Johannesburg — Chanting could be heard from an informal settlement near the Lonmin mine in Marikana, North West, on Thursday evening, after a shooting left at least 18 people dead or wounded.
It was not clear if the group, who were singing liberation songs, were armed, but police were keeping watch.
The shooting erupted when police sought to disperse armed, striking workers who had gathered on a hill, in the area that had already seen 10 deaths in violent protests the past week.
It was not immediately clear who fired the first shots.
After a call for the miners to disarm themselves earlier, the group --singing and hitting their spears against pangas -- starting moving down the hill to a nearby informal settlement.
The police tried to intercept them using water cannons, teargas and stun grenades.
The workers started running in different directions, some heading for the open veld and others toward the informal settlement.
A Sapa reporter on the scene said gunshots could be heard from the police, which lasted for three minutes.
Police on the scene said workers shot at them first before they opened fire. The shooting left at least 18 people dead or wounded. They were seen lying on the ground.
Police were not immediately available to comment on the number of dead and wounded in Thursday's shooting.
An uneasy calm returned to the Marikana mine area on Thursday evening as paramedics attended to those who were hit.
Policemen involved in the shooting were returning to their bases as two helicopters circled the area around the hill where the strikers had gathered.
Those who already died in violent protests at the mine included two security guards and two police officers.
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HOW EASILY THE ANC HAS ADAPTED THE WAYS OF THIER PREDECESSORS? MURDERING,GASSING BEATING ,STRIKING BLACK PEOPLE BECAUSE" THEY HAVE !!! THE OEVERSEER MENTALITY HAS TAKEN HOLD OF THE UPPITY NIGGERS IN SOUTH AFRICA. THE HOUSE NIGGER HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!! . THE ENSLAVERTS HAVER ALLOWED THEM TO CARRY TEAR GAS GRENADES AND SO ON !!! I BET YOU ANY MONEY YOU COULD NOT MURDER TEN OR EVEN ONE ENSLAVER OR HIS PEOPLE? OR THE GOVERNMENT WILL DISOLVE AND ALL THE HOUSE NIGGES WONT HAVE ALL THAT FAT THEY GOT ON THIER GUTS!!! HOW DOES ONE GO FROM REVLUTIONARY TO HOUSE BOY ??? HOW DOES ONE RETREAT IN TIME BECOMMING A SLAVE AND A SERVANT OF THESE RABID INTERNATIONAL CROOKS ,WHOSE ONLY AIM IS TO ENSLAVE AND KEEP YOU TRAPPED IN ECONOMICAL SLAVERY AND MISERY!!!!. "SOUTH AFRICA HAS NOTHING TO SHOW FOR THE REVOLUTION ??? "THERE ARE NO EQUAL SHARES IN ANY COOPERATION "; "THERE IS JUST ANC GREED IN GOVERNMENT!" 'THAT IS THE POSITION YOU SIGNED UP FOR'. "YOU CAN HAVE GOVERNMENT; ' YOU KEEP THE REST OF THE FIELD HANDS IN CHECK, THE WORKER FORCE; THEY WILL JUST GET ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM COMMING TO WORK TOMORROW !!"WHILE YOU CAN PLAY HEAD NIGGA! AND 'STEAL AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT INTERFRE WITH MY BUSINESS !!""" WEL DONE ANC!!!!!!! IW ROTE TO YOU AND TOLD YOU OF THE OVERSEERS ROLE IN AFRICA THE PLANTAION SYSTEM IS ALIVE AND KICKING IN SOUTH AFRICA NOTHINGS CHANGED. THEY HAVE OVERSSERS NOW! BLACKS HAVE MOVED INTO THE WHITE HOUSE!!!! PAYING EXTORTION TO LIVE AND DEVELOP THIER WEALTH THIER GOLD THEIR DIAMONDS. WOULD NOT YOU RATHER NOT HAVE THESE THINGS THAN TO MAKE IT A CURSE TO YOU. