Widows and survivors of Marikana’s bloodbath have sent an ultimatum to the government and President Cyril Ramaphosa before the end of August or face some other legal challenge over the deaths of 34 minors in 2012.
Speaking at the eighth commemoration of the bloodbath organized through the Construction Union Miners Association (Amcu) in Midrand, Nonkululeko Ngxande, one of the widows, said she was still waiting for an apology from the government.
“Even now, there hasn’t been a single government user who has come to Array…we lost our husbands that day,” Ngxande said.
Lawyer Dali Mpofu, who represents some of those who suffered and survived, said an apology was vital because it would lead to emotional closure.
“The apology factor is more [for victims] than the cash factor [for compensation],” Mpofu said.
Mpofu said Marikana’s victims sought to get the government to practice ubuntu and apologize for the incident rather than take credit for the legal main points to avoid apologizing.
Mpofu also stated that a number of instances of reimbursement of those who had suffered the massacre are still in court.
The youngest Mzoxolo Magiwane, one of the survivors, said it was painful to keep waiting for his reimbursement after all those years.
“Other victims were so injured that they had to go home. We don’t know what they are eating,” Magiwane said.
“The sad thing is that some of the other people who are still waiting are suffering right now, others are walking on crutches.”
Meanwhile, 34 houses were built for Marikana’s widows in various parts of the country, the houses were built through an accept as true that was created after the 2012 massacre.
Lawyer Teboho Mosikili, administrator of the Amcu Massacre Trust, said the beneficiaries are all the families of the 44 victims, adding police families and security guards who also died before the bloodshed that saw police shoot the miners on strike near a koppie in Nkaneng outside Marikana Gates in the northwest.
Mosikili said that due to The Covid-19 restrictions, no other houses would be built for widows, especially in Lesotho, but promised widows who finished yesterday’s commemoration that all houses would be built and finished until the end of the year.
Mosikili said some of the families lived in huts and were therefore given priority.
Bishop Paul Verryn, who also spoke at the commemoration, about South Africans using marikana’s blood bath commemoration to continue fighting for equity and injustice.
Amcu President Joseph Mathunjwa said staff were now facing large job losses and were being rejected by the government and its reduction laws, which said they allowed employers to make the most profit.
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