The EFF opened a criminal case against the police and against Cyril Ramaphosa for his complicity to massacre workers in Marikana in 2012, and there is still no progress, and no update on what the South African Police Service has done about this case.
Julius Malema has given the NPA an ultimatum to prosecute Cyril Ramaphosa within three months.
Should the NPA not adhere to his call, Malema has threatened to haul the prosecuting authority before the court.
The EFF, in 2015, opened criminal cases against Ramaphosa, Nathi Mthethwa and SAPS bosses.
EFF leader Julius Malema has given the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) an ultimatum to prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa for his role in the Marikana massacre within three months or his party will take the prosecuting authority to the high court.
Speaking during the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union’s (AMCU) commemoration of the Marikana massacre, Malema said it was unsettling that, despite his party opening criminal cases in 2015 against Ramaphosa, former police minister Nathi Mthethwa and South African Police Service (SAPS) bosses in Marikana, among others, none of the political actors had been prosecuted or, at the very least, questioned for their hand in the massacre.
Monday marks nine years since 44 people, including 34 miners and 10 police officers and security guards, died in the North West mining town.
He reiterated that South Africa could not have a situation in which politicians were above the law and no action was taken, even though cases had been opened against them.
A little girl clings on a fence for a better view during the commemoration of the Marikana massacre in 2016.
At the very least, Malema added, the political leaders involved ought to be investigated for conspiracy to commit murder.
“We are here to, once more, send out heartfelt condolences to miners that were killed by the ANC government… till today, justice has not been served. We opened a case at the Marikana police station and mentioned Ramaphosa, Mthethwa and other politicians by name, but no action has since been taken.
“We call on the NPA to prosecute Ramaphosa and, if they are not going to do so, we want them to issue a non-prosecuting letter, so that the EFF can proceed with a private prosecution,” said Malema, adding:
If they [the NPA] don’t do that [prosecute or issue a non-prosecuting letter] in the next three months, we are taking them to the high court.
Ramaphosa was a non-executive director at Lonmin when the massacre happened and is alleged to have sent an email on the eve of the Marikana shooting, wherein he allegedly told Lonmin management and government officials that events around the strike “are plainly dastardly criminal acts and must be characterised as such”.
In 2017, while still deputy president, Ramaphosa apologised for the manner in which the Marikana massacre unfolded, saying he was sorry for the type of language he used at the time.
But the unrelenting EFF leader warned Ramaphosa – and said, “by now he must know that, if he is using his office to avoid prosecution, then, just like his predecessor former president Jacob Zuma, we will go and fetch him after he is out of office and still hold him accountable”.
Malema apportioned blame to South African citizens, saying:
We are partly to blame for the lack of justice because, when we had the opportunity to punish them [the ANC government] at the polls by not voting for them, we failed to do so.
Another speaker, who did not mince his words regarding the ANC’s hand in the Marikana massacre, was United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa.
He said the current leaders called themselves revolutionaries, but had employed similar tactics as the Apartheid government to quell the protests.
“The ANC government used the same brute force that we had been accustomed to during Apartheid rule and, what is disturbing, is the lack of remorse, with no heartfelt apology or even visits to the affected people by the powers-that-be.
A remembrance cross made of flowers is seen during a of the 2012 Marikana massacre.
“Our government is hoping that people will forget. We must not allow that to happen,” said Holomisa.
Public holiday
During the AMCU commemoration, the widows of the fallen mine workers called for 16 August to be designated as a public holiday.
One of the widows told a heartbreaking story of how her child asked her why they still had to go to school on a day when the family was meant to commemorate the anniversary of their father’s death.