I thought this was a case of a corporation and its agents brutally attacking workers who simply want better conditions.
This article though suggests that it's more complex than that in that it also involves older, legacy labor unions pitted against newer, more strident labor unions.
What's really going on, and how are people in S. Africa reacting to this situation?
JamesS
United Kingdom
(about 12 years ago)
I think its partly a reflection of power struggles between different unions, but mining is the one area of the economy that highlights colonialism and Apartheid so things are always fraught. This is coupled with the problems that the ANC have governing a post-colonial state (in some ways its simpler to be a liberation movement, at least morally, than govern) and the various shades of unions also reflect different relationships with the government.
United States 
United Kingdom