Marikana massacre remembered in city centre

The march and picket against police brutality is a prelude to the two year anniversary of the killings on 16 August.

It forms part of a series of events this week, culminating in a march at the Marikana informal settlement (named in honour of the miners killed) in Philippi East tomorrow, to commemorate the massacre. Other initiatives have included the “renaming” of Cape Town streets to honour individual miners killed. Names, photos, and biographies of the dead miners have been attached to street names.

This afternoon activists toyi-toyied and chanted as they marched through the city centre.

At the police station, officers came outside and faced the marchers. This week, the Philippi Marikana informal settlement has been the site of violent clashes between occupiers erecting shacks and City of Cape Town officials and police who have evicted and arrested shackdwellers. Tumi Ramahlele, a resident of the Marikana land occupation, addressed the crowd. He drew parallels between the “state oppression” of people with no houses or land like the land occupiers in Philippi, and the striking miners at Marikana two years ago.

Ramahlele read out the names of the 34 miners killed by police and those of other protesters killed by police in recent years. He called for a moment’s silence, after which a copy of the documentary Miners Shot Down was handed to Cape Town’s station commander. The march carried on towards Cape Town’s Grand Parade.

Groups represented at today’s march included the Marikana Land Occupation, NUMSA Western Cape, Housing Assembly, Equal Education, UCT Left Students Forum, Right2Know Campaign, African Arts Institute, Activate, Ndifuna Ukwazi, Social Justice Coalition and the Democratic Left Front.