The Marikana Massacre

South African police opened fire on striking platinum miners at the Lonmin mine near Rustenburg, killing 34 people and wounding at least 78 others. The strikers had been demanding higher wages when police moved to disperse the crowd, making it the deadliest use of force by South African security forces since the end of apartheid. The massacre led to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry and reshaped public debate over policing, inequality, and labor rights in post-apartheid South Africa.