Marikana was a bloody massacre Tinyiko Maluleke

The morning after the massacre, in a speech to police officers, former police commissioner Phiyega noted that “whatever happened represents the best of responsible policing” and proceeded to ask the police to applaud themselves. Surely, the killing of 34 South Africans in half an hour is not “whatever happened”!

The striking miners and their feuding unions must take some of the responsibility for aspects of the Marikana massacre. But it is noteworthy that, of the 44 people killed, up to 37 were killed by the police.

There is, of course, a “golden thread” that connects Marikana to all “our” other massacres.

To maintain their wealth and power, political and economic elites have for centuries, unleashed the police or the army, again and again. For the wealthy and the powerful, it seems that the poor exist either to be exploited or to be killed when they refuse to be exploited.

And yet, as a nation, we seem either unable or unwilling to call Marikana what it was. Instead, we call it some “tragic event”, an “incident”, an “accident”, an “unfortunate event”, et cetera. What happened in Marikana on August 16, 2012 was nothing but a bloody massacre.

The reluctance to name Marikana appropriately may be an indication that we have been grooming ourselves to embrace the next set of massacres more readily.

Prof Maluleke is a research fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria. He writes in his personal capacity. You can follow him on Twitter @ Proftinyiko

PICTURE: DENIS FARRELL/JON GAMBRELL/AP/AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY (ANA) Leaders of striking miners walk away from a protest at the Lonmin mine near Marikana. Of the 44 people who died in the series of tragic events of August 2012, up to 37 were killed by the police.