How will our own children remember the Marikana Massacre 10 years after the killing of 34 mineworkers by the police at Lonmin?

On 16 August 2012, 34 striking men were gunned down by the police with automatic weapons at Marikana. The workers and the community in which they lived did not back down: they organised that evening and united a greater proportion of the approximately 28,000 workers at Lonmin (now Sibanye) the following day.

In the aftermath of what is now largely understood to be a premeditated massacre resulting from the "toxic collusion" between mining capital and the state, miners downed tools for a further month inspiring wildcat strike action in other industrial sectors across the country such as gold, transport and farms.

The year 2014 witnessed the longest strike in South African mining history carrying forth the living wage demand of R12,500 for which workers had died on the mountain. People continue to occupy land and establish informal settlements, even naming them "Marikana", which has come to symbolise the idea of reclaiming what is rightfully ours in the spirit of the families and children of the deceased who can never be adequately compensated.

The state's offer of an additional...