Thuma mina, sings Lutheran Ramaphosa

On Thursday 15 February Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as President of the Republic of South Africa. He succeeded Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, according to Al-Jazeera an embattled ex-leader.

In my understanding this is good for South Africa. But one should not be to optimistic. Compared with Zuma, Ramaphosa is a much better leader. That is my deep conviction. But he is still a tainted leader. He was one of the owners of the Lonmin mine, where the Marikana massacre took place 16 August 2012. 17 mine workers were killed. Shot by the police.

Ramaphosa is also a very rich person. This could be an asset. He does not need corruption. He already has enough. At the same time he is distant from the poor and marginalized.

Ramaphosa talar vid en begravning i en luthersk kyrka.

Having said that I must confess that I appreciate his leadership style. One reason for that could be that he originates from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa (ELCSA) the very church that my own Church, Church of Sweden (CoS) has been in partnership with for more than a century. According to the Limpopo Mirror he

… grew up under strict Christian supervision as his mother was a staunch member of the Lutheran Church.

I am not sure whether or not he himself belongs or has belonged to ELCSA. Be that as it may, I guess that I somehow connect with him.

I have read his State of Nation Address (SONA). Much of it is of course normal rhetoric. It is interesting though, that he speaks firmly about land expropriation without compensation:

Guided by the resolutions of the 54th National Conference of the governing party, this approach will include the expropriation of land without compensation.

We are determined that expropriation without compensation should be implemented in a way that increases agricultural production, improves food security and ensure that the land is returned to those from whom it was taken under colonialism and apartheid.

This clear message was sandwiched in between reconciling words. He started by stating that the year to come will be a commemoration of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s centenary. He was born in 1918. Ramaphose said:

Guided by his example, we will use this year to reinforce our commitment to ethical behaviour and ethical leadership.

Another icon was also born the same year:

Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu

Ramaphosa continued:

We honour this son and this daughter of the African soil in a year of change, in a year of renewal, in a year of hope.

On twitter I have seen many examples that people found hope in the speech. One tweet comments this in a very ironic way:

He spoke openly about how poverty levels have risen in 2015, how unemployment has gone up and how inequality has persisted. He also admitted that the that economy has not grown for several years. 

Of course he also spent time talking about the role of education, investment and job creation. The latter especially with the youth in focus.

An interesting thing was the announcement that the Government will introduce the first national minimum wage in South Africa in 1 of May. He also announced that

… free higher education and training will be available to first year students from households with a gross combined annual income of up to R350 000.

He also mentioned a continuing fight against HIV where the goal is set:

This year, we will take the next critical steps to eliminate HIV from our midst.

The opposition will monitor how these promises are kept. On Times Live I heard Julius Malema talk about this. The EFF will hold Ramaphosa accountable, said Malema. They gave him a chance to deliver his speech. Malema said they (EFF) want peace in the parliament.

Most interesting will be how Ramaphosa deals with his predecessor, Zuma. Will he (and the state institutions) hold him accountable? That is still to be seen. Ramaphosa said:

This is the year in which we will turn the tide of corruption in our public institutions.

The criminal justice institutions have been taking initiatives that will enable us to deal effectively with corruption.

I hope that justice really will prevail.

Ramaphosa concluded by citing a well-known South African musician, Hugh Masekela. The song is called: Thuma mina.

I wanna be there when the people start to turn it aroundWhen they triumph over poverty
I wanna be there when the people win the battle against AIDS
I wanna lend a hand
I wanna be there for the alcoholic
I wanna be there for the drug addict
I wanna be there for the victims of violence and abuse
I wanna lend a hand
Send me.

'Send me' in isiXhosa and isiZulu is 'Thuma mina'. This is the watch word of the Lutheran Youth League in ELCSA. Was this song chosen by coincidence? 

Kallak, Liberia och Marikana

En av mina kollegor i den världsvida kyrkan gör mig uppmärksam på en krönika om situationen i Kallak. Sara Meidell, kulturredaktör på Västerbottenskuriren, skriver om samernas situation och inte minst hur konsten kan vara en del i kampen för mänskliga rättigheter i Sapmi, när provsprängning ska ske och kortsiktiga ekonomiska intressen råder.

Jag tänker på att Luleåstift har vänskapsband med den Lutherska kyrkan i Liberia, där Sverige varit mycket aktiv i gruvnäringen.

