Cyril 'sold out to capital'

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had to defend himself against accusations of being the corporate "parrot" talking for platinum-mining company Lonmin during a day of heated cross-examination at the Marikana Commission yesterday.

Ramaphosa, a non-executive director of Lonmin at the time of the bloody unprotected strike at the company's Marikana operation - which left 44 people dead in 2012 - was questioned on what he expected to be the result of the political pressure he was said to have been exerting on various cabinet ministers during the strike.

The sincerity of his claim that his actions were primarily to "stop the killings" was disputed by lawyer Dali Mpofu.

Mpofu is representing the survivors, arrested on August 16 2012, of the police shooting that killed 34 miners at Marikana.

He suggested that Ramaphosa, despite his trade union background, had "sold out" to "white capital".

Mpofu put it to Ramaphosa that he had unquestioningly accepted Lonmin's "characterisation" of the strike as "dastardly criminal" and not merely labour unrest, and had "parroted" this characterisation to former police minister Nathi Mthethwa and former mining minister Susan Shabangu in an attempt to get the police to act in a "more pointed way" to end the dispute.

Ten people, including two Lonmin security guards, police and miners had been killed in the days leading up to August 16.

Mpofu said Ramaphosa's role in the Marikana strike were contrary to what it should have been as a black economic empowerment partner. Instead of transforming corporate thinking at Lonmin he had been "assimilated" and had "sold out . for 30 pieces of silver".

"This is not the role of BEE partners. You should have told them that this is not a situation where one must kill our people," Mpofu told Ramaphosa, who had earlier stressed that he had advocated negotiating with the miners.

Ramaphosa maintained on several occasions that his request that Mthethwa get the police to act in "a more pointed way" was not about killing miners but about increasing the police presence at the mine and getting the police to do their "normal work", which was to investigate the murders and make arrests.

Mpofu said he would argue that Ramaphosa, Mthethwa and others in the police hierarchy should face murder charges.