We could easily have another Marikana
FOLLOWING the release of the Marikana report, the Justice and Peace Commission for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has called on the government to go beyond the recommendations of the Marikana Commission and take radical measures to address the structural realities that set the scene for the violent strike and massacre.
The structural conditions that set the scene still remain in the mining industry: the widening wage gap between workers and executives, the poor working and living conditions of mine workers, the corporate manipulation of the rivalries between trade unions and a lack of an effective mechanism to ensure the workers are free to exercise their right not to participate in a strike.
Still present, too, are the ineffectiveness of social and labour plans as a mechanism to uplift the lives of mine workers and mine-affected communities, and a rising sense of disenfranchisement in the country as a toothless mining charter allows the politically connected few to benefit from mineral wealth at the expense of the mine workers and the mine-affected communities.
If these structural issues are not adequately addressed, we shall soon have another Marikana.
As a country, if we continue to pursue a brand of mining economy that puts profit before people, we shall have another Marikana.
The SACBC Justice and Peace Commission has reached out in prayer and solidarity with the families of those who lost their loved ones during and after the Marikana massacre.
Our hearts are with the families who lost their loved ones and are struggling to find healing and closure as they try to make sense of the findings of the Marikana report.
We have noted their disappointment over the absence of executive accountability for the deaths of their loved ones.
The SACBC Justice and Peace Commission has committed itself to work alongside civil society organisations to ensure that the recommendations of the Marikana Commission are effectively implemented and the families who lost their loved ones receive healing and closure.
Our principal interest as the church is the healing of our brothers and sisters at Marikana.
There is also a need for the healing of the whole country: the healing from the historic wounds that we suffered before 1994 during apartheid, and healing from the wounds suffered now through the painful realities of poverty and economic apartheid.
Bishop Abel Gabuza is the chairperson of the Justice and Peace Commission for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.