0:00:02 > 0:00:10This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:12 > 0:00:15South Africa is facing a crisis.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21I basically made the decision it's time to shoot some warning shots.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23After nearly 20 years of democracy,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27millions are still homeless and unemployed.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31The workers have been angry for a long time and patient for a long time.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Violent protests have swept the country.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Our security members was overwhelmed and killed
0:00:37 > 0:00:40and both these vehicles torched.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45Leading to the worst police killing since the end of apartheid.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51Weapons you would bring where you aim to kill.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52Weapons of war.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56With a government mired in allegations of corruption
0:00:56 > 0:00:58that reach right to the top.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03I have built my house. No government has paid for my houses that are built there.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08I returned to the country of my childhood to ask why is South Africa,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12once a beacon of hope, now the scene of such tragedy?
0:01:12 > 0:01:17If we can't find a way to deal with the workers of this country...
0:01:17 > 0:01:20we already are, Peter, we're facing the crisis.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38Wonderkop, a sprawling shanty town of 40,000 people.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Many here work at Marikana, one of the world's largest platinum mines.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53What happened here over six days last August
0:01:53 > 0:01:55has changed South Africa forever.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01Fed up with low wages,
0:02:01 > 0:02:06thousands of the miners went on an unofficial strike.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Over the course of six days,
0:02:09 > 0:02:13the protests became increasingly violent.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24On August 16th, the police moved in in huge numbers.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27They were determined to take control of the area.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32Today is the day that we intend to end the violence.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41I'd arranged to meet some of the miners
0:02:41 > 0:02:44who got caught up in what happened next.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Hello. Nice to see you. Yeah, yeah.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Nice to see you. Thank you.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04The miners had been gathering on a hill.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Many of them were armed with machetes, spears and knives.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10The police wanted them off the site.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36What happened next shocked the world.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Cease fire! Cease fire!
0:03:51 > 0:03:53Stop!
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Within seconds, 12 strikers lay dead
0:04:01 > 0:04:06and many more were injured in the full view of TV news cameras.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35Anele showed me the fragments of bullets that are still in his body.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45One, two, three, four. And here.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52The terrified miners fled, but the killings continued.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58Away from the TV cameras, 22 more strikers were shot dead
0:04:58 > 0:05:03and 78 injured, the aftermath caught on police video.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07The strikers claim it was cold-blooded murder.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12The police maintain they were acting in self defence throughout.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Wherever the truth lies, you can feel the bitterness in Wonderkop.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Zamayka, it's very nice to meet you.
0:05:25 > 0:05:31I went to visit the widow of one of the 34 men killed that day.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38What do you feel about the mine,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41the way your husband was killed?
0:06:07 > 0:06:11Zamayka is left with six children to support.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15Her anger is directed towards the government and the ruling party -
0:06:15 > 0:06:17the African National Congress.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33For a hundred years, the African National Congress
0:06:33 > 0:06:36has been the champion of black people's rights in South Africa.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Since Nelson Mandela came to power,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42they have ruled this country and stood for the principles
0:06:42 > 0:06:46of a better life for all, especially the poor.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49But the massacre at Marikana
0:06:49 > 0:06:53has led Zamayka and millions of ordinary South Africans
0:06:53 > 0:06:56to ask how the ANC could let this happen
0:06:56 > 0:06:59and even whether they're fit to govern the country.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08For me, this is a very personal journey.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12I grew up in apartheid South Africa in the 1950s and '60s.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18It was a brutal regime that stripped non-white people
0:07:18 > 0:07:21of their basic rights and freedoms.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Government and big business were run exclusively by the white minority.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30My parents were liberals who campaigned against apartheid.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33My mother used to support and help black activists
0:07:33 > 0:07:36who were victimised and tortured by the apartheid regime.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44One of them was a 15-year-old protestor called Dikgang Moseneke,
0:07:44 > 0:07:48arrested and put on trial for treason.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53So, can I begin by giving you a present from my mother, Adelaine?
0:07:54 > 0:07:57I so truly appreciate this. Thank you, Peter.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01She remembers bringing you those similar chocolates
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and all sorts of things. Do you remember that?
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Well, I can say that it was a larger slab than this.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14For a middle class white woman like my mum to ally herself with a black militant
0:08:14 > 0:08:18made her an outcast amongst most in her own community.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Your mother was incredible. We all called her Mrs Hain.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27The first day she came with a pot of soup...
0:08:28 > 0:08:32..beautiful potato soup, with a touch of cream and black pepper
0:08:32 > 0:08:36and then she started scooping out for each one of us -
0:08:36 > 0:08:38the 16 accused.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40And we're asking, who is this lady?
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Are we in danger of being poisoned or something?
0:08:43 > 0:08:47And she said, well, I don't embrace apartheid.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49I reject it. It's an evil system, she said.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And she would, at the end of this, would give each one of us a hug,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56particularly me. I was the tiniest and the smallest of the lot.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00She brought a slab of chocolate just about every single morning
0:09:00 > 0:09:04because she asked me, what did you love most, and I said chocolate.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08She was amazing and I'm eternally grateful.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13And she did much to form my own...
0:09:13 > 0:09:16notions of a non-racial South Africa.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21Because suddenly she criss-crossed, she cut across lines
0:09:21 > 0:09:23that we though were...
0:09:23 > 0:09:25eternal.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31Today, Dikgang is South Africa's Deputy Chief Justice, but in 1963
0:09:31 > 0:09:36he was found guilt of treason and sent to Robben Island for ten years.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42For supporting black activists like him, my mother and later my father,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47were banned by the state, meaning they were not allowed to meet
0:09:47 > 0:09:51or talk with more than one person at a time or be politically active.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56My parents were taking a huge risk.