Liberia, som också försöker leva försoning efter sitt långa inbördeskrig. Den Lutherska kyrkan driver ett Trauma Healing & Reconciliation Program.  I det arbetet har man samarbetat med the Institute for Healing of Memories i Sydafrika.

Detta institut grundades av Michael Lapsley. Om honom skriver Härnösands stifts biskop Tuulikki Koivonen Bylund på sin blogg under rubriken:

Dags visa vad försoning betyder. 

Hon skriver om samerna. Då var vi tillbaka där denna bloggpost började. Men Härnösands stift har också ett vänstift, Cape Orange Diocese, i södra Afrika, där Marikana ligger.

Allt hänger ihop. Kristi kyrka finns också högst inblandad i det som sker. Frågan är bara:

Hur?

The Marikana Commemoration

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the shootings in Marikana. I have tried to follow this on the web, in newspapers and other media like radio and TV. Some things have become clearer but I still have some questions.

First of the all the day was calm. No incidents were reported. There were worries about new fights between rivalling trade unions. According to the National police commissioner Riah Phiyega, quoted in Mail and Guardian,

… all parties present behaved in a manner indicative of the respect being paid to all those who passed away over this period in 2012 …

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) was one of the organisers. (It’s good to see that the Council is still active, although this is a bit re-active rather than pro-active). I was a bit surprised that the Government was not part of the commemoration, but given the fact that the police was heavily involved in the shootings (yes, they actually shot 34 miners) this can be understood. Another remarkable thing is that only one trade union was represented on the stage, namely the youngest and now largest at Lonmins mine in Marikana: AMCU. But after some research I understood that the other unions wanted to avoid conflicts and decided not to join.

But then the question arises: if the shot mine workers were from different trade unions, how can the other trade unions decide not to be part of the commemoration? In fact, my interpretation is that the shot mine workers (at least the 34 who were shot by the police) came from AMCU only. Maybe the other 10, who were killed before 16 August last year, belonged to other unions. This opens up for other questions like: Why did the police shoot workers from AMCU? Why is not the Government (ANC) part of the commemoration? (The ANC is in an alliance with Cosatu. The oldest trade union for mine workers, NUM, belong to Cosatu). My confusion has to do with the relation between NUM, Cosatu, ANC, Lonmin and the police force. As reader you can understand what kind of question I want to ask ….

There is an on-going investigation: the Farlam commission. Former Arts and Culture Minister, Pallo Jordan, is quite harsh in BDLive:

The ANC government eschewed the methods of repressive governments: armed police, security police raids, followed by arrests. But the snail’s pace at which the Farlam Commission is carrying out its inquiry compounds the tragedy. We need answers in a hurry to correct the crowd-control methods employed by our police.

It’s going to be interesting to follow what comes out of this.

On a closing note: ANC was not present. But almost all the other political parties were. Trying to get votes, of course. But also initiative. According to Citypress Julius Malema stole the show. Having said, as Mail and Guardian puts it:

Zuma and Lonmin have blood on their hands

Maybe that answers the question I did not ask. Whether this is right or wrong it makes me worried that Malema is the one at the centre of the stage in all this.

Marikana and Cosatu

The reader of this blogpost will understand that I have not fully understood the situation. Let me give some short insights:

The Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu's) central executive committee is gathered tonight in a serious meeting. According to BusinessDayLive the Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s fate is on the agenda. He is accused of having raped a woman in the organisation.

On 16 August one year has passed after the massacre at Marikana. Today I read in Mail & Guardian that the new trade union, AMCU, has been recognised as the majority union at Lonmin. The old one, NUM, is a member of Cosatu.

IOL news says that Vavi scandal has claimed its first casualty. A special national executive committee of the SA Democratic Teachers Union has suspended Thobile Ntola, president of the teachers’ union Sadtu. He had allowed Vavi to address a gathering in the Eastern Cape, so that he could explain himself.

There is a discussion in Cosatu whether or not they should support Zuma. As far as I understand Vavi is not a Zuma supporter. But isn't the Vavi story very similar to the Zuma-saga? Some also claim that there is a conspiracy here, just as others said when Zuma was accused for having raped a women.

I don’t understand much but I have to ask: Who cares about the woman who maybe was raped? Who cares about the mine workers in Marikana whose salaries still are too low?

