guardian.co.uk,
Associated Press in Johannesburg, Thursday 16 August 2012
 |
| Police surround the bodies of workers after opening fire on a strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, South Africa. Photograph: AP |
South
African police have opened fire on a crowd of striking workers at a platinum
mine, leaving an unknown number of people injured and possibly dead.
Police
moved in on the strikers who gathered on a rocky outcrop near the Lonmin mine
on Thursday afternoon. On TV footage, a volley of intense gunfire could be
heard. The private television broadcaster e.tv showed images of still bodies
lying in blood in the dust. Another image showed some miners looking in the
distance at heavily armed police officers in riot gear.
Police
Captain Dennis Adriao, a spokesman for the officers at the mine, declined to
immediately comment. Jeff Wicks, a spokesman for the private ambulance company
Netcare, which was standing by at the mine, also declined to comment.
Barnard
Mokwena, an executive vice-president at Lonmin, would only say: "It's a
police operation." Lonmin is the world's third-largest platinum producer.
In a
statement earlier on Thursday, Lonmin had said striking workers would be sacked
if they did not turn up for their shifts on Friday.
"The
striking (workers) remain armed and away from work," the statement read.
"This is illegal."
The unrest
at the Lonmin mine began on 10 August when about 3,000 workers walked off the
job in protest over pay. Management described the action as an illegal strike.
Those who
tried to go to work on Saturday were attacked, management and the National
Union of Mineworkers said.
On Sunday,
a crowd killed two security guards after setting their car ablaze, authorities
said. By Monday, angry mobs killed two other workers and overpowered police,
killing two officers, officials said. Officers opened fire that day, killing
three, police said.
Operations
appeared to come to a standstill on Tuesday as workers stayed away from the
mines, where 96% of Lonmin's platinum is produced.
The
shootings on Thursday saw stock in Lonmin plunge 6.33% in trading on the London
Stock Exchange.
While the
walkout appeared to be about wages, the ensuing violence has been fuelled by
the struggles between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the
upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. Disputes between the
two unions escalated into violence earlier this year at another mine.
Both unions
have blamed each other for the trouble at the mine at Marikana, about 40 miles
(70km) north-west of Johannesburg.
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