0:09:56 > 0:10:02The apartheid state routinely persecuted and imprisoned its critics.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04A year later, something terrible happened
0:10:04 > 0:10:06that forced us to flee South Africa.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09I thought it was much bigger.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16I've come to the High Court in Pretoria to meet Jill Vensel,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20a close friend of my parents and member of the Liberal Party.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24The police were inclined to make dire threats
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and the security police would say, yes, you buggers,
0:10:27 > 0:10:33we're not going to worry with the law, we're gonna just put you lot against a wall and shoot you.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36This time the man on trial was white.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39John Harris, a close family friend,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42was frustrated that peaceful protests had become futile.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48He planted a bomb in Johannesburg train station and telephoned a warning,
0:10:48 > 0:10:54but the police deliberately failed to evacuate the station and a woman was killed.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00Despite condemning the bombing and despite the huge risk to themselves
0:11:00 > 0:11:03my parents publicly stood by the Harris family.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Your parents were extraordinarily courageous. We were all frightened.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13I think the whole idea was to cringe away
0:11:13 > 0:11:16and from association with him and Ann,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18and your parents did the absolute opposite.
0:11:18 > 0:11:20- They didn't agree with him?- No.
0:11:20 > 0:11:26- Of course, you attended the last day of the trial, didn't you?- Yes. - When the verdict came down.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Did you expect the death penalty to be announced?
0:11:31 > 0:11:33I think we all did.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37And, of course, when one saw the judge's face...
0:11:37 > 0:11:40that seemed to be obvious.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46John Harris was hanged in 1965 for murder
0:11:46 > 0:11:48and my parents became pariahs.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52The government stopped my dad working
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and they had no choice but to leave.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Aged 16, I went with them to Britain.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03It was emotionally difficult going into that courtroom.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07It was an emotional turmoil because I'd never been in there before
0:12:07 > 0:12:10and it, sort of, just brought everything back
0:12:10 > 0:12:15and all the pain of it which is buried in my childhood.
0:12:17 > 0:12:22In Britain, I continued my parents' fight against the tyranny of apartheid
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and in 1969 I started the Stop the Tour Campaign.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29'This is a campaign against the cricket tour
0:12:29 > 0:12:32'and the rugby tour and apartheid in sport in general.'
0:12:32 > 0:12:34The plan was to hit white South Africa
0:12:34 > 0:12:37where it really hurt - sport.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41We succeeded in getting their white-only teams banned
0:12:41 > 0:12:44from international competition, especially in rugby and cricket.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49I went on to join the Labour Party in Britain
0:12:49 > 0:12:51and became a government minister.
0:12:53 > 0:12:5540 years since our protest
0:12:55 > 0:12:58and sport in South Africa is truly multi-racial.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Being here at Newlands, I think the most beautiful cricket ground in the world
0:13:05 > 0:13:10with Table Mountain up there, and with this team of different races,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15different colours, which was never the case in the past
0:13:15 > 0:13:20and these are the young professional crickets of the future of South Africa and of today.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25It's just what I fought for. When we stopped the all-white cricket tours
0:13:25 > 0:13:28it was to achieve this and it's fantastic being here and seeing it happening.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32And sport is not the only success story.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38The country has a liberal constitution, an independent judiciary and a free press.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43It has been transformed into a multi-racial democracy
0:13:43 > 0:13:45with a vociferous opposition.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53Here, as a teenager in the 1960s, I attended a leading state school,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55Pretoria Boys High.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Under apartheid, black children were deliberately barred
0:13:59 > 0:14:03from a decent education at schools like this.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07I haven't been back in years
0:14:07 > 0:14:11and wanted to meet the students there now.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15So I was here in '63 to '66 and then I had to leave the country.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18What's the atmosphere like in terms of multi-racialism now?
0:14:18 > 0:14:22I guess we weren't around to experience what it was like
0:14:22 > 0:14:25when it was a bit of a racial school, so I guess, for us,
0:14:25 > 0:14:30it's just normal to be in a school with black and white people. There's nothing different about it.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34We don't know any different. We were born after 1994, one of us was born in 1995,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37so we've never lived a day in the apartheid era.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40So what are you going to do when you get older?
0:14:40 > 0:14:43My ambition is either going to be engineering or science.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46- One of those two fields. - Really important subjects those.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51- And yourself?- I'm still torn between law, psychology and politics.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Politics? Good for you.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59Myself, I've always wanted to be a doctor so my dream in life is to study medicine.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03I just love to travel the world and I figured I may as well study travel journalism.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05That way I can write about my travels.
0:15:08 > 0:15:14Just looking at the boys leaving the school, there are black faces.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18Mine was a whites-only school and that's the biggest change,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21which is really quite moving to see.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Since coming to power 19 years ago,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36the ANC has spent billions on education,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38doubling the number of children in school.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Thousands of new schools are being built
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and, 15 minutes away from my old school, on the other side
0:15:47 > 0:15:51of Pretoria in Atteridgeville, is one of these new ANC schools.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54- Hello, Mike, how are you? - Fine. Yourself?
0:15:54 > 0:15:58- Good to see you.- Thank you. Welcome to Edward Phatudi.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01I used to be brought here by my parents to Atteridgeville
0:16:01 > 0:16:04when we lived in Pretoria 50 years ago.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08- Is it? So you are familiar with the place? - A bit, but it's changed a lot.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Head teacher Mike Masango and his staff have a formidable task.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18Most of the children at the school come from families who have never had jobs.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22The teachers worry it leaves little incentive for students to study.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39You mean they can't get a job?
