The Marikana shooting incident is now part of the annals of post-Apartheid South African history. It represents one of the most graphic interfaces between the need for law and order, and the wish for continued disorder in society. Whilst the police should be held accountable for the hard handed manner in which they have responded to the behaviour of the miners, there are questions that still need to be answered in respect of their actual responsibilities in similar conditions. The worker despair at established labour relations systems and ‘sweetheart’ or ‘otherwise’ union representation should be juxtaposed against the creeping despair of law enforcement officers at the altar of a yet to be defined post-Apartheid policing. The ‘platinum’ nature of the Marikana inequality does not match the ‘platinum’ benefits of the mineral to owners of the resource. As Chairman Mao taught “labour and capital have been in contradiction ever since the two classes came into being, only at first the con...
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