Economic Freedom Fighters

Huruvida Julius Malema är känd eller ökänd överlåter jag åt läsaren att avgöra. Den tidigare presidenten i ANC’s ungdomsförbund, som jag bloggat om förut, blev ju utesluten ur ANC. Nu har han bildat ett eget parti, som heter just Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Under vårt första dygn i Sydafrika fick jag två kommentarer om detta. Båda var starkt kritiska. En av dem uttrycktes i gårdagens predikan, där en av de blivande prästerna i vår kyrka, gick hårt åt både Malema och hans parti. (I mitt tycke är inte predikan rätt forum för partipolitik, vilket jag också förmedlat till prästkandidaten). I detta sammanhang vill jag nämna det för att visa att Malema engagerar och att det vore dumt att räkna ut honom. Han hart ett visst folkligt stöd och sådant ska inte underskattas. Särskilt inte i en demokrati, där det ju är meningen att just folket ska bestämma. Mail and Guardian redovisar en undersökning som säger att 38% av unga sydafrikaner stödjer partiet. Jag undrar om det verkligen kan vara möjligt?

Nu tror jag visserligen inte att hans stöd är tillräckligt stort för att utgöra ett reellt hot mot ANC. Det verkar inte heller som om partiet hunnit organisera sig. Exempelvis hittar jag ingen hemsida. Men partiet finns på facebook. På minst två sidor. Men det kanske är precis rätt strategi. Jag vet inte vilken sida som är officiell men så här ser de ut. Länken till sida nr 1 kommer här.

Malema har titeln: Commander in Chief.

Och länken till sida nr 2 här.

Denna sida har 10 000 fler likes. 

Just nu vet jag för lite om detta. Partiet bildades, enligt wikipedia, den 26 juli och ska officiellt lanseras den 17 augusti, en dag efter årsdagen av massakern i Marikana. Med andra ord ber jag att få återkomma. Redan nu kan dock sägas att det kommer bli ett intressant val nästa år. ANC utmanas från många håll och även om det mesta talar för att ANC kommer att vinna, så är valsegern för första gången på länge inte så kassaskåpssäker.

En bild säger ju mer än 1000 ord och detta gäller i synnerhet Afrikakartan i partiets logotype:

Den gula illustrationen i nederdelen är ett gruvtorn. Malema vill bl a att alla gruvor i Sydafrika nationaliseras.

En för mig okänd kolumnist på News 24, Clem Sunter, sammanfattar det jag känner inför detta parti:

Right with the problem, wrong with the solution.

Production has been unaffected.

I read this heading in Business Day Live. It is in the context of the following:

One person was killed and another seriously wounded in a shooting incident at the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM’s) offices at Lonmin’s Wonderkop operations near Rustenburg.

According to the Mail and Guardian the NUM regional spokesperson, Mxhasi Sithethi, said that the local shaft leaders

… was killed in front of the union offices …

I contiune to read:

The shootings at the Marikana mine near Rustenburg, north-west of Johannesburg, follow the assassination of a leader from NUM's rival union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), last month.

Remember the shootings at Marikana last year. Involved were the NUM and Amcu. And the police, of course. 34 people were killed by the police but before the police came to the scene there had been a number of killings.

Let’s pray that the police can stop this in time and without using the kind of force they did last year.

From what I read in the M&G I understand that the company has agreed in negotiations at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to set

… threshold rights of 35% for basic rights and 45% for collective bargaining and rights to full-time shop stewards.

NUM members make up only 20% of the workforce and therefor they don’t get organisational rights. I guess this means they cannot go on strikes etc.

But isn’t it sad to read that the production has been unaffected. Which workplace would continue production when one of the trade union leaders has been shot dead?

Två lutheraner i det mediala rampljuset

Till fredagstraditionen hör att köpa veckans exemplar av Mail & Guardian. Det är en Sydafrikas mest kritiska pressröster. En veckotidning som ser ut som en dagstidning. Den är tjock och innehåller många djuplodande, politiska analyser. Den finns även på nätet och jag brukar ofta läsa den i Sverige.

Toppnyheten denna fredag handlar om en misstänkt korruptionshärva i Johannesburg. Affärsmannen Vivian Reddy misstänks ha fått en order värd 1 miljard Rand p g a sin vänskap med och sitt ekonomiska stöd till president Zuma. Zuma lär också, enligt tidningen ha sagt, att de affärsmän som stödjer ANC kan förvänta sig att

… everything you touch will multiply.