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Even for those who study hard, fees for college or university
0:16:45 > 0:16:48make further education impossible for most.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Talking to Mike and his staff, it's clear the end of apartheid
0:17:16 > 0:17:19hasn't yet produced a new world of opportunities.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Despite the huge spending on education, housing
0:17:23 > 0:17:27and infrastructure, the ANC hasn't created anything like enough jobs.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31In some communities, unemployment is even as high as 80%.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37To understand why, you have to go back to the end of apartheid
0:17:37 > 0:17:41and the deal that was struck when the ANC first came to power.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46When white rule finally came to an end,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50the fear was that South Africa would descend into civil war
0:17:50 > 0:17:54and the economy would collapse as white businesses left the country.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58But Nelson Mandela's extraordinary leadership
0:17:58 > 0:18:01and insistence on reconciliation
0:18:01 > 0:18:06meant that a stable multi-racial democracy emerged from the transition.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08The big businesses stayed too.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11A black majority now ran the government
0:18:11 > 0:18:14but the white minority still ran the economy.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16A deal that is now in crisis.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Lonmin is the British company at the centre of this riot
0:18:23 > 0:18:25that led to the massacre.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Its mine at Marikana produces nearly a quarter
0:18:28 > 0:18:30of all the world's platinum.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36And Lonmin symbolises the post apartheid settlement
0:18:36 > 0:18:39that kept such businesses operating in South Africa.
0:18:44 > 0:18:49I've been underground in coal mines in my constituency,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51but I've never been down a platinum mine before.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55The mining industry is as crucial to South Africa today
0:18:55 > 0:18:57as it was under apartheid,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00contributing to almost 20% of its economic output.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04This is a huge operation
0:19:04 > 0:19:08and the area of these mines is 250 square kilometres.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13It's a massive operation in every sense employing over 30,000 workers.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18And the level of investments and the steel
0:19:18 > 0:19:22and the sheer construction down here is extraordinary.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26As part of the deal struck with the ANC government,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29companies like Lonmin have brought black South Africans
0:19:29 > 0:19:31into their management.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36In return, the ANC aligned unions try to ensure that production was
0:19:36 > 0:19:38not disrupted by strikes.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46This arrangement has produced enough profit to keep foreign investors happy,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49but it has left the workers on low wages.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59What's really striking about this is you've got a high-tech mine
0:19:59 > 0:20:03in the background, Lonmin, Marikana,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07and people living in destitute circumstances, in shacks.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11No running water, no proper electricity, no sewage,
0:20:11 > 0:20:13unspeakable poverty.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19The company provides accommodation on site for some of the workers.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Vice president Natascha Viljoen showed me around.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25- I'll follow you.- Thank you.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27Good morning, good morning.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31- So, this is four people in a room. - Four people, yeah.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33- It's pretty basic.- Yes.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Thank you very much.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40When would these have been put up?
0:20:40 > 0:20:44These could have been put up anything from 15 to 20 years back.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Quite a number of these would have been around in this Wonderkop area
0:20:47 > 0:20:49since the start of the mine,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52and some areas in the mine are 30 years old.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57So this is a typical bathroom that is shared amongst
0:20:57 > 0:20:59- everybody that lives in this block. - In this block?
0:20:59 > 0:21:02So, they will typically come off shift, have a shower...
0:21:02 > 0:21:05And this is what's available for them.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08So, as you can see, very basic.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13Yeah, very basic. No proper sort of...uh...
0:21:13 > 0:21:16Shower heads, tops off. Um...
0:21:16 > 0:21:21- The taps is always a challenge because they do disappear.- OK.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23They do disappear, as do toilet seats.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- No toilet seats, no.- No.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27These are the kind of things that tend to disappear
0:21:27 > 0:21:29over a period of time.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Small kitchen area with a kitchenette, a sink and a stove.
0:21:33 > 0:21:38And to the side, you have two bedrooms and then a full bathroom.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Lonmin are updating the old hostels, but with such an enormous workforce,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45they'll never be able to provide enough.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49In the end, you're only able to house
0:21:49 > 0:21:51a small proportion of your workforce?
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Yes. And again, it also goes about whether our workforce
0:21:55 > 0:22:00choose to live here or choose to live in their own accommodation.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03That's sometimes easier in the informal settlements.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11For years, wage increases at Marikana had been negotiated with
0:22:11 > 0:22:13the ANC-affiliated mining union,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15but in August last year,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18some key workers had grown dissatisfied with the union
0:22:18 > 0:22:21and attempted to negotiate directly with Lonmin.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26The company ordered them back to work. Violence soon followed.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31On the Sunday, um, the 11th...
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Before the massacre?
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Ya, the massacre was on the 16th.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41..we had a group of people that came down this road and just here,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44right behind us, here and just across the road over there,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47there was two of our security vehicles parked.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50And our security members was overwhelmed
0:22:50 > 0:22:53and killed, and both these vehicles torched.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57What was different about this compared with the last 20 years?
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Just the amount of incitement in the group of employees
0:23:01 > 0:23:03and the violence that's gone with it.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07We haven't seen them killing people in this way before.
0:23:12 > 0:23:13I can tell when you're explaining it,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16- it's still very emotional, isn't it? - Oh, absolutely.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19No, I mean, it's not something that you deal with,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22the employees' families... And we're talking all employees,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25we're talking the ten people that lost their lives before the 16th,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28you're talking about the people that lost their lives.
0:23:28 > 0:23:29They were still our employees.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33There were unhappy employees, but they were our employees.
0:23:33 > 0:23:34It's a real puzzle.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38This visit has showed me an incredible operation
0:23:38 > 0:23:43and yet nobody saw this explosion coming. And it all just fell apart
0:23:43 > 0:23:47in the catastrophe that engulfed the company and the wider country.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51'Outrage in South Africa as police fire on protesting miners
0:23:51 > 0:23:53'in an episode reminiscent...'
0:23:53 > 0:23:55'Police had earlier called this D Day,
0:23:55 > 0:23:57'but no-one could have predicted it would end in this...'
0:23:57 > 0:24:01'South Africans are marking a day they will recall
0:24:01 > 0:24:04'as one of the darkest in the country's modern history.'
