Death toll may rise to 38: SAPS mine-shooting

Week-long SA platinum mine riots forced Lonmin London-headquartered owner to halt production at all its South African operations –  which account for 12 percent of global platinum output…

Aug 16 2012 – South African cops fired with live ammo on 3,000 machete-armed, striking mineworkers at Lonmin Marikana platinum mine: injuring ‘many.” Afterwards, police recovered guns – one of which had been stolen from a killed police-officer earlier in the week -  from amongst the bodies on the ground.  The latest estimates: 18 dead — but death toll could rise to 38 or even higher –  including the ten  murders  committed by these mineworkers during their strike-actions this past week: which included two cops, two security officers torched to death inside their vehicles; at least one suspected ‘ritual’ murder of ‘a man dressed in khaki’ (pic below video) and mineworkers found injured and killed in a mineshaft.

SAPS had to use force to protect themselves 

Update: Johannesburg – Police at Lonmin’s mine in Marikana in the North West had to use force in order to protect themselves, police said in a statement on Thursday. “The South African Police Service was viciously attacked by the group, using a variety of weapons, including firearms,” said Captain Dennis Adriao. “The police, in order to protect their own lives and in self-defence, were forced to engage the group with force.” Adriao said this had followed extensive and unsuccessful negotiations by police to disarm and disperse a heavily armed group of illegal gatherers at a hilltop near the mine. “This resulted in several individuals being fatally wounded, and others injured.”

The crime scene which covered a vast area was being managed by senior officials from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and supported by an expert team of detectives and forensic experts, he said. National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega and other senior members of management were currently at the scene as of late Thursday night, appraising themselves of the situation, which was still unfolding, said Adriao. A press conference would be held on Friday at 11.30am at Lonmin Training Centre. – Sapa

“Marikana: Bodies seen on the ground August 16 2012”

at 10:45pm By John Mkhize/ Also:
Reuters: “ Lonmin’s Phillimore regrets deaths Marikana” –

Mkhize: “South African police opened fire on striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine  on Thursday, killing at least a dozen men “in scenes that evoked comparisons with apartheid-era brutality.” (Reports Reuters).

 Above: In the past week, the striking mineworkers killed 10 people – two security officers were torched to death inside their cars, two police officers were shot, one man (above) was found the apparent victim of a ‘ritual killing’ near a group of striking miners on Tuesday. Police had found an animal’s skull placed on top of his chest near the mineworkers after they had just undergone a ritual by a traditional healer. The remainder of the victims were miners found badly injured or shot to death; two also with their throats cut – at the mine during the week-long ‘standoff’ between the SAPS and the miners at Marikana.

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Mkhize: ‘ Today, the SAPS had gathered in large numbers after negotiations with the striking miners broke down.
In the incident, filmed by Reuters television, officers opened up with automatic weapons on a group of men who emerged from behind a vehicle and started loping towards police lines.The volley of bullets threw up clouds of dust, which cleared to reveal bodies lying on the ground.

President Jacob Zuma said he was “shocked and dismayed” at what appeared to be one of the bloodiest police operations since the end of white-minority rule in 1994 in Africa’s biggest economy.“I have instructed law enforcement agencies to do everything possible to bring the situation under control and to bring the perpetrators of violence to book,” he said in a statement.

 Overall death toll could be as high as 38: Democratic Alliance

Above: after the shooting the SAPS (above) retrieved firearms & machetes from injured and dead mineworkers: who had undergone a traditional ceremony by traditional healer on a nearby hill the previous day which made them believe they were ‘invulnerable to bullets’…

Police have refused to confirm any death toll from the operation to disperse 3,000 protesting drill operators who had massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine, 100km north-west of Johannesburg. A Reuters photograph showed a dozen corpses lying on patch of sandy ground, while a spokesperson from the opposition Democratic Alliance said the overall toll could be as high as 38. The Sapa news agency said one of its reporters had counted 18 bodies.

World platinum prices leapt as much as $30 an ounce – more than two percent – to a six-day high as the extent of the violence became apparent in the country with 80 percent of world’s known reserves.

Leaders of the radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which was representing most of the strikers, accused police of a massacre. “There was no need whatsoever for these people to be killed like that,” General Secretary Jeffrey Mphahlele told Reuters. Some commentators likened the scenes to “apartheid-era footage of ranks of police opening fire on crowds of protesters in black townships: “:  “I cannot think of a confrontation between protesters and police since 1994 that has taken place along these lines,” said Nic Borain, an independent political analyst.  

Talks had broken down: ten people had already been killed by the miners by Tuesday:

Before the start of the operation by hundreds of police, officials said several days of talks with AMCU leaders had broken down, leaving no option but to use force to break the crowd, which had triggered the closure of the mine.“Today is unfortunately D-day,” police spokesperson Dennis Adriao said.

Prior to Thursday, 10 people – including two policemen – had died in nearly a week of fighting between rival worker factions at the mine, the latest platinum plant to be hit by an eight-month union turf war in the world’s main producer of the precious metal.

The Marikana strikers have not made their demands explicit, although much of the bad blood stems from AMCU’s challenge to the two-decade dominance of the National Union  of Mineworkers, a close ally of Zuma’s ruling African National Congress.

Threat by union leader: ”There will be bloodshed if police moved in’

Before the police advance, AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa, whose organisation has been on a big recruitment push in South Africa’s platinum mines, said there would be bloodshed if police moved in. “We’re going nowhere,” he shouted through a loud-hailer, to cheers from the crowd. “If need be, we’re prepared to die here.”

The unrest has forced Marikana’s London-headquartered owner to halt production at all its South African operations, which account for 12 percent of global platinum output. Lonmin said it had lost the equivalent of 15 000 ounces of platinum from the six-day disruption, and was unlikely to meet its full-year production target of 750 000 ounces.
Its shares fell to a fur-year low, losing 6.7 percent in London and 7.3 percent in Johannesburg. In all, they have shed more than 13 percent since the unrest started at the

weekend.At least three people were killed in a similar round of fighting in January that led to a six-week closure of the world’s largest platinum mine, run nearby by Impala Platinum . That helped push the platinum price up 15 percent.Despite South Africa’s dominance of the platinum sector, rising power and labour costs and a sharp drop in the price of the precious metal this year have left many mines struggling to keep their heads above water. – Reuters

http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/marikana-bodies-seen-on-the-ground-1.1364299