Have we learned anything from the Marikana killings? How long will it be before our police once again use deadly force against protesting civilians – and end up with a death toll that shocks the nation? These are the questions we have to ask 10 years after more than 30 miners died in a spate of police firing. And we need to get answers – both from the police and their political masters, the ANC. The reality is that there were no answers – at least adequate ones. It doesn’t look like they will either. This is…
Have we learned anything from the Marikana killings? How long will it be before our police once again use deadly force against protesting civilians – and end up with a death toll that shocks the nation?
These are the questions we have to ask 10 years after more than 30 miners died in a spate of police firing. And we need to get answers – both from the police and from their political masters, the ANC.
The reality is that there were no answers – at least adequate ones. It doesn’t look like they will either. This is not a simple academic discussion either.
In the 10 years since Marikana, protests, which often turn violent, have become commonplace. And last July, the mother of all protests in KZN and elsewhere – what President Cyril Ramaphosa described as an “uprising” – gave us a terrifying glimpse of what a total collapse of law and order would look like.
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The possibility that this will happen again cannot be ignored. The rebellion went so far and so fast because there was no public order response. Most of our security cluster was down until it was too late.
A strict crowd control policy is needed, based on global best practices and a graduated set of response measures depending on threats to life and property of members of the public. This is far from the case given the brutal and chaotic suppression of civilians during the Covid-19 lockdown since March 2020.
Police officers assigned to public order tasks must be the best, brightest and best trained in the service. Their commanders must also be top notch, not ANC operatives.
It’s not fair to let poorly trained, poorly managed, scared officers be the ones who end up with blood on their conscience.
