South Africa Explodes: 34 Dead, 78 Wounded At Platinum Mine Confrontation

South Africa's national police commissioner confirmed Friday that 34 miners have been killed and another 78 wounded during a? Thursday clash between striking miners and police officers outside a platinum mine owned by Lonmin PLC, 40 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

The clash occurred after a week of unrest, when 3,000 miners began a protest to demand higher pay. The protest escalated into a deadly shootout on Thursday when both police officers and workers opened fire at each other.

Up to 3,000 police, backed by helicopters and armored vehicles, faced off against an equal number of miners. Weapons used by the workers include guns they stole from two police officers they killed in an incident earlier in the week, but mainly comprised such items as home-made machetes, spears and clubs.

Police officers first used water cannon, and then stun grenades and tear-gas in an effort to disperse the strikers. Nevertheless, when a group of miners rushed through the underbrush and haze of tear gas at a line of police officers, officers immediately opened fire.

All this chaos resulted in one of the worst shootings in South Africa since the end of the Apartheid era.

Follow us

Before Thursday, there were at least 10 deaths at the mine in multiple incidents, including two police officers who were battered to death and another two mine security guards burned alive when strikers set their vehicle ablaze.

According to CBS News, strikers were demanding salary increases of 150 percent, from $625 to $1,563 per month, in response to the rising cost of living. Tired of poor housing and poverty, many say that they "are prepared to die."

Makhosi Mbongane, a 32-year-old winch operator at the mine, vowed that he was not going back to work and would not allow anyone else to do so, either.

"They can beat us, kill us and kick and trample on us with their feet, do whatever they want to do, we aren't going to go back to work," he told the Associated Press. "If they employ other people, they won't be able to work either, we will stay here and kill them."

Workers who tried to go to work last Saturday were attacked by protesters, management and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said.

The company called the protest "illegal" on Thursday and issued a final ultimatum, threatening the workers with dismissal if they do not return to work. This ultimatum resulted in a widespread fury among workers, and it led to the deadly shootout.

The violence was further exacerbated by an ongoing conflict between the two rival union labor groups, NUM and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). The leaders of both unions accuse one another of deliberately instigating violence and colluding with management.

The mineworkers' anger underscores widespread poverty among black South Africans almost two decades after the fall of apartheid.

Today, almost half of South Africans are living below the poverty line, finding it difficult to overcome the historical disadvantages inherited from the injustices of the racist apartheid regime, under which the black majority population received minimal levels of education and opportunity.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/374880/20120817/south-africa-platinum-mine-strike-labor-unions.htm

the watchmen whitney houston dies beverly hills hotel beverly hills hotel whitney houston national anthem dolly parton i will always love you