Miners Shot Down: Another Senseless Killing

Last week, I attended a screening of a documentary titled “Miners Shot Down” about the ruthless massacre of the Marikana miners in South Africa, who were protesting for better wages, better working conditions, and for their right to be treated as human beings. The move was filmed in 2012, six days before the massacre occurred.

The beginning of the film shows live video of the officers shooting multiple rounds of bullets from their guns, with the narrator making a parallel connection with the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 during the era of apartheid*. Not much later, a representative of their families reads the names of the slain miners off of a list.

Throughout the film, it shows the miners peacefully protesting, singing songs and chanting for their right to be treated with respect, with some expressing their opinions on the matter – there were only a few instances where the miners were shown with weapons for defending themselves. On the other hand, the police were often depicted in a way that one was supposed to feel intimidated, showing their guns and military-like weapons and vehicles and also attacking non-suspecting and defenseless miners. The documentary also includes an excerpt of the transcript of a conversation discussing the matter and how they needed “kill it” – “it” either being the situation, the miners or even both. This discussion occurred between the South African Police Service (SAPS) commissioner (who is unnamed), Mr. Barnard Mokwena – the executive vice president of human resources of Lonmin, a mining company in South Africa.

During and after watching the film, I began to think about how often cases like the Marikana massacres occur and why they keep happening. I began to think about the Sharpeville massacre and even about other significant events in history where innocent people, who were protesting for their voices to be heard, were punished for going against authority. I even questioned why this sort of thing keeps happening and why whenever incidents like this always result in those being punished suffering from the long-term effects while the perpetrators get to leave the situation unscathed and unbothered by what they had done.

I then came to the realization that the reason that these instances keep happening is because those who are being oppressed are the ones without power, and because they lack power, their oppressors refuse to listen to them. Additionally, whenever the oppressed tries to resist rule and advocate for themselves, they are always faced with aggression from those who have the most power – with the aggression resulting physical and psychological punishment that may or may not result in the deaths of these impotent and innocent individuals.

In conclusion, this instance is just one in many that the general public may or may not know about and as citizens of the world, we need to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

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WORKS CITED

Evans, Marissa K. "Sharpeville Massacre." Blackpast.org. Blackpast.org, n/a. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

*The Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 was a result of the South African people in Sharpeville, South Africa protesting against apartheid.