[wanabidii] Curbing the new Afro-enthusiasm: What Marikana esposes about Neoliberalism

As a Malawian, the August 16th Marikana Mine massacre in South Africa
invoked the kinds of questions Malawians asked on 20th July in 2011.
Why did police shoot to kill? Was there absolutely no non-violent
methods the police could have used? Were the demonstrators so violent
police had no option but to shoot to kill? What were the economic
causes of the discontent that led to the massacre?

On both 20th July 2011 in Malawi and 16th August 2012 in South Africa,
blame has been apportioned on both sides, revealing the ideological
worldviews that we use to interpret ghastly events like these. A
backdrop to Marikana is the current rhetoric that is rebranding much
of Africa as the new hub for the next global economic miracle. While
well-meaning, this rhetoric risks burying the inconvenient questions
that problematise neoliberal economics, on retreat in Europe and North
America yet on an upsurge in Africa and the developing world.

The most persuasive analyses of Marikana thus far have come from
commentators talking about the political economy of South African
violence and the neoliberal context of the mining industry in that
country. Sahra Ryklief, Secretary General of the International
Federation of Workers' Education

Associations, found no justification for why police had to use lethal
violence. She wrote that the police have access to non-lethal weapons
such as rubber bullets, teargas, and tasers. She cited examples of
cases elsewhere in the world where police have defused volatile
situations without any fatalities.

Ryklief said the blame for Marikana went to many parties involved in
the broader outlook of labour relations in South Africa. She included
herself on the list, as a labour organizer and educator. She said
previously she had glossed over and excused coercive actions and
violence tactics that workers have used against each other, while
urging unity and solidarity. "I will do so no longer," she declared.
Worker unity now had "to be based on something superior to violent
coercion". She wrote that unity based on coercion could not lead to
any lasting, positive solutions. Coercion had for far too long shaped
the way South Africans approach strike organisation. "As labour, we
need to take responsibility for change in this respect."

Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu added his voice to the calls for inward
reflection for everyone. He decried the gross inequality and yawning
gap between rich and poor, but he also asked marginalized South
Africans to reflect on their actions. "When we march, we demand, we
destroy and we loot. We care not whether our demands are reasonable,
or what actions we take."

Gavin Capps of the University of Cape Town told Amy Goodman on
Democracy Now, an American TV programme, that the massacre needed to
be looked at from the perspective of the recent global rise of demand
for platinum. This new demand started in the mid-1990s, and its
rapidity has caused a lot of social problems for the people living in
the areas surrounding the mines. There has been environmental damage,
expropriation of land, displacement of people, and economic
exploitation of massive proportions. These have been the root causes
of what has culminated into this massacre.

According to a statement issued by the Central Committee of the South
African Communist Party, "all the major platinum mining corporations
have made billions of rands out of the world's richest platinum
deposits in the Bojanala District of the North West province, while
leaving a trail of misery, death, poverty, illness, and environmental
pollution in the surrounding communities." The Communist Party's
statement quoted a 167-page report, titled "Communities in the
Platinum Minefields", released just days before the massacre.

According to Gavin Capps, South Africa accounts for 70 percent of
global platinum production, yet the mineworkers live in desperate
conditions with neither water nor electricity. While the rest of the
world was expressing shock and disbelief at the massive loss of life,
and mineworkers were grieving the loss of their colleagues, the
company was issuing an ultimatum for the other mineworkers to
immediately return to work, or face dismissal. It took the
intervention of the South African Council of Churches and the office
of President Jacob Zuma to restrain the company from dismissing the
more than 70 percent mineworkers who defied the ultimatum.

In the words of the Socialist Party of Azania, "profit is always put
before the interests of people and never vice versa." Activists
working for social and economic justice have for a long time bemoaned
neoliberal economics and how it puts profits over people's wellbeing.
Most economic development happening across Africa today is
concentrated in urban centres, benefitting very few people at the
expense of the rest. In South Africa, the development of ultra-modern
cities within cities such as Sandton best exemplifies this. Sandton
can stand toe to toe with Manhattan or any highly developed city in
the world. Yet just on the outskirts of Johannesburg increasing
numbers of people live in shanty towns with no water and no
electricity. In the words of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "We are a
deeply wounded people who are custodians of a very special country
with people and resources that are second to none. There is enough for
all South Africans to share."

The same trend is happening in Malawi, where the capital city,
Lilongwe, has currently no less than four shopping malls under
construction. Yet just a few miles within the same city tens of
thousands of people live in slum-like conditions. This is happening
cross much of the developing world.

For South Africa and the wider region, the massacre at Marikana ought
to usher in a new era of critical reflection on the trajectory of
Africa's economies amidst the renewed rhetoric of latter day optimism.
The optimism is well-intended and holds transformative potential for
how Southern Africans look at themselves and shape their destiny.
While it exposes the naked greed of capital in a neoliberal era, the
optimism also risks masking deep grievances particularly by those
being left behind.

Tutu's words are true for much of the continent and beyond: "Our
'haves' have largely failed to share, our 'have-nots' are feeling
increasingly frustrated, and our leaders are locked in seemingly
endless contestation for political and economic power."

Marikana should force African countries to rethink their role and
place in the global economic structure, and to persist in questioning
the kind of inequality the world is experiencing.

*Steve Sharra blogs at Afrika Aphukira and for Global Voices Online. A
longer version of this article first appeared on Africa Global Village
and on the Africa@LSE blog.

http://www.nyasatimes.com/malawi/2012/09/02/curbing-the-new-afro-enthusiasm-what-marikana-esposes-about-neoliberalism/

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