Not Safe For Work! Striking Miners Massacred - Marikana Mine SA

ToffeeMark · August 17, 2012

At least 30 people were killed when police clashed with striking miners at South Africa's Marikana mine.

The Video contains a warning of Graphic content however there is no blood or gore that I could see, but you can see the protestors advancing (or moving away from tear gas?) and then a wall of gunfire taking them down.

[video=youtube;p-jdMbe6e3g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-jdMbe6e3g[/video]

arch stanton · August 17, 2012

People who shingle that we live in a police state in the uk need to take a look at this. Absolutely horrendous actions. Fume

CahillsCornerFlag · August 17, 2012

That is ****ing disgusting, I don't believe anything the miners could have done merited that.

Blue 1 · August 17, 2012

Horrific.

S.A. seems to be going down a dark path these days.

Elong · August 17, 2012

Sorry but a terrible country once you go out of the cities and a dangerous one in them. There's a reason there's so many ex pat Saffas around the world.

Bruce Wayne · August 17, 2012

I don't agree with going on strike but that's insane.

Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian · August 17, 2012

Thatcher would've opened fire on our Miners if she could.

Muggins · August 17, 2012

More and more people are dying on camera these days. I don't like it.

MisterPinstripe · August 17, 2012

Muggins said:
More and more people are dying on camera these days. I don't like it.

Just as many people are dieing, but now the world can see it and condemn it.

tsubaki · August 17, 2012

MisterPinstripe said:
Just as many people are dieing, but now the world can see it and condemn it.

and make money from it

peteblue · August 17, 2012

Cowards.....

ToffeeMark · August 17, 2012

Fighting between the miners claimed three lives last week and two policemen were hacked to death on Monday. Police told the miners to lay down their arms - which included guns as well as clubs and machetes - and reach a negotiated settlement. On Thursday, however, about 3,000 miners - many of them armed - defied this order by massing near Marikana. Police tried to break them up to make them â€œmore manageableâ€, but the miners charged. â€œWe tried to repel the advance with water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades,â€ said Ms Phiyega. But still the miners came forward: a vivid scene on national television showed them charging out of the bush towards a row of armed police. At this point, officers were â€œforced to use maximum force to defend themselves,â€

In the interest of balance, If two of your buddies were hacked to death and then you were faced by a mob with machettes and clubs advancing towards you...

terrible situation all round.

Nails · August 18, 2012

ToffeeMark said:
In the interest of balance, If two of your buddies were hacked to death and then you were faced by a mob with machettes and clubs advancing towards you...

terrible situation all round.

Armed police shouldn't have been used against the strikers. This sort of massacre is just indicative of SAs history. There is a reason why all the striking miners are black.

ToffeeMark · August 18, 2012

Nails said:
Armed police shouldn't have been used against the strikers. This sort of massacre is just indicative of SAs history. There is a reason why all the striking miners are black.

That was the problem, if you put police in the London Riots with guns, people would've got killed. Putting that many guns in front of the rioters when some of the police had been killed a few days earlier was a recipe for disaster.

political pressure, i.e. the money men wanted the platinum mine working so pressured the police to break it up, where as it would've been better to calm everything down.

Don't they have riot shields!

Alot of the cops were Black to, the only guy not shooting and who told them to cease fire seemed to be a white guy. I'm not sure it's a race thing. More of a police attitude how they perceive or are trained to deal with mobs, as you say, that mentality probably goes back a long way.

The Esk · August 18, 2012

Shocking, no other word for it.

The miner's strike of 84-85 was a terrible time too and whilst no miners were ever shot by the Police there was significant brutality, sometimes from both sides.

I was a student activist at the time and was arrested twice (although never charged) for behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace, all because I was using my democratic right to support miners and object against the behaviour of the Thatcher Government.

Still stirs powerful emotions, even today