Saturday 17 August 2013

Marikana update

Representatives of the South African government and of the ruling ANC party did not take up places reserved reserved for them at the recent commemoration of Marikana. According to James Nichol, the London solicitor who is acting for families of people killed in the massacre, on the World Service's news magazine programme this morning, there are no funds for legal representation of the aggrieved, and consequently the official commission is unable to proceed. Nichol himself is working pro bono. He sees the no-show as a turning-point in the fortunes of the ANC. (As a member of the Socialist Workers Party, he might be somewhat biased.) He does point out that non-white unemployment has risen since the ANC came to power, and that the wealth gap between richest and poorest has increased.

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