Durban - The government must take the blame for the tragic killing of 34 miners by police at the Lonmin mine in North West last week, outspoken author and businessman Moeletsi Mbeki said in Durban on Thursday night.
In a speech to 400 business people at the launch of the Kendra Business Forum, Mbeki said that the police were a government institution and that there was no excuse for what they had done.
“It was like watching a repeat of the past. The slaughter of innocent miners at the hands of the police… It was shocking to see the SA police using live rounds of ammunition,” he said.
“We have seen worse protests in Greece with more violent demonstrators and even petrol-bombings taking place, and the police don’t use live ammunition. Nobody gets killed. They have riot gear, tear gas and water canons,” said Mbeki.
The Lonmin tragedy was a stark reminder that SA was at a crossroads, he said.
“How could the government have sent in the police, fully armed, to go and mow them down?”
Mbeki blamed President Jacob Zuma for giving the police’s military-style power.
“Among the first things that former president Nelson Mandela did when the ANC came into power in 1994 was to disarm the police. Military ranks for the police were removed and blue uniforms were introduced… with the Zuma administration we have seen the reintroduction of military fatigues,” he said.
“Why? Because people are expecting delivery and this is not happening. Only a select few are benefiting with millions of poor people out there without jobs, many of them young people,” he said.
After the Lonmin killings, Mbeki said, he was interviewed by the BBC and asked if what had happened would discourage investors, and he said “no”.
“But I reminded the BBC journalist that the British remain a critical player in the SA economy. Lonmin is listed in London… and the British have contributed to the problems that SA faces today, especially on our mines.”
Miners lived in broken homes, away from their families in single-sex hostels, he added.
“What gets forgotten is what the British have done in SA,” he said. “It is easy for many people to think that the history of SA started in 1994. Many of the problems we are facing have got to do with our history of 150 years of Dutch and then 115 years of British rule,” he said.
SA would not lose foreign investors. Investors had seen much worse than Lonmin and would continue to pump money into SA because they had for years, he added.
“Come on, some 85 percent of the world’s platinum comes from SA. So, where else are the industrialists going to get their platinum from?” - The Mercury