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In August of 2012 the world sat up and took notice of a place called Marikana, a small town in the Rustenburg municipal area. It’s now a place forever synonymous with the deaths of 34 striking miners.
Renowned photojournalist, and infamous member of the Bang-Bang Club, Greg Marinovich, gives us an in-depth investigation into the largest loss of civilian life in South Africa since Sharpeville. With research, eyewitness accounts and findings from the Marikana Commisson of Inquiry, he pieces together the almost unfinishable puzzle of the day SAPS opened fire on striking miners and the events leading up to this massacre.
He gives us a brilliant account of daily life on the mines and the poor and unsafe working conditions of an underground world the majority of humankind couldn’t even begin to fathom.
Marinovich manages to draw you into the world of the hyper-masculine drillers, their sense of pride in their work, daily frustrations and ultimately their sense of complete and utter powerlessness. Compensation is barely liveable for the individual miner, yet he doesn’t live only for himself, as most have between 9-16 dependants to consider back home. The work is their lifeline, which in turn makes them disposable to the mine.
What really stood out to me is the heavy duty white cotton overalls the miners wear every day as their uniform. Each worker is issued with two sets of white overall uniforms upon employment – the mine replaces one every 6 months. The uniforms are fitted with strips of reflective safety tape, which is great for visibility below and above ground. But underground the landscape is defined by mud and black grease. It cakes into the overalls.
Workers are expected to show up every morning in a crisp, unstained uniform. So, in an effort to save their uniforms, most workers strip off their overalls once they hit the rock face and continue to drill in old clothing.
An overall has to be washed three times and it takes about three to four hours to do so. Either the workers or their girlfriends take on this mammoth task daily.
“Throughout the shanties and settlements around Marikana, the distinctive white overalls are spread out on barbed-wire fences to dry. A glance into most yards reveal a woman bent over a bucket or a basin, washing the soggy white material between her glistening knuckles”.
The salaried mining execs take for granted the limited resources and living conditions the miners work and live in. There is a grave lack of empathy, services and conveniences for miners. They are seen as disposable bodies, and not as human.
The white uniform is undoubtedly the ultimate symbol of Lonmin’s shameless disregard and disrespect for their workers.
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