ZUMA DREADS MARIKANA REPORT FALLOUT

Congress of the People is certain that President Zuma is trying to do an “Nhleko” with the Marikana report. He is looking for every possible way to achieve extreme damage control.

The affected families, the Union Amcu and the people of our country must brace themselves for a shock.

What is Zuma dreading so much in the Farlam Report?

Firstly, he is afraid of the political involvement of Lieutenant General Zukiswa Mbombo. That is why she had to go and create a distance between herself and the release of the report. She, NUM and Mokwena of Lonmin make the first triangle. They did not want AMCU nor Malema to feature in any solution. For them, police action alone was necessary to solve Lonmin’s problem as well as that of the ANC and NUM. These three were not going to allow negotiations to succeed because of the political loss.

Secondly, how is Zuma going to explain away the overt involvement of Cyril Ramaphosa in asking Nathi Mthethwa to act decisively against the dissenting miners? Ramaphosa characterised the protesting miners as “plainly dastardly criminal”. Ramaphosa, Mthethwa and Phiyega constitute the second triangle. Mthethwa indicated that Ramaphosa was pressuring him to act against the strikers. Here, the business interest of one person and the political interests of all three overrode all other considerations. Police action was demanded and police action followed.

Thirdly, how is Zuma going to explain why 550 police officers were mobilised on 15 August 2012 and why the police ordered 4000 rounds of live ammunition? Furthermore, why did the police also order mortuary vans to come to the Marikana site? Mbombo knew what was going to happen that day and what transpired clears up this part of the mystery. The nation and the world saw the police in action in much the same way that occurred pre 1994.

Fourthly, Mgcineni Noki, the leader of the strikers took 14 bullets that day as he tried to escape. He was a marked man and the police finished him off with 14 bullets. It tells a story. That fateful day, the police shot as many as 112 miners, 34 of whom died. How is Zuma going to explain why the leader of the strike, Mgcineni Noki, had to take 14 bullets?

That the Farlam Commission took 293 days is clear evidence that the police did not act in good faith and in keeping with the Constitution. Politics and business interests trumped all other considerations.

Now Zuma must attempt the hard sell and get South Africans to buy into another whitewash narrative hoping to take South Africans for the fools he considers them to be.

Cope urges the President not to inflict more pain on the already traumatized families who lost their loved ones in the Marikana massacre and to release the report regardless of the consequence to the ruling party.