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HWO TO MINE PROCESS IT THEN SHUT IT DONW UNTILL YOU OWN IT AND YOU CAN WORK IT!! WHERE YOU ASRE TODAY IS THE SAME PLACVE YOU WAS YESTERDAY YOU STYILL DO NOT OWN YOUR THINGS AND YOPU DO NOT HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO OWN YOUR THINGS !! POOR ACTION ON BEHALF OF ANC GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA. FROM TH ARTICLE OF THE IRISH THEY RECOGNISE THAT THE ONLY THING YOU INHERRITED WAS CROOKEDNESS THSI SI WHY YOU ARE SO COZY WITH THE WEST THAT IS ALL THEY KNOW!! IMAGINE YOU ARE A SLAVE AT HOME AND THINK YOU ARE FERINDS WITH THOSE WHITES WHO RUN THE PLANET ?? DO NOT BE SO PRESUMPTIOUS ; NIGERIA IS JUST AS SI SILLY THEY ALSO THINK THAT SOME MYSTICAL SEAT AT THE UN AWAITS THEM THAT IS JUST CHAttyer and nothing but pipe dreams....."IT IS TIEM TO WAKE UP!! AFRICA NEEDS STRONG LEADERSHIP NOT UNCLE TOME AND HOUSE NIGGAS WHO WANT TO P-LAY AT BEING ASSIMILATED INTO WHITE STEREOTYPES OF NIGGAS!! AFRRICANS NEED STRONG ROBUST LEADERSHIP THAT OF MR. MUGABE AND MAN LIKE THEM TRUE REVOLUTIONARIES ITS A SHAME THAT HE STILL HAS NOT MANGED TO SHEPARD ANY YOUNG REVOLUTIONAIRES WHO CAN TAKE UP THE MANTLE WHEN HE RETIRES . THAT ONE FROM THE MDC IS A PROPER HOUSE NIGGA HE WILL SEEL AFRICANS INTO SLAVERY . SOUTH AFRICA SADC IS A JOKE LOOK AT MAALWI YOU WONT RECOGNISE THEY NEED CONTRACTS TECHNOLOGY AND HELP THEM ESCAPE FROM THE POVERTY BUT AGAIN YOU CAN NOT HELP YOUR SELF"" SOUTH AFRICA IS PRETENDING !!! LOOK AT JOYCE SHE HAD TO SELL HER SOUL JUSTTO EAT WHY?? THEN THE FORMER PRESIDENT MADE AN ERROR IN ASKING THE WEST TO DRILL IN THOSE CACRED WATERS WHICH YOU GREAT LAKE. THIS WILL BE THE BEST THINKGIN THE HISTORY OF THOSE NATIONS THAT SURROUND THAT LAKE . I SAY TO THOSPEOPLE TAKE PRIDE IN THAT LAKE THAT IS LIFE FOR EVER MORE . WHEN WEVERYONE ELSE IS DRY AND THIRSTY YOUR CUP WILL RUNNETH OVER. YOU WILL BE WITH THE STRONGEST MOST POTENT OF ALL THINGS W A T E R!!!!. THE HEAVEY HAND BY THE SA POLICE A YESTERDAY SCENARIO EVEN WITH THIER SPEARS COME,THAT WAS COMMON IN THE OLD DAYS BUT ONE THING FOR SURE THE REACTIONCOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE YESTERDAY THAN TODAY"!!!!!!! PROPER BOTHA REACTION!!!!!!
I pledge solidarity with the workers of South Africa.I also extend my sympathy to the family and friends of those killed by security forces at the Maricana platignum mine.It is the basics of unionism that a worker should receive a fair days pay, for a day of work.Those that want to rob workers should be brought to justice.Whether they be black or white.I hope that the death of the 18 who were martered.For simply asking for what was rightfully theirs,would not be in vain.That workers would overcome injustice,and get their demands.I am asking workers not to abandom their cause.But to regroup and continue the strugle for worker rights,workers justice,workers pay,and workers unity.Let the enemies of the workers fall.Hip hip horah to a South Africa that belongs to the workers,and not to big buisness.Yours truly.Peter Carlos Hinds.