GOOD statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
16 August 2022
The tragic events at Marikana 10 years ago, where 34 striking mineworkers were massacred by police, is a tragic monument to the ongoing social, economic, spatial and environmental injustices inherited from the past that it is our collective duty as a nation to fix.
The events painfully illustrated the skewed power relations on which the South African economy is structured, and the particular price the migrant labour system exacted from black men and black families.
And, as George Floyd’s death taught the US, it reinforced the notion that the lives of people of colour remain cheap in post-apartheid South Africa.
Ten years after Marikana, unemployment, poverty and inequality in South Africa are at all-time highs. Following last July’s attempted insurrection, it feels as if the country is a powder keg awaiting the next implosion.
There are many lessons that the Marikana Massacre taught about appropriate and inappropriate police strategies and tactics. But the main lessons, about uneven power relations, economic inequality and the equal dignity of all, have been insufficiently heeded.
The injustices of the past, left unattended today, will reverberate and challenge our sustainability.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za