Marikana and Sharpeville

 

One of the great myths of South Africa relates to the massacre at Sharpeville.  Certainly it was a tragedy and should not have happened.  The truth is that a group of young, inexperienced Policemen, badly trained and with the belief that weapons are the solution to many problems, were confronted by thousands of screaming Black ‘rioters’, as it certainly seemed to them.  They lost their nerve, and opened fire on the mob.  The ‘riot’ was not a spontaneous event.  It was organized and incited by politicians who had the secure knowledge that, sooner or later, a tragedy would result, as it did during the Soweto Riots.  And a tragedy did result.  The fact is that the Policemen did not plan to kill the rioters.  The killing resulted because they believed that they were faced with their own deaths if they did nothing.  They panicked, as would most people faced with a seemingly almost certain violent death.

The slaughter at Marikana was a different matter in many ways.  The rioters were called to the hill to protest.  They brought weapons with them, and had already demonstrated by ten killings in earlier days that they were not only willing to use them, but that they intended to use them.  The Police knew of this gathering of armed and potentially violent people – even the South African Police Services must have been aware of ten people having been killed, including two of their own – yet did nothing to stop the situation developing.  Once the riot had reached the point where it seemed to be out of control, the Police, inadequately trained as they were and with no understanding of crowd control, poor discipline and having a background of violence as a solution to any problem, were given a command by a Commissioner of Police to open fire on the crowd.  The fact is that the people killed and injured went to the hill with at least an intention to use the weapons they possessed.  They were ‘treated’ by a witchdoctor, who assured them that they would be invisible to the Police and invincible to the Police weapons.  These are hardly the acts of a group of peaceful protestors.  The fact is that the Police, eighteen years into an ANC Government, do not have the capabilities or training to handle the situation adequately and with minimum force.  The fact is that the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of the Police Force, had no understanding of the basic principles of policing in such a situation and was not competent to undertake the task.  The whole situation is a mess.  The tragedy of Marikana would have happened, if not there, then elsewhere.  If things do not improve, it will happen again. 

Unfortunately, that describes the situation in much of Government in South Africa.  People have been appointed to senior positions, in which they have considerable power for good or for bad, without any understanding or experience to qualify them for that position.  Being a card-holding ANC Member, regardless of the fact that the Ministers believe that they have universal knowledge, is not adequate proof of capability to do a job.  The result of that situation is that many parts of Government in South Africa are either bumbling along or are in the process of imploding.  The structures of Government are in a state that will, in many cases, ensure failure.  There are many good Black Managers in South Africa, but unfortunately, the examples of abjectly bad management are so glaring to the public that the good examples are not seen, and the impression is given that all Blacks in Government positions are ANC stooges.  The recent run of two Police Commissioners and a General of Police being involved in serious criminal allegations has painted so poor a picture of President Zuma’s ability to choose the right man or woman for the job that, inevitably, any new incumbent will be subjected to very careful scrutiny.  The new Commissioner of Police has proved her lack of experience, a lack that has almost certainly led to many unnecessary deaths.  One can only wonder whether she, and also the President, will learn the lessons of Marikana.

The numbers of deaths make Sharpeville a more severe example of the failure of training, but the fact that, in Marikana, a considered order was given to open fire on a mob, against a background of an almost incredible series of Police and Government bungling, makes Marikana a much more serious event.  It is one that will certainly remain in the memory of responsible people as a clear statement of the inability to manage of the Zuma Presidency and the ANC Government, long after they are consigned to the footnotes of the history of South Africa’s decline.