Category Archives: Peter Alexander

Socialist Worker: How police planned and carried out the massacre at Marikana

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http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=29403


How police planned and carried out the massacre at Marikana

Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope and Peter Alexander investigate the scene of the killing

Strikers were surrounded by heavily armed police and soldiers, and killed while fleeing from gunfire. The state forces were not “protecting themselves”. They participated in well-organised, premeditated slaughter.

We interviewed surviving miners and looked at physical evidence on the site of the massacre. What we found is even more shocking than the story presented in the media, even here in South Africa. Follow numbered events on the map above.

1: On the day of the killing about 3,000 striking miners were gathered on and just below the “mountain” (actually a small hill). Joseph Mathunjwa, president of their union, the AMCU, came and pleaded with them to leave to avoid a police attack. The miners refused.

2: Within 15 minutes of Mathunjwa leaving, the police and army laid razor wire, separating the strikers from the Enkanini informal settlement, where many of them live. Casspirs (armoured cars), horses and water cannon moved up to encircle the workers.

3: Some workers walked down to the razor wire to see if they could still get out through a gap. Witnesses say police near the “small koppie” (hillock) opened fire on them, probably with rubber bullets.

Some workers fled through a five metre gap in the razor wire. They were met with a barrage of live fire from the police and many died. Images of this shooting were broadcast around the world.

4: Terrified strikers scattered in all directions, with a large number heading for cover by a koppie about 300 metres in the opposite direction from the wire. This “killing koppie” is where the largest number of strikers died.

No cameras recorded this slaughter. But evidence remained on Monday, four days after the massacre. There are remnants of pools of blood. Police markers show where corpses were removed. We found markers labelled with letters up to ‘J’.

5-8: Other strikers were killed as they fled across the fields. Some examples are marked on the map. Shots were fired from helicopters and some workers, heading for hillock, were crushed by Casspirs.

By Monday the whole area had been swept clean of rubber bullets, bullet casings and tear-gas canisters. We also saw patches of burned grass, which local workers claim are the remains of police fires used to obscure evidence of deaths.

Women march to support the miners

Sisters, wives and daughters of the miners marched to the “mountain” on the Saturday after the massacre. One woman told us, “The television is hiding the truth about the killings. It’s lying!”

Another said, “My husband has worked here for 27 years—waking up at 3am and returning at 2.30pm. “He earns 3,000 rand (£230) a month. What clown would earn so little and not protest?”

They told us about the shootings. “All we saw was a helicopter flying. We heard shots. Then we saw men running and cops picking up anyone running around the streets.”

Many have not seen their relatives since the massacre. Some didn’t know if they were in hospital, in prison or dead. They also face immediate practical problems. One said, “We have no money for rent, food, for our children’s schools. We expect no more income this month.”

Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope and Claudia Ortu

A political storm flows from strike

Workers’ determination to continue their strike against Lonmin has hardened enormously since the massacre. Two massive meetings on Saturday and Monday attended by 12,000 to 15,000 workers and their families pledged to continue.

They said it would be a betrayal of their slain comrades if they gave up. The strike has been presented as a sectional action by rock drillers. But we spoke to numerous strikers from other sections of the mine, and nobody we heard was appealing just to the drillers.

Lonmin management said any worker still striking on Monday would be sacked. It also maintains that it will only negotiate with the NUM. A striker speaking at one of the mass meetings asked his colleagues if the bosses intended the 80 people who lay in hospital, or those in prison, to return.

Even the government recognises that Lonmin has lost touch with reality. The minister of police told the company it could not fire workers during a week of mourning called by president Jacob Zuma. On Tuesday the company withdrew the sack threat.

Strikers remain defiant

AMCU is belittled as not being a serious union. But the reality is that while it is ignored by Lonmin, the NUM is doing deals without support from the workers.

There have been shock-horror stories about the strikers carrying traditional weapons, but they are no match for automatic weapons—and the strikers had no illusions that spears could beat Casspirs.

The issue that unites the workers is the demand for 12,500 rand (£960) a month. This is a massive increase—400 percent for some workers. NUM attacks AMCU for supporting such “unrealistic” demands.

