The heartless killing of 34 striking miners at Marikana on 16 August 2012 by the South African police startled the world both in the manner and period it happened. Almost 20 years after the demise of apartheid, it evoked memories of the past and raised questions about the post-apartheid socioeconomic and political order and the integrity of industrial relations. This paper argues that Marikana is a crisis linked to the intersection of precariousness and fragmentation of workers. In explaining the choices by different stakeholders, it is imperative to unpack the political, historical, social and economic context.

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Written by Crispen Chinguno, ICDD PhD fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His project explores the dynamics of strike violence in post-apartheid South Africa by drawing case studies from the platinum mines before, during and after the Marikana massacre. He is an alumnus of GLU South Africa and has worked with trade unions in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.

Published by Global Labour Column and edited by CSID at Wits University.