Johannesburg -
The African People's Convention will join the Marikana shootings commemoration ceremony on Friday, the party said.
“The APC is of the view that this commemoration should not focus on mineworkers who died during this Marikana incident, but all those who lost their lives,” APC leader Themba Godi said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The killings in Marikana have not stopped since last year, as there are many people that have been killed.”
Friday marks the first anniversary of the shootings at the mine, outside Rustenburg in the North West.
Thirty-four miners were killed on August 16 when police fired on them while trying to disperse them from a hill where they had gathered. Ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in strike-related unrest during the preceding week.
Godi said nothing had changed since the shootings. Workers' living conditions and wages were still the same, as were the living conditions of local residents. The party called for people living in mining areas to have shares in the companies operating the mines.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has invited the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to its commemoration ceremony on Friday, in a bid to promote peace.
The two unions have struggled for dominance in the Rustenburg platinum belt since before the shootings. Amcu members have accused the NUM of overly close ties with government and mining companies.
At least 12 people linked to Lonmin's Marikana mine have been killed over the past year, eight of them prominent union members, according to an Agence France-Presse tally.
Godi condemned violence and intimidation of miners.
“The APC calls for industrial peace and calmness in the mining sector and urges all stakeholders to go back to the negotiating table and resolve their differences in a peaceful manner in the best interest of their members and the general workers.” - Sapa