The brutal massacre of 34 miners on Thursday 16 August by police shooting live rounds of ammunition into an encroaching mob of miners wielding pangas, signals a society that is broken, very very broken.
Two rival unions flashing deathly weapons to settle scores between them should have alerted police to the potential seriousness of the situation. In the days prior to the massacre ten people were brutally killed, some mutilated beyond recognition. Apparently, the police, the mining and union bosses made no attempt to disarm the factions and to sort out the mess. Police intervened at the height of the fracas when it was far too late.
This massacre unmasks the ongoing struggle for hegemony against members who are looking elsewhere for support. The fights are vicious because the stakes are high. A loss of membership for NUM means a loss of membership dues to its rival (AMCU) which amounts to millions of Rand.
NUM is not innocent in all of this and the partisanship of the mining bosses is glaringly obvious as they failed to address the demands of the workers from ACMU. The inability to mediate is a clear sign that the Labour Relations regime is collapsing and that the CCMA, instead of acting as a true conciliator, has become a rubber stamp for government and the powerful unions.
This tragedy sadly points to a deeper malaise. Since the retirement of Mandela, South Africa has become a fragile place. The natives (all of us) are restless; citizens are easily provoked; protests erupt in a flash over water, sanitation, housing and potholes; and the ANC Youth League is a semblance of the state of the Party. Increasing vigilantism and necklacing in the townships, the rape of black lesbians, the murder of foreign nationals, road rage, and widespread violence point to a society in deep distress.
We are witnessing chronic break down of authority on all levels; the police are out of control; the highly paid mining and union bosses are out of order; and the unrepresented workers act out when they feel their voices are not being heard. Police action against the protesters was completely out of proportion to their action. Granted, brandishing pangas is illegal but our police should be trained to deal with protests? Where was their riot gear, shields and helmets?
When President Zuma took over from Mbeki, he promised to undo Mbeki's autocratic rule and take the country on a different course. Alas he has failed and continues very much along the same path. He has retained Mbeki's African nationalist foreign policy; he continues to cosy up to the world's worst dictators and human rights violators.
His reign is branded by ongoing and endemic corruption that has spread from Nkandla to the municipal offices of Limpopo. His children and relatives have become instantly rich; cadre deployment has wreaked havoc on local governance; and corruption diverts the money meant for hospitals, clinics, and public services into the pockets of incompetent fat cats.
Unfortunately, those in power provide the powerless with cues how to behave especially where there is a leadership vacuum. Where citizens feel they have no stake in the system and where there is no civic engagement, things will fall apart. In their constant quest for hegemony and undying loyalty, the ANC and their alliance partners' obsession with patronage and the primitive accumulation of wealth, has created an enormous rift between them and those who voted them into office.
The result is a highly disgruntled populace, who out of frustration takes the law into their own hands. What we see is the rapid unravelling of the social fabric, because the ANC is unrelenting in squandering the tons of goodwill that exists in society.
This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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