In August of 2012, gold miners in Marikana in South Africa went on strike. Their union leaders were collaborating with the employers and their strike was not supported by the union. Then the South African police attacked the miners, killing several dozen in a cold-blooded shooting rampage. The police later claimed that they’d shot in self defense, but this claim is being decisively disproven. Here is the latest on the investigation

PRESS NOTICE FOR RELEASE Saturday 19th October 9am 

 New evidence of untransmitted television footage shows the police to be untruthful about the killings at Marikana 

Untransmitted TV footage obtained by Rehad Desai of the Marikana Support Committee and Uhuru Productions, a local documentary production house, shows that the police have told lies about their role in the killings at Marikana.  The police have always insisted that officers spontaneously used their firearms in the face of an alleged imminent attack by miners that jeopardised police officers’ lives. 

 The new footage has been analysed by Rehad Desai and James Nichol, a UK solicitor assisting the Social Economic Rights Institute who represent 34 families of the miners killed on the 16^th August 2012. 

 The footage shows:

•  The police taking out their pistols from their holsters well before the alleged attack and before the miners arrived on the scene
•    That  firearms can be heard to be “cocked” on four occasions, and on two of these occasions can be seen and heard on the footage 
•  Before the miners reach the koppie where they were killed they were walking relatively slowly, not charging or attacking the police as alleged 
•  The miners were peacefully leaving the mountain at Marikana shortly before they were attacked by police.

 The Marikana Support Campaign calls upon the National Director of Public Prosecutions to:

• Charge police officers with the murder of the miners
•  Drop all charges against the arrested miners.

Date :21 October  Time:  9am  sharp Bioscope Cinema 268 Fox Street, CBD Johannesburg

 For more information contact Rehad Desai

Telephone number 083 997 9204

 The footage in question will be shown and DVD copies of the footage will be made available to the press and the commission of inquiry simultaneously. The DVDs will be data discs as we will provide stills of some of this key evidence.