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Earnest revolutionaries have been a familiar sight on the fringes of mass gatherings, usually handing out a pamphlet declaiming the alliance between the country’s largest labour federation and the ruling party. The ANC, goes the argument, is a bourgeois party advancing the interests of capital and for the achievement of socialism, any alliance with it would have to be broken.

This heralded dawn is well past mid-morning for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) which together with other unions, celebrated the formation of a new labour federation. At the Workers’ Summit held the previous day, where 51 unions were represented, ten principles upon which the new federation will be established, were agreed.

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The widows of Marikana still struggling for Justice and Restitution

It is nearly four years since the massacre of mine workers in Marikana and the families of the 34 miners killed have still not received restitution. Justice was meant to be served by the Farlam Commission but its findings blamed the police for pulling the triggers and exonerated the political heads that authorised the violence. Lonmin, the world’s third largest platinum mining company that owns the Marikana mine, continues extracting platinum from the ground there while the families of the slain men have been thrown into poverty.