Marikana investigation fails to finger everyone but the guilty. President Jacob Zuma has finally released the Farlam Commission's report on the worst atrocity in post-apartheid South Africa - that fateful day in August 2012 when 34 workers were cruelly shot and killed by police in Marikana, bringing the number of deaths to 44, because 10 victims had also been killed in the preceding days.A more detailed analysis of the 600-page report will be necessary, but my first reaction is that it is a bit wishy-washy - and that there are still many unanswered questions, some of which the commission ducked by recommending further investigations by other bodies.story_article_left1Cosatu was one of the first to call for and welcome the independent judicial commission of inquiry into the atrocity.A special declaration by the organisation's 11th national congress a month later voiced extreme concern at the violent reaction of the police, not only in Marikana but in other labour disputes, reinforcing the perception that, rather than protecting ordinary people, the police are advancing the interests of employers.This is borne out by the Farlam report, which criticises the role of the police and the lies by some of their witnesses. Judge Ian Farlam invites the president to investigate the possibility of disciplinary action against National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega and North West Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo, which I strongly support.But the president should answer the obvious question: why did he appoint a police chief who lacked the skills and experience for such a position? It is symptomatic of the practice of "cadre deployment", which values personal loyalty over qualifications. Zuma should accept his share of the blame.If Phiyega's hands are dripping with workers' blood, so are those of the president, who employed her although well aware she had neither the experience nor skills to head police operations.There is a worrying comment by Farlam that there was an amendment to the terms of reference - to which he was alerted through a letter from the president as late as April 2014 - that the commission was not allowed to make findings on the executive. This means the report was designed to find scapegoats - hence its negative findings against the foot soldiers and not the political leadership. The report makes no findings against any member of the executive.Poor Phiyega, Mbombo and the workers are the scapegoats for the massacre. The report also attaches blame to the leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).I strongly believe that the Marikana massacre would not have happened if the workers in the platinum sector had not been riven with conflicts.Cosatu had already identified the problem of union leaders not listening to workers, the widening social distance between leaders and members and corruption.block_quotes_start If Phiyega's hands are dripping with workers' blood, so are Zuma's block_quotes_end"The events of August 16," as the 11th congress declaration said, "and the ongoing violence, whose main victims remain the exploited masses, have shifted the focus and blame from the platinum bosses, who have systematically undermined collective bargaining and promoted division among workers, and who have been sitting in the shadows enjoying profits from the very workers whose families have now been robbed of their only breadwinners."That is why congress called for a second independent commission of inquiry, to work parallel to the Farlam inquiry, "to investigate the employment and social conditions of workers".A second inquiry is still vital so that we can better understand the underlying reasons that outrages such as Marikana could still happen and ensure that they never happen again.story_article_right2The mining industry has for more than a century been the heart of South African capitalism, built and sustained through the exploitation of black labour, founded by ruthless colonial adventurers like Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato, and later developed by giant multinational companies.In alliance with the financial sector, the mine owners have for years dominated the economy. It was the main pillar of apartheid and still entrenches the wealth and power of a tiny white elite and their foreign backers.The industry directly employs around half a million workers. Its contribution to our gross domestic product is around 18%, and it accounts for over half South Africa's foreign-exchange earnings.It is also an industry that suffers ongoing fatalities, occupational diseases, unchecked environmental degradation and squalid living conditions for many mineworkers.Between 1900 and 1994, 69000 mineworkers died as a result of accidents. More than a million were seriously injured. Although the rate of fatalities and injuries has declined, it is still unacceptable. Between 2001 and 2011, 2301 workers died. Nearly 43000 were seriously injured.As the NUM has put it: "Many mining workers employed underground will not live to see retirement without bodily harm. They will either be killed, injured or fall sickly."Progress has been made in recruiting and training women in the industry - but the environment remains hostile, with discrimination, violence and rape.Squalid housing and environmental damage remain problems. Housing allowances to persuade workers to move out of squalid hostels have only led to them moving into equally squalid squatter camps.Instead of a people-centred, sustainable modern city, Rustenburg, the fastest-growing city in Africa, is characterised by mushrooming informal settlements and poor service delivery. Corruption is rife and, as the Marikana story shows us, black workers' lives are cheap.All these problems were supposed to be resolved by the signing of a framework agreement for a sustainable mining industry, signed by organised labour, employers and the government in 2013, which acknowledged that "there are serious problems within our mining industry, long term and short term".The signatories committed themselves "to act swiftly to make this agreement work".story_article_left3It recognised that the industry's problems were historical and structural: exploitation of workers; the migrant-labour system; unhealthy and dangerous working conditions; squalid single-sex hostels, environmental pollution and an immediate crisis of violence and anarchy in and around the mines which has cost far too many lives.The agreement recognised that workers had "to see rapid changes in working and living conditions and visibly improved career prospects. We need to take urgent steps to build integrated communities with adequate social amenities".Signing an agreement was the easy part, however.Implementing the agreement is the biggest challenge - and has yet to happen, with the employers the main culprits.Solutions must be pursued as part of the overall drive to build a completely new society in which mineworkers receive their rightful share of the wealth that they created by their labour.This is why I fully support their current struggle for a living wage, which reflects the skills and danger that work in the mines involves...