Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - Social activist and political analyst Xolani Dube has lamented the alleged arrogance with which President Cyril Ramaphosa has handled the Marikana issue.
Dube’s Marikana Commemoration speech has resurfaced in a YouTube video uploaded this week and has started doing the rounds on WhatsApp platforms shared by politicians and intellectuals, who said they were concerned about the future of South Africa’s black generations.
In his speech, the analyst took the Marikana widows and orphans through the history of black life in South Africa.
He explained that he had recently visited Phoenix, where 36 black people were killed between July 12 and 15, 2021, during what has been termed the July Unrest.
He said from the days of apartheid to date, black lives have never mattered.
“Look at this hall. Only the black South African natives are here. Is it by coincidence? Clearly, it shows that in South Africa there is a war; there are people who are waging war against us.
“You talk about Phoenix, I’ve been there. Don’t forget Life Esidimeni. Don’t forget Xolobeni. We have been killed. We are being killed each and every day, but you talk about justice,” said Dube.
The activist questioned South Africa’s understanding of justice, as far as black lives were concerned.
“How can you talk about justice when there are massacres? How can you say you have a caring president? Someone who told the world that ‘One day I'll go and apologise’. As we speak today, that man never did that.
“That is arrogance from people you claim are your leaders. What is painful about the system is that it kills those who have nothing.
“How can you kill someone who is a rock driller, who has already offered his body to go deep, deep, under the belly of this earth to extract wealth for a few who must live an aristocratic life? When that person is above the ground, you kill him,” he said.
Dube explained that black massacres targeted people who were helpless.He gave an example of the 141 patients who died at Life Esidimeni.
“That’s the painful thing. The same thing happened in Life Esidimeni; they were killing people who were helpless. The same thing in Xolobeni; they were killing people who were helpless. Think of Phoenix; they were killing people who were helpless.
“And then they build walls around their Gothic houses so that you cannot climb. One day those walls will crumble. Your kids will crumble those walls and they will be flattened, and the blood of their fathers won’t flow in vain.
“The blood of your husbands still cries, and it cries with a vengeance. Human blood speaks; it will not keep quiet. Human blood is a curse to those who spilled it,” he said.
Dube, who was visibly emotional, decried the memory of Fikile Ntshangase, an elderly environmental activist who was assassinated in front of her 11-year-old grandson for objecting to mining activities in Ophondweni, KwaZulu-Natal.
Ugogo Ntshangase said “I refuse to sign, I will not sell out my people, and if need be, I will die for my people.
And indeed, she offered her body and died for her people. She was killed because she and her community organisation challenged the expansion of a large coal mine.
“Can you imagine ugogo being killed by a mining company just because she said, ‘You are not going to mine here because my soul is connected to this soil.’ So, they decided that, ‘Let’s remove your soul and we will remain with the soil.’
“You’ll never hear such things from the ANC Women’s League because there is an ANCfication of martyrdom in our country. Only those who belong to the ANC are the martyrs,” Dube said.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, did not answer phone calls and no one else from the office of the president would discuss Dube’s assertions. Magwenya also failed to respond to media questions about whether the president still had intentions to visit the Marikana widows.
Pretoria News