EFF statement on the Marikana Commission Report

26 June 2015

The Economic Freedom Fighters receives the Marikana Commission Report as delivered by President Zuma with deep sadness, disappointment and shock. The EFF leadership collective has not studied the 600 page report as yet and is only relying on the summary provided by President Zuma. However, as things stand, the report has basically declared this cold winter evening the saddest since the dawn of democracy in 1994.

In essence, 34 mineworkers were massacred in full view of the world and there is no recommendation of prosecution and someone to be held accountable. The report has not put any blame on anyone; it has not called on anyone to apologise and it has not recommended reparations for any of the lives lost. One is left to wonder if the Farlam Commission was actually investigating the same Marikana Massacre we all witnessed on 16 August 2012.

How are the commission conclusions any different in treating the Marikana massacre to how apartheid treated the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, or the Soweto Massacre of 1976 or the Vaal Uprising Massacre of 1984. No one went to prison for the brutal murder of black people in Sharpeville, Soweto and the Vaal and the families of the deceased never received any justice to this day. From the Commission we can only conclude that this is the same under democratic rule. 34 black workers are brutally murdered in broad daylight and no one will go to jail, pay or take responsibility for them.

The EFF has assembled a team of best legal minds in the country to study the report and the leadership collective will soon meet to establish a way forward. We can guarantee all South Africans that EFF will never rest until those responsible, particularly the political elite that presided over the police, including Cyril Ramaphosa, are prosecuted and sent to jail.

Furthermore, we send our solidarity to the families who have had to endure yet another public torture of being told no one will account for the murder of their loved ones. We vow to them, as we did to the 34 fallen workers when EFF was launched in Marikana, that we shall not rest until justice is served and those responsible are sent to rot in jail, particularly Cyril Ramaphosa.

The EFF shall do this because it cannot be that the political elite thinks it is above our constitution and democracy. Our justice system must be able to subject anyone, no matter who they are to prosecution and hold them accountable for their crimes. This particularly important if we are speaking about crimes against humanity because the Marikana Massacre is and will always be a crime against humanity.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, June 25 2015