Abstract
In an Annual Social Justice and International Conference (2021), delegates
acknowledged that South Africa had become one of the most unequal countries
or societies in the world, with unconscionable levels of poverty and
unemployment. Literature and other arts often expose real socio-political and
socio-economic aspects of society. Notably, Sekhabi’s play is a representation
of the events that occurred in Marikana, August 2012, whereby thirty-four
miners were killed by police – this happened in a post-apartheid dispensation,
an event that was not envisaged by the citizenry. The miners were protesting
for what they called a living wage, and after failing to reach a mutually
beneficial agreement with the mine management, they resorted to protest
action. This paper explores the theme of fairness and equal distribution in
Aubrey Sekhabi’s Marikana the Musical (2014), thereby challenging structural
injustice and arguing for distributive justice as part of decolonial justice. It
employs the theory of distributive justice, which advocates for fair distribution
of resources and capabilities among members of a society with the intent to
ensure equal access to opportunities. The paper argues that South Africa is a
plutocracy, and examples to paint a picture for this argument are drawn from
the primary text, Marikana the Musical.