Marikana six years on: ANC-led government still fingered for death of miners
Six years after the Marikana massacre, union and opposition leaders are still laying the blame for the death of miners in the North West town at the door of the ANC-led government.
On August 16, 2012, police shot and killed the 34 miners during a strike for better wages at Lonmin mine. However, in the days leading up to the massacre, 10 others were killed, including six mineworkers, two police officers and two Lonmin security officials.
Speaking at the sixth commemoration of the massacre on Thursday, near the koppie where the killings took place, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union leader Joseph Mathunjwa maintained that ANC-led government was culpable.
He said the killings were a result of having to "appease particular foreign investors by showing visible action taken to protect their investment".
"The 34 comrades perished at the hands of the toxic collusion between monopoly capital and a fascist state," said Mathunjwa.