 August 16 marked 10 years since the brutal massacre of protesting platinum-mine workers in the town of Marikana in South Africa. 34 people were killed and 78 injured when the police opened fire on workers who were demanding a better wage and housing. The massacre was the most obvious sign of how closely the state and the mining industry were linked. South Africa's current President Cyril Ramaphosa was then a non-executive director of Lawnmine, which operated the mines. 10 years later, justice has not been delivered for the victims of Marikana. Ambuso Angubani, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, talks about the case and what has happened to the families of victims 10 years later. From the onset, it has been a very difficult path for the widows and the families of those mine workers who were brutally murdered by the government of the ANC, who are supposed to be preserving the democratic principles because remember that this is the government that will come into place as a result of being voted by the majority of the working class in this country. After all, they have for decades been under apartheid regime, which was more about endorsing and then dominating through white supremacy in this country. And I must say that we had to take a stance in 2013 during our special congress to say what would have been said by the Central Committee of NUMSA was correct that indeed this was a massacre and therefore we needed an urgent intervention on the side of government to try and remedy what would have happened through its state security, again, which is the SAPS. And in doing so, NUMSA would have done a limited initiative toward also showing cause toward those widows and families where we said in that 2013 NUMSA special congress delegate should donate each delegate and then it was 200 each NUMSA staff member which we did as part of trying to make sure that the black Christmas that was confronting those families will meet them halfway. But coming back on what we see happening, within that one government would have tried by all means to make sure that those who are in the executive are not held accountable. If you look at the FALAM commission, you'll see that the FALAM commission was not necessarily intended to make sure that there is justice for these families, but it was a process to ensure that if there's a commission everybody will hope that therefore the matter will be addressed, yet there will be an attempt to make sure that it cover up for some people and say there are people who have not been held responsible. And I think if you look at FALAM commission, they ended up putting a blame solely on the then police commission and then others who were alleged to have also influenced the massacre were not made accountable. I mean there's been a consistent allocation against the president that he was also part to communicating towards this attack of workers. In 10 years now there's not been any arrest of anyone as we speak. And we're raising this, I mean it's questionable because during that massacre, the generalists present, there was a capturing of that massacre by generalists and by all and other people possible. So we will see the videos being even played in the media, in the social media, in different platforms of the media, but I mean in our eyes would have expected that those videos and the information that is surfaced, it will assist the state to make sure that it easily identify those who are perpetrators and make those arrests. And up until today you don't see any effort towards that. And again, there was also a promise by the president that he was going to be going there and meeting the workers and meeting the families and widows. Up until today we have not seen the president doing that including even his executive at the government level because we would have expected them to actually do that. But however they have not done that up until today. So it is worrying and for us is that they should now be a united front toward ensuring that we exit pressure against the state, against the government to make sure that there's something that is done because in situations like this we actually have to care less about our locals but be saying because we are a union that decides it's revolutionary in its character, we should be able to join forces with other unions which are organizing in the mining sector and agree on what action should be taken against the state so that at the end of the day there will be justice that is prevailing. So that at the end of the day there is some sense or some sort of compensating the families. I mean we know that they will not be able to bring them back all of those workers who perished in the picketing line just because they were demanding a living wage. But we're saying some form of compensation will go a long way toward assisting those families. And I think among other things as rooms of which you continue to have a problem with even beyond the mining sector is that whenever workers have got a dispute which is a labor dispute between the employer and the employee and they would have exhausted the negotiating table processes then they go out having declared a dispute in accordance with the law. We often find police being at the front to brutalize our members in the picketing lines. We often find police being unleashed against workers who picket peacefully in those roads in front of those companies. And our question has always been that why police are not impartial in ensuring that there is peace and then also protecting workers because workers for the fact that they enter or they embark on the picketing lines it does not mean that they are now taxed. But it means that they this is the only power or a weapon that they have to make sure that they put pressure against their interstitial employers to accede to their justifiable demands. Because it is these workers who produce whatever that is being produced in those various plants or various factories or in those mines. It is these workers who goes underground and work in producing those mineral resources. It is those workers who produce the surplus value which is at the end of the day is enjoyed only by management and the owners of those companies through the dividends and respectively through the performance bonuses and production bonuses whatever concept that they give. But on the other side is that the same workers who produce that surplus value are now isolated. They are now not deserving the slice of the bread out of their sweat having produced that kind of a surplus value. And that is the kind of the neoliberal agenda that we continue to fight against. That is the kind of the Putrazi government that exists in South Africa that we continue to fight against. That is the kind of the global capitalist system that we seek to fight against here in the country and then through joining forces with the international federations as well to try and make sure that we embark on working class struggles that seeks to smash the capitalist agenda that continues to suppress and super exploit our members across all sectors of our economy in this country and elsewhere. In the period that followed the strong links between the mining sector and the state have remained. The operations in Marikana were taken over by Sabani Stillwater which is one of the major global mining giants. To this day workers at many mines continue to strike for basic necessities. What is the state of workers rights in the sector today? Look I think for decades the mining sector in South Africa, I think one must accept that it is one of the key centers of the economy. Yet it does not play the adequate role in ensuring