l The SAPS is saddened by the events that unfolded… The police did all in their power to avert such a situation. The loss of life among workers and members of the SAPS is tragic and regrettable.
– Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa
l The tragic events at Lonmin’s Marikana mine that reverberated in every corner of our country shame us all… we should refuse to be cowed into a state of mind where we accept… that we are nothing but a country at war with itself. Far from it.
– Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu
l If we can all really work together, in a spirit of collaboration and fairness with minimum recrimination, we can use this tragedy to undo many of the wrong practices that still mark the mining sector.
– Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu
l We demean our common humanity when we resort to violence. We debase our constitution when we turn on one another in deadly clashes and we devalue human life when we snuff it out with such ease. The past weeks have brought home the horrors that we believed we left behind with our apartheid past… The Lonmin tragedy must be seen in the context that the mainstay of the mines was and is cheap labour, cheap black labour.
– ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga
l These widening gaps between the haves and the have-nots continue to undermine our reconciliation efforts and pose a great threat to nation building.
– ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga
l The DA is concerned that no one… seems to be assuming political responsibility for the massacre. We need accountability now. The Minister of Police , the secretaries general of NUM and Amcu and the CEO of Lonmin should… offer their resignations. Their position is untenable.
– DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko
l This massacre did not take place in a vacuum. It was a long time in the making… as a Parliament, we must face up to our own failure to hold the government and the safety and security agencies to account. We must ensure that a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again.
– DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko
l Was there a hidden political agenda to the shooting at Marikana because of the close relationship [between the ruling ANC and the National Union of Mineworkers, an affiliate of ANC ally Cosatu] or was it a failure of SAPS management to update its standing orders on the use of live ammunition? [Mineral Resources] Minister [Susan] Shabangu has fuelled such speculation by her steadfast refusal to allow [rival union] Amcu to be present at a meeting with the other involved parties. Her deliberate omission of Amcu is unacceptable.
– Cope president Mosiuoa Lekota
l We want to know why police were allowed to use live ammunition when they were ordered by way of a memorandum in December last year not to shoot at protesters with live ammunition.
– the Rev Kenneth Meshoe, leader of the African Christian Democratic Party
l Sadly… Marikana-type incidents are here to stay, unless we do away with the deployment of people with no professional police background to senior SAPS levels to command juniors… Perhaps it is time for this House to review the civilian oversight [of the police].
– United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa
l Most shocking during the visit of parliamentary opposition parties to Marikana was the extent of poverty in which the mineworkers live.
– Bantu Holomisa, UDM leader
l The SAPS is inadequately trained to deal with many forms of violent protest and some of the members do not even qualify to carry firearms and yet we expect them to deal with violent situations effectively… The lack of leadership in all spheres of our government is destroying the very fabric of our society.
– IFP MP Velaphi Ndlovu