The value of the life of a miner

13 August 2015

Madam Speaker

Honourable Members

Good afternoon

Bagaetsho 

Dumelang

On Sunday we will remember the lives of 44 South Africans who died in August 2012.

For three years the families of those who died waited for the Marikana Commission of Inquiry Report to be released in the hope that it would provide answers and closure. It provided neither.

The failure of the President to assign political responsibility for the massacre is indefensible. Not a single member of the Executive, or the South African Police Service (SAPS), has been held to account for the loss of life.

But of greater insult to the families of the victims is that the Report concluded that its terms of reference precluded it from making recommendations regarding compensation.

Instead of taking a decisive stance in the interest of justice and compassion, the Commission simply passed the buck.

This week the families of the 37 miners killed at Marikana filed a civil case against the Minister of Police claiming compensation for the loss of their loved ones.

They have been forced to do so out of necessity. Those men who died were not only miners, they were breadwinners and caregivers. Those 37 miners supported 326 dependents between them. 

They were striking for a living wage to support their extended families in the North West, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Their families are now approaching the courts to have the lifeline that was cut off three years ago restored.

They are not making excessive demands. They are simply asking for compensation for the direct loss they suffered in August 2012, including loss of financial support, expenses related to trauma counselling and their loss of family life.

Essentially they are asking the courts to put a value on the life of a miner.

But those miners were worth more than the income that served as a lifeline to their families.

They were fellow human beings with dreams and aspirations who worked and lived in often unbearable conditions because they cared about their loved ones.

They died fighting for dignity, and so that those they cared about would have opportunities that many of them did not.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that now leaves these families at the mercy of a legal process, which could take years to conclude, simply to put food on the table.

The irony is that the Marikana inquiry cost R153 million to reach a set of conclusions that did nothing to provide justice, closure or compensation.

Including the security guards and police officers that died during the protests, this amounts to almost R3.5 million per life lost.

The DA remains committed to ensuring that the lives of those who died are not devalued and that the families of the victims of Marikana are compensated for their loss.

The DA is in the process of investigating legislative options to ensure that the state takes responsibility for their actions.

Whether through an order of the court, or as a result of the legislation passed in this House, the state must be made to pay.

Honourable Members,

As we reflect on the Marikana massacre, we must ask ourselves what has happened to the sense of common humanity with which we entered into our democratic era in 1994?

It a country that was once the torch bearer of freedom and equality it should not be necessary for the families of victims who died a brutal death at the hands of the state to have to fight to be able to survive.

It should not be necessary for them to seek the courts to compel then Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, to apologise for the massacre. 

The Marikana Report shows the extent to which members of the Executive used their political influence to protect the interest of the mine owners at the cost of lives of the miners.

President Zuma has failed in his duty to hold the Executive account for Marikana, instead attempting to mislead the public that the “the Commission found that the Executive played no role in the decision of the police to implement the tactical option on 16 August 2012.”

The truth is that the Commission went to great lengths to emphasise that as a result of evasive and unhelpful testimony, specifically from the National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, it was “unable … to find positively in Minister Mthethwa’s favour.”

It remains inconceivable that the decision to implement a tactical operation on 16 August was made without Minister Mthethwa’s knowledge.

The order for 4000 additional rounds of R-5 ammunition for delivery to Marikana, as well as the request for 4 mortuary wagons at the scene, shows that SAPS had no intention of being accused of bringing a knife to a gun fight – it was rather the miners who unknowingly made that fatal mistake.

We may never know the full truth behind the chain of events that ended with the death of 34 miners on 16 August, but it is clear that there was a conscious decision that a loss of life was both a likely and acceptable outcome.

Regardless of what the financial value of a miner may be, to those involved in making the decision that led to the massacre, their lives were worthless.

Those miners were deemed expendable if it meant bringing an end to the strike. That is the real crime. President Zuma’s government does not value the lives of all South Africans equally.

Madam Speaker,

Marikana was not an aberration, but a symptom of the sickness that Jacob Zuma has inflicted on his government.

The events that led to the deaths at Marikana did not happen in isolation, but in the context of the greater socio-political condition South African finds itself in.

In remembering Marikana we must not direct our anger solely at SAPS, but also at the greater failure of our government to deliver a fairer society with greater access to economic opportunities.

In 1994, South Africans made the collective decision to embrace a democratic government in the hope that it would be able to rectify the injustices of the past.

Two decades later many of those injustices remain. 

I have visited Marikana and met with the wife of one of the murdered security guards. She told me of the struggles she faces without her husband who was the sole breadwinner in their household.

Her story is not unique. The mining town conditions that existed there under Apartheid have not changed and economic opportunities have not increased.

Our society is still divided by economic inequality and many are still denied access to opportunities that others take for granted.

Our Constitution may say that we are equal, but the majority of those who are unemployed are young black people.

They are being denied the opportunity to work and are left feeling that their lives do not have value.

The DA’s vision for South Africa is for a society characterised by freedom, fairness and opportunity. It is a vision for a society in which opportunities are more broadly spread so that all South Africans can share in the wealth of our economy.

Yesterday in this House Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said that “if there is a government that is concerned about jobs in our country, it is the Jacob Zuma government.”

But the truth is that unemployment has risen steadily under President Zuma’s watch, while he was not even aware of the suspension of Glencore’s mining licence during his question session in the House last week.

No. This is not a government that is concerned about jobs. 

This is a government that has lost sight of the needs of the poor and is concerned about the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many.

A government that uses their power to benefit themselves, and escape prosecution from corruption, fraud and racketeering.

A government that does not take responsibility for its actions, but undermines the law of our land through scapegoating, cover-ups and denials.

A government that does not value the life of a miner.

Madam Speaker,

In order to prevent a recurrence of Marikana we need to ensure that we are governed by a party that places equal value in the lives of all South Africans.

The DA believes that the purpose of government should be to enable the South African people to use their freedoms and pursue a life they value.

The best way to honour the memory of those who died at Marikana is to continue the fight for a society in which all South Africans have access to economic opportunities.

That is the society the DA is fighting for.

I thank you.

Issued by the DA, August 13 2015