Cape Town - The ANC’s failure to officially commemorate the Marikana massacre says a lot about the ruling party’s attitude towards the suffering of the widows and families who lost their breadwinners at the hands of the state.
It’s a worrying picture for a once proud liberation movement founded to stand side by side and help heal the wounds of those that suffered severely as a result of years of oppression.
The Mandelas, Tambos, Sisulus, Bikos and many others must be turning in their graves when today’s ANC is so out of touch with reality that it fails to lead.
The organisation deems it appropriate to issue a media statement on the killing of 34 mineworkers on August 16, 2012.
In the statement issued by spokesperson Pule Mabe on Monday, the ANC said: “We reiterate our call to the government to move with speed in implementing programmes that will help alleviate the plight of affected families and to ensure that conditions that led to this tragedy are addressed.”
How about first asking its President Cyril Ramaphosa to fulfil the public commitment he made to the late Struggle stalwart mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela two years ago that he would visit the widows and the families of the mineworkers before she passed on.
Instead he flew to Malawi to participate at the 41st Southern African Development Community Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government, which ended yesterday.
Ramaphosa and the ANC should forget it if they think that the Marikana massacre cloud hanging over him will just disappear by his continued silence on the matter.
If the president cannot fulfil a commitment he made to one of the country’s Struggle icons, what are we to make of the promises he makes to the millions of South Africans who still put their faith in the ANC despite its shortcomings?
Ramaphosa’s alleged role in the Marikana massacre will forever live in the minds of the families of the mineworkers until he honours the commitment to visit them and fulfil their wish of declaring August 16 a public holiday.
Is that really too much to ask, Mr President?
Perhaps he could draw inspiration from then police commissioner Riah Phiyega’s apology on Sunday for the pain the tragedy caused to so many poor families.
After all, South Africans, especially the marginalised, are forgiving.
They have forgiven their oppressors, even when they were more than entitled not to.