Opposition’s reaction to Farlam inquiry report in bad taste

FOR A moment, let’s imagine what the media climate would have been like if the ANC had criticised the Farlam Commission the way the opposition has done.

Without doubt, the claim would have been that the ANC was attacking the independence of the judiciary and the work of the commission.

Somehow, the opposition has been allowed – and sometimes impliedly encouraged – to attack the commission, especially Judge Ian Farlam, because the commission didn’t reach the conclusions they wanted it to.

For advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza to claim that the report is a disgrace, to suggest that President Jacob Zuma appointed his friend to head the inquiry and that Justice Farlam was biased is an abomination.

The complete disregard for the 10 people who were killed before August 16 2012, is also an insult to their families.

How could the EFF’s Julius Malema even suggest that his party did not care about the 10, but only focused on the 34 who were shot on the 16th?

This is a clear sign that they do not wish to see justice for any of the 44 people who died during that strike action.

All they want is to use the families of the 34 for their own selfish political ends. It is never about justice. Real justice, if they even know anything about this concept, should have acknowledged that the 10 people who died before the 16th also had families and that today they have widows who will probably never find closure. Instead, the EFF and its crew decided to “let the dead bury their dead” with regard to the 10.

On any question of compensation, the government should consider all 44 victims of the Marikana massacre.

Bothaville, Free State

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