Absolut inte bra. Bättre då att läsa om kollegan, den lutherske prästen Nosey Pieterse, som finns på bild på framsidan med rubriken:

The pig farmer behind the farm strikes

I Western Cape är det manga underbetalda farmarbetare som strejkar och tidningen hävdar att Nosey uppmuntrar strejken, vilket kan verka märkligt, eftersom han sitter på dubbla stolar. Jag visste inte att han hade en grisfarm men jag visste att han är inblandad i vinframställan och enligt M&G ära han ordförande för ”the Black Association of the Wine and Spirit Industry (BAWSI)”. Lite märkligare är kanske att han samtidigt är sekreterare i ”the BAWSI Agricultural Worker’s Union of South Africa (BAWUS)”. Den lokala strejkledaren i det lilla samhället De Doorns någon timme nordost om Kapstaden säger om Nosey, som ocksä är hennes lokale präst:

We love and trust Nosey / … / Whenever help is needed, Nosey is there.

En annan Lutheran (jag tror i alla fall att han är det), som kanske sitter på dubbla stolar, har jag skrivit om förut, nämligen nyvalde vice ordföranden för ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa. Han är nu tillbaka i toppolitiken, som han lämnade för många år se’n, när han valde att göra karriär i näringslivet. Han hade varit ledare för COSATU (motsvarigheten till LO i Sydafrika) men är idag delägare i den gruva i Marikana, där polisen sköt ner nästan 40 gruvarbetare. Ramaphosa anses av många vara en betydligt mer sansad ledare än Zuma och många, inte minst i näringslivet och bland de vita, skulle hellre se honom vid rodret. Kolumnisten Richard Calland menar att Ramaphosa inte kan göra så mycket på egen hand. Hans beskrivning av situationen i ANC är pessimistisk:

But, arguably, the ANC’s character has long ago changed beyond the point of no return: to some observers of the Mangaung proceedings it has become a party of “arrivistes”, a vehicle for the socioeconomic advancement of individuals, but not the grand driver of structural social change and reform it once was.

Det ska bli mycket intressant att följa ANC’s utveckling på nära hall under åren framöver. Jag tror att det finns hopp men då måste, som vanligt, gräsrötterna säga ifrån.

Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 40 years

Last week I was in South Africa and coincidentally I happened to be in Pietermaritzburg at the 40th Anniversary of the Journal of Theology for Southern Africa (JTSA). One of its former editors, James (Jim) Cochrane, gave a lecture as a tribute to the journal: Spiritual capacity, Spirituality and the Challenge of Freedom.

Before he started, the occasion was opened by Janet Trisk, current editor together with the general editor Gerald West. After a few words she gave over to the founder, John de Gruchy. He gave us a few glimpses from the early years of the publication and I was happy to hear that amongst names like Desmond Tutu and David Bosch he directly mentioned Axel-Ivar Berglund. Axel-Ivar was born by Swedish parents in South Africa not far from Pietermaritzburg. He studied theology in Sweden but returned to South Africa as a missionary. He worked with theological education in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa at Umpumulo, where pastors were trained before the education moved to LTI in Pietermaritzburg. Axel-Ivar also worked at the SACC and he holds a PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Axel-Ivar has been and is still a great inspiration to me.

Back to the lecture. John de Gruchy was the first editor, Jim Cochrane the second. The third editor was Steve de Gruchy, late son of John and Isobel de Gruchy. Isobel, who is a poet and painter, was also present at the lecture. Steve was Dean at the School of Religion and Theology at UKZN and died in his fifties. I never had the opportunity to meet him but have understood that he was an exceptional theologian.

John spoke about the time when the journal was launched as “one of the darkest periods in the history of South Africa”. In 1972 the Prime Minister was B J Vorster and his brother, J D Vorster was an influential Dutch Reformed Church clergyman. As far as apartheid was concerned church and state went hand in hand.

Echoes of our time

Much has happened since then but Jim Cochrane started his lecture by talking about the Marikana shootings, saying that many draw parallels to Sharpeville and he concluded:

We are not the society we promised to become …

He gave a number of examples like HIV and AIDS, the refusal by some privileged whites to reconcile, corruption, syndicates having come to SA, violence against women and children but also against men, crime, and most of all the growth of the gap between rich and poor.

