Last week, South African police shot and killed 34 striking mine workers who were protesting for a pay increase.

Many of those killed were the only breadwinners in their extended families, and their widows are now struggling to cope.

On a larger scale, government officials are trying to calm a disgruntled working class, promising to do more for them.

But anger among the poor has been mounting for years, and many feel very little has changed since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa reports from Marikana.