Hon Speaker, this is indeed a tragic time in our country's history. I think every South African is trying to come to terms with what happened.
It is difficult to make sense of what is a complex issue. There were a multitude of failures on all sides. As a result, 44 people sacrificed their lives as a culmination of these failures. Hopefully, the commission of inquiry will precisely reveal each actor's culpability in this disaster, from the police to the unions, to the lack of leadership in government, to a mining company that shows no remorse and has proven to be completely incapable of containing the rising tensions at the mine.
There are so many dimensions to this tragedy, but I am only concerned with one dimension, and that is the human dimension. I am still haunted by the image of that woman with the baby on her back, searching desperately for her husband who never returned home. She explained that her husband's wages supported not only her but his brother, his grandmother and a number of children. Many lives have been shattered by this tragedy, and we as a nation need to hang our heads in shame, as this is not only a national disaster but a national embarrassment to our new democratic order.
Baie lewens is verpletter deur hierdie tragedie, en ons as 'n nasie moet ons hoofde in skaamte laat sak, want dit is nie net 'n nasionale ramp nie, maar 'n nasionale verleentheid vir ons nuwe demokrasie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Many lives have been shattered by this tragedy, and we as a nation need to hang our heads in shame, for this is not only a national disaster, but a national embarrassment to our new democratic order.]
Our collective psyche has been wounded and we must use this as an opportunity to ask some hard questions about our society as a whole. Some of those questions include whether the police are fully trained in methods to deal with situations where big crowds are involved, by using - and I would like to emphasise - water cannons, shields or rubber bullets, instead of live ammunition. Is it necessary to go on strike with knives, guns and pangas? Should it have reached the point where the police had to open fire and use strong-arm tactics, in line with the dangerous shoot-to-kill mentality? Do the unions in South Africa have too much power? Maybe they must stop trying to display power through membership. As a result, this happened.
As a nation, how do we respond to future strikes in our country, and will we ever learn from this? We need to recommit ourselves to the principles of nonviolence and the right to life and human dignity, as the incident has taught us how fragile life can be. We need to question our political systems. We need to question the police. We need to question our unions. We need to question our labour relations systems that could clearly not respond properly to this escalation in tensions.
I would also like to pass on my condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. I thank you. [Applause.]