SELECTIVE MEMORIES OF BLOODY MARIKANA

AS THE country commemorates the sixth anniversary of the Marikana massacre, the sad and brutal truth is that the story has not been fully told.

With academics, researchers, the media, political parties and civil society alike, when they consider this tragedy, the deaths of the 10 people who died leading up to this tragic day are invariably de-emphasised.

They are just treated as a footnote leading up to the so-called real tragedy and main event, which captured the local and international imagination when the police killed 34 miners.

The suffering of the families of these victims is ignored and they have been sidelined in this matter.

Why is this so? Is society so ashamed to speak the truth that some of the striking miners were responsible for those 10 murders?

That so-called “man in a green blanket” and his cohorts who led this strike must shoulder the blame for those deaths. They clearly let colleagues brutally murder these security people and police.

What this attests to is that we are just a sick society whose attention is only caught by issues that are made important by the fact that they were covered live by the local and international media.

It is shameful that because these other murders were not caught on camera they should be so crassly ignored.

I was incensed these past few days when civil society organisations were sounding high and mighty, endlessly bemoaning the fact that no policeman has been convicted IT IS easy to complain from the side-lines. Many of the letters sent to the newspapers are full of complaints. They also state the obvious such as that corruption must go. Rather than being a nation of whiners, it would be refreshing sometimes to take a positive perspective on things. After all, it is better to build rather than to break down.

There are reports that the government is going to have to bail out Sanral for the mass boycott of e-tolls in Gauteng. This would be needed for Sanral not to default on its debt repayments for the improvements to our Gauteng highways. Such a default would cause a run and our sovereign for the killing of the 34 miners and that some of them are still at work.

But they never highlighted that no miner has been convicted for the murder of these 10 other victims.

These other victims deserve the same respect as the 34 miners who were killed. Just because their deaths were not “newsworthy” does not erase this history.

Dr Thabisi Hoeane

debt would be in trouble, placing our economy at risk.

These improvements have provided us with world-class highways. Peak-hour congestion has been reduced. As a result, the following benefits arise: less petrol is consumed; wear and tear on the vehicles is reduced. These save individuals, businesses and the economy money. There are also fewer exhaust emissions, thus benefiting the environment.

There are no free rides. We have committed capitalists who suddenly become socialists when it comes to this. Many law-abiding people become anarchists with regards to the tolls.

Getting e-tags and complying is cheaper than those who don’t participate. The defaulters are just accumulating more and more debt.

While the government did not market the system to the public in an enrolling way, it is an internationally accepted practice to raise money for roads by tolling. Perhaps a partial amnesty could be offered to those who are now willing to come aboard.

Many assume that it must somehow be corrupt, even without any evidence to support such suspicions. Perhaps, e-tolls are being scapegoated for general frustrations against corruption.

Martin Zagnoev