I’ll go to Marikana, says Ramaphosa

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa will heed ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s advice to return to Marikana to “address” the painful issue of the horrific 2012 shooting that had left 34 miners dead.

Speaking at Rhodes University in Grahamstown yesterday morning, Ramaphosa said messages he sent to Lonmin management calling for “action” prior to mass shooting had been intended to prevent further disaster.

He said he had been horrified that 10 miners had already been murdered – eyes gouged and hearts ripped out – and wanted to avoid further looming disaster.

“And yes I may have used unfortunate language in the messages I sent out and for which I have apologised and for which I do apologise.”

But he reiterated that he had never intended any miner be shot.

“For nine years of my life I put everything I had to advance their interests . It could never be that I would then say that 34 mineworkers should be killed,” he said.

Ramaphosa was cleared by the Farlam Commission of any culpability.

Madikizela-Mandela had nonetheless advised him the matter should be addressed and had offered to go with him to Marikana.

“I have said I will accept your counsel and am willing to do so in this regard. She wants to do it as she also feels pained by what happened and says I must address it. I am willing to do that and willing to be led by her,” he said.

Referring to the ANC he acknowledged it had not lived up to its pro-poor policies and said if the party did not listen carefully to South Africa’s youth it would face consequences.

Young people had not lived under apartheid but they could see its legacy in their homes and in their parents’ faces, he said.

“Young people are feeling increasingly frustrated ignored.... They see the opulence of the state that favours pomp and ceremony over education and putting bread on the table. They sense a leadership becoming more and more distant from ordinary people, a leadership tolerant of corruption and insensitive to the needs of its people.

He called on the youth to reclaim the future, particularly where the government had failed them.

“Where we are tardy, where we have fallen prey to behaviour or to inappropriate values and where we have lacked the principle to take this country forward it is your task to do so. Where we may seem to have been captured by other forces who have other intentions and objectives for our country it is your task to reclaim your South Africa and to reclaim your future.”

He said the ANC was required to listen closely to the aspirations of the youth, four million of whom were not in education, training or employment.

Urging people to “read between the lines” he said there were “tales and stories that there are quite a number of things that we are doing in government that could be derailing the democratic project … there are stories that there has been capture of certain elements of our government, certain people that have been captured.”

Somewhere between policy and implementation something had gone wrong. “Some things have been diverted, some things have been captured.”

He encouraged students to act.

“You as students must free us. You must free this country of capture.... We cannot now betray and hand over the wealth of the country to certain individuals or certain families so that they can capture it and make it their own.”

Speaking later in the afternoon to about 2000 people at a cadre’s forum organised by the ANC’s Sarah Baartman region, Ramaphosa urged ANC branches to get ready to choose leaders in December who would not steal taxpayers’ money.

He lamented what he described as “captured” branches and said such tendencies should be rooted out to a allow for an election in December that would unite the party.

“As you assess those you want to lead you, do so wisely with wide open eyes. They must be the type of leaders who are going to bring back the ANC of Oliver Tambo.

“Go and choose wisely. What type of ANC do we want? We want an ANC of high integrity. We want an ANC which is going to stand against corruption. We want an ANC that will not tolerate thieves.

“The ANC has gone down in the eyes of our people. We must restore the image and standing our our organisation. Let us go and build an ANC with leaders who will humble themselves in front of our people and will work for our people, not themselves and their families.”

Voters had rejected the party in the metros in last year’s local government elections because they saw the ANC as a party of corrupt and thieving leaders, he said.

But it was not too late for the party to regain the confidence of voters, as long as the “right decisions” were taken in December.

To this end, the ANC needed to self-correct and ask for “love back” from voters.

“Our people last year said they will not vote for us because because they see the ANC has been reduced to factions.

“Then they said we will punish you and not vote for you,” he said.

“We therefore need to focus on the motive forces of change. People do not trust the ANC anymore, when they look they see thieves and dishonest leaders.

“We must humble ourselves and beg for love back.”