Marikana – People in Marikana near Rustenburg in North West, reacted with shock at the early release of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry’s report.
“We are the affected people, the incident happened a stone’s throw from us but we are not told when the report is released,” said Mike Dlengeleli.
“This is shocking, we all waited for the end of the this month for President Jacob Zuma to release the report to the public,” he said.
“Why is [deputy president] Cyril Ramaphosa cleared…he wrote an e-mail to Lonmin urging the mine to deal with criminals. How was he cleared?” he asked.
Sara Mzila, 48, said each time, she looked at the koppie [hill] near Nkaneng informal settlement it reminded her of August 16, 2012.
“It breaks my heart to look at this koppie. People were killed there,” she said.
President Jacob Zuma released the report of the Farlam Commission of inquiry on Thursday.
The commission chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam was appointed to probe the killing of 44 people in Marikana during a wage strike at Lonmin platinum mine in August 2012.
Thirty four striking mine workers were called on August 16.
The commission found that Lonmin did not do its best to resolve the disputes that arose between itself and its workers who participated in the unprotected strike on the one hand and between the strikers and those workers who did not participate in the strike.
The commission has also found that trade unions, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) did not exercise effective control over their members and supporters in ensuring that their conduct was lawful and did not endanger the lives of others.
Forty-four people were killed during a wildcat strike at Lonmin mines in Marikana.
A total of 34 were killed on August 16 when police fired at them, while ten people, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the week leading up to the August 16 massacre.
ANA