0:24:04 > 0:24:07The massacre on 16th August 2012
0:24:07 > 0:24:11created a wave of revulsion across the world.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15It looked like the ANC had turned its guns on its own people,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18with dreadful echoes of the apartheid era.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23For the more radical elements in South Africa,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27like controversial ANC rebel Julius Malema,
0:24:27 > 0:24:32Marikana is a symbol of the cosy deal between the ANC elite
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and white-run businesses at the expense of South Africa's poor.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42Marikana is a true reflection of our discipline in South Africa.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48It might have taken place in a small isolated town,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52but that's what our people experience every day.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Sitting together as two communities,
0:24:56 > 0:24:58you know, in one country.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01The community of the rich
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and the community of the extremely poor people.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08So do you see Marikana as a clash between
0:25:08 > 0:25:10the poor and the dispossessed
0:25:10 > 0:25:13and the rich, with the State behind the rich
0:25:13 > 0:25:15and the ANC behind the rich as well?
0:25:15 > 0:25:17Absolutely.
0:25:17 > 0:25:23A white monopoly capital conniving with the State
0:25:23 > 0:25:28and the ruling party against the poor of the poorest.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32It's not in Marikana only. It's everywhere.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36I'm a child of a domestic worker, and half past four she will
0:25:36 > 0:25:41find me at the bus stop waiting for her to come out of the bus.
0:25:41 > 0:25:42I don't look at her face.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45The first thing I do, I will look at her hands
0:25:45 > 0:25:47to see if she's carrying a plastic.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51And if she's carrying a plastic, I know she came back home
0:25:51 > 0:25:53with the leftovers, and I know that day
0:25:53 > 0:25:56there will be a meal before I go to sleep.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58I've lived that life. I know it.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01And when I see a person living that life,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03all memories come back.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06I know the pain those people are going through.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08There are two communities.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12And the ANC has got no clear policy
0:26:12 > 0:26:19on how are we going to resolve these two economies in one country.
0:26:20 > 0:26:26When the ANC came to power in 1994, it was faced with an enormous task.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30The legacy of apartheid meant that a third of South Africans had
0:26:30 > 0:26:35no access to clean water, electricity or proper housing.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39In the last 19 years, the ANC'S built three million homes
0:26:39 > 0:26:41and provided access to clean water
0:26:41 > 0:26:44and electricity for millions of its poorest people,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46but still nearly half of South Africans
0:26:46 > 0:26:49live on less than £3 a day.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The Eastern Cape is the poorest region of South Africa.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02This is where Nelson Mandela was born,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04and is still the heartland of the ANC.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Many young people leave here to find work in the cities and mines.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14I was hoping to meet the family of one of the miners
0:27:14 > 0:27:18killed at Marikana, Mafolisi Mabiya.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Heading into the hills, the road became impassable
0:27:24 > 0:27:26and we had to abandon the car.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31This family lives right in the middle of the village up there.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Eventually, we reach the home of Mafolisi's mother.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Good day, Mama.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Very nice to meet you.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Like millions of other rural South Africans,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Mafolisi left his family to look for work.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01What are you doing now that this money's no longer
0:28:01 > 0:28:02coming from your son for the family?
0:28:02 > 0:28:03How are you surviving?
0:28:22 > 0:28:25These were the very people the ANC promised they would help
0:28:25 > 0:28:28when they came to power. Yet, nearly 20 years on,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32I can't see how their basic standard of living has improved.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36And what are you going to do in the future now?
0:28:44 > 0:28:46As we left and headed back down the mountain,
0:28:46 > 0:28:48we met Mafolisi's widow
0:28:48 > 0:28:51making the long walk home from the nearest town.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53Nice to meet you.
0:28:54 > 0:28:55How are you going to survive?
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Lonmin, the mine owners, they paid towards the funeral,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04but nothing else?
0:29:08 > 0:29:12We've walked about two and a half hours, and it's been hard going,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15but can you imagine what it's like living up there?
0:29:15 > 0:29:17I mean, that family is right on the edge.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19They're living with nothing.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22No electricity, no sanitation, no running water.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26The mother's too young to get a pension, which might have
0:29:26 > 0:29:29supplied the household. There's no income coming in at all.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31I mean, I couldn't survive up there.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33How on Earth are they?
0:29:33 > 0:29:37They're just victims in every possible way. It's tragic.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52South Africa's one of the richest countries in Africa,
0:29:52 > 0:29:54with a strong economy.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58Driving around, you see million pound properties, luxury cars
0:29:58 > 0:30:00and expensive restaurants.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04The old white elite has been joined by new black elite
0:30:04 > 0:30:08on the boards of companies, in governments and the civil service.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12But this new ruling class, centred around the ANC,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15faces almost daily allegations of corruption.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23National newspaper City Press is one of the largest papers in South Africa
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and I went to meet the editor, Ferial Haffajee.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31So your newspapers led the fights against corruption.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33I mean, how serious is it in South Africa today?
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Corruption is far more serious than I thought it would have been
0:30:37 > 0:30:3918 years into a democracy.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43Our newspaper does a lot of work at local level
0:30:43 > 0:30:46and often the thing making people protest
0:30:46 > 0:30:50is not roads or sewage or water or electricity,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53it's the perception that the money for those things
0:30:53 > 0:30:56is being corrupted by their own councillors.
0:30:59 > 0:31:00The allegations of corruption
0:31:00 > 0:31:03spread to the very top of South African society
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and the President of the Republic, Jacob Zuma.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13He is accused of using government money intended for security measures
0:31:13 > 0:31:15to refurbish his lavish private home.
0:31:15 > 0:31:20More than £20 million is alleged to have been improperly spent.
0:31:21 > 0:31:26Nkandla, the story of the massive spending on the President's estate,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30has caused people to see in very physical form
0:31:30 > 0:31:34how self enrichment has become such a part of our lives.
