Thank you to Sibanye-Stillwater for the privilege of delivering this conference commemorating the eighth anniversary of the Marikana murders.
Eight years ago, 44 human beings died. They didn’t have to, but they did. We were shocked, the world shocked. My center is going out to the families. It is 18 years in constitutional democracy, 18 years in the implementation of a Constitution that commits us to heal the divisions of the afterlife and to build a society based on democratic values, social justice and human rights.
What went wrong? Marikana came because we forgot Array We forget our ugliest and most unfair beyond and the legacy she left us. We forgot to heal and aim for renewal. Baseless renewal cannot work. It’s like looking to rebuild a space whose base has structural failures. At some point, everything will collapse.
One of the things I love about Rwanda is the way they tell the story of the tragedy that struck Rwanda as South Africa was preparing for a new dawn. The Rwandan Genocide Museum is a museum about the common person, how the trauma affected her, how her life spread during those tragic days. The museum also tells the story and stories of courage on the other side, of others who came out and intervened to help, threatening themselves and their families.
When we say we commemorate Marikana, we say that other people matter. That is one of the reasons why I accepted the invitation to give this commemorative conference.
Adam Smith once said, “Justice … is the main pillar that sustains total construction. If it is removed, the great, immense fabric of human society … will have to sink into atoms in an instant.
During those few days from August 10 to 16, 2012, the social fabric was altered. But the social fabric did not break in the days of murder and rage; it was a damaged social tissue that made Marikana possible. And in the center was the memory failure.
We’re not just talking about mine healing. It’s taking a look at the Marikana region as a whole. It’s an ecosystem approach.
It is an understanding that society is a system, that humanity is interdependent in itself and with nature, and that as long as there is damage to a component of the system, it will have an effect on the total system. As long as there is injustice somewhere, there can be no lasting peace anywhere. Therefore, Sibanye-Stillwater’s initiative that sees reminiscence as curative and renewing beyond the company itself is the right way forward. If you’re not helping communities locate their own resources of work, wealth and well-being, what’s happening is that this new site is at risk because everyone needs something.
The right mentality we want is to move from an extraction technique to capital-to-work dating, between communities and companies. This means moving on to a ubuntu-based appointment and co-creating the future.
Sibanye-Stillwater’s program includes unions, adding communities. This promises to be the type of replacement that will make a difference not only for you, but also for the country at large. But being able to maintain that is an expansion mentality. This is not a public relations exercise. He wants a mindset that recognizes the mistakes of the past, accepts the vulnerability knowing that he has made mistakes, knowing how to be criticized, but recognizing that there have been mistakes, learning from them and moving forward.
Above all, it requires collaboration. We will have to abandon some of the things we love in the afterlife and rebuild from our ashes. Marikana, and many things that are happening today, adding stealing from the poor, robbing the fitness professionals who are on the front line, denying them a good enough PPE, is part of the fact that we don’t remember.
At the Thuma Foundation we say you want epic leadership, that is, moral leadership, doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because your teammates are doing it, not because they’re going to get you. do the thing, not because you will be rewarded if you do the right thing; do it just because you see in the long run what others don’t see.
We also want to be aware of the effect of what we do. You have to think about the implications of what we do. In government, we say that when you adopt a policy, think that it has an effect on everyone: other people with disabilities, other people in rural areas, other young people, women, city dwellers, etc. Don’t just have the prism of our privileged. Array because we have been given the low culmination of democracy. Develop policies that benefit everyone
That’s another challenge with where we are. We abandon the purpose of equality and opt for BEE, for those who can simply choose low-level fruit. Marikana spent 18 years in democracy. It’s not just the deplorable situations in this company; is the ecosystem as a whole. I didn’t remember, it’s not a cure, it’s not a renewal. That’s why we want to be aware of the impact.
The latter is a commitment to serve everyone, not just those who serve us. It’s epic leadership.
Judge Edwin Cameroon says the afterlife will end with us until we reconcile with your request for justice. He said that in a case on the subject of the earth.
But there is no area for newcomers unless we create an area for them. We heal without remembering and renew without healing.
Sibanye-Stillwater is a new player. He was not in Marikana in August 2012. But when you’re in the same boat and the boat sinks, there’s no point in asking who’s to blame. The correct query is how can I help?
This next decade may simply be the decade of sustainable development, the decade of social justice, the decade in which we all grow through inclusion.
Each generation has an exclusive opportunity and duty to identify and deal decisively with the urgent challenge of their time. Social justice and climate justice rooted in expansion are the most urgent challenge of our time. And this initiative of memory, renewal and reconstruction is precisely what we want as a nation. But it is the other people of Marikana who want it to the fullest because until those hearts are healed, they will have peace in this network and as long as there is no peace in this network, there will be no peace in this country. DM/BM
Adv Thuli Madonsela holds the Chair of Social Justice at the University of Stellenbosch and is the founder of the Thuma Foundation. This is an abbreviation for his Marikana memorial conference on Friday, August 14, 2020.
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