Holomisa to hold rally in Marikana

The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is set to host a pre-election rally in Marikana tomorrow as it presents its election manifesto to the residents of the North West province mining town.

And with only 23 days to go until the elections, the party’s leader Bantu Holomisa said that it would head to the town’s stadium in Wonderkop to engage residents.

“It will be just a speech to unpack our manifesto like we have been doing when we were travelling in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces,” said Holomisa.

The town is the site of the Marikana Massacre which took place in August 2012 when police opened fire on striking miners from the Lonmin mine, killing 34 and injuring scores more.

Last year, Holomisa was critical of the government’s absence at the commemoration of the sixth anniversary of the massacre, saying that it showed that the government did not care.

Since the massacre, the town has been the subject of several visits from leaders of opposition parties including the DA’s Mmusi Maimane, whose party was earlier this year criticised for erecting a billboard that bore the names of the Marikana victims.

Critics accused the DA of using their names as an electioneering tool.

At Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a promise to visit the families and widows of the men killed during the massacre, alongside EFF leader Julius Malema.

However, he is yet to fulfil that promise, while Malema said he would not visit Marikana with him.

The massacre has also been the subject of a hashtag trend, #Marikana, on Twitter with users slamming leaders like Ramaphosa for not visiting the families of those slain in Marikana.

One user, @mafiwa2 wrote: “A man who orchestrated the massacre of 34 mine workers in #Marikana is now President of our Country”.

@ThaboMojela tweeted: “Seven years later #Ramaphosa still hasn’t visited #Marikana but here he is in #Alexandra acting all holy at the expense of #Mashaba saying, ‘others are afraid to come here’. And everyone in the crowd has conveniently forgotten this fact.”