After reading the article entitled “Lonmin: Marikana Strike was Uncharacteristic,” I began to question Lonmin’s function within South Africa. For those who don’t know about the Marikana incident, it’s an event that has often been described as a ‘massacre’ that resulted in the death of innocent workers.

I was living in South Africa at the time of the incident and hearing about the incident all over the news was an eye opener. Reading about this unresolved issue today still surprises me. According to my prior knowledge and analysis, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) operating within a country have ethical and social responsibilities, which include improving the workforce, infrastructure, etc. In my opinion, the fact that Lonmin had shot upon innocent protesters brings back memories of apartheid. To make matters worse Lonmin states in the article ““We never anticipated that Lonmin employees would be armed on a Sunday.” After doing research, many sources stated that Lonmin had conducted searches on the strikers present and found no firearms, which once again questions Lonmin’s responsibility within South Africa.”

In the end, I begin to question weather or not MNCs are in fact benefiting within third world countries or are they just there to benefit from cheap labor, resources the country has to offer and a corrupt government.

Video about the Incident:

If your interested more on what happened, this is the video that had gone viral all over South Africa at the time of the incident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meqSjgMKv-I

Bibliography:

“Lonmin: Marikana Strike Was Uncharacteristic.” News24. N.p., 01 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Lonmin-Marikana-strike-was-uncharacteristic-20140901>.