Unemployed People's Movement Press Statement
Marikana Massacre
Memorial Service in Grahamstown
A memorial service for all who fell in the Marikana Massacre
will be held in the Anglican Cathedral in Grahamstown on Thursday 30 August
2012 at 4:00 p.m. People of all faiths and people with no faith are all warmly
invited to join the event. It will be held under the banner of a shared
commitment to a just peace.
Bishop's Ntlali will conduct the service and Dr. Barney
Pityana will address the congregation. There will also be a speaker from
Marikana, and we are hoping to also be able to arrange the attendance of a
speaker from Ficksburg, where Andries Tatane was killed in 2011, and a speaker
from Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban where the movement was attacked in 2009.
We will light one candle for each of the striking miners who
fell to the police bullets in Marikana.
Following the service we will march on the Grahamstown
police station to express our concern about growing police violence. We have
agreed that we will sing 'Amazing Grace' outside the police station in view of
the long association of the song with social justice going back to the civil
rights struggle in America and the international anti-slavery moment
As the UPM we feel strongly that the churches have an
important role to play in the struggle for social justice. At this difficult
and dangerous time in our country's history the prophetic voice and a real
commitment to social justice is urgently required. We warmly welcome the
position that they have taken on this massacre. As a movement we also feel
strongly that the Commission of Inquiry that has been set up by the President
is compromised from the start by its links to the state – the same state that
has been repressing independent organisations for years. We are hoping that the
South African Council of Churches will throw its weight behind the independent
commission of inquiry. We are also calling on the state to immediately release
all the strikers that are currently in detention. The media have revealed that
they are being subject to beatings and torture in police custody and it is now
imperative that they must all be released immediately.
The memorial service has been arranged by the Unemployed
People's Movement, a group of progressive academics, Students for Social
Justice and Bishop Ntlali. The Bishop's office will release a statement with the
full programme tomorrow.
For more information please contact:
Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People's Movement 078 625 6462
Simone Levy, Students for Social Justice 076 437 2614
Simone Levy, Students for Social Justice 076 437 2614
