"We do not want the Commission to allow the families to disappear into thin air" A consideration of widows' testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Fariam (Marikana) Commission of Inquiry

Abstract

Using Gayatri Spivak's famous question about whether the "subaltern" can speak, this article addresses the testimonies given to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry by the widows of miners who had been killed in police shootings while engaged in an unprotected strike at Lonmin's platinum mine at Marikana in August 2012. The widows were required to face down the dominant narrative disseminated by mine management and other business as well as state interests, which held that the police had acted in self-defence after the strikers had threatened to attack them. I argue that the widows consciously sought to undo the dominant narrative through their testimonies, assuming the role of a new kind of "political widow" as theorised by Mamphela Ramphele (1996). The article begins with a detailed consideration of the testimony of Sepati Mlangeni whose husband had been murdered by an agent of the apartheid state, delivered to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the 1990s. This sets the scene for the questions that might be asked and the observations made of the Marikana widows' testimonies presented to the Farlam Commission almost twenty years later.

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“…Re-writing a narrative of misery also carries opportunities for healing and recognition, highlighted by recent evidence on the mental health impacts of storytelling (Mannell et al, 2018). Furthermore, it confirms the political ability of narratives through articulating versions of events that are contrary to what is expected, as noted by Kros' (2017) work highlighting how narratives of families affected by the Marikana Massacre shaped truth and reconciliation events in South Africa. Working with young women and girls who are so full of energy despite life's difficulties, has been a…”

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“…that may resonate even in far away places. As Cynthia Kros (2017) writes (in this issue), we can not allow these stories to "disappear into thin air" and, I would add, we should not allow them to appear to be so particularized as to say nothing across global borders for these stories from South Africa reveal much about global dynamics or racial capitalism that swirl and choke in our increasingly "small" world.…”

“…Cynthia Kros (2017) offers an analytically exquisite examination of widows' testimonies at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and then twenty years later at the Farlam (Marikana) Commission of Inquiry. The essay is shaped to answer Gayatri Spivak's famous question, "Can the subaltern -the widows of Marikanaspeak?"…”

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“…Marikana orphans dropping out of school while others committed suicide. This exemplifies how the massacre affected the mental health and well-being of children while reducing their occupational potential to engage in productive occupations that will assist them to cope with the aftermath 6 . The workplace violence and aggression represented the dark side of occupations that raised social and global concerns about the miners' occupational injuries and death 7 .…”