0:31:34 > 0:31:36Usually, these things are hidden,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40but here we have 250 million rand spent on one man
0:31:40 > 0:31:41when you've seen the poverty
0:31:41 > 0:31:44in the deepest rural areas of our country.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48And I think that's why it's caused a spark, and it's also why we're
0:31:48 > 0:31:51sticking with it, although the ANC is getting very cross with us,
0:31:51 > 0:31:52government's getting very annoyed.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57Sadly, the ANC with its 100-year-old history,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00it no longer holds the moral high ground.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07If there's one place that really embodies the moral high ground
0:32:07 > 0:32:10that used to be held by the ANC, it is Robben Island.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12It was here that Nelson Mandela
0:32:12 > 0:32:16and his comrades were imprisoned by the apartheid regime.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Despite the cruelty of their imprisonment,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24a generation of revolutionaries emerged from here
0:32:24 > 0:32:26to lead their country
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and preach reconciliation with their white oppressors.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31- That's me.- That's you there?- Ya.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34- Yeah?- The only one I can recognise is myself.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Ahmed Kathrada is now 84 years old.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43An ANC veteran and ex MP,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46he spent 18 years imprisoned here with his close friend,
0:32:46 > 0:32:49Nelson Mandela.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52President Zuma, Deputy President Motlanthe,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56they were here for ten years, they never saw us.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58- Really?- And we never saw them.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00That's how isolated we were.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05How do you describe the ANC's fundamental values and its morality?
0:33:05 > 0:33:07Look, its policy...
0:33:08 > 0:33:11..from which flows everything else,
0:33:11 > 0:33:18was to struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa.
0:33:18 > 0:33:23And in terms of the personal conduct of ANC leaders and members,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27was that something everybody just assumed would be
0:33:27 > 0:33:30based on morality and honestly and probity?
0:33:31 > 0:33:36You know, it didn't have to be written down.
0:33:36 > 0:33:37We took it for granted.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Do you have, as one who spent so much of your life
0:33:40 > 0:33:42here on Robben Island,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47do you feel that somehow the vision has gone astray of the ANC?
0:33:47 > 0:33:50What I'd say is, it's on the back burner.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53It's still entrenched in policy.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56It's in the implementation,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58and that is where
0:33:58 > 0:34:04we see some of the irregularities and more than irregularities.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07Every second day that you open a newspaper,
0:34:07 > 0:34:09there's some report of corruption.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11And how do you feel about that?
0:34:11 > 0:34:13No, one feels very disappointed.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16I listen to the radio, I see in the media...
0:34:16 > 0:34:21rank and file ANC people expressing their disappointment
0:34:21 > 0:34:23and disgust at some these things.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26'Let there be justice for all.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29'Let there be work, bread,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32'water and salt for all.'
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Jacob Zuma also spent ten years on Robben Island.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42- I sit here?- Please, yes.
0:34:42 > 0:34:43OK.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46But his presidency has been mired in allegations that seem
0:34:46 > 0:34:49a million miles from those original values.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53What has troubled me is ANC members have told me
0:34:53 > 0:34:56the length and breadth of South Africa this past two weeks
0:34:56 > 0:35:02that they don't trust government politicians or the party anymore.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04Are you worried about the gap that has opened up
0:35:04 > 0:35:07between the leadership and the grass roots?
0:35:07 > 0:35:09Not in the ANC.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13I know that at times you could find even a few on the ends saying so.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15Do you think, as many have told me,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17that there's a need to raise the standards and morals
0:35:17 > 0:35:22of the government and ANC leadership in the tradition of Mandela?
0:35:22 > 0:35:24Do you think there is that need to do that?
0:35:24 > 0:35:27That need will always be there.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31When the ANC came into government in South Africa,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33for the first time, we talked about corruption.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36Nobody talked about corruption during apartheid,
0:35:36 > 0:35:38and nobody can say there was no corruption.
0:35:38 > 0:35:39There was lots of it?
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Talking about it, you'll actually go to jail.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Where nobody talks about it, nobody deals with it,
0:35:45 > 0:35:49nobody does about it, and therefore people think there is no corruption.
0:35:49 > 0:35:50Here we fight it.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54The country is behind everyone to fight corruption.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58And yet a head teacher, again an ANC voter,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02said to me that he's in pain because he can't get enough text books,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07but the presidential home is being built for £250 million rand.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09He feels a lot of pain about that.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Again, that is a big mistake. I've built my house.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16No government has paid for my houses that are built there,
0:36:16 > 0:36:18but that's how it has been put.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Government wanted, since I became a President,
0:36:21 > 0:36:26to include the security features in my homes, right?
0:36:26 > 0:36:27They did a bunker.
0:36:27 > 0:36:33They did the bullet proof, not in every place, in my bedrooms,
0:36:33 > 0:36:35which they said is a requirement.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41And, it's not 250 what government has done.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44I think if... I don't have the figure,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48It could be between seven to eighty hundred.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54I mean, seven to eighty million rand. I'm not sure.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56The ANC has been in power nearly 19 years
0:36:56 > 0:37:02and still millions without jobs or housing and living in poverty.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Yes, absolutely.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08The issue really is... is that before 1994,
0:37:08 > 0:37:15nobody even knew how many people were out of the mainstream
0:37:15 > 0:37:16of the economy of South Africa.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22Fact of the matter is that because of the huge challenge of it,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26you couldn't deal with it in 18 years.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38I travelled out into the Western Cape,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40one of South Africa's
0:37:40 > 0:37:43richest areas and home to one of its most famous industries.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52Until 20 years ago, I campaigned for people to boycott
0:37:52 > 0:37:55South African wines, and now I'm an enthusiastic consumer.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57And since the end of apartheid,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01the country has become one of the world's largest producers.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04But here, too, there are worrying signs.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09That says gun shops in the area where we're going have been
0:38:09 > 0:38:14emptied by locals hell bent on protecting their properties.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17That containers and containers of assault rifles were moved
0:38:17 > 0:38:19to the area on Wednesday night.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Louis De Kock is the owner of one the biggest vineyards in the region.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35So, how much of this is yours, Louis?
