The Independence that never is.

Formerly Lornrho, Lonmin is registered in London, headquartered in Jozi, SA. It brings an age-old situation to mind- colonization  which was for capitalist gains and not for African development. The capitalist gains and the people lose, that's the simple equation of it. I think the South African government needs to deal with this issue and deal with it to the very last. The deceased miners, unfortunately, in trying to air their grievances, were branded militants and were slayed in very cold blood. The government in SA has no grip on its affairs, it is controlled by capitalists. To this end, it does not serve the people at all. Most of these miners were shot in the back which puts to rest the case that they were attacking the police, instead, the police attacked these people. For what reason?
SA govt leaders are eating with the bosses of the mines and the people are suffering. The people, the rightful owners of the resources are starved and made to work for peanuts. Their areas are not developed and their youth not taken care of. The way most African economies were built is in such a way that they depend on their colonial masters, western economies, and it is difficult for them to effect Afrocentric/Autocentric development and rely on themselves. The black governments, not a single black government has been able to wrest itself from the grips of western system of finances.What is also happening is that although there are African businessmen, there are still lots of capitalists from mother countries of colonizers who still have large controlling interests in former colonies and they would not tolerate it when the ordinary worker stages a demonstration to air his grievances. The murders just reveal two driving forces of capitalism, greed and fear.


        History has a way of repeating itself. It was in 1949, Nigerian coal workers took to militant action and they were massacred. Just like the Lonmin men, they died trying to be heard. The government's downplaying of this whole issue makes them suspect, the men at the top's hands are greased that is why their mouths are shut. Now the whole fiasco of Julius Malema and his tax and tenders saga. It just leaves the ordinary man wondering, did the people who go into politics do it for personal gain? No, no way, they do so for authority and more money probably.

Mugabe invaded the farms, and the factories belonging to Europeans. Unless it was a spontaneous decision, he should have made sure the economy of the country was not tied to the western world, or if it was, it was not heavily dependent on it. The IMF has recently cut down the forecast for economic growth is Africa for 2012 to 5% because of the reasons associated with the Eurozone crisis. This is but to show the heavy dependence of African nations to Western nations and an epic failure of many African presidents to restructure their economies and create an independent trading zone within Africa. But he did not take pro-active measure and the moment we were sanctioned, Mugabe and his brood would fall into tirades blaming the western countries with every breath breath they took, so they have wasted their precious time instead of coming up with a plan, a working plan so as to make the economy efficiently function. The reforms that took place in Zimbabwe did away with monopoly in many industries in which Europeans or former Rhodhesian whites had control of, but they failed to come up with a plan to replace them and instead, led things to getting worse and worse. The reason Zimbabweans failed to rise immediately and Just look at how Europe killed our natural skills by providing us with manufactured products from them, made from our resources, if they had not, we would have figured out how to do so many things on our own.

And now the Malema issue, just like the Gono issues are just but also scratches on the surface of an intricate web of utmost corruption and selfishness of the very same people the masses throng to in support. There is still foreign capitalists who are using the South African government to siphon the resources and the people get nothing at all while the same politicians, the African petit-bourgeoisie that comprises the Zuma entourage just like the Mugabe crew have gone on to acquire immense wealth while they subjects, the same they promised freedom are wallowing in poverty. Freedom is not only 'not being ruled by a white regime', but political, social, economic and all other freedoms. In Zimbabwe, we have had so many people killed during the campaigns of ZANU (PF), MDC and other parties and mostly the former has been notorious at killing and kidnapping opponents just to remain in power and destroy the people's rights just a lot more. There are so many cases that the people of Zimbabwe and South Africa would want answers for. The case of the Marange diamonds whose operation was supposed to have improved the economy to an extent but as of date, all is vanity. The ownership of the gemstone fields points at the rulers again. Since 2008 when the army invaded the fields killing small time local miners, the same who were supposed to benefit from the natural resources of their motherland. Now the fields are exploited by Anjin and Mbada whose board consists of senior military and police fat cats. Goodness knows very well that these gems are not being mined and the money put where it is supposed to. There goes another digression, a complete deviation of the people whose sworn purposes are to serve the country, but it now appears that they are serving themselves. That is the reason the Lonmin miners went on strike, to be considered, appreciated and remunerated accordingly. However the coward capitalists had the police kill them in cold blood and they stole their resources. Before I go, let me show you how history repeats itself and that this has been happening well before African independence and nothing has changed: In a country called Uganda is an area called Chunya. This area was rich in gold and the British came in and mined it, fast, using locals to do the digging. Their mining activities scarred the land and destroyed fauna and flora and then the gold vanished. When there was no more gold, the British simply moved on and the Chunya people remained as they were, poor, even poorer and having to live in a badly damaged environment. Is this what we want our nations to be?