The Marikana commission of inquiry,
chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam, will determine the roles played by the police,
Lonmin, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction
Union. It will also determine whether any of those investigated could have put measures
into place to prevent the violence.
“It’s going to be a landmark moment, this
inquiry, for South Africa’s democracy, because of its context and of its timing.”
said Gunter Simmermacher, the editor of South Africa’s leading Catholic weekly, The
Southern Cross. “It comes just as the campaign for the election of the leadership
of the ruling African National Congress officially opens.”
He says, “This
campaign within the ANC is a very bitter contest. We are talking about two sides that
are very distinctive in their expectations for South Africa, and practically polar
opposites vying for power within the ANC.”
The violence at South Africa’s minds
is a factor in that campaign: “The faction that challenging President Jacob Zuma is
blaming the president for the August 16 shootings at Marikana and they’re using the
discontent about that shooting on the grass roots level in order to mobilise support
against Zuma.”