that there is much more intervention in terms of the development or supporting the agenda towards a developmental state in our country. I mean one of the things that we think we've got a problem with is the fact that these minerals they belong to the nation but with the current setup is that individuals will come and own those mining companies and then at the end of the day they will hammer a lot of minerals out of our land and then at the end of the day the big chunk of money is then reinvested outside the borders of South Africa. They are not ensuring that there is a beneficiation for instance out of those mineral resources so that there is a proper creation of jobs through the value chain and so that at the end of the day they can be able to stimulate a demand and supply in terms of ensuring that at the end of the day it post our economy through employment and provide the buying power for our own people to be able to consume whatever that is supposed to consume within the the the value chain of the economy. And within that there is there is a smooth collaboration between the state and the mining sector in this country. Hence the state security was unleashed and continues to be at the center in protecting those individual business tycoons who are given right to to mine in our country. And we think that this is it is unfortunate that the the kind of mineral resources that should be used to to develop our country should be used to create more jobs should be used in ensuring that we advance the agenda toward manufacturing in the country is not done. We are being diverted mostly to focus on the services sector and we all know that the services sector does not have the capacity to absorb a bigger number of people into the employment and that is why we would have as norms are consistently called for the nationalization of mines called for the nationalization of the six of the key sectors of the economy in this country so that we are able to have a government that is developmental in character the government that is takes responsibility in in in creating jobs as opposed to to a government that says no no no we are going to rely on on direct foreign investors and for us that foreign direct investors are not an answer into our misery into our plight. The foreign investors somebody who sits somewhere in his or her country who might not even think about us and therefore we must use what we have in creating jobs in making sure that we represent an environment that is conducive for all to be able to end a decent living to be able to make sure that we've got a state that is able to provide mostly the social needs for our own people I mean we are now a country that is mostly relying on grants as we speak and why must we why must we rejoice that the state is giving us grants we can't rejoice because it means that we must have society that is reliant on the state we must have society that is stagnant that is unable to develop we must have society that is dominated by massive employment must have society that is experiencing the tipping levels of poverty must have society that continues to to to experience the high level of inequality and and in the process it produces more criminals than than producing a responsible societal in our in our lifetime so the within that they there is a lot that's supposed to be done in terms of transformation in the mining sector and in other key sectors of the economy and and ensure that at the end of the day those mines they must actually work for society not for for the individual elite and mostly who are foreigners for that matter the Marikana massacre was a watershed for workers and trade unions in the country too as it spurred a fresh round of organizing numsa has been in the forefront of many militant protest by workers what are the demands of numsa in the sector look one is that we we we need more more more improvement on the health and safety of of of workers in those mines we think that it's one of the worrying factors that you continue to be worried about you remember they were they were there are still workers who who are who were the one of the mines collapsed over them their bodies have not been found up until to date and to continue experiencing a very complicated process towards the the enquiries in the mines as and when there are issues of health and safety I mean the companies they decide that they are not going to be at the center in resolving open party to those enquiries they they normally hire law firms to come and represent them and us as unions who with the with the limited resources we have will struggle to hire the expertise of those lawyers to equate to be equal to the task against those lawyers who are presenting minor mining mining tech rooms so meaning that there is no appetite to correct what's supposed to be corrected there is more willingness to to put a defense so that the status quo continues so it's one of the fundamental demands that we continue to to advance and the question of the living wage continues that struggle continues we say that it cannot be that the the up until to date mine makers are not even ending 20 000 as we speak I mean it took it took their lives to demand 12 500 and when we think that they would have understood what was the call for what was the demand about up until to date were still embarking on a struggle to make sure that at least they reach about 20 000 so that they can be able to look after themselves and remember that these are migrant workers in those cases they come from different different provinces and others come even outside the borders of South Africa like Zimbabwe etc and therefore once they they spend more of their lives in the hostels they spend more of their lives in the in the in those mines but at the end of the day they must also look after their their families who will be residing back in their in their path of in their provinces of birth or in their birth or birth of I mean countries of birth respectively so which also that on its own put more pressure on them because it means that you must be able to have a budget for for yourself where you are you must be able to have a budget for for your family pay home but also remember that workers they they also pay what you call black tax because when with the with the the the massive unemployment they only have their relatives extended families being unemployed and therefore with the little solar resources that they get they must still look after their aunties they still look they must still look after their crannies and and cousins and so forth and and siblings and so forth so therefore we think that there is a need to continue with the struggle that workers must equally benefit out of the surplus value that they've produced in those mines so we continue doing that and there there is also a need to transform the mind in the mining chamber in this country which is mostly dominated by white male who are detecting the terms and and and and and in doing that it should also be about how do we then enter into a partnership where a state will have a clear shareholding in those mines remember these are mineral natural resources that belongs to the country so if the same mining companies are able to do it in in our neighboring countries why can't they do it in South Africa where where where the government can have 50 to 60 percent shareholding in those mining companies so that they can be able to get get the demands out of those mines to post the economy of our own country why can't you do it in South Africa because it's being done in our neighboring countries so those are some of the demands that you continue to demand going forward