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Frans Baleni - General Secretary, South African National Union of Mineworkers

Frans Baleni - General Secretary, South African National Union of Mineworkers

The Interview vor 13 Jahren

Shaun Ley asks about the consequences of the 'Marikana massacre' in South Africa.

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It has become known as the 'Marikana massacre', when 34 people
were killed as police in South Africa opened fire on striking
miners.

For many it had echoes of Sharpeville in 1960, one of the
defining events which opened the world's eyes to the consequences
of apartheid.

For Frans Baleni, General Secretary of the National Union of
Mineworkers, Marikana is a challenge - not just to his union -
but to the whole post-apartheid political system in which the NUM
has been a key player.

Eighteen years after black South Africans won legal equality, is
the violence evidence that the system has failed all but a tiny
political elite?

(Image: Hundreds of people attend a memorial service for the
people killed in a wildcat strike at Lonmin's Marikana mine.
Credit: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/GettyImages)