After Marikana, little has changed for miners

 

For many miners who 3 years ago waged one of the bloodiest strikes in South Africa, struggles and frustration continue.

Mineworkers hope to be selected for the government housing scheme [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]
Marikana, South Africa -   A pair of thin brown horses graze on patches of dry, yellow grass and thorny shrubs near a seemingly endless row of shacks patched together from sheets of corrugated steel.
This dusty maze of one and two-room shelters is part of Nkaneng, an informal settlement in South Africa's platinum mining belt that sprang up shortly after the Marikana Massacre of August 16, 2012, when police shot and killed 34 miners during a wildcat strike.
Ten more people, including two police officers and two security guards, had been killed the week before.
Three years later, since a  total of 44 people died, little has changed for many miners who waged one of the bloodiest strikes in South African history, demanding higher salaries and better living conditions from British mining company, Lonmin.
 In September 2012, after two months of negotiations, Lonmin agreed to a settlement with the unions, but so far, only some groups miners, such as rock-drill operators, are receiving the monthly $968 after taxes, up from the  pre-settlement amount of $580, that they had demanded.
Thandoxolo Ngongo, 38, who migrated from South Africa’s Eastern Cape region to work in the mines as a rock-drill operator, is one of the fortunate few. He said even though he receives an acceptable wage and an additional $155 as a monthly housing allowance, he still fears labour unrest could flare again because many miners are still paid below the settlement amount of $968.
"I was part of the strike, but I managed to run away, and I wasn't shot like our other comrades," Ngongo told Al Jazeera.
"Now I'm getting better money, 12,500 rand [$968] is my basic [salary], but not everyone gets this, and people want better wages. But I'm afraid if we strike again, the same thing could happen again with the police."
After working for 16 years at Wonderkop, where the Lonmin mine is located, Ngongo still lives in the same blue, one-room shack, but dreams of moving to Marikana Extension 2, the new housing settlement where the government is building more than 2,600 dwellings as part of a three-year housing plan.
Built on 50 hectares of land donated by Lonmin in 2013 as a gesture of reconciliation after the miners' deaths, the $36m project is intended to resolve the problem of Marikana's settlements, but delays with building and lack of clarity over the allocation process have led to fiery disputes with the township's residents.
Frustrated by the long wait, some miners have threatened to occupy the new buildings.

The new stands of Nkaneng settlements, where some of the injured miners live, are ever expanding [Tendai Marima/Al Jazeera]

Battle for survival
Meanwhile, the miners injured in the Marikana incident have found it even harder to make ends meet in recent years.
Out of work and reliant on benefits, Lungisile Madwansi still has a bullet lodged in his head three years after being shot by police from a helicopter above where the striking miners stood.
Recently, at a commemoration of the third anniversary of Marikana organised by the influential Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, Madwansi spoke to a crowd recounting what had happened.
"I was shot in the head; our brothers died. But the struggle for 12,500 rand is not over. The Farlam Commission [a government-run inquiry into the massacre] was just a waste of time; it did not find anything wrong with what the government did. But [South African President Jacob] Zuma, and [police commissioner] Riah Phiyega are responsible for the deaths, and they must be accountable," he said later in a telephone interview.
Although the Farlam Commission report was critical of police action, rights groups such as Amnesty International have gone further and called for the suspension of police officers responsible for the shootings.