0:38:35 > 0:38:39Yeah, it's up to the trees over there,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41right up to the road.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43This place is... I'm the owner of it,
0:38:43 > 0:38:46but actually I'm the manager of it
0:38:46 > 0:38:49because I believe it's God's, I just managing it.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53And it's for all, the benefit of all the people here.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57But last November, the peace of this beautiful region was shattered
0:38:57 > 0:39:00as thousands of farm workers went on strike over their pay.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06Vineyards across the region were burnt
0:39:06 > 0:39:09and strikers fought running battles with the police.
0:39:10 > 0:39:12Louis De Kock was forced to defend his farm.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17I, basically, made the decision -
0:39:17 > 0:39:20it's time to shoot some warning shots.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23We hurt no-one, there was no casualty, there was no-one
0:39:23 > 0:39:26that was even hit or...
0:39:26 > 0:39:28because it was warning shots.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30And as soon as we started that, they started running.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33Northing really justifies shooting, does it?
0:39:33 > 0:39:39Um... Yeah, if people's lives are getting threatened,
0:39:39 > 0:39:44then you can fire warning shots and even kill someone if it's necessary.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49The farm workers are generally paid the national minimum wage,
0:39:49 > 0:39:5269 rand, less then £6 a day,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56though Louis De Kock says his employees get more.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00My workers were actually perfectly fine with their wages,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04because I pay them much more than minimum wage.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08- How much?- Minimum wage is 69,
0:40:08 > 0:40:13so I add their bonuses of another, um,
0:40:13 > 0:40:16ten, 15 rands per day, some of them even 20,
0:40:16 > 0:40:1925, 30 rands a day is added.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21I mean, surely something's wrong
0:40:21 > 0:40:23here if people are only getting a 100 rand a day.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26I mean, you couldn't live on that, I couldn't live on that.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29And, you know, isn't that a reason why it all erupted?
0:40:29 > 0:40:33That there's got to be a way found to pay people better?
0:40:33 > 0:40:36We have to make it work
0:40:36 > 0:40:40economically so that's basically what
0:40:40 > 0:40:44the farmers can afford, but we give them transport to and from work,
0:40:44 > 0:40:49even, we actually take their children to school and back.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Even food they get for free for a great period of time.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57- What, grapes? By food you mean grapes?- Yeah, grapes,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01but you'll be surprised at how many grapes they eat,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03percentage of their diet.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07I mean, they would just go 50% on grapes, kind of a thing.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11There are many farmers in the region.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Some of the workers live in a nearby shanty town.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16They see things differently.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24The farmers say they're paying you 100 rand a day with extras,
0:41:24 > 0:41:25is that true?
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Was the ANC helping you when your wages were so low?
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Uh-huh, no, no. Not at all.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47There was no union of part of ANC or something
0:41:47 > 0:41:53that has gone to help or try to sort things out for the farm workers, no.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56Just like at the Marikana mine,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59the workers here are also angry with the ANC.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02The government has frozen the minimum wage
0:42:02 > 0:42:03for the last three years.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32So people simply can't survive on this. It's impossible.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36They must at least try
0:42:36 > 0:42:39and fulfil our needs to that we can meet them half way.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41If they don't meet you half way,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43if they don't have justice, what is going to happen?
0:42:43 > 0:42:47If they don't meet us half way I think we are going to lose,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51both of us going to lose, because we, as farm workers,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55we are not going to work, and who is going to work there on the farm?
0:42:55 > 0:42:56No-one.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02Farm workers living on £6 a day, miners existing in poverty
0:43:02 > 0:43:05and staggering levels of unemployment - this was not
0:43:05 > 0:43:09what the freedom struggle against apartheid was supposed to deliver...
0:43:09 > 0:43:11Still less a liberation movement
0:43:11 > 0:43:14accused of widespread corruption and cronyism.
0:43:16 > 0:43:18For a view of the political situation,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21I wanted to visit another old comrade.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26Ronnie Kasrils is a legend of the anti-apartheid struggle.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30The ANC has the right to build up its forces in this country
0:43:30 > 0:43:33because no ceasefire is in place.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38Ronnie was also an ANC minister under previous presidents.
0:43:38 > 0:43:39Ronnie.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Peter, welcome, welcome.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45There's one subversive to another.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50Somebody was telling me that the ANC are now at a critical point.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Well, we're in a difficult phase.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56Big sections of the people beginning to lose faith
0:43:56 > 0:43:57and belief in the government,
0:43:57 > 0:44:01and I'm talking here about the people that the ANC always said
0:44:01 > 0:44:05were the motor forces of our revolution -
0:44:05 > 0:44:09the working class, the black working class.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14I believe it's an actual watershed,
0:44:14 > 0:44:19which the ruling party needs to understand.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24I feel that we have lost our way to quite a degree.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27In terms of creating an independent country
0:44:27 > 0:44:32where you control your economy, you've got to develop a middle class,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35you've got to create wealth, and that's not happening.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39The ruling party and they've become, in a Marxist term,
0:44:39 > 0:44:43the comprador elements of overseas investment
0:44:43 > 0:44:44and with it, the corruption,
0:44:44 > 0:44:49not just through the overseas factor, linking to the mining houses,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52forgetting that their task,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55and this is our unions as well as government, is to create
0:44:55 > 0:45:00better life conditions and salary and so on for the working people.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03So we've had the miners in strike.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08We've had the farm labourers of the Western Cape wine fields
0:45:08 > 0:45:10up in uproar.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14And it's pointing to the fact that South Africa's
0:45:14 > 0:45:18got to re-think our economic position.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22If we can't find a way to deal with the needs of the workers
0:45:22 > 0:45:26of this country, we are going to, and I believe we already are,
0:45:26 > 0:45:28Peter, we're facing the crisis.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Aside from the traditional foreign and white-owned businesses
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Ronnie and other ANC activists I spoke to believe that the ANC
0:45:38 > 0:45:42has failed to develop an economy that benefits everybody.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48The ANC was so popular following the fall of apartheid
0:45:48 > 0:45:51that they've dominated the political scene,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54but has this almost guaranteed re-election made them lose touch
0:45:54 > 0:45:56with ordinary South Africans?