But it forgets its own history. The main demand in the great 1946 African miners strike, which NUM glorifies, was for ten shillings. That represented a 500 percent increase. It was a powerful mobiliser, and eventually it was won.

Now, the demand for 12,500 rand is a threat to the system, to profits and to industrial relations machinery. Just as in 1946, the ruling party has united behind the bosses. A victory for Lonmin strikers is a victory for workers everywhere. A defeat will encourage more massacres.

Anger has built for a long time
Chris Molebatse is a local monitor for the Bench Marks Foundation, which looks into conditions for miners. He told Socialist Worker, “Last year a white man died underground. People were told not to go into work.

“Not long after a black man died. Miners wanted to stop work, but were told to go on as normal. This anger has been building for a long time.”

He said bosses at the Lonmin firm take a lot of miners on as subcontractors, rather than employing them. “Living conditions are terrible. People are housed in camps with no sanitation or running water.

“And these are people who mine for platinum! Meanwhile Lonmin officials drive in from Sandton, South Africa’s most expensive suburb.”

M&G: A massive rebellion of the poor

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http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-13-a-massive-rebellion-of-the-poor

A massive rebellion of the poor
PETER ALEXANDER: POLICE STATISTICS – Apr 13 2012 19:06

The tables are online here

On March 19, Minister of Police Nathi Mthetwa informed Parliament of the number of “crowd management incidents” that occurred during the three years from April 1 2009. Table 1 compares the new data with similar statistics for the preceding five years.

In 2010-2011 there was a record number of crowd-management incidents (unrest and peaceful) and the final data for 2011-2012 are likely to show an even higher figure. Already, the number of gatherings involving unrest was higher in 2011-2012 than any previous year. During the past three years, 2009 to 2012, there has been an average of 2.9 unrest incidents a day. This is an increase of 40% over the average of 2.1 unrest incidents a day recorded for 2004-2009.

The statistics show that what has been called the “rebellion of the poor” has intensified over the past three years. In 2010, the minister of police said “the Incident Regulation Information System classifies incidents either as crowd management (peaceful), during which the incident is managed in cooperation with the convenor and the police only monitor the gathering, or as crowd management (unrest), during which the police need to intervene to make arrests or need to use force when there is a risk to safety or possible damage to property”.

“Gatherings” may be sporting activities, for example, but the majority are related to protests of some kind. During 2007-2008 to 2009-2010, “the most common reason for conducting crowd management (peaceful) gatherings was labour-related demands for increases in salary or wages”. For the same period, the most common reason for “crowd management (unrest) was related to service delivery issues”. The minister’s new statement does not include similar information for 2010-2012.

According to the minister’s 2010 statement, the average number of participants in gatherings defined as “crowd management (peaceful)” was 500 for 2007-2008 and 4 000 for 2008-2009, and the average number in those defined as “crowd management (unrest)” was 3 000 for 2007-2008 and 4 000 for 2008-2009. In the new statement, the minister declined to put a figure on the number of participants.

For the first time, the minister was asked to state the number of arrests that had occurred with crowd management (unrest) gatherings. These were given as 4 883 (2009-2010), 4 680 (2010-2011), 2967 (April 1 2011 to March 5 2012). These figures give the average number of arrests per unrest gathering as, respectively, 4.8 (2009-2010), 4.8 (2010-2011) and 2.7 (2011-2012).

Table 2 is based on a breakdown of crowd-management incidents in each province as provided in the 2010 and 2012 ministerial statements. These figures — and the data in general — do not necessarily give a precise indication of the number of incidents. There can be administrative weaknesses and human error. Nevertheless, they probably provide reasonably reliable approximations. Gauteng had the largest number of peaceful incidents and the largest number of unrest incidents, but it also has the largest population, so it is not surprising.

Table 2 also compares numbers of incidents with size of population, as estimated by Statistics South Africa for 2011. We need to add the rider that figures are for numbers of gatherings and these can vary in size. Yet, when we take population into account, North West and the Northern Cape come out on top. Because it is likely that most of the peaceful incidents are related to labour protests and many are sporting events, the unrest incidents are probably more pertinent as a gauge of the scale of service-delivery protests in particular and the rebellion of the poor in general.

