Press Release

Stage reading: The Man In The Green Jacket

By Eliot Moleba

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Background

Last year South Africa was hit by a tragedy on the 16th of August where a group of striking miners were shot during a confrontation with the police leaving 34 of the miners dead. The incident has shocked the country (and the international community) as it is the first time so many lives were lost all at once in South Africa since 1994. It is unfathomable how something like this could happen in democratic state where ‘striking’ is a legal action which is recognized and enshrined in our constitution. In the media coverage, this event has been dubbed as the ‘Marikana Massacre’. The tragedy will leave many families and children stranded because most of the dead miners were their sole breadwinners. It has been a few months but we have yet to hear a course of action from both the mining company and the government as to how they plan to help or support these derelict families. The strikes have mushroomed across the mining sector and have left more miners dead whose families are also left to face the same uncertainties about their futures.

As a result, this project is a fundraising campaign to raise support for all the children of the mining workers who were killed during the 3 month-long labour unrest in the country. This is an international theatre project which is expected to be staged within a few sub-Saharan regions.

The Man In The Green Jacket

This project is a production, which is, in part, a response to the Marikana massacre. It is set against the backdrop of the mining landscape in South Africa; it deals with the personal and political dilemmas of miners, today. It further probes how such a seemingly deliberate tragic event will affect the immediate (and extended) family members of the late miners, especially the children and their education.

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Cast

Pusetso Thibedi

Jacques Mushaandja

Music:
Yogin Sullaphen

Venue:
The Wits Writing Centre (Wartenweiler Library, ground floor)

Date:
22 February 2013

Time:
5pm – 8pm     

And another one:

Venue: The Wits Nunnery
Date: 04 March 2013

Time: 12 – 2pm