The 16-week strike in Rustenburg’s platinum belt has given way to violence, arson and looting. The Freedom Day weekend in the platinum belt saw African National Congress (ANC) election canvassers being stoned, the homes of ANC councillors set alight, the ANC’s Marikana office torched, a National Union of Mineworkers meeting abandoned and shops looted. Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) president Joseph Mathunjwa was quoted in Business Day as saying “this is not a strike about percentages but a revolution” to change the way mineworkers are paid. The collapse of the wage talks between AMCU and platinum producers Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum appears to have ignited the anger and reaffirmation of the AMCU leadership’s hard-line position for a basic entry-level wage of R12 500 a month.