EFF calls on Zuma to release the Marikana Report

23 June 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters condemns President Jacob Zuma’s utterances that police killed Marikana workers because they were killing people. Zuma is quoted as saying, “those people in Marikana had killed people and the police were stopping them.”

This means Jacob Zuma has singlehandedly found the Marikana workers guilty of murder and thus condoned a death sentence on them before even their side of the story was heard. Zuma is saying it is correct that his police massacred workers in Mariakana and we must accept a massacre as an act of crime prevention.

Zuma told the country and parliament that he is applying his mind on the Marikana Commission Report. Now instead of releasing the report he is handing out its conclusions in piecemeal fashion and subjecting the Marikana widows and their families to more trauma. There is no care or sensitivity in his pronouncements.

This is the same conduct he displayed in parliament when he got excited and started mocking the Nkandla report knowing that the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, will be absolving him of any responsibility. His agitation and excitement of knowing privileged information has once more led him to speak on the conclusions of the report before its formal release.

The EFF calls on Zuma to release the Marikana Report with immediate effect and stop subjecting the country to unnecessary suspense, anticipation and in the process being insensitive and traumatising the widows and families of those killed by the police. It is not his place to hand verdicts and sentence anyone. His responsibility now is to release the report.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, June 24 2015