How did you spend your Worker’s Day? Whatever you did, it was probably better than President Cyril Ramaphosa’s experience: he became the latest South African president to be booed off a stage. Ramaphosa was due to give the keynote address at Cosatu’s May Day Rally in Rustenburg on Sunday, but was instead whisked off to a police Nyala after Sibanye-Stillwater miners chanted “Cyril must go” before booing the president and storming the stage.
The mine workers have been striking for over two months, demanding a R1000 pay raise, which the mine says it cannot afford. CEO Neal Froneman’s salary, by the way, was R300 million in 2021. 😬
Ramaphosa’s chilly reception is rather ironic considering that, as a founding member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), he led one of the biggest mining strikes in South Africa’s history in 1987. Their demands? Better living conditions and wages.
Ramaphosa addressed the incident in his weekly newsletter, saying that political and union leaders had “all heard the workers and understood their frustration… we are firmly committed to take the necessary action to improve their lives and their working conditions.”
It’s also coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Marikana massacre, in which 34 miners were gunned down by police (a total of 44 people died during the violent strike). Ramaphosa was at the time a non-executive director of the mine’s then owner Lonmin and has apologised for using what he has called “unfortunate language” in the lead up to the killings.
Ramaphosa’s predecessor Jacob Zuma was an old hand at getting heckled. At a 2017 Cosatu May Day rally in Bloemfontein, Zuma was booed and workers chanted “Zuma must go!”. Zuma was also infamously booed at the memorial service of former president Nelson Mandela in 2013. Heavy is the head that wears the crown!
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
