President Zuma’s attitude on Marikana shows how little he cares for bereft families

24 June 2015

Comments made by President Jacob Zuma in defence of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) who gunned down 34 mineworkers on 16 August 2012 at Lonmin’s Marikana mine are deeply irresponsible. 

These reckless remarks demonstrate that the President does not care about the families who had their loved ones ripped from them by a trigger-happy SAPS on that fateful day.

Yesterday while addressing students at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Pretoria President Zuma callously said: “…those people in Marikana had killed people and the police were stopping them from killing people.”

Of even greater concern is the heinous remark Zuma made about Apartheid era South Africa and using it as a threat by which to quell social dissatisfaction. “Do not use violence to express yourselves, or I might be forced to relook at the Apartheid laws that used violence to suppress people.” The President is actually threatening ordinary South Africans with violence and using the state's apparatus to do so. 

This is the same attitude that got us in this Marikana mess in the first place and makes us more confident than ever that he and his Police Commissioner should bear ultimate political responsibility for the Marikana Masscre.

This despicable utterance can only likened to an act of heresy in our new democratic constitutional order.

The DA does not, in any way, condone the use of violence or deadly force, as should the President. Yet he is on record publicly condoning the slaughter of mineworkers who were protesting for better pay and a better life for themselves and their families - as is their constitutional right to do so.

These comments by President Zuma gruesomely echo those of the National Police Commissioner (NPC), Riah Phiyega, who instead of punishing the police officers responsible for this massacre, congratulated them, stating: “Whatever happened represents the best of responsible policing. You did what you did because you were being responsible. You were making sure that you continue to live your oath.”

Nothing justifies the excessive and tragic bloodshed. Commissioner Phiyega has, for years, presided over a politically controlled police service which has gradually been militarised and is increasingly being turned into a force for state-sponsored and sanctioned violence against civilians.

Commissioner Phiyega must be held accountable for the Cele-era "shoot to kill" dictum, which she did nothing to stop when she took over and which we now had to see play out so graphically.

Commissioner Phiyega must be held accountable for the Mdluli-era crime intelligence that has crippled the division and hollowed it out, rendering it ineffective in not only pre-empting, but also properly responding to, the events that transpired at Marikana three years ago.

The then Police Minister must bear responsibility for sitting back like a lame duck while Cele reintroduced military ranks into the SAPS and, with it, the culture of brute strength, strong-man tactics and deadly force.

This was the grandest failing of the SAPS in democratic South Africa and those responsible must not be encouraged and congratulated as Phiyega and Zuma seem to be inclined to do, but must be expelled from the police service at once.

In order for this to happen, President Zuma needs to release the Marikana Report on which he has been sitting for the last three months. 

The Presidency confirmed on 31 March 2015 that it had received the report, claiming at the time that President Zuma was on a state visit to Algeria and would “prioritise the consideration of the report on his return.” Despite the President having concluded that visit on 1 April 2015, the report is yet to be made public and the matter remains unresolved.

What is the President doing with the report and who he trying to protect? Is he attempting to sanitise the report or doctor it to reflect his admiration for the police as he expressed yesterday?

The report, due to be released next week Tuesday, will- we hope - give the long-awaited answers, sweep through the webs of lies presented at the Commission hearings, and ensure that justice is served for those that were killed at Marikana and the bereft families they’ve left behind.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, June 24 2015