The week of August 12 to 16, 2012 changed the lives of forty-four families. Some striking miners of the Lonmin mine in Marikana, a few security guards and policemen were massacred by the state. The full story has still to be told. The miners were striking for a living monthly wage of R 12, 500 from a company whose managers and shareholders make millions. Films have been made and books have been written about the Marikana massacre, for that is what it was! What made it heartbreakingly outrageous was that the striking miners were killed by their own government, by their own police, who were meant to protect them.

This petition demands that that fateful week be declared a week of mourning, or at the least, that August 16 be memorialised as the Day of the Marikana Massacre. With the passage of time, held back by the slow, grinding wheels of justice, will any of the perpetrators (not one of whom has been prosecuted so far) be brought to book? The Marikana massacre will be forgotten, and the people most affected by it, will continue to remain  without hope, and without recourse to justice.

The paintings in this petition were done by some of the Marikana widows to capture their anguish.

Will you sign this petition so that year after year we mourn the loss of these lives at the hands of the state and continue to struggle for justice for the devastated families of Marikana? Let us never forget Marikana, so that it never happens again!