Witness

Miners Shot Down

South Africa’s miner strike led to the country’s deadliest act of police violence since the end of apartheid.

Editor’s note: This film is no longer available online. Watch Rehad Desai’s film ‘Julius vs The ANC’, first broadcast on April 26, 2017, here

In August 2012, mineworkers at one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages.

Six days later the police used live ammunition to suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more.

Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.

What emerges is collusion at the top, spiralling violence, police brutality and the country’s first post-apartheid massacre. South Africa will never be the same again.

On November 23, 2015, Miners Shot Down won an Emmy Award for Best Documentary.