Marikana Murders: A strange form of Justice

Following the Lonmin mine shootings in South Africa, where around 34 miners were shot by the police, the public prosecutor has now arrested those responsible for the shootings. The police who shot the miners, you might well have thought?  Nope – actually, several hundred of the miners who the Police didn’t have time to get round to shooting dead are the ones who have now been arrested for the murder of their colleagues, including several wounded by the police (I wonder if they will be charged with causing GBH to themselves). Not unpredictably, this has caused an uproar. Cooler heads in the ANC Government are now wondering if this has been, perhaps, handled in a rather provocative manner.

Apparently the Prosecutor is relying upon some arcane piece of legislation from the dark days of Apartheid when some fevered mind dreamt up a piece of “legislation” that seems to imply that, in this case the survivors of a riot, because they were not the ones shot, are therefore to blame for the deaths of the others and thus the guilty parties. After all, the Police were, presumably, only following orders.

What it does demonstrate, in halogen bright light, is the inherent hypocrisy of Governments. When in exile the ANC spent its time in a state of perpetual moral outrage at the excesses of the apartheid Gov’t. Upon getting into power it seems to have decided certain aspects of the former state's laws were not perhaps as awful as it made out. As a result, it has retained various pieces of the previous regime’s odious legislation on the books…”just in case, for a rainy day, you never know when….” But its not really different to any other Government in terms of what is says it will do when in opposition, and what is does when in power.

Obama railed against the last Republican Govt over Guantanamo Bay and how, when he was President, it would be closed down once and for all. Well, Obama is running for re-election, and Guantanamo Bay is still open for business. Apparently, once in power he realised it was easier to keep it open than to close it down. Far more convenient to keep your enemies locked up in another country than have the bother of keeping them on your home turf where they could claim all sort of annoying rights. 

Elsewhere the Socialists in France went bright magenta with moral outrage when former President Sarkozy tried to tackle the problem of the eastern European Gypsies in a robust manner. Now in Government, their leader, Mr Hollande, faced with the same problem, is reacting just like the man who he vilified when in opposition.

The only surprising thing about all of this is that we continue to be surprised by it. But then again, hypocrisy is the great leveller - it seems to apply to politicians one and all, regardless of political leaning left or right, race, gender, age or any other characteristic.....