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But members of the party’s national executive committee (NEC), the party’s highest decision-making body between conferences, at its meeting in Pretoria this weekend differed over whether party infighting was also partly to blame.
The ANC’s national working committee (NWC) warned in a report tabled at the meeting by party secretary general Gwede Mantashe that “Marikana” has become interchangeable with the governing party’s leadership battles ahead of its elective conference in Mangaung.
The report said Marikana is held up as evidence of why the party should replace its leaders.
A source who attended the meeting and who wants to see Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe replace President Jacob Zuma, said former defence minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Western Cape secretary Songezo Mjongile questioned how Mantashe “could equate everything that happened with Mangaung”.
They argued the ongoing violence at Marikana, where police shot dead 34 protesters after 10 people were murdered in the days before “confirmed there is a vacuum of leadership”.
They also criticised the indirect call to charge Malema for encouraging workers from other mines to strike.
“If the police go and arrest Julius Malema for illegal gatherings, that instruction would have come from Luthuli House [the ANC’s headquarters] and that is a problem because the police must decide on the basis of facts,” the source said.
He also said Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who last week slammed Malema as a counter-revolutionary for meeting with soldiers, “broke ranks” by saying the ANC and government should apologise for the deaths at Marikana.
Mapisa-Nqakula, who is seen to be a Zuma supporter, said “you can’t kill so many people and think it is normal. We ourselves were shocked”.
In the report the ANC complained the party and state institutions were “deliberately being delegitimised”.
To repair the likely damage to a relationship between the ANC and mine workers, the party proposed “more political work” be done in mining communities.
In the report, the NWC had the following to say about the individuals and organisations it believes are behind the crisis at Marikana:
“The emphasis on Lonmin being a British mining company derives from the British media’s offensive on the South African government without even mentioning the role of, or [role] supposed to be played by, the employer.
“This narrow approach has created space for resentment against black South Africans, wherein minority shareholders who happen to be black get blamed as having the sole responsibility in the company.”
“The prominence of the destructive role played by populism and mavericks points to the possibility of the creation of liberated zones for counter-revolution and connection of the zone into a Renamo-type movement.
“The Marikana tragedy has been exploited by many forces, among them Malema and the Friends of the Youth League, opposition parties, a section of the clergy and some within structures of the ANC.”
Meanwhile, Cosatu congress delegates chanted “Zuma, Zuma” as President Zuma made his way on to the stage at Gallagher Estate in Midrand yesterday.
Wearing a red golf shirt, he hugged a few people before taking his seat at the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) 11th national congress.
Zuma was expected to address delegates after Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini had delivered the opening address.
SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande was expected to speak later in the day.
Delegates from Cosatu’s 20 affiliates were scheduled to discuss the organisa-tion’s political report yesterday. — Sapa
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter