'The Marikana massacre is a tale of utter shame for South Africa'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/26/marikana-massacre-ramaphosa-lonmin

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The link between South Africa’s deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the bloodied bodies that came to lie on Marikana’s scorched earth during strikes over work conditions in 2012 may seem obvious to an onlooker.

Related: South African deputy president cleared over Marikana massacre

Ramaphosa, a board member of Lonmin platinum mine where thousands were protesting in August 2012 – made phone calls that allegedly escalated the confrontation; sent emails reportedly calling for action to be taken against “these criminals”, whose crime was to seek a wage increase; and held secret meetings to get the government and police to “act in a more pointed way” to quell the unrest.

Thirty-four miners were killed during the strikes – the bloodiest massacre by South African security forces since the end of racial apartheid.

But for Judge Ian Farlam leading the investigation, to tie the massacre to the person holding the second highest post in government, Ramaphosa would have had to be standing behind the police line with a loudspeaker instructing the police to shoot at the striking Lonmin workers himself.

Farlam said in his 646-page report that the commission could not find “even on a prima facie basis that Mr Ramaphosa is guilty of the crimes he is alleged to have committed” despite hearing from lawyers, witnesses and observers how Ramaphosa’s interventions were “infested with a litany of conflicts of interest”.

“The commission is of the view that it cannot be said that Mr Ramaphosa was the ‘cause of the massacre’,” the report states.

For the injured and families of those who died, and those who continue to live in poverty and indignity at Marikana, there was always going to disappointment with the outcome of the commission, because they were looking for accountability at the highest level.

That was never going to happen.

What happened was the opposite. Over a thousand days since the deaths of 34 people not a single person is being held accountable. There is no justice or closure for a single life lost or family destroyed.

The wound stays open. The suffering continues.

‘They were killed by a state meant to protect them’

President Jacob Zuma had the Marikana report in his possession for 86 days before it was fully released. On Thursday night, he announced its key findings, without any specific actions on his part – apart from asking the relevant ministers to study the report and advise him on the implementation of the recommendations.

The commission overall found that a multiple failure from all involved resulted in the violence at Marikana, but in language that is extremely cautious. It found that Lonmin did not use its best endeavours to resolve the labour dispute, and did not respond appropriately to the threat and outbreak of violence. But the company that profits from the sweat of poorly paid workers got off fairly lightly.

The commission found that the company’s failure to provide proper housing “created an environment conducive to the creation of tension, labour unrest, disunity among its employees or other harmful conduct”.

In almost three years since the massacre, the workers live and work in the same conditions that contributed to the violent protest in 2012. Lonmin has not acted to correct the situation, and a slap on the wrist from the commission is hardly stimulus to do so now.

Those who went on strike were people who tried to upset that balance so that their lives might be better

Judge Farlam said he did not agree that there was a toxic collusion between the police and the Lonmin mine, a finding that runs contrary to the narrative of the workers and the victims’ families. The commission did not recommend any form of compensation for those injured or dependents of the deceased, saying the terms of reference were not wide enough to cover this issue.

The commission also found that the two unions involved, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) did not do enough to prevent the violence. The report said Amcu members sang provocative songs and made inflammatory remarks, which tended to aggravate an already volatile situation. The NUM, it said, wrongly advised rock drill operators that no negotiations with Lonmin were possible until the end of the two-year wage agreement, and also did not take the initiative to persuade and enable Lonmin to speak to the workers.

After waiting 34 months to hear why their loved ones and colleagues were killed, the people of Marikana have to contend with the fact that there is as yet no justice or accountability for the extreme violence visited on them, and no compensation owed to them.

They live in indignity and die in indignity. Their blood and tears mean nothing to the rich and powerful who benefitted from their toil.

Related: Inquiry paints damning portrait of the Marikana massacre

Day after day, they pass the killing fields of Marikana and go deep into its bowels so that the balance between the poor and the rich, the prosperous and the damned is maintained. Those who went on strike were people who tried to upset that balance so that their lives might be better. For that they were shot and killed by a state that is meant to protect them.

Marikana is and always will be a tale of utter shame.