Deputy President Admits To Facilitating Marikana Massacre of 2012

According to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry’s hearings, South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa (pictured below) facilitated the Marikana Massacre of 2012 instead of putting a stop to it.

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Forty-four people were killed in relation to wage strikes on August 16, 2012, including 34 who were shot from the front by police while being chased from behind by more police.

The miners were demanding a minimum wage of R12 500 (approx. $1,250), which Lonmin  — one of the mining companies in question that Ramaphosa was a shareholder of at the time of the massacre — refused.

Now Ramaphosa is accused of political interference in company affairs, because he has admitted to urging the police minister to take an “appropriate step” to quell the enthusiasm of the striking miners.

Watch footage of the Marikana Massacre here:

 

Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Leader Julius Malema used this incident as an opportunity to state that his party would teach the African National Congress (ANC) on how to look after the poor if given power.

Speaking at the two-year anniversary of the Marikana massacre in Rustenburg on Saturday, Malema pledged to build houses for the widows of the slain.

The advocate of the inquiry Dali Mpofu said to Ramaphosa: “To that extent, you sold out. What is worse is that you did this for financial gain at the expense of the lives of people whose lives you were meant to transform. It’s like selling out for 30 pieces of silver.”

And while no ANC officials were invited to the commemorative rally, representatives from all other major political parties were among the special guests.

In response, ANC Spokesman Zizi Kodwa said in a statement:

“We solemnly remember the 44 people who lost their lives in the 10 days leading up to and including 16 August 2012.”

What is Black  life in Africa to the custodians of formal politics and capital?

Extra hands, nuisances, corpses, or elaborate lies to be marshaled in to distant memory?

The new knowledge is cementing the discourse that capital is the scourge of the cleanliness of struggle heroes, several of whom are now neo-colonial advocates of the private sector ahead of economic liberation for the masses.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that Lonmin presented incomplete records to the inquiry and deleted some important documents even with Judge Farlam’s request for full disclosure of all documents.

“Until August last year, the version, which this commission was working with, was the version with significant deletions. Those deletions were made at your instance,” said Kameshni Pillay who cross examined former Lonmin group mining emergency and security manager Graeme Sinclair.

Sinclair said he did not want to comment on what was given, or not given, to the inquiry.

“Whatever I was ever asked for was certainly always made available. For me to comment on that, it would be incorrect of me,” he said.

The heat is on.

The outcome of the inquiry will be interesting with the private sector likely to be backed by the neo-liberal ANC who are backed by the majority of civilians who are routinely undermined and exploited by the private sector.

We wait to see where the chain or cycle will break into a fit of rage or punishment, just or unjust.

As usual, it is all a muddle.

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