HEITA FM

"We say it like it is"

PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA SLAMMED CRITICS CLAIM HE’S RESPONSIBLE FOR MARIKANA MASSACRE DEATHS

1 min read

The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) welcomes the South Gauteng High Court’s ruling that found President Cyril Ramaphosa and predecessor of Sibanye Stillwater Lonmin had “participated in, mastermind and championed the toxic collusion” that led to 34 miners being ‘slaughtered’ on 16 August 2012 in Marikana.

The court could not find Sibanye and Ramaphosa directly responsible for the deaths. Their liability is only limited to complicity relating to the events leading up to the massacre.

In 2012 Ramaphosa who was then a non-executive director of Lonmin advanced his business interests by pressuring the National Police Commissioner to take “concomitant action” against the striking mineworkers who were demanding a minimum wage of R12 500.

Zwelinzima Vavi says Ramaphosa did not call on the police to deal with mineworkers only in defence of profits for personal benefit, but also to please imperialist profiteers and colonialists in Britain that he is a loyal servant of the ‘commonwealth’.

He says SAFTU supports the civil suit by injured mineworkers and the families of deceased mineworkers to seek compensation of over R1 billion and to any revised value victims see fit, they have suffered as a result of the brutal massacre shootings.

Furthermore, the financial loss the massacre caused on the families of the disabled and deceased has long-lasting effects. Stories have been documented of how the children of the victims had to quit schooling to look for jobs in order to compensate for the financial gap left by the deaths or disabilities of their bread winners.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *