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.