Marikana miners who witnessed the brutal killing of 34 colleagues at Marikana during a strike were emotional as they marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre.
They say the families of those who died continue to suffer from poverty. This is evident when you head to the northwestern town of Wonderkop, located on South Africa’s so-called Platinum Belt.
One of the miners who was there on August 16, 2012, Siwuile Bongela, said the miners continued to work under the same conditions as 10 years ago.
Bongela said the place where they died was not even secured.
“The place is still as it was when our brothers died. It doesn’t even show that anything significant happened here. “We hoped that this place would be made respectable, it would be secured, cleaned, but it is all the same as it was that day. “We also wanted the names of those who lost their lives to be written all over this mountain in their memory.”
He said some of the wives and families of those who died are still fighting.
“Some of them don’t work. If it were up to me, the women who lost their husbands would have to give back the money their husbands earned.’
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