SAfrica mine toll is 34 dead and 78 hurt

17 Aug 2012, 11:38 pm   -   Source: AAP

People searching for loved ones have gathered at hospitals near the South African mine where police killed 34 protesters and injured 78.

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Frantic wives searched for missing loved ones, President Jacob Zuma rushed home from a regional summit and some miners vowed a fight to the death as South African police finally announced the toll: 34 miners dead and 78 wounded.

Police Chief Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega said Thursday was a dark day for South Africa and it was not the time for pointing fingers. But people have compared the shootings to apartheid-era violence, and political parties and trade unions demanded an investigation.

At hospitals near the mine, people gathered on Friday, hoping to find missing family members among the wounded. At the scrubland scene of the killings, a woman carrying a baby on her back said she was looking for a missing miner.

"My husband left yesterday morning to come to the protest and he never came back," Nobantu Mkhuze said.

At least 10 other people have been killed during the week-old strike, including two police officers battered to death by strikers and two mine security guards burnt alive when strikers set their vehicle ablaze.

Makhosi Mbongane, a 32-year-old winch operator, said mine managers should have come to the striking workers rather than send police. Strikers were demanding monthly salary raises from the equivalent of $A595 to $A1,490. Mbongane vowed he was not going back to work and would not allow anyone else to do so either.

"They can beat us, kill us and kick and trample on us with their feet, do whatever they want to do, we aren't going to go back to work," he told The Associated Press. "If they employ other people, they won't be able to work either. We will stay here and kill them."

Shares in London-listed platinum miner Lonmin PLC fell eight per cent on Friday.

Since violence broke out last weekend at the Marikana mine, shares have fallen by as much as 20 per cent, wiping some STG390 million ($A587 million) off the company's market value.

The company, the world's third-largest platinum miner, has also been hit by Thursday's announcement that chief executive Ian Farmer is in hospital with a serious illness.

On a chilly Friday morning at the scene of the shooting, police investigators and forensic experts watched by about 100 people combed the area, planting multicoloured cones and numbered placards to mark evidence amid the dirt and bushes.

The South Africa Police Service defended officers' actions, saying in a statement that they had been "viciously attacked by the group, using a variety of weapons, including firearms. The police, in order to protect their own lives and in self-defence, were forced to engage the group with force."

Shocked South Africans watched replay after replay of video of the shooting.

Police used water cannon, and then stun grenades and tear gas in an effort to disperse the strikers and get them to hand over their home-made machetes, clubs and home-made spears. Some miners did leave, though others carrying weapons began war chants and marched toward the township near the mine.

Suddenly, a group of miners rushed through the underbrush and haze of tear gas at a line of police officers. Officers immediately opened fire, with miners falling to the ground. Dozens of shots were fired by police armed with automatic rifles and pistols.

By the time officers shouted "Cease fire!" bodies were lying in the dust, some pouring blood.

Poor South Africans protest daily across the country for basic services such as running water, housing and better health and education - all of which were hoped for after the first democratic elections in 1994.

Zuma said on Thursday that he was "shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence".

"We believe there is enough space in our democratic order for any dispute to be resolved through dialogue without any breaches of the law or violence," Zuma said in a statement.

Lonmin PLC chairman Roger Phillimore issued a statement on Friday saying the deaths were deeply regretted.

While the initial walkout and protest focused on wages, violence has been fuelled by the struggles between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the upstart and more radical Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

NUM secretary-general Frans Baleni has said that some of his union members were on a hit list, including a shop steward killed on Tuesday by strikers.

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