It is notable that the three poorer provinces, which are also the most rural — Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal — have a lower propensity towards unrest incidents than other provinces. The implication, reflected in other studies, is that the rebellion cannot be explained in terms of poverty as such. It is mainly a movement within urban areas, but within those areas most participants and leaders can be regarded as poor and a high proportion come from informal settlements, where services are especially weak.

The main conclusion to be drawn from the latest police statistics is that service-delivery protests continue unabated. Government attempts to improve service delivery have not been sufficient to assuage the frustration and anger of poor people in South Africa. From press reports and our own research, it is clear that although service-delivery demands provide the principal focus for unrest incidents, many other issues are being raised, notably a lack of jobs.

As many commentators and activists now accept, service-delivery protests are part of a broader “rebellion of the poor”. This rebellion is massive. I have not yet found any other country where there is a similar level of ongoing urban unrest.

South Africa can reasonably be described as the “protest capital of the world”. It also has the highest levels of inequality and unemployment of any major country and it is not unreasonable to assume that the rebellion is, to a large degree, a consequence of these phenomena.

There is no basis for assuming that the rebellion will subside unless the government is far more effective in channelling resources to the poor.

Peter Alexander is the South African research chair in social change and professor of sociology in the faculty of humanities at the University of Johannesburg

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-13-a-massive-rebellion-of-the-poor

Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests – a preliminary analysis

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Rebellion of the poor: South Africa’s service delivery protests – a preliminary analysis

by Peter Alexander, March 2010

Since 2004, South Africa has experienced a movement of local protests amounting to a rebellion of the poor. This has been widespread and intense, reaching insurrectionary proportions in some cases. On the surface, the protests have been about service delivery and against uncaring, self-serving, and corrupt leaders of municipalities. A key feature has been mass participation by a new generation of fighters, especially unemployed youth but also school students. Many issues that underpinned the ascendency of Jacob Zuma also fuel the present action, including a sense of injustice arising from the realities of persistent inequality. While the inter-connections between the local protests, and between the local protests and militant action involving other elements of civil society, are limited, it is suggested that this is likely to change. The analysis presented here draws on rapid-response research conducted by the author and his colleagues in five of the so-called ‘hot spots’.

Click here to read this article in pdf.

SAPA: Police reaction ‘can fan demos’

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There is a slightly longer version of this article here.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=27501

Police reaction ‘can fan demos’
03 Sep 2009
Sapa

JOHANNESBURG — Strong-armed police officers are to blame for service
delivery protests that turn violent, researchers from the University of
Johannesburg said yesterday.

While in some cases residents resorted to violence to voice their
frustrations, the manner in which police responded to some situations
resul­ted in violent clashes between them and residents, the researchers
said in a study released yesterday.

“The cases in Balfour [Mpumalanga] and Thokoza [Gauteng] suggest that
the brutal response by the police contributed to the violence, whereas
in other areas it was the community. Police exacerbated the problem by
violent intervention,” the study revealed.

Residents from Thokoza told researcher Owen Manda that police had
randomly opened fire at protesters “without any provocation” during the
July protest, in which they called for the immediate resignation of
Ekurhuleni Mayor Ntombi Mekgwe.

Residents said Mekgwe was incompetent and that she had failed to heed
the concerns of the community.

“Local council offices are not far from the hostel and the informal
settlement, so residents said, on their way there [to hand over their
memorandum of demands], they were met by police who just opened fire
randomly, despite residents telling them that it was a peaceful
protest,” said Manda.

The research team had, however, not spoken to police about the incident.

The same had happened in Balfour where police had fired rubber bullets
randomly at residents, whether they were involved in the protests or
not.

It also found that the violent protests in all these areas had not been
fuelled by xenophobic tendencies.

“We feel the xenophobia issue has been exaggerated by politicians to
divert attention from the main issue of service delivery.

“We didn’t find any evidence that xenophobia was the prime motivator
behind the service delivery protests. While xenophobic attitudes are
widespread, these protests have been primarily directed at issues
pertaining to local government service delivery,” said Professor Peter
Alexandra, a director at the university’s centre for sociological
research.

Pakistani shop owners had attested to this, saying although their shops
were looted and vandalised, they did not feel they had been targeted for
being outsiders.