0:45:57 > 0:46:01We are very much in touch with the people.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03We talk to them. We interact with them.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06We are able to deal with them.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10And again, I want to... I don't want to be judgemental,
0:46:10 > 0:46:14because it is the manner in which the reporting in South Africa,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17which is quite negative,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20that influences the minds of the people general.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24But there's still, cos I've found this and it's dismayed me,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27this big lack of trust in the government leadership,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29the trade union leadership, the party leadership.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32And, to take the country forward, surely that has to be closed?
0:46:32 > 0:46:34You have to establish trust.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38But you can't close it if you are not owning the media.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Well, the media is the one that exaggerates things
0:46:42 > 0:46:45on a daily basis and through TV.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Now, you must know that influences the thinking of people,
0:46:49 > 0:46:54and people begin to believe what they hear all the time.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59The ANC leadership's becoming increasingly
0:46:59 > 0:47:03frustrated by the barrage of criticism they face in the media.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08They're currently pushing through a new secrecy law
0:47:08 > 0:47:11that journalists believe could prevent legitimate investigations
0:47:11 > 0:47:13into government corruption.
0:47:15 > 0:47:16During apartheid,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Lawson Naidoo worked in the ANC'S London office.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24He fears the new law will threaten South Africa's vibrant free press.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28All governments bring in official secrecy legislation,
0:47:28 > 0:47:31why has this bill excited so much criticism
0:47:31 > 0:47:35and so much antagonism about the future of the country?
0:47:35 > 0:47:39This current piece of legislation going before Parliament
0:47:39 > 0:47:42gives the State far greater powers than even the apartheid government
0:47:42 > 0:47:44took upon itself.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48So, the ability of the State to classify information is now
0:47:48 > 0:47:52actually greater than it was under the old legislation.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56The real concern is that given the escalating levels of corruption
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and mal-administration within the public sector that we have seen
0:47:59 > 0:48:02over many years now, there is a real concern
0:48:02 > 0:48:06that this act will be used to cover up corruption and suppress
0:48:06 > 0:48:10information about mis-management and corruption in government, whether
0:48:10 > 0:48:13it be at national, at provincial or at local government level.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17And you being an ANC man through and through for years.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22What do you actually feel emotionally now about the direction?
0:48:22 > 0:48:27Well, you know, one almost... Well, it feels that the ANC that is
0:48:27 > 0:48:30there today is an ANC that I no longer recognise.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34The freedoms that we enjoy now are freedoms that we must cherish
0:48:34 > 0:48:37because we fought hard for these freedoms, for the freedom
0:48:37 > 0:48:40to speak openly, to have robust political debate, to disagree
0:48:40 > 0:48:44with the government of the day and for that government to listen to us.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50South Africa's independent media is something to cherish
0:48:50 > 0:48:53after the suppression of free speech under apartheid.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59It was the extensive and disturbing media revelations about the massacre
0:48:59 > 0:49:03at Marikana that led President Zuma to set up a commission of enquiry.
0:49:05 > 0:49:09The families of some of the people who were massacred,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12they're coming to the court hearing, to the commission hearing,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16to see what is actually going on and to witness, play witness.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20Hundreds of witnesses have been called
0:49:20 > 0:49:22and the enquiry is lasting months.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27Today, they are hearing testimony about the weapons the police
0:49:27 > 0:49:30were carrying on the day of the killings.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33R1 rifles and R5 rifles
0:49:33 > 0:49:39are weapons you would bring into a situation
0:49:39 > 0:49:41where you aim to kill...
0:49:42 > 0:49:45..the targets at which they would be fired.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55So it would be difficult for me to try and say that they were...
0:49:55 > 0:49:58they surely and I can agree with you there,
0:49:58 > 0:50:00surely they have the capability of killing.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03The sombre, serious, calm commission
0:50:03 > 0:50:07is hearing evidence from a police ballistics expert
0:50:07 > 0:50:12that they were issued with automatic machine guns,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15not the normal pistols
0:50:15 > 0:50:17that all police officers carry in South Africa.
0:50:20 > 0:50:26This is a kind of weaponry that is used by the infantries
0:50:26 > 0:50:29in the National Defence Force.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Weapons of war.
0:50:33 > 0:50:34That is correct.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42Jim Nichol is an old comrade from the British anti-apartheid movement.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Today, he is one of the lawyers representing the families
0:50:46 > 0:50:48of the dead strikers against a government
0:50:48 > 0:50:51run by the very party he fought to bring to power.
0:50:53 > 0:50:54So, could you just tell us
0:50:54 > 0:50:58the sheer scale of the operation at Marikana that day?
0:50:58 > 0:51:00Oh, it's monumental!
0:51:00 > 0:51:04I mean, there was in excess of 800 highly skilled,
0:51:04 > 0:51:06trained police personnel there,
0:51:06 > 0:51:08trained in automatic machine gun fire.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10Each of them was carrying a pistol.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12There were 800 pistols.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15There are 600 R5 machine gun rifles
0:51:15 > 0:51:19that fire at the rate of 600 bullets per minute.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23There were nyalas, which are armoured trucks,
0:51:23 > 0:51:24perhaps 30 or 40 or them.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27There was barbed wired and razor wire being run out.
0:51:27 > 0:51:29It was monumental.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33And what does that tell you about how the massacre happened?
