Murder at Small Koppie: The real story of the Marikana massacre

Title: Murder at Small Koppie
Subtitle: The real story of the Marikana massacre
Author: Greg Marinovich
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Penguin Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2016
ISBN 9781770226098 / ISBN 978-1-77-022609-8
Softcover, 15 x 24 cm, 265 pages, numerous colour and b/w photographs

About: Murder at Small Koppie: The real story of the Marikana massacre

South African journalist, photographer and humanist Greg Marinovich played an early and important role in exposing the truth of how 34 miners were killed and 79 others injured by the police on an empty stretch of veld outside Marikana in the late afternoon of 16 August 2012. In this compelling book, Murder at Small Koppie: The real story of the Marikana massacre, he details how the violence of the police, the failure of the mining houses to provide decent working conditions, the government's dereliction of its constitutional duties and trade union enmity conspired in a massacre that violated the South African constitution, the administration of justice and the rule of law.

From Sharpeville in i960 to the Vaal Triangle in 1994, South Africa's history is stained with the death and wounding of assembled civilians at the hands of the police. We now have a Constitution that promises no more repetition of history. Murder at Small Koppie is a warning to us all of the consequences of ignoring the demands of justice and the guarantees of our Bill of Rights. It should be compulsory reading for our politicians, state officials, police, employers and all those concerned to ensure that there will never again be another Marikana. They should read the book and behave the way they ought to. (George Bizos)

'Drawing on personal observations, interviews with participants (mainly miners) and a variety of secondary sources, Greg Marinovich reconstructs the events that led to the killings and provides an interpretation of the socioeconomic conditions that led to them, as well as the consequences that reverberate to this day. It is this masterly combination of big picture and micronarrative which will probably make this one of the definitive analyses of Marikana. For challenging us not to forget, Greg Marinovich deserves our praise. He stands in the great tradition of South African and international investigative journalism. (Anthony Egan, Daily Maverick)

Content: Murder at Small Koppie: The real story of the Marikana massacre

Introduction
Underground City
Of Sissies and Men
Genesis of a Tragedy
Build-up
A Colonial Accounting
Day 1: Friday 10 August
Union Business
Day 2: Saturday 11 August
The Mountain and the Magic
Day 3: Sunday 12 August
Day 4: Monday 13 August
Day 5: Tuesday 14 August
Cyril Ramaphosa: Saint or Sinner?
Day 6: Wednesday 15 August
Day 7: Thursday 16 August - Scene 1, a Kraal near Thaba
Day 7: Thursday 16 August - Scene 2, Small Koppie
What Really Happened?
Aftermath
Mashonisa
The Legend of Mambush
Torture
Assassination
The Women of Marikana
Consequences
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Index