Socialist film maker Rehad Desai has uncovered previously unseen news footage of the beginning of the Marikana massacre in South Africa in August 2012.

It clearly shows one of the strikiing miners‘ leaders at the head of a large group moving away from ‘the mountain’ where they had been meeting. They are heading towards the informal settlement where they live.

The miners are moving slowly and trying to leave, not attack. The police move vehicles up and then open fire, panicking the miners who start to run. This fits entirely with the miners’ evidence as reported in Socialist Worker at the time and contradicts the police statement that the miners attacked them and they had to fire in self defence.

Socialist Worker’s report, days after the massacre said, “Witnesses say police near the ‘small koppie’ (hillock) opened fire on them, probably with rubber bullets.” The new footage backs this up.

 

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