Marikana Support Campaign

In 2012, nearly 40 miners were shot dead by the South African police service at the Marikana Massacre – the single most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since 1960. Miners Shot Down reveals the truth about what really happened and the deep fault lines it has exposed in South Africa’s nascent democracy. It’s a rallying call for justice for the miners and their families.

The team employed an aggressive campaign that worked on multiple planes. Fearing that the Marikana Commission of Inquiry would be a whitewash, the filmmakers recognized that pubic pressure would be needed to force the Commission to bring justice to the families and victims of the massacre. Central to this effort was using the film and footage to bear witness to the events that led up to and occurred during the strike.

Whilst still in production on the film, the Miners Shot Down filmmakers joined the Organizing Committee of The Marikana Support Campaign, a group forged by activists, mineworkers and members of the Marikana community three weeks after the massacre, so that there was a presence on key dates at the Commission of Inquiry. The campaign worked closely with NGOs working on behalf of the families of those killed at Marikana and the 270 arrested and injured. miners, as well as other social movements and campaigns active in South Africa, such as the Right 2 Know Campaign (the first post-Apartheid movement centered on freedom of expression and access to information).