A mourner attends a memorial service at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012. Police shot and killed 34 striking miners and wounded 78 last week. Demands for higher wages spread to at least two other mines, raising fears of further protests at more South African mines that provide most of the world's platinum.Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press
South Africans held a memorial service on Thursday at a mine where police shot dead 34 strikers, bloodshed that revived memories of apartheid-era violence and laid bare workers' anger over enduring inequalities since the end of white rule.
Some 500 people crammed into a marquee pitched at the platinum mine, near what has been dubbed the "Hill of Horror" where police opened fire on striking miners in the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994.
Crowds spilled out into the scorched, dusty fields outside, listening to hymns and prayers. Women wrapped in blankets wept and mourners placed flowers at the scene. Other memorials took place around the country, including in downtown Johannesburg.
"Such a killing of people, of children, who haven't done anything wrong and they didn't have to die this way," said Baba Goloza whose two sons died. He blamed mine owner Lonmin for not taking care of its workers at its Marikana mine, northwest of Johannesburg.
President Jacob Zuma, speaking in Pretoria, named a panel to look into the actions of Lonmin, the police and the unions engaged in a deadly rivalry – the long-established National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and upstart Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).
In the days before the mass shootings, 10 people were killed in a turf war between the unions, including two police officers and a union shop steward hacked to death with machetes.
Members of both unions and their families, as well as ruling ANC officials, attended the nearly five-hour memorial service, which included uplifting songs and prayers for the dead.
But the sombre and grieving tone of the memorial service at the mine was shattered by Julius Malema, who was expelled in April for sowing disunity in Mr. Zuma's African National Congress. Mr. Malema was applauded when he said the government has not intervened in the mines "because our leaders are involved in these mines." He said that Mr. Zuma's foundation and other ANC leaders have shares in the mines. "Our government has become a pig that is eating its children," charged Mr. Malema.
After the service, some 2,000 AMCU workers wearing t-shirts emblazoned with party slogans climbed the hill where many had come under police fire a week ago, singing union songs and chanting their demands for wage increases. A police helicopter kept watch overhead.
The union feud exposed deadly levels of anger about low wages and what is seen as political favouritism in Africa's biggest economy. The powerful NUM has been a launchpad to political power for several senior officials at the African National Congress (ANC) – the former liberation movement that has held power since the end of apartheid.
The carnage at Marikana has also highlighted the ANC's failure to ease income disparity, which remains among the worst in the world, while many of its members are accused of using political connections to get rich. Mr. Zuma's political rivals have accused his government of poor policing and caring more for corporate interests than workers' rights. The report from the investigative panel is due a month after he faces a party vote where he seeks re-election as its leader.
Several miners expressed anger at government ministers for visiting earlier in the week in luxury cars, driving past shantytowns and garbage-strewn fields around the mine.
"They come here in big fancy cars and bodyguards. They know nothing about being poor," one miner said to his colleagues as they listened to speeches.
South Africa's per capita GDP is more than $8,000 (U.S.) a year but nearly 40 per cent of the population live on less than $3 a day. Miners' wages have risen but many struggle to support an average of eight to 10 dependents.
On Wednesday, Mr. Zuma demanded that mine companies provide decent homes and sanitation for miners. He singled out one mining house where 666 workers share four toilets and four showers, according to the Star newspaper. He did not name the company.
//optional trim from here// Industry officials are worried the Marikana labour strife could spread around the country where mining accounts for about 6 per cent of gross domestic product.
"Foreign investors are asking if this is an indication of what we're going to see with much greater levels of industrial unrest," Nick Holland, chief executive of world no. 4 gold producer Gold Fields, told Reuters.
Concerns about South Africa, which holds 80 per cent of the known reserves of platinum, have helped drive the price of the metal, used in jewellery and for catalytic converters in cars, to its highest since early May.
Anglo American Platinum, the world's top producer, said on Wednesday it had received a demand for a pay increase. World No.2 platinum firm Impala Platinum (Implats) warned on Thursday that industrial action at could grow.
A violent six-week strike at Implats early this year sliced 21 per cent off its full-year production and contributed to a drastic cut in its dividend.
Labour action by about 500 miners interrupted work at one shaft run by Royal Bafokeng Platinum on Wednesday, the company said.
"Foreign investors are asking if this is an indication of what we're going to see with much greater levels of industrial unrest," Nick Holland, chief executive of world's number-four gold producer Gold Fields, told Reuters.
Lonmin, the mine where the violence happened, remained shut down to honour the day of mourning.
Mr. Zuma had decreed a week of national mourning to honour all victims of violence in South Africa, which has which has one of the world's highest murder and rape rates.
"This ongoing violence is a part of our national and collective shame and we should take this time to seriously reflect on the state of our society," Professor Yunus Ballim of Witwatersrand University said before students and lecturers marched in memory of victims of violence.