analysisBy Greg Nicolson
A campaign has been launched to get Marikana documentary 'Miners Shot Down' aired on free-to-air TV. Despite, or maybe because of, the shocking portrayal of events and broader reasons for the massacre, it's unlikely those without DStv will see the documentary soon. GREG NICOLSON looks into the situation.
The deaths of the mineworkers - of everyone involved - were horrifying, disgusting, horrendous and despicable, but that's not why you cry. You've seen that before.
You cry for the death of hope, the idea that South Africa was supposed to change, and it has, but not enough. You cry because of what these mineworkers represent - black South Africans who deserved better after 1994, who hoped the spirit of the Struggle would bring equality when it came into government, who hoped racism would end, who hoped they could put bread on the table and give their children the opportunities they didn't have, but whose hopes have been sacrificed to Apartheid's legacy, the devil who makes the past the present and future - the political, social and economic beast that survives to oppress. That's why you cry. And because the mineworkers were the ones brave enough to stand up to the beast ...