Mr Speaker, Deputy President, fellow members of the House, I hope that in future the immensity of the responsibility we all carry in this House will never weigh as heavily as it does on my own shoulders today. Death is final and nothing can reverse it. Those who have been shot and killed are gone forever. As far as we are concerned in Cope, this was something that was avoidable, if only we had stuck to the provisions of our national Constitution and ensured daily that we didn't do what we thought we liked, but only did what was prescribed and agreed to when we wrote the Constitution.
Our Constitution clearly prescribes that there shall only be one police service, not a police force, in this country. The decision taken by the authors of our Constitution was guided by a long history of the experience of the majority of the people of this country, especially the ones with gutter skills.
In 1960, the police force of apartheid mowed down and destroyed the lives of 69 people in Sharpeville, and slaughtered other adults here in Langa, in Cape Town. Later on, in 1976, it also happened in Uitenhage, where babies, children, were slaughtered by the police force of apartheid, and so on and so on. So, when the authors of our Constitution declared that there will be a police service to deal with the citizens of the country, it was educated by that long experience of what it means to live with a police force amongst citizens. Yet, I cannot overlook the fact that the Constitution has been adopted.
On 1 April 2010, the present head of state introduced new ranks when he said that the police must become a police force and no longer be a police service. He did not amend the Constitution, but those words were pronounced and ranks of general and colonel - military ranks - were introduced.
I do not know what training was given to these people who did these things. Yet, I can recall now again with vivid clarity how these people, who are now in a police force with military ranks in Ficksburg, when protesters were only asking for water and electricity, shot point blank at Andries Tatane, whose life is gone now. I said at that time as well that it was the beginning and, that there was more to come. I am not proud that I said that but I could see the pattern of development.
So, what happened at Marikana last week? This police force had been interacting with the people there for days on end. Where was the executive? I did not see the Minister, labour or the police going there to intervene in a way one would have expected from men and women who have the responsibility to protect the lives of the ordinary citizens. What I saw next was a large number of mainly young black South Africans clad in bulletproof vests and armed with automatic machine rifles.
They were standing there, holding these things and facing the citizens. Irrespective of the number of the workers that were on strike and the weapons they were carrying, they could never have been a threat to those militarily armed people. Of course, I must ask a question, even if you are making a noise. [Interjections.]