South Africa - the Present as History

Foraging alongside fellow hominids more than two million years ago in the Magaliesburg range west of Johannesburg, Mrs. Ples's life ended prematurely and violently...as did that of nearly three dozen platinum mineworkers nearby on 16 Audust 2012. The premeditated 'Marikana Massacre' demonstrated to the world how little Nelson Mandela's ANC has changed South Africa's core power relations, notwithstanding the dramatic, heroic victory over racist rule in 1994. The anti-apartheid struggle's disappointing outcome was recolonization of the country by global capital, working with a complicit, increasingly corrupt local elite.