Dear all I am writing to make another urgent appeal for support for the striking miners and their families. The strike is now into its 16th week, the longest strike in the country’s history. The situation around the platinum mines is becoming increasingly desperate, both politically and in terms of the worsening humanitarian crisis. Nationally the effort to mobilise support is gaining momentum with NGOs, religious organisations and political movements providing solidarity. In Gauteng, Gift of the Givers has provided some support. But we are nowhere close to meeting the needs on the ground. There are 70 000 workers on strike and they have between 150 000 – 200 000 direct dependents. Since the appeal made last week, we at Wits have collected a mere R3000 and two parcels of food. We are hoping to raise enough money or food to put together at least 200 food parcels. Various organisations and institutions have been twinned with shafts and communities, and Wits has been asked to supply food to No. 1 shaft at Implats. This week workers employed by outsourced companies will meet to pledge donations. Students have undertaken to put up solidarity tables to raise awareness and to collect donations. There are a couple ways of making your donations: Cash donations and food should be taken to Ingrid Chunilal or Sedzani Malada in Sociology. We also have students who can collect donations from your office. You can also deposit donations into the Marikana Support Committee account. Please use the reference ‘food Wits’, so the accountant can keep track of donations made by Wits colleagues. [Please circulate widely] Account Name: Human Rights Media Trust Bank: Nedbank Branch: Constantia Branch Branch Code: 101109 Account No: 1011102366 SWIFT CODE: NEDSZAJJ Address: Constantia Village Shopping centre, Main Road, Cape Town, South Africa FOOD PARCELS SHOW WIDE SUPPORT FOR THE MINERS STRIKE In response to the deepening humanitarian crisis unfolding as a result of the 16 week miners strike, a convoy of four trucks will be heading up to the North West and Limpopo on Monday morning filled with food and clothing to assist the most needy worker families. The trucks will set off from MAKRO, (Waterval Crescent South, Woodmead, Ext 5 Sandton) at 10.00am. Each food truck contains 200 -300 food parcels and will be met by a designated committee of striking workers and community leaders from the hostels and communities bordering the following mine shafts: Impala Shaft 6 Impala Shaft 8 Amplats Khuseleka Further food trucks are destined to for other shafts during the course of this week, from the University of

Johannesburg and the University of Witwatersrand who are twinned with Lonmin, Marikana mine and Amplats Khomanani mine, respectively. This is will the University of Johannesburg’s second delivery after a team from the university delivered 90 food parcels set the trial to Wonderkop, Marikana on Saturday 11 May. The humanitarian effort has been the culmination of a week of solidarity work calling on churches, individuals and community-based organisations to act now to stop the hunger. Solidarity has been forthcoming from the congregants of Northfield Methodist Church, Benoni, the Gift of the Givers, the Democratic Left Front, Marikana Support Campaign, Gauteng and Western Cape, the Socialist Workers Party UK, Gauteng Miners Strike Support Committee and at numerous screenings of the documentary ‘Miners Shot Down’, where audiences have donated over R70,000 to date to support the strike. The screenings have been supported by the numerous Churches, Universities, NUMSA, Equal Education, TAC, Right 2 Know Campaign, Equal Education, Mining Affected Communities United in Action, amongst many other civic groupings The monetary value of the convey of food leaving on Monday morning is just over R320,000. Further collections and food donations that will go towards more trucks are expected from Gift of the Givers and the Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA), Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Muslim Students Association, Islamic Medical Association of South Africa and the Media Review Network. We are making advances to the Anglican Church, various synagogues and faith organisations to join the efforts. Only Together We Can Win The AMCU strike in the platinum mines is the single most important challenge to the inequality bred by South African monopoly capitalism. It has been going on for over 100 days: we must not let the miners and their families be starved into surrender. The struggle has moved beyond the demand for need before profits to a lengthy all-out fight. It has become necessary for all of us to squarely rally behind this strike movement led by our mineworkers. We need to take note that mineworkers, in particular rock drill operators on the platinum belt, have been waging a campaign for equalisation of wages for underground workers for over five years. This led to the 4-week strike at Impala in 2012 and was followed quickly followed by the Lonmin strike and the ghastly massacre of 16 August 2012. Mineworkers have clearly been radicalized by the Marikana massacre and the response of the state and the bosses to the demand for justice and social and economic equality. They have embarked on what has become the longest strike in the history of mining and to this end they have endured considerable hardship and suffering. Their families and children are going hungry and they clearly now require urgent support. The mine bosses assert that this demand for R12,500 a month is simply not affordable. Recent work by respected economists, show this to be a fallacy, a mistruth. They are inflating the number of workers they employ to cook the figures of how much the demand will cost. Whilst they bemoan “AMCU’s senseless demands” they continue to pay themselves over 200 times what mineworkers are paid. Amplats bosses have only this week awarded themselves share bonuses worth millions or Rands. Platinum bosses can afford this demand if they are prepared to take less profits, and if the interests of workers and communities come before those of shareholders. AMCU’s latest demand to have R12,500 as basic pay without bonuses achieved by 2017, amounts to an average increase of approximately 20 percent in the first year, and then progressively less each year after that. There is

nothing unreasonable or unachievable in that. This is even clearer when it is realised that the platinum mining houses have handsomely benefitted from a 25 percent depreciation of the Rand over the past year. The fact this strike has lasted so long is not because of affordability: it is about power. The mining houses are determined to break the movement for equality and social justice - and they have the government and the state squarely behind them in this attempt. Their very real fear is that R12,500 will become the rallying cry for the entire working class. They fear the super profits that many industries continue to make will be profoundly challenged by this demand. All working class organisations, progressively minded faith groupings and individuals need to now rally behind the miners through providing concrete support for the strike. We continue to call on all trade unions to fully support the strike materially and politically. Broad based support committees need to be established in our major cities and towns. Food collections and money for the AMCU hardship fund need to become the absolute priority in our efforts to support the mineworkers. The University of Johannesburg on Monday 5 May announced they would be twinning with the workers and the Wonderkop community of Lonmin’s Marikana mine. That very same evening they screened Miners Shot Down and in the space of a few days have collected over R20, 000 worth of food, a truckload of food, and a pledge of R10,000 for food next month. Much of this is coming from one church. Wits University is now planning to do the same. If this is what can be achieved at one university, what can we do elsewhere? We have to be bold, we have to think big, but start small. Twin with a mine and adjacent community. Hold collections at your workplace, church, mosque, school, in your street. Get a box where people can drop food for the miners and their families. Find a storage point in your area. Contact us when you have collected a sizeable amount of food. We will ensure it gets transported to whichever mine/community you have decided you would like to twin with. We will work with communities, churches, other faith groups and AMCU to ensure the food is properly and fairly distributed. We must not let the miners be starved back to work. They must win for us all. From the Marikana Support Committee, ad hoc Gauteng Strike Support Committee and the Miners Shot Down Team Noor Nieftagodien NRF Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities Head of History Workshop School of Social Science University of the Witwatersrand Email: noor.nieftagodien@wits.ac.za Tel: +27 11 717 4266