Marikana documentary screened in EL

Women who tell their stories in film attend viewing

SIX years ago, police gunned down 37 striking Lonmin miners in Marikana. Nokulunga Primrose Sonti, who was just a few metres away from the “koppie” where the striking miners were killed, heard the gunshots. Today, Sonti says her heart is still gripped with pain whenever she recalls August 16 2012, marked in South Africa’s history as the day of the Marikana Massacre.

“I will never forget that day,” said Sonti, as tears streamed down her face.

Sonti lost two people in Marikana – a close male relative who was among the striking miners, and a female friend shot by police in the aftermath.

She was speaking to the Daily Dispatch outside the East London Museum yesterday, where

a documentary that tells the stories of the lives of the women of Marikana was screened.

The screening was organised by the Masimanyane Women’s Support Centre, which aims to promote and protect women’s social, emotional, physical and economic well-being.

Accompanying Sonti was her friend Thumeka Magwangqana, who was at home in Marikana when the miners were shot, as well as the director and producer of the documentary, Aliki Saragas.

The documentary tells the story of the two mothers and best friends, Sonti and Magwangqana from Nkaneng, Marikana, an informal settlement 200m away from Lonmin.

The women are both originally from the Eastern Cape.

As their fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles and sons were striking for better wages, Sonti and Magwangqana – whose daughter still works at Lonmin – were mobilising the women from Marikana to support the miners’ call.

“The idea was to collect all the women of Marikana and go speak to Lonmin management and support the strikers call for better wages, however we were too late . . .

“I heard the men crying, I heard their screams. I will never forget what happened that day,” said Sonti.

A few days after the massacre, Sonti formed a women’s group called Sikhala Sonke (we cry together), which offered support to the families who lost their loved ones, as well as the entire community.

Six years after the incident, Magwangqana says nothing has changed in Marikana, poverty is still rife.

“Life is still the same, there is no electricity, the roads are still terrible, there is just no service delivery,” she said.

Magwangqana now leads Sikhala Sonke, while her friend Sonti is an EFF MPL in parliament.

Saragas said the documentary aimed to highlight two things – to recognise and celebrate the leadership role women played during the massacre, and to understand that the incident did not happen in a “vacuum”, and instead was a build-up of many past and present societal problems facing the country. —