0:51:35 > 0:51:38The massacre, in my view, was pre-organised,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41it was pre-arranged some two or three days earlier,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44and it tells me that whatever happened on that day
0:51:44 > 0:51:48the police were intent on using violence against the strikers.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53There is also testimony denied by the police
0:51:53 > 0:51:57that some of the dead were executed in cold blood
0:51:57 > 0:52:00and that guns were planted on some of the corpses.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03I met witnesses who claim to have been intimidated
0:52:03 > 0:52:05and even tortured by the police.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11This is what is so hard for me to take, frankly,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14as a supporter of the ANC and the transformation,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18is that the brutality metered out at Marikana
0:52:18 > 0:52:22and the fact that there was then an attempt to cover it up
0:52:22 > 0:52:26and plant evidence and torture some of the strikers
0:52:26 > 0:52:29and that some of the instructions for this may have gone
0:52:29 > 0:52:30to a very high level.
0:52:30 > 0:52:35It's deeply, deeply depressing, as well as absolutely outrageous.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42The Commission will have to decide the truth of these allegations
0:52:42 > 0:52:46and crucially whether the killings were in some way premeditated.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51I had sight of a letter from the mining company Lonmin
0:52:51 > 0:52:53to the ANC Minister of Mines
0:52:53 > 0:52:57requesting a massive police crack down on the strike.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03I put this to the CEO of Lonmin, Simon Scott.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08What we were concerned about from the start of the strike,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12when it started on the 9th until the events of the 16th, is what,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16there had been a lot violence going on even during that period.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20So, what was happening was in a context of public disorder.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23But you didn't stop the violence. There's a massacre on 16th August.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Three days before you write to the Minister of Mines saying
0:53:27 > 0:53:31the full force of the State must be brought to bear on the strikers -
0:53:31 > 0:53:33army, police, intelligence services.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36And then the killing happens three days later.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38That looks as if you're demanding that that happens.
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Not all, Peter. I mean, the tragedy of the 16th is going to live
0:53:42 > 0:53:44with this country for many, many years.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Hopefully, we're all going to learn out of this
0:53:47 > 0:53:49and we are going to address what happened.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52We'll go and answer to the commission fully about all of our actions,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55and that's what we want to do and we think it's important to do.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58If the company has done something incorrectly, then we'll address that.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Damn it!
0:54:04 > 0:54:07Any suggestion of collusion between the company
0:54:07 > 0:54:12and the government in the Marikana killings is dangerous for the ANC.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16President Zuma appears keen to distance himself from Lonmin.
0:54:18 > 0:54:19It was a shock.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21Nobody expected that to happen.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23What happened in Marikana?
0:54:23 > 0:54:28The company...the company... The company did provoke that.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31- The company provoked it? - Yes, it did.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Well, the company's not responsible, is it, for the way the police
0:54:34 > 0:54:36- shot the strikers?- No, no.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38The company very much so.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42When you have an agreement violated by offering money
0:54:42 > 0:54:45to a particular category of workers,
0:54:45 > 0:54:50then you provoke other workers to say "You have money, give us as well,"
0:54:50 > 0:54:53- that's how it happened.- But nothing justifies the police killings
0:54:53 > 0:54:54after that, does it really?
0:54:54 > 0:54:57No, nothing justifies it. Nothing justifies anything.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01Nothing justified the company to provoke a strike,
0:55:01 > 0:55:06to undermine and overlook an agreement reached
0:55:06 > 0:55:08in a bargaining chamber.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10So... And I'm just saying, it's not like the government
0:55:10 > 0:55:12was not governing properly.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18Marikana and the unrest across the country has caused some,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20like Julius Malema,
0:55:20 > 0:55:24to suggest a radical overhaul of the country's economic policy.
0:55:24 > 0:55:29Nationalisation of mines is long overdue.
0:55:29 > 0:55:34You went to Marikana, you saw what our people are experiencing.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36But mines like Lonmin
0:55:36 > 0:55:40are funded from investors in London, global investors.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44If you just nationalise without compensation, that will drive
0:55:44 > 0:55:47all foreign investment away and suck the economy dry.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53London has been affected a lot from the exploitation of African minerals,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56and we are not saying, "London, go away."
0:55:56 > 0:56:01We are saying, "London, it is time for us to be included in our mines."
0:56:01 > 0:56:05Let's share this slice of cake.
0:56:05 > 0:56:11Democracy and political freedom is meaningless without economic power.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13We have no economic power.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21For many in the anti-apartheid movement, it was the 1960 massacre
0:56:21 > 0:56:24at Sharpeville that brought the horror of apartheid
0:56:24 > 0:56:25to the world's attention.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30My first protest was in Newcastle Upon Tyne
0:56:30 > 0:56:33in 1961 about the massacre at Sharpeville,
0:56:33 > 0:56:35and when I talk to people,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37people who have protested over the years, and when I talk
0:56:37 > 0:56:41to them now about Marikana, it's like there's a death in the family.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43People talk in hushed tones.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46How is it that a black government turns these guns,
0:56:46 > 0:56:51these weapons, on poor, black, migrant miners?
0:56:55 > 0:56:59Today, many South Africans feel the Marikana massacre
0:56:59 > 0:57:01must be a turning point for the ANC.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04It's been a hugely successful liberation movement,
0:57:04 > 0:57:07but after two decades in power,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09can it now tackle corruption
0:57:09 > 0:57:13and close the growing chasm between rich and poor,
0:57:13 > 0:57:17making the economy work for all and not just for a few?
0:57:18 > 0:57:22It's a big challenge. But as a politician also,
0:57:22 > 0:57:27I would say there is no government in the world that can say it is ruling
0:57:27 > 0:57:29and everybody's satisfied, not a single one.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34I'm very confident about the future, as long as the ANC's in charge.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40South Africa is an amazing and beautiful country
0:57:40 > 0:57:44and Nelson Mandela's vision of a rainbow nation
0:57:44 > 0:57:45has inspired a generation.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51And, despite the huge challenges, I still remain optimistic
0:57:51 > 0:57:53that it's vibrant democracy
0:57:53 > 0:57:56will find a way of living up to that legacy.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37MUSIC: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
0:58:49 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd