Parliament - Almost three years after the fact, the killing of at least 34 miners in Marikana in 2012 took centre stage during President Jacob Zuma’s budget vote debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday as opposition parties blasted him for delaying the public release of the report into the tragedy.
Tabling his budget vote, Zuma said he would only release the report of the Farlam Commission of inquiry, which was tasked with probing the violent upheaval in the platinum sector, at the end of June - refusing to bow to public pressure to release it immediately.
“I know and appreciate the anxiety of those who are affected. However, it would be inappropriate for me to just release the report without applying my mind sufficiently,” Zuma said.
“The report will be released before the end of next month.”
Zuma also repeated his refrain from last year’s state-of-the-nation address, insisting South Africa did have “a good story to tell”. Here, he cited the Institute for Management Development Global Competitiveness Yearbook, the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness report, and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.
Zuma said South Africa would continue to push for African representation on the UN Security Council, among others.
“We will take forward the call for the reform of global financial institutions through the G20,” said Zuma.
“We also continue to call for meaningful reforms to make the United Nations Security Council representative of the world as the UN turns 70 years old this year. The exclusion of Africa from the Security Council is indefensible.”
Opposition party MPs disagreed with Zuma’s view on the state of the country, saying under the President’s leadership, unemployment had risen and economic growth had slowed dramatically.
They also objected loudly to Zuma’s pronouncements on the delay of the release of the Marikana report.
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said Zuma was protecting those in his inner circle who were possibly fingered in the report for wrongdoing.
“Almost three years after 34 miners were brutally gunned down on 16 August 2012, the public is still waiting for answers,” Maimane said.
“Every minute that passes without this report being made public cheapens the lives of every person massacred at Marikana. The miners, their families, the lives of all South Africans are diminished by the president’s delay.”
Maimane said the report should be released so that those responsible for the killings could be “fired and jailed”.
“Is it Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who chose his words carefully but deliberately when he called for ‘concomitant action’ to bring the strike to an end in order to protect his personal interest in the mine?” Maimane asked, in reference to the former Lonmin director and shareholder’s email to mine management and government ministers in the days leading up to the shooting. Ramaphosa had called for action against the striking miners.
“These questions demand answers. We can never bring those miners back, but we can help their families get some closure. And we can get to the truth.”
The debate turned ugly when deputy trade and industry minister Mzwandile Masina was accused of using the f-word during the debate.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen accused Masina of mouthing the words “I will fuck you up” at DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis, prompting House chairperson Thoko Didiza to promise a probe into whether the deputy minister did in fact utter the words.
Didiza said she did not hear Masina and could not rule immediately.
“This indeed is serious allegations and bringing down the decorum of the House…,” she said.
“I will investigate.”
Masina had been in hot water before, after being quoted in a media briefing in 2013 as saying “It’s time for him to fuck off”, referring to National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa general secretary Irvin Jim. Last year, the ANC Youth League distanced itself from a post by Masina on picture sharing site Instagram in which he called former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge a “hoe”.
During Tuesday’s debate, Masina had taken aim at both Maimane and Economic Freedom Fighters MP Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, whom he said thought he was “Mr Parliament”.
Ndlozi responded in kind, aiming barbs at both Masina and Zuma.
“We are not only better looking than him, we are better in everything and anything he can imagine. Perhaps when President Zuma looks at him and he looks at us he wishes he had us in his cabinet,” said Ndlozi.
“At least we did not suffer from the Nyaope delinquent speech diarrhea characterised by the political inarticulation. We are self-made. He is just affiliated.”
Ndlozi later branded Zuma a sick man, making reference to the president’s Freedom Day speech in which he cited the behaviour of EFF MPs in Parliament as evidence that South Africans were psychologically sick as result of apartheid era violence, and needed a cure.
“It is your sick government which sent police to Marikana to shoot and massacre 34 poor black mineworkers who were only asking for a living wage,” said Ndlozi.
“If you are looking for a cure, release the Marikana report. Give us a date and time. In that report is the cure because your friends in the presidency — we will ensure they are going to jail.”
ANA