2012 killing of striking miners by police in Wonderkop, North West, South Africa
The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike at the Lonmin platinum mine at Marikana near Rustenburg in South Africa's North West province. The massacre constituted the most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since the Soweto uprising in 1976 and has been compared to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. 
The massacre occurred on the seventh day of an unauthorized wildcat strike at the mine which was launched without the endorsement of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The strikers sought a wage increase to be negotiated outside the existing collective wage agreement. Early reports suggested that they had been encouraged by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). When the NUM refused to represent their demands and Lonmin refused to meet with them, the mineworkers launched the strike on 10 August 2012. On 11 August, senior representatives of the NUM opened fire on the strikers as they marched towards the NUM's office; two wounded strikers were wrongly reported killed, vastly heightening tensions. 
Between 12 August and 14 August, violence escalated among the strikers, the SAPS, and private security officers employed by Lonmin. During this period, ten people were killed. Five of them – three strikers and two SAPS members – were killed in a single confrontation on 13 August. In addition, two Lonmin security officers were killed on 12 August, and three other Lonmin mine employees were killed in isolated incidents for which strikers are presumed to be responsible. Failed attempts to negotiate a peaceful resolution were launched by SAPS and the leadership of both AMCU and the NUM. 
The massacre on 16 August was the result of the decision by SAPS forcibly to disperse the striking mineworkers, who throughout the week had gathered on a public "koppie" (Afrikaans for a small hilltop) neighbouring the mine. The shooting took place at two locations, with 17 people fatally wounded at each location. The official figure for strikers injured during the shooting is 78. 
The Lonmin strike ended on 18 September with a wage agreement securing an 11 to 22 percent wage increase for workers. The strikers returned to work on 20 September. In the interim, however, similar wildcat strikes were initiated at other mines across South Africa. This wave of strikes led President Jacob Zuma to deploy the national military to the platinum-mining belt in mid-September and collectively made 2012 the most protest-filled year in the country since the end of apartheid. 
In the aftermath of the massacre, 270 Lonmin mineworkers were arrested and charged with the murder of their colleagues on 16 August; the charges were ultimately dropped amid public outcry. An official commission of inquiry, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, concluded its investigation in 2015 but was ambivalent in assigning blame for the massacre, criticising the police's strategy and actions but also criticising the conduct of the strikers, unions, and mine management.
Background.
NUM–AMCU rivalry.
The Marikana strike occurred against a backdrop of antagonism between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and its emerging rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). The NUM was the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which in turn was allied with South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), and has contributed many of the ANC's senior leaders. According to the "Guardian", the NUM's popularity had begun to decline under general secretary Frans Baleni, partly because of the NUM's perceived closeness to government and to management, which in some cases led members to believe that the union accepted unfair wage settlements that tied workers into years of insufficient wage increases. AMCU, on the other hand, was founded by Joseph Mathunjwa after he fell out with the NUM in 1998. In the months and years ahead of the Marikana strike, AMCU had begun to compete with the NUM for members and bargaining rights, especially in South Africa's platinum mines – the NUM's platinum sector had, during Baleni's tenure, become increasingly alienated from the NUM mainstream. In January and February 2012, a six-week strike at the Impala Platinum mine in Rustenberg, North West Province turned acrimonious when the NUM accused AMCU of fuelling the strike to gain members; four people died in the ensuing violence.
The strike that occasioned the massacre was held at the Marikana mine, a platinum mine in Marikana, Rustenberg, not far from the Impala mine where the earlier violence occurred. The mine was operated by Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer. NUM's dominance in Lonmin mines had faltered in the preceding years: its membership had declined from 66 percent of Lonmin workers to 49 percent, and it had therefore lost its exclusive organizing rights in the mines. Simultaneously, AMCU's support had shot up to roughly 20 per cent of Lonmin workers.
Worker grievances.
The strike at Marikana was driven by rock drill operators, who of all mineworkers typically work in some of the most dangerous conditions underground. Lonmin employed about 4,100 such operators. The rock drillers sought a three-fold wage increase, from R4,000 a month to R12,500 a month, notwithstanding the fact that the prevailing collective wage agreement was not due to expire until 2013. At least some of the strikers were inspired by the wage increases that had been obtained by rock drillers at the Impala mine strike earlier that year (from R4,000 to R9,500). Some were reportedly encouraged by the fact that, in July 2012, Lonmin had agreed to grant a housing allowance increase to miners following an unprotected strike, suggesting that the mine was willing to negotiate outside of the collective wage agreement. However, it was also reported that AMCU had promised the Marikana strikers that the R12,500 wage was attainable – and thus, in the "Guardian"'s phrase, had "dangled a fat piece of fruit in front of the workers' eyes". AMCU president Mathunjwa confirmed that the strike was a response to poor pay: "As long as bosses and senior management are getting fat cheques, that's good for them. And these workers are subjected to poverty for life." However, on 17 August – after the massacre – he denied that AMCU had promised workers that it could negotiate a R12,500 wage.
In the aftermath of the strike and massacre, commentators turned their attention to broader conditions in the mining industry which could have contributed to the workers' grievances and to the volatile environment during the strike. Al Jazeera said that the strike took place amid "seething tensions" in the mine, as a result of "dire living conditions, union rivalry, and company disinterest". The Bench Marks Foundation argued that a key trigger of the violence had been the exploitation of the mineworkers: "The benefits of mining are not reaching the workers or the surrounding communities. Lack of employment opportunities for local youth, squalid living conditions, unemployment and growing inequalities contribute to this mess." Rob Davies, South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry, described the conditions in the mines as "appalling" and said that mine owners who "make millions" had questions to answer about how they treat their workers. The International Labour Organisation agreed, saying that workers in mines such as Marikana were frequently "exposed to a variety of safety hazards: falling rocks, exposure to dust, intensive noise, fumes and high temperatures, among others".
Initial strike: 10–16 August.
Strike begins: 10 August.
On Wednesday 8 August 2012, a group of rock drill operators from various Lonmin mines had a mass meeting at which they agreed on their demand for a significant salary increase, though the NUM leaders present at the meeting refused to support the demand. The following day was a public holiday, Women's Day, and another rock drillers' meeting was held at the Lonmin-owned football stadium which bordered the workers' accommodation in Wonderkop; attendees agreed to approach the Lonmin management directly, as the NUM refused to represent them. 
On 10 August, workers at the Marikana mine assembled and marched ("toyi-toyi"'d) to the offices of Lonmin management. Lonmin refused to meet with them, instructing them to consult with their NUM leadership, and, in response, 3,000 workers walked off the job. This initiated an illegal wildcat strike, designed to achieve the strikers' desired wage increase to R12,500. According to sources interviewed by the "Daily Maverick", the instigators of the strike were largely NUM members, but "came together as workers, not as a union" and held the strike without any union representation. Testifying later, witnesses disagreed about whether the gatherings on 10 August had been peaceful or whether attendees had displayed aggression towards Lonmin management. 
Little reported on at the time were clashes on the evening of 10 August between the strikers and private security officials employed by Lonmin. According to Lonmin and NUM officials, there was widespread intimidation of workers who wished to report for duty instead of joining the strike. On at least three occasions during the evening of 10 August, Lonmin security officers fired rubber bullets into crowds of strikers, who they said were armed with traditional weapons, including knobkerries and spears. Two miners were injured by gunshots and filed criminal charges for attempted murder, but subsequent investigation did not establish whether they had been hit with live ammunition or only by rubber bullets. The South African Police Service (SAPS) was summoned by Lonmin during the unrest on the evening of 10 August and later testified that on that day it formulated a contingency plan which would allow it to conduct policing in the case of prolonged or hostile strike action.
Clash with the NUM: 11 August.
Early in the morning on Saturday 11 August, the strikers – still primarily NUM-affiliated rock drill operators – marched to the main offices of the NUM in Wonderkop, where they intended to present a memorandum to their NUM branch leaders (who are elected representatives, senior to shop stewards, paid a bonus by the mine for their union work). The memorandum formally requested that the NUM should represent the strikers in their demand for a R12,500 wage. However, according to strikers and other witnesses, once the march was about 100 or 150 metres away from the NUM office, somewhere in the vicinity of the Wonderkop taxi rank, some 15 to 20 NUM representatives – wielding between five and 15 firearms among them – emerged from the office and opened fire on the protestors, using live ammunition and apparently without warning or provocation. 
In later investigations, the NUM representatives did not dispute that at least some of them had opened fire on the protestors, but they claimed that the protestors were armed with traditional weapons, threw stones and shouted threats as they approached, and provided no indication that they hoped to speak peacefully with NUM leadership. Indeed, the NUM representatives had heard a rumour that the protestors intended to set alight the NUM office, and therefore believed themselves to be acting in self-defence. This account was contradicted by strikers, who claimed that they had armed themselves, precisely for the purpose of self-defence, only "after" the confrontation at the NUM offices. There was also some confusion about casualties incurred during the confrontation. The "Daily Maverick" reported in 2012, based on interviews with sources, that two protestors – both rock drillers and NUM members – had been killed by gunfire. This claim was later repeated. However, the official investigation later found that two protestors had been shot by NUM representatives but had survived. 
Following the clash outside the NUM offices, the strikers dispersed and later reassembled at Lonmin's football stadium. There, they decided for their safety to move their meetings to the nearby "koppie" (Afrikaans for a small hilltop), which was located on public land and easily accessible from the various Lonmin mines in the area and from the Marikana and Wonderkop settlements. The "koppie" became the primary staging ground for confrontations in the week ahead. According to the "Guardian"'s sources, it was on the afternoon of 11 August that other Lonmin miners joined the rock drill operators in their strike, infuriated by the NUM's response to the protest and by what they viewed as NUM collusion with Lonmin. Sources also told the "Guardian" that attendees at the afternoon gathering collected cash to enlist a "sangoma", a traditional healer, to protect them