Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa discussed the Marikana massacre for the first time in Parliament, saying he was prepared to account for his actions.
In what was seen as a bid to clear a major hurdle in his campaign for top office, Ramaphosa confronted his Achilles heel and said he was willing to seek reconciliation with those he had offended.
Ramaphosa is widely regarded as a contender for the ANC presidency, alongside national executive committee member Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. He has previously ducked questions from opposition MPs on Marikana.
However, on Thursday he opened up when quizzed by EFF MP Floyd Shivambu, who wanted to know what he had apologised for when he addressed Rhodes University students on Sunday.
Ramaphosa told the students that he regretted calling for "concomitant action" in a series of e-mails to Lonmin executives and senior government officials days before the massacre.
The e-mails between Ramaphosa and mining company executives showed he had asked the then ministers of police, Nathi Mthethwa, and minerals and resources, Susan Shabangu to urgently intervene to address the situation at Lonmin.
He told the students: "I have apologised and I do apologise that I did not use appropriate language, but I never had the intention to have 34 other mine workers killed."
Ramaphosa said that as a former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), he would never call for the killing of mine workers, or anybody else.
"I apologised for the language that I used.… I used inappropriate and unfortunate language, as expressed in the e-mails," Ramaphosa told MPs.
He explained that when he had sent out the e-mails, his intention had been to prevent further deaths.
"Ten people … had died earlier in a gruesome manner, some of them police, some of them mine workers."
He was nonexecutive director at Lonmin’s platinum mines at the time, when police shot dead 34 protesters, most employed by the company, and injured at least 78 during a wildcat strike in 2012.
The incident damaged his image and opposition parties have over the past five years sought to hold him accountable. A commission of inquiry cleared him of wrongdoing. Ramaphosa told MPs he was willing to meet the widows of miners and survivors, and said he had sought guidance from ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
"Madikizela-Mandela has said to me: ‘DP, this matter needs to be addressed. I want to go with you to Marikana.’ I have said, ‘Mama, I will accept your counsel’."
Some religious leaders had also approached him and offered to accompany him to meet survivors and the families of the killed miners.
"As a leader, I am prepared to be confronted and accountable," he said. However, the survivors have reportedly rejected his apology, which came almost five years after the incident.
Political analyst Nic Borain said it was clear that besides Dlamini-Zuma, the Marikana issue was the biggest obstacle standing between Ramaphosa and a successful campaign for the ANC presidency.
"He has a serious problem … his claim was that it [the strike] was a criminal act, not a strike, but history has proven him wrong. The characterisation of the workers as criminals was wrong and thoughtless and in a way arrogant because it implied the only legitimate union was NUM," Borain said.
"He is running a campaign for presidency and this is the hurdle he will need to clear. I don’t know whether he can do enough. He is doing the right thing to apologise, but he should have apologised before campaigning."
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