The ‘language on Marikana inappropriate’

Ramaphosa ready to meet families of victims

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has admitted in parliament that “the language I had used in the days leading to the Marikana massacre in which 34 miners were killed in 2012 was inappropriate”.

Speaking during question time in the National Assembly yesterday, during which EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu put him under pressure on the Marikana issue, Ramaphosa said he had accepted Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s counsel and he was ready to meet with the families and widows of the Marikana victim to personally apologise to them.

The EFF deputy leader wanted Ramaphosa to explain what he meant and who was he apologising to following his announcement to that effect in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, at the weekend.

Responding to the Marikana issue frankly for the first time in the National Assembly, unlike in previous instances where was defensive, Ramaphosa said he was sorry for the language he had used in the days leading to the massacre.

In emails to Lonmin mine executives, where he held shares, Ramaphosa called for concomitant action to be taken against striking mine workers and this has since become a blight on his political career.

He told MPs yesterday that it was his choice of words that “sparked off” the killings in Marikana.

“I did use inappropriate and unfortunate language as in the e-mails. I was trying to stop further killings from happening.

“For me that was sparked off by the killing of 10 people who had died earlier and the killings had happened in the most brutal manner.

“Some were police and the majority of them were mineworkers,” he said.

He reminded MPs that for the better of his “growing years” he was committed to advancing the struggles of mineworkers as former general-secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.

“I threw myself at the task and I said it could never be that I could have mineworkers killed or anybody for that matter, in the way that it all happened. That is what I apologised for. I also said as a leader I take counsel in what other leaders advise. Mam’Winnie Mandela did raise the matter with me and raised it publicly and said ‘I want to take you to Marikana’. That was her initiative,” he said. He said he was prepared to meet the widows of those workers who were killed.