Emotions run high on Marikana anniversary

THE lives of miners were “cheaper than chewing gum”, the Marikana Commission of Inquiry was told yesterday. “Our children were sold for braais and airtime,” Andile Yawa told the commission chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam.

Lonmin, which had no official representatives present at the commission yesterday, also drew the ire of Makopano Thelejane, the widow of Thabiso Thelejane, who was killed on August 16.

She said that despite seeing her husband off to work “everyday in his white overalls…after the incident Lonmin alleged they didn’t know him. When Lonmin gave out food parcels in December my children didn’t receive anything…Since they killed my husband they don’t care about what we eat,” said Thelejane.

Her husband, a sub-contracted worker at Lonmin, was the family’s sole breadwinner.

Many of the miners’ families spoke of their financial struggle since they no longer received the remittance from their dead husbands and brothers.

Elizabeth Monene Maubane, the sister of Warrant Officer Tsietsie Monene, who was killed on August 13 during a skirmish between miners and policemen, noted that Wednesday was the second anniversary of her brother’s death.

Clutching a teddy bear and holding back tears, she said: “It’s a dark day for the Monene family and we will never celebrate this day. My deepest sympathy for all the people that died at Marikana. Let us all have closure.”