“The general feeling was that the protests were a result of bad gover­
nance and a lack of accountability, rather than xenophobia,” junior
researcher Comfort Phokela said.

Sowetan: It’s not xenophobia

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http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1041226

It’s not xenophobia

29 July 2009
Peter Alexander and Peter Pfaffe

Promises made but nothing has happened

CONCERN that service delivery protests will degenerate into xenophobic violence was fuelled by reports from Balfour, Mpumalanga.

But there is a history of opposition to xenophobia in Balfour’s township, Siyathemba. An analysis of the protest must take a different form.

This was said by Mohammed Waqas, spokesman for 30 foreign nationals, mostly Ethiopians, gathered outside Balfour police station.

“The people are right”, he said. “I’ve lived in Balfour for five years. I didn’t see the government build any road, any new houses. They didn’t do anything for the people.”

Lefu Nhlapho and Andile Matiwane, leaders of the present movement, recalled their intervention in a community meeting in May 2008. Local business leaders wanted foreign traders kicked out of the township but the duo countered arguments around crime and competition and blocked potentially dangerous xenophobia.

After the May 2008 xenophobia violence the Siyathemba community organised a sports day that brought locals and foreign nationals together. Locals with a little money provided a braai. Such was opposition to xenophobic violence that refugees from other townships fled to Balfour.

The recent violence flared up after a community meeting on July 19. As people left the meeting, police fired rubber bullets, teargas and, according to some residents, live ammunition. There was another attack the following morning.

Simple barricades of large stones and burning tyres were erected in an attempt to block armoured Nyalas from moving around the township.

Protesters set fire to two buildings: a small municipal office and a partially ruined school store. On the Monday, in the course of the rioting, foreign-owned shops were looted.

Looting is a common practice in rioting everywhere. Indeed, we were shown South African-owned shops that had suffered this fate during the anti-apartheid struggle.

Unlike May 2008 the attacks were on the property of foreign nationals, not their bodies, and there is no evidence that looters were demanding “they must go”.

Why were South African- owned shops spared? One possibility is that their owners remained in the township, unlike foreign traders. Significantly, Zimbabweans, Malawians and other non-South Africans living in the location were not attacked.

If there was anti-foreigner sentiment it was limited and condemned by all. A protest leader told us that people wanted foreign traders to return “because they are cheap and we befriended them”.

Waqas confirmed that there were “very good relations” with township residents. He said they greeted South African shopkeepers rather than talking or visiting each other.

While xenophobia has been exaggerated, almost no attention has been paid to the police brutality that occurred. We saw two examples, but were told there were others.

One was a fifteen-year-old boy who had allegedly been shot with rubber bullets. Another was a young mother. Dragged from her hiding place under a bed, she had her stomach ripped apart by a rubber bullet.

Siyathemba is a desperately poor township where many residents lack electricity, water and sewerage.

The community submitted a memorandum to the Dipaleseng Municipality on July 8 2009. Most demands concerned basic issues such as a request for a police station, a mini- hospital and high-mass lights.

Topping the list were calls for a skills training centre and policies governing job recruitment in the area.

These reflect the fact that while the protest was backed by the community, leadership was provided by the township’s youth. It is this generation that suffers most from unemployment and lack of housing. Moreover, many of the older leaders are now politicians and tender-seekers.

The council failed to respond to the July 8 memorandum, hence the July 19 meeting voted for a stayaway. Some activists suspect that police violence was aimed at intimidating them. It had the reverse effect. People fought back and the stay-away lasted four days.

On Saturday we attended a meeting called by the Dipaleseng Youth Forum, made up of young men and women with matric certificates but no jobs. Forum spokesperson Sakhela Maya is a Wits graduate.

The meeting was militant, democratic and passed a motion of no confidence in the mayor and councillors. They were given a week to respond.

On Monday a meeting called by deputy ministers and local stakeholders asked for a reconsideration of this deadline. It remains to be seen whether this will happen.

It is clear that the failure of the authorities to deliver very basic services has given rise to the new movement. Waqas linked this to the election. Promises were made, he said, but nothing happened.

From Balfour, we should not fear xenophobia. What we face is a new generation fighting for basic rights that democracy has failed to deliver.