Cape Town - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa could not be held accountable for the death of 34 miners at Marikana in 2012, according to the commission of inquiry into the shooting, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.
“The commission has found that it cannot be said that Mr Ramaphosa was the cause of the massacre and the accusation against him are groundless,” Zuma said as he read out a summary of the long-awaited report by the commission in a live television broadcast.
In an email released to the commission by advocate Dali Mpofu – who is representing miners injured and arrested at Marikana – Ramaphosa criticised that strike as criminal and urged “concomitant action” to address the situation.
It was sent by Ramaphosa to Lonmin’s chief commercial officer and has seen the opposition, notably the Economic Freedom Fighters, charge that the former National Union of Mineworkers leader and business tycoon had blood on his hands.
Zuma described the shooting as “a horrendous tragedy that has no place in a democracy where all citizens have a right to protest and where workers have the right to go on strike peacefully”.
ANA