Retired judge Ian Farlam says a personal apology from Cyril Ramaphosa would help families of the dead to heal.
Retired judge Ian Farlam, who chaired the inquiry into the Marikana massacre, says he does not understand why disciplinary proceedings have not taken place, given that “the government accepted the findings and admitted they are liable” for the death of 34 mine workers on 16 August and, days earlier, six mine workers, two Lonmin security guards, and two police officers.
The commission had found that Lonmin had not tried hard enough to talk to the protesters or to protect its employees and that the National Union of Mineworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) did not have full control over their members.
“Labour disputes in any organisation should be considered as a matter of urgency to avoid it from escalating to violence.”
He said the miners had a right to protest and this should have been dealt with better.
Farlam said better public order policing was required to prevent another Marikana and unrest similar to the violence in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July last year.
“In 2012 the miners fought for better wages and living conditions. In order to prevent another Marikana a social labour plan should be implemented to provide adequate housing for miners and their families.”
Police had tried to disperse the striking Marikana workers throughout that week and Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa had tried to persuade them to leave peacefully. Farlam said leaked minutes from a national management forum meeting with senior police officials confirmed that the miners would be dispersed on 16 August 2012.
“The original plan was to have an approach to the koppie to arrest the miners and put a fence around the koppie and then, as other strikers arrived, they would be picked up. This was a safe plan and there was no great danger of bloodshed.
“Instead police were armed with military rifles making it inevitable that blood would be shed. We never got the answer to why this decision was made and implemented.”
The Farlam commission also found that some police officers may have reasonably believed that they were being attacked by the strikers and were acting in self-defence.
But, he said, it was the officials who implemented the plan that were liable for the killings.
“We cannot say which policemen shot which miner. The police had R5 rifles which contained bullets known to penetrate when fired,” said Farlam.
The commission, which comprised Farlam and advocates Bantubonke Tokota and Pingla Hemraj, mostly exonerated key figures such as Cyril Ramaphosa, who was a non-executive Lonmin director at the time.
In a civil case that followed the commission, the families of those who died at the hands of the police demanded an apology from Ramaphosa, asking the court to hold him liable for the massacre.
Farlam said he believed an in-person apology from the president was far more effective than words on a tape recording and that such an apology was needed for families to find closure.
“The price of Marikana was paid by the families of the deceased. Many are still carrying the suffering and the losses. We know that Ramaphosa has not yet apologised on behalf of the government and I don’t know why.”
He said the commission had done its best to get to the bottom of what had happened when the strike turned bloody.
“Sometimes people don’t realise that commissions are there to advise executives. Oftentimes commissions do not meet the expectations of those who have suffered. I think we did the best we could.
“We achieved most of the things we have set out to do and unravelled the factual problems that arose, producing a narrative of the events based on evidence as they unfolded leading up to the 16 of August.
“We hoped that this would assist in the healing process for the families of the deceased and that those responsible will be dealt with appropriately with criminal proceedings.”
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