But then he told the story about Dr C V Pillay trying to fight corruption at Madwaleni rural hospital in Eastern Cape. Prof Cochrane spoke about the need for another kind of spirituality and he asked if and how theology in South Africa today has taken up this responsibility.

The lecture was divided into three parts. “Echoes of our time” was the first. The next was:

Possibilities

He spoke about a capacity that human beings have: the capacity to imagine new possibilities and bring them into being. We are created in the image of God. In latin: Imago dei. The key insight being that this also is a spiritual capacity. We can imagine a just society and bring into being.

So he turned to the third part:

Freedom and responsibility

The task of theology today is to address the new possibilities. The society is in dire need of courage, passion, rigour, seriousness and hope. This could be a contribution by theology.

After the lecture we had the opportunity to ask questions. Two interesting comments came from Sue Rakoczy (at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Pietermaritzburg) and Clint Le Bruin (at School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at UKZN). Sue asked when the first woman had an article published in the JTSA. According to Cochrane probably in the beginning of the 1980s. Clint introduced himself as a rather young theologian and asked for forgiveness being rude, when he asked whether Cochrane wasn’t just an old professor saying that things were better before. Clint himself experiences that the theology of today is vibrant. So these two persons gave voice to two groups (women and youth) who haven’t always been taken serious in South Africa.

The answer from Cochrane was that things are worse now. And it is not only a South African phenomenon. All over the globe the credo of our time is: Me, me and mine, mine. But there is hope. There are possibilities. Cochrane saw as one possibility the shift of theological language and he actually gave an example from a charismatic church. (Although he is not a charismatic Christian in that sense of the word).

It is a great privilege to be able to join this context of responsible theologians early next year. Hopefully I can also make a contribution.

Janet Trisk

Isobel and John de Gruchy and to the right Gerald West

Jim Cochrane

The Marikana shootings, justice and healing

Today I come across two reactions to the Marikana shootings. Both are expressed by church leaders in South Africa. I think they relate to one another although they don’t address the same aspects.

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, has a blog. This week he publishes a letter to the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. In the letter the Archbishop strongly urges the President to make state funded legal representation available to families of those mine workers, who were killed at the Lonmin mines in Marikana in August this year. Apparently the Government is funding the legal representation of the police, who killed mine workers but similar legal support is not being extended to the miners themselves nor to the families of those who lost their lives. It is not often that the Archbishop nowadays writes this kind of appeals to the President. Former Archbishop, Desmond Mpilo Tutu, often did so. It is a good sign. Archbishop Makgoba ends his letter in the same tradition as Tutu used to do:

Please be assured that you remain always in my own prayers, and those of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, that God will bless you with his wisdom and grace to follow his best paths in all you do, so that you might be a blessing to this nation, and to all its people.

Yours in the service of Christ

+Thabo Cape Town

Another example where the Marikana shootings are commented on comes from Fr Michael Lapsley, also an Anglican Church leader. He is the founder of the Institute for Healing of Memories. In an interview in the Mail and Guardian he is described as a struggle veteran who became a healer. A letter bomb in 1990 shattered both his ear drums, destroyed one eye and blew off both hands. He then discovered his new calling, namely to become a healer of the South African nation. He says that the Marikana shootings is the latest example that South Africa is still a traumatised nation.

We need to find a way of listening to each other and not simply shouting past one another. But that also needs to be coupled with the challenge that the income distribution between rich and poor in South Africa is the most unequal on earth. We need to speak not only about poverty but also about greed.

I hope that many more Church leaders start to voice their critique. To me it brings hope. Do we hear a voice like this in Sweden? Well, it happens that our own Archbishop, Anders Wejryd, writes letters to our Prime Minister. Last year he critisised the Swedish Government for voting against the Palestinian application to join United Nations' cultural organisation UNESCO. He also strongly opposed Sweden’s arms export in an article in Dagens Nyheter last year. But when does he critisise the Government for injustices in the Swedish society?

Vad hände i Marikana?

Mail and Guardian tar upp en del aspekter på dödsskjutningarna i Sydafrika. Den största fackföreningen för gruvarbetare, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), har ca: 360 000 medlemmar. Deras ledare på 80-talet var Cyril Ramaphosa, som ironiskt nog finns med I styrelsen för Lonmin. NUM har under åren satsat mer på samarbetet med ANC och det sydafrikanska kommunistpartiet än på fackföreningsfrågor. NUM är det största medlemsförbundet i Sydafrikas motsvarighet till LO, som heter COSATU. Mail and Guardian skriver:

For more than a decade Cosatu has concentrated on socioeconomic and political issues. Instead of organising on the shop floor it has harried the ANC government to adopt increasingly left-leaning policies. The NUM, one of the two biggest unions within Cosatu, has been at the forefront of these struggles.

