Solidarity with South African workers

It was with the deepest shock and dismay that PSI learned, on 16 August, that 34 workers had been shot dead and 78 others injured by the police at the Lonmin Marikana platinum mine in South Africa. PSI has sent a letter to President Jacob Zuma expressing solidarity with all South Africans and comrades around the world who lament this tragic situation. PSI looks forward to justice and answers resulting from the official inquiry which President Zuma has committed to holding into this terrible event.

"It seems incomprehensible that so many poor and desperate mine workers - performing some of the most brutal work, along with their communities, should not be sharing in the wealth of one of the richest industries in the world", says Peter Waldorff, PSI General Secretary, "Decent wages and safe working conditions must be provided as a basic human right."

PSI will be holding its World Congress in Durban, South Africa in late November this year. Union leaders from around the world will be joining with South African union leaders to discuss how public services can most effectively work in the people’s interest to build strong, healthy, equitable communities.