Does Cyril ‘not feel our pain?’

The families of the 34 miners shot dead while demanding a R12 500 wage from a platinum mine in Marikana say the only closure for them would be for President Cyril Ramaphosa to apologise.

One of the widows, Noluvuyo Noki, said she would be happy if Ramaphosa approached the families. “It pains my heart that he has never apologised to us.

There was a little something we got from the government but we are still not satisfied. We want justice to be done, which means those behind the shooting should be jailed.”

The daughter of one of the miners who died, Relebohile Mohai, said their fathers had died while they were still young and 10 years later, they were yet to see justice served.

Mohai said they did not know why it was taking the president so long to realise he had to apologise to the families. “To be honest, we are still waiting for him. He is the president of the country and I feel like he was also responsible.

“The least he could have done was apologise and try to see if we are okay.

“We do not need anything but the apology, to show that he is with us and he feels our pain.”

One of the miners injured at Marikana, Mzoxolo Magidiwane, said two bullets had hit him and went through his body.

“The doctors found seven bullets on my body when I was in hospital, two of them only hit me then passed through. “We never thought that we would end up being shot for fighting for our rights.”

He said the only way for him to get justice would be to go to court. “I never even got two cents, we are still waiting even now.

“Others who were also injured are still suffering and they don’t [have] anything. “It is painful because we know our lives would have been better had we not got injured.”

Magidiwane said, despite the president’s promise to go and apologise to them during former struggle hero’s Winnie Mandela’s funeral, he has failed to follow through.

“Now it is our time to force him via the courts to apologise.”

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