Amcu backs Marikana call

Amcu, the union that organised workers at Marikana Mine, has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s commitment to healing after the Marikana massacre.

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa expressed the union’s willingness to engage Ramaphosa to find closure for the affected Marikana families.

Ramaphosa, who had been accused of influencing the killings as a director at Lonmin Platinum Mine via a letter he wrote to then police minister Nathi Mthethwa, undertook in parliament this week to begin a process of healing for the victims’ families and surviving miners.

“We note that it has taken five years before this pledge to assist families to heal could be rendered. Throughout this period, families have sought answers to no avail despite recent media reports unravelled sordid revelations of how workers were murdered in cold blood,” Mathunjwa said.

He said the Farlam Commission – which probed the incident where more than 30 striking mineworkers were shot dead by the police in 2012 – failed, as new evidence recently emerged of police cover-up of “blatant assassinations” of the workers.

Mathunjwa alleged that police watchdog body Ipid failed to collect vital evidence that could incriminate the police. “We are, therefore, concerned that the state president seems to heavily rely on the commission’s findings, despite the emergence of new evidence that is inconsistent with this report. As such, we will be instituting measures to review the findings,” Mathunjwa said.

“There can never be any healing if the complete truth is not brought to light. Healing can never be a material condition induced through compensation, but rather an emotional process underscored by acceptance, understanding and forgiveness between stakeholders undergirded by truth and justice.

“In collaboration with the legal representatives of the Marikana widows and families, we are willing to engage with President Ramaphosa to find closure to this raw wound.”