Marikana happened because we forgot to remember. We forgot to remember our ugly past, our unjust past, and the legacy it had left with us.
On those few days from August 12 to 16 2012, the fabric of society was tampered with. And this process that is happening today and that’s been happening since then, is a process to rebuild the social fabric that was torn. But the social fabric was not torn during those days of killing and anger. It was, in fact, the broken fabric of society that made Marikana possible.I am pleased as I read the documents about this healing process that we are not just talking about healing the mine.
I have spoken to a couple of companies that are involved in mining and other initiatives in rural areas, usually new initiatives. When you start these initiatives and you are not helping the community to find its own sources of work, wealth and well-being, what happens is that one developmental site becomes threatened because everyone wants something from it.
At Stellenbosch University we have something that is called the Mosa-Plan for Social Justice. It has similar elements about all hands on deck to heal our communities from ward level upwards, leveraging our intellectual property, leveraging our physical resources, including money, to make sure that we lift everyone up, or we help everyone to lift themselves up, so that no one is left behind. Because as I said, when there is weakness somewhere in the system, it threatens everything.
I looked at the programme and it includes the unions, it includes communities, and I think this promises to be the kind of shift that is going to move the needle not just for yourselves, but for the country as a whole. What kind of leadership is going to help us to have a growth mindset? At the Thuma Foundation we say you need leadership that is epic, leadership that is ethical, that you do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, not because your peers are doing it, not because you are going to be caught doing the wrong thing, and not because you are going to be rewarded if you do the right thing.
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IN FULL | We must never forget: Thuli Madonsela on the Marikana massacreFormer public protector Thuli Madonsela has called on South Africans to always remember the deaths of 44 people in the Marikana massacre eight years ago, and to use the devastating events to spur the country to become better and to heal.
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IN FULL | We must never forget: Thuli Madonsela on the Marikana massacreFormer public protector Thuli Madonsela has called on South Africans to always remember the deaths of 44 people in the Marikana massacre eight years ago, and to use the devastating events to spur the country to become better and to heal.
Read more »
Memorial Lecture: Remembering and renewal: Thoughts on building a positive future for the Marikana regionIn this abridged version of a Marikana Memorial lecture delivered by former Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela, she reminded South Africans that ‘we can’t heal without remembering’.
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No successful prosecutions for Marikana massacre, eight years laterThe legal representatives of the families of the mineworkers killed by police in Marikana, North West, eight years ago are unhappy that no one has been successfully prosecuted for the massacre.
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More Marikana shooting victims have since died, others still surprised they survived 2012 massacreIt has been eight years since the deadly wage-related strike by mine workers at Lonmin's Platinum mine in Marikana, Rustenburg,
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