Shot miners mourned as arrests urged

Memorial services were held across the country for the victims of the worst state violence since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Many have called for South Africans to honour all those killed in a country with one of the world’s highest murder and rape rates.

More than 1,000 people attended the memorial service arranged by the government in Marikana, 40 miles (70km) north west of 
Johannesburg.

A relative of a miner killed in last week’s shootings at the Lonmin-owned platinum mine said he wants to see some arrests.

“If it were me I’d want everyone who was involved in this incident including the mine managers to be arrested, the whole lot of them, because a person’s life is not worth money,” Ubuntu Akumelisine said.

President Jacob Zuma called on the nation to commemorate not only the miners but all victims of South Africa’s violence.