Residents from the surrounding community around Marikana took to the streets this week to express their frustrations amidst high unemployment, which is sitting at 85% in local mining communities.
On Wednesday, around 13 taxis full of unemployed people from various mining communities gathered and marched outside the mining house Samancor Chrome’s Head office in Sandton in search of jobs in the industry.
‘Sick and Tired’
Residents from the surrounding Marikana communities say that they are “sick and tired” of not getting job opportunities despite belonging to a mining town where all the resources are available for them to uplift the community through employment.
“We want jobs. We want skills programs. We want to be employed fairly!”
Protesting community members marched up and down the road holding banners, protesting, and chanting anthems for change in their lives and community. Many of them firmly believe that jobs are being sold by community councillors.
“The reason we are here is that we are sick and tired of people who sell job opportunities when they are available,” said another protestor while holding up a poster demanding the right to work.
“So, these opportunities do not reach me because of these individuals.”
“They sell jobs, they sell skills in our mines. So, hence we are protesting.”
The protest was initiated by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) along with the Greater Local Community (GLC) to fight the deepening crisis of unemployment and deindustrialisation of the local mining communities.
‘Against the selling of jobs’
Residents from surrounding communities that attended the march ranged in different age groups from youth all the way to the elderly, showing the lasting impact of unemployment on local communities.
A protester who asked to be referred to as Sandiswa spoke to the Citizen, expressing her frustrations with the reality of job seeking, especially for a female.
“The community is fighting for a lack of in-service training and job opportunities.”
“People are buying jobs.
“We are against the selling of jobs, and we are saying no to sleeping with women in exchange for jobs!”
Ayanda from Marikana said that when jobs arrive, they should be sent to the community members themselves who are seeking jobs and not the councillor’s office.
“We are here to demand 5 000 job opportunities and 10 training skills,” he said.
The Marikana community chairperson, Mfena Mazabiwe, questioned the local councillors’ involvement with private companies.
“This corruption is caused by councillors,” said Mazabiwe
“If Samancor can remove these councillors, this corruption, maybe we can overcome it”
He says that jobs come from private companies and somehow get lost in their systems, which are “too deep to chase away.”
“So, we challenge Samancor to take this thing seriously, because as a community we are sick and tired.”
Community members said they have made efforts to engage with Samancor at a local level but have allegedly been met with silence. Calls and emails sent from The Citizen to Samancor Chrome’s offices remain unanswered.
Failure to combat high unemployment
The demonstration follows earlier efforts made by the community to raise grievances and challenges faced by those experiencing unemployment, even though they are sitting on top of the gold.
According to Saftu spokesperson, Zak Immamdu, Samancor Chrome is a mining company that conducts many operations along the Rustenberg belt in Marikana.
“The community here has previously marched to one of the operations of Samancor in Marikana, to hand over a memorandum citing numerous concerns over the company’s failure to implement its obligations under its social and labour plan.
“But also, it’s failure to upskill and train the surrounding and local community to be able to enter employment in the mine,”
“And more broadly, its failure to ensure direct beneficiation, as well as development, within the local community.”
Demands and grievances
On the memorandum of agreement, requests were made to create jobs, promote skills development, policy adjustments for: the working age limit, to ensure inclusivity for middle-aged job seekers, criminal records: the minimum requirement in education for general workers and women empowerment.
While Zanele Bomela said that one does not need a matric certificate to sweep floors and do underground general work.
Another community member said that they were happy because Samancor did not put up a fight during their last protest.
“We are very happy because Samancor didn’t fight with us, didn’t give us a tough time. They just answered us and did what we wanted.”
Proposed shutdown
During the protest, a memorandum of agreement was presented by the leader of the GLC, Tshepo Molaole, who spoke on behalf of the community. A formal response was requested within a 14-day period.
All stakeholders and community members, along with the Samancor mining company, have been invited to attend the next gathering that is set to take place on 24 April 2026 at the Moinoi Samanto Operation at 10am.
The GLC Community Unemployment Forum represents a cluster of communities from Sonop, Majakaneng, Segwaelane, Wonderkop, Marikana, Mamba, Tornado and Bapong.
The signed memorandum said, “mining houses have a moral and social responsibility to contribute to sustainable development in the areas where they operate.”
The statement reports that if Samancor fails to comply with the grievances and demands made by local GLC communities, there will be “broader community action.”
“By the 27th [April 2026], it’s a shutdown of all mining houses,” Molaole warned.
