South African police say they were forced to fire on striking miners, killing 34

telegraph- uk ^ | 8:49AM BST 17 Aug 2012 | Peta Thornycroft in Johannesburg and David Blair

[BenLurkin]

34 miners were killed on Thursday and another 78 wounded when her officers used “maximum force” near Marikana mine, owned by Lonmin, the London-listed company.

They did so when a gang of “heavily armed” miners rushed towards them, armed with firearms as well as clubs and machetes. “Police retreated and were forced to use maximum force to defend themselves,” said Ms Phiyega.

South Africans have been appalled by the violence, which summons memories of the apartheid era and has been compared with the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. But Ms Phiyega said: “This is no time for blaming, this is no time for finger-pointing. This is a time for us to mourn the sad and dark moment that we experienced as a country.

President Jacob Zuma has left a summit of African leaders and travelled back to South Africa.

Police were called in after thousands of miners gathered at Marikana, about 62 miles north-west of Johannesburg.

Images broadcast by private television station e.tv carried the sound of a barrage of automatic gunfire that ended with police officers shouting: "Cease fire!" By that time, bodies were lying in the dust, some pouring blood. Another image showed some miners, their eyes wide, looking in the distance at heavily armed police officers in riot gear.

[BenLurkin]

Never bring an Assegai to a gunfight...

Rueters photos / links ONLY

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02312/mine-spear_2312705c.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02312/mine-spear-2_2312700c.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02312/mine-drip-_2312699c.jpg

[BenLurkin]

[spetznaz]

South Africa has always been a powder keg. Comparing it to, say, Nigeria and Kenya (the other African countries that are economically ok) it is actually in a worse position. By this I do not mean poorer, because SA is a wealthy country on aggregate, but the level of wealth disparity is not only large but very obvious. In Kenya and Nigeria there are people who are very wealthy, but they tend to agglomerate together ...the most people will see is pictures of large homes every now and then and maybe the odd Bentley. But in SA it is very obvious, and there is also a huge underswelling of racially-charged tones that have been quietly getting larger and louder. In Nigeria and Kenya the wealth is owned mostly by blacks (e.g. Dangote in Nigeria, who is also the richest man in Africa) ...in SA it is mostly by whites, a point that certain portions of society have taken upon themselves to emphasize (i.e. the social demagogues who rouse the rabble with such stuff - it doesn't matter to them that the rich SA blacks are even worse).

Anyways, the country is sitting on a veritable powder keg, and the day Mandela passes will be an important turning point. The country will be put to the test, and my fear is that - like how the Arab spring started when a fruit vendor slapped by police and losing his fruit cart lit himself on fire and sparked a conflagration that took out Ben Ali, Gaddafi, Mubarrak and Saleh - anything can serve as a spark in SA.

This could very easily be such a spark.

[blueunicorn6]

“Freeeeeeeeeee Nelson Mandela..........Freeeeeeeeee Nelson Mandela.”

[dfwgator]

“I....I.....I.....ain’t gonna play Sun City....”

[Towed_Jumper]

Interesting pics...looks like a regular weekend in Chicago.

[PGR88]

Send in Bono! He loves South Africa!

[pallis]

Another day, another powder keg, and another match!

[xeno]

I saw another unedited video of this incident. It looked like the police shot tear gas into the crowd of strikers. A group of the strikers ran away from the tear gas and toward the police. The police massacred them.

[Venturer]

Don’t be bringin’ no spear to a gun fight.

It’s easy to tell how dangerous this crowd was by the amount of casualties to the police.

Wait —34 dead protesters and not one wounded police officer?

Well that is a little disproportionate.

[BenLurkin]

Two police officers were hacked to death earlier this week.

[BenLurkin]

Looked to me that the cops were pinned by a noisy mob in their front, while a detachment of spearmen came around their flank and behind their line of vehicles.

[Venturer]

At the same time they shot these 34 people???

[Godebert]

Police open fire on miners in South Africa [**GRAPHIC**] - Liveleak

[BenLurkin]

Earlier this week.

“These 34 people” were armed with Assegais and machetes and charging. Apparently this particular group of cops weren’t in the mood to be hacked on.

[Venturer]

Like I said, Never take a spear to a gun fight.

[BenLurkin]

Good link. Not sure the author knows what “automatic” waepons are, but otherwise very informative.

[Iron Munro]

Send in the Dancing Queens

[Bikkuri]

I didn’t go to the site to read the rest of the article.. but I did see the video last night... And, from what I read about it yesterday, this was after 2 police officers were hacked to pieces with machetes the day before..