NUM har varit splittrat i frågan kring huruvida Jacob Zuma ska väljas om som president i ANC och därmed även bli Sydafrikas president en period till. För denna splittring har man betalat ett högt pris. Andelen medlemmar vid Lonmin-gruvan har minskat från 66% till 49%. Missnöjda fackföreningsledare inom CUM har då bildat the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). Nu besöker olika politiska ledare Marikana. För att vinna politiska poäng. Polischefen Riah Phiyega ångrar däremot inget, säger Mail and Guardian och hänvisar till the Sowetan:

"Safety of the public is not negotiable. Don't be sorry about what happened.."

Och läser man på ANC’s hemsida berömde de så sent som den 15 augusti polisens agerande:

The ANC commends the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for their swift intervention and the deployment of about three thousand (3000) heavily armed police personnel in and around the mine precinct. The police presence has indeed suppressed tensions, and we are thrilled that calm has been restored. We call upon the police to make sure that the culprits responsible for the murders are arrested.

Hur kunde ANC missbedöma situation så kapitalt?

Marikana

Värsta blodbadet i Sydafrika efter 1994. I torsdags fick vi det fruktansvärda budet att 34 gruvarbetare dödats av polis vid en gruva i västra Sydafrika. Marikana! Vad som har hänt är inte lätt att veta. Polisens berättelse har ändrats. Först pratade man om att även polisen greps av panik. Sedan att de inte hade något val.
Det är olika fackföreningar som redan innan polisen ingrep hade varit inblandade i stridigheter med dödsfall som följd. Den ena heter The Association of Mineworkers and Constructution Union (AMCU) och den andra The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Det är inte enkelt att förstå vari konflikten består men definitivt är det för enkelt att påstå att konflikten bara handlar om stridigheter mellan två fackförbund. Enligt Mining weekly är AMCU är en relativt nystartad fackförening som utmanar det monopol som NUM har haft.
Gruvan ägs av ett företag som heter Lonmin. På deras hemsida kan man läsa:

Lonmin, which is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, is one of the world’s largest primary producers of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs). These metals are essential for many industrial applications, especially catalytic converters for internal combustion engine emissions, as well as their widespread use in jewellery.

I ett första pressmeddelande skriver Lonmins styrelseordföranden Roger Phillimore:

We are treating the developments around police operations this afternoon with the utmost seriousness. The South African Police Service (SAPS) have been in charge of public order and safety on the ground since the violence between competing labour factions erupted over the weekend, claiming the lives of eight of our employees and two police officers. It goes without saying that we deeply regret the further loss of life in what is clearly a public order rather than labour relations associated matter.

I mitt tycke verkar det inte som om företaget erkänner någon delaktighet i det som hänt. Är det rimligt? Jag vet inte, men frågorna måste ju ställas.
Helt klart är att Sydafrikas president, Jacob Zuma, är kritisk mot polisens agerande. En utredning ska inledas. En annan som engagerar sig är förre ledaren för ANC Youth leageu, Julius Malema, som enligt Mail and Guardian besökte området idag. Ett spännande citat, från ANC youth leagues f d talesperson, Floyd Shivambu för tankarna till tidigare händelser i Sydafrikas historia:

Most of the people were shot at the back, indicating that they were running away so police actions were not justified …

För den som känner Sydafrikas förflutna går tankarna till händelserna i Sharpeville den 21 mars 1960, när minst 69 personer dödades och även då de flesta sköts i ryggen. Som jag uppfattar det är Shivambus uttalande ett sätt att koppla händelsen till kampen mot apartheid. Denna retorik är vanlig i Sydafrika. Inte så konstigt att just de, som petats ur ANC, använder denna retorik. Polisen har definitivt använt övervåld. Rimligen måste en utredning leda till fällande domar för polisbefäl och polischefer på olika nivåer. Det blir, mitt i tragiken, ett viktigt prov för Sydafrikas rättssystem. Samtidigt måste blickarna också riktas mot president Zumas och regeringens oförmåga att leda utvecklingen mot ett mer rättvist samhälle.