Striking miners shot, killed in South Africa

In one of the worst shootings by South African authorities since the end of the apartheid era, police opened fire Thursday on striking miners who had charged a line of officers. Several miners reportedly were killed and others were wounded.

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Aug. 18, 2012

Striking miners hold weapons as they wait to be addressed by former African National Congress Youth League President Julius Malema outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg. The bloody protest by South African miners that ended in a hail of police gunfire and 34 deaths Aug. 16 could also wound the ruling ANC and its main labor ally, laying bare workers' anger over enduring inequalities in Africa's biggest economy. Thursday's shooting, bringing back memories of apartheid-era violence, underlined that after 18 years in power the ANC and its union partner have not been able to heal the fissures of income disparity, poverty and joblessness scarring the country.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 18, 2012

Mine workers listen to Julius Malema, former youth league leader of the African National Congress, at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg. Miners and their families welcomed the expelled politician as he told the thousands who gathered at the site where 34 miners were killed that South African police had no right to fire the live bullets that killed them.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 18, 2012

Local women hold a cloth with a picture of former South African president Nelson Mandela as they wait to be addressed by Julius Malema, former president of the African National Congress Youth League, outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 18, 2012

Former African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema addresses striking miners outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 18, 2012

Striking miners react to the address by Julius Malema, former president of the African National Congress Youth League .

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 18, 2012

Mine workers listen to Malema's speech at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 17, 2012

An unidentified woman protests against the police near a shooting scene at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa. Police Chief Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega says 34 miners died and an additional 78 were wounded when police opened fire on strikers in one of the worst police shootings in the country since apartheid.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 17, 2012

Women protest against the police near where strikers were shot Thursday at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 17, 2012

Women protest against the police near a shooting scene at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 17, 2012

A woman holds a placard as she protests against the police shooting of miners Thursday at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

Themba Hadebe / AP

Aug. 16, 2012

A police officer shoots at protesting miners outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg. South African police opened fire Thursday against thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine, leaving several bloodied corpses on the ground. A Reuters cameraman said he saw at least seven bodies after the shooting, which occurred when police — laying out barricades of barbed-wire — were outflanked by some of an estimated 3,000 miners massed on a rocky outcrop near the mine.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 16, 2012

Police officers fire at striking miners at the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg, South Africa. Police declined to offer casualty figures after the shooting. But Police Ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi acknowledged late Thursday that some of the miners had been killed.

/ AP

Aug. 16, 2012

A police officer gestures in front of some of the dead shot outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg. Police had been using stun grenades and tear gas on the crowd when a group of miners rushed through the underbrush and tear gas at a line of police officers. Officers immediately opened fire.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 16, 2012

Police officers Thursday check the bodies of striking miners at the Lonmin mine. The incident was an astonishing development in a country that has been largely stable since white rule ended with South Africa’s first all-race elections in 1994. The shooting recalled images of white police firing at anti-apartheid protesters, but in this case it was mostly black police firing at black workers.

/ AP

Aug. 16, 2012

Policemen fire at striking miners outside the mine near Rustenburg. South African President Jacob Zuma said he was “shocked and dismayed at this senseless violence.”

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 16, 2012

Bodies of striking miners are strewn on the ground at the Lonmin platinum mine. A police spokesman said officers did their best to handle a volatile situation, and accused heavily armed miners of firing first.

/ AP

Aug. 16, 2012

Police inspect one of the dead miners after the shooting outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 16, 2012

Police fire on striking miners at the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, on Thursday. About 3,000 mine workers went on strike last Friday, demanding a pay raise. When miners allied with a rival union tried to go to work during the weekend, they were attacked, according to a statement from Lonmin. At one point, some miners mobbed two mine security guards in their car and burned them to death. They later hacked two police officers to death with machetes.

/ AP

Aug. 16, 2012

Police look over the bodies of striking miners after opening fire on a crowd of protesting workers at the Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg, South Africa, on Thursday.

/ AP

Aug. 16, 2012

A paramedic, front left, receives help from a policewomen as he tends to the injured on Thursday. Striking workers were shot outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 15, 2012

Striking miners gather on a hillside at the Lonmin mine near Marikana, South Africa, on Wednesday. Ongoing violence that started last Friday has seen several people killed, with no end to the strike in sight.

Jon Gambrell / AP

Aug. 15, 2012

Striking miners sing, chant, march and dance with crudely made weapons and machetes at the Lonmin mine Wednesday.

Jon Gambrell / AP

Aug. 15, 2012

Striking miners display crudely made weapons and machetes at the Lonmin mine.

Denis Farrell / AP

Aug. 15, 2012

Strikers chant slogans outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 15, 2012

Striking miners gather to sing, chant, march and dance with crudely made weapons and machetes at the mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

Denis Farrell / AP

Aug. 15, 2012

Striking miners march and chant slogans outside a South African mine about 60 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 14, 2012

Striking miners gather outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 62 miles northwest of Johannesburg.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Aug. 14, 2012

Striking mine workers sit on a rocky outcropping near the shuttered Lonmin platinum mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.

/ AP

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