Platinum miners steal food from orphans and kill ‘strike-breakers’

Striking miners in South Africa are stealing food from Aids orphans and have killed dozens of people in the longest-running dispute in the country’s history, writes Elena Curti.

Bishop Kevin Dowling, whose Rustenburg Diocese includes the platinum mines at the heart of the strikes, says the situation is desperate, with strikers raiding  hospice and care centres. The strikes, in their nineteenth week, pit platinum producers Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin against the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union.

“We can’t even give our kiddies – our Aids orphans – a meal a day because our centre was attacked by the miners and all the food stolen,” Bishop Dowling told Vatican Radio on 28 May.

The bishop spoke of widespread intimidation and recent murders of non-striking miners by strikers: “There have been 47 murders since the strike began – that’s more than the number killed in the Marikana tragedy in 2012.”

Bishop Kevin Dowling is ­delivering The Tablet Lecture on 26 June. See www.thetablet.co.uk