Donwald Pressly
President Jacob Zuma says the deployment of security forces is needed to put a stop to the bleeding of the mining industry, but former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota says that deploying troops is risky and unconstitutional.
He also argued yesterday that quelling potential violence on the mines by using crowd and weapons control laws harked back to the apartheid era.
It was not clear last night if Lekota, the leader of Cope, had succeeded in calling for a National Assembly debate on the government’s deployment of troops for this afternoon. By last night he had not received confirmation of a special debate from the Speaker.
Lekota said yesterday an ordinary minister like Justice Minister Jeff Radebe should not have announced troop deployments. “Only the president is authorised by the constitution to use the armed forces… It is a serious violation for any minister to take a decision of that nature,” Lekota charged.
Meanwhile Zuma, who was addressing Cosatu’s national congress in Midrand, said financial indicators showed that the total rand value of production lost in the gold and platinum mines due to work stoppages over the past nine months “is close to R4.5 billion”. On top of that R118 million had been lost by the coal sector in this time.
Zuma lashed out at elements in opposition parties who were, he charged, undermining the image of the country by making outrageous claims about apartheid tactics.
Addressing Cosatu delegates, the president said: “We should not listen to those who are making a career out of rubbishing our country and the gains of our national democratic revolution,” he said, noting that the ANC had in particular reduced poverty through the comprehensive social protection programme to 15 million South Africans.
Calling in particular for the bolstering of the trade union federation “in the current climate especially in the mining sector”, Zuma appealed to “some political party leaders in the country who have been vocal to desist from the irresponsible language of comparing the Marikana law enforcement campaign to apartheid-era measures”.
“Given the levels of violence and intimidation in Marikana, the government deployed law enforcement agencies to stabilise the situation,” he said. “This does not take away the rights of miners and residents to protest peacefully and unarmed, as provided for in the laws of the land.
“The agencies have been told to be firm but to respect the rights of residents and strikers.”
Lekota said it was inappropriate for the president to be attending a South Africa-EU summit from today when he should be reporting to the nation, especially since he had found time to attend the Cosatu conference yesterday because he needed to canvass worker votes ahead of the Mangaung conference.
Lekota said there also needed to be a discussion about Cosatu’s alliance with the government because it meant that state officials – including police – were taking political decisions “instead of remaining neutral”.
Events on the mines and at Marikana had “raised very sharply the appropriateness of Cosatu being allied to the ruling political party. The result of this is that the government can’t be seen to be even-handed in dealing with the problems because it has a direct interest [in Cosatu].”
Lekota also argued that it was largely a myth that the rival mineworkers’ unions had employed violent tactics.
Mike Schussler, a director at economists.co.za, said that he did not want to comment on the morality of Radebe – whose wife Bridgette is the chairwoman of Mmaku Mining – announcing troop deployment, but he believed that the action was welcomed by business in general.
Business felt that after much stumbling on what steps to take to stop the spread of mine unrest, something at last had been done “that will hopefully stabilise the situation”, he said.