ISS Seminar Report: Violence, Unions and the State - What can we learn from the Lonmin Marikana mine massacre?

Date: 2012-08-24

Venue: , ISS Conference Room , Block C , Brooklyn Court , 361 Veale Street , New Muckleneuk , Tshwane (Pretoria)

Speakers:

• Prof. Andries Bezuidenhout – Department of Sociology, University of Pretoria
• Crispen Chinguno – Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP), University of the Witwatersrand
• Dr Kally Forrest – Former Editor of the Labour Bulletin and SWOP
• Dr Johan Burger – Crime and Justice Programme (CJP), ISS

Chair: Dr Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo (CJP)

In this seminar invited speakers engaged with the Lonmin Marikana mine violence in the North West that left 45 people dead. 34 people were shot dead by the police in the biggest state killing since the advent of democracy in 1994.

Prof. Andries Bezuindenhout laid the conceptual foundations of the seminar and anchored his presentation around notions of the changing geographies of labour. He argued that the decline of the compound system, in which miners had designated accommodation close to the mines in the platinum belt for instance, was a contributing factor to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) losing its capability to control workers. Compounds were exclusively male territory and allowed the NUM to exercise sometimes (violent) control over the workforce. Compounds also enabled the union to rapidly call meetings because workers were easily accessible to union leaders, a consequence of the fact that they were based in one space. However, over years the emergence of squatter camps and other housing estates saw the labour force dispersing to different areas, away from the compounds, and with this the NUM lost its influence. Bezuidenhout also noted that the absence of a central bargaining system in the platinum sector, unlike in the gold and coal sector, also meant that platinum workers increasingly owed less allegiance to the dominant unions as they had failed in advancing their interests.

Crispen Chinguno and Dr Kally Forrest, basing their analysis on interviews with platinum mineworkers in the Rustenburg area, added to the conceptual anchor by adducing some of the factors that have led to the NUM losing its influence and to the emergence of splinter unions such as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).

These factors are:

• Worsening living conditions (inadequate housing and other amenities, increase in cost of living, health issues)
• Political interference in the NUM by the former union leaders who had since joined government
• The fact that the NUM leadership was seen as inappropriately close to the elites, both political and business, and therefore was failing the working class in terms of advancing their interests.
• Corruption in the NUM, particularly in the management of workers’ funds held in trust funds and investment vehicles.

Both speakers noted that the emergence of splinter unions was also a sign that workers, including mineworkers, were tired of the promises given by the large, more established unions and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that they were committed to uplifting the living standards of the working class. Bezuidenhout, Chinguno and Forrest concurred that the clashes within the unions and the emergence of splinter unions had the potential to reconfigure the contours of the tripartite alliance involving Cosatu, the ruling African Nation Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), and all parties might have to rethink their role in advancing the democratic project.

Dr Johan Burger focused his presentation on the various accounts of the events leading up to the shootings and the events on the actual day of the shootings. He said that given that there were different police units present on the day, including specialised task teams that focus on such tense situations, there was a chance that there was an inadequate command and control framework to manage the situation. Burger also argued that several role players, including government, mine management, union leaders and the police, had failed to take the initiative in managing the situation. This was especially relevant in light of the fact that, before that fatal day, 10 people had already died from violence at the mine. Burger added that police personnel may have been in an impossible situation generated by a range of factors outside their control, and noted that time should now be given to the commission of inquiry to investigate what exactly happened.

The discussions were robust and questions and contributions were raised on:

• The impact of the shootings on investor confidence.
• The range of options that should be pursued to ensure there was no repetition of such an incident in future.
• The difficult position that platinum mines faced in a conjuncture of sluggish global demand for the metal.
• The range of historical reasons for the vicious nature of struggles within the mining and platinum sector.

The seminar generated media inquiries and culminated in interviews by Hamadziripi Tamukamoyo with SAFM (Morning Drive on 25 August), The Cape Argus newspaper, The Times newspaper and SABC radio.

The presentations from this seminar are available on the Crime and Justice Hub at www.issafrica.org/crimehub

This event is made possible through funding from the Hanns Seidel Foundation