Ramphele: Govt can't be regulator and player
2012-09-11 22:16
Johannesburg - Academic and anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele said on Tuesday that the government must rise up to its responsibility as regulator of the mining industry.
Ramphele, the chairperson of mining company Gold Fields, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the government could not be both a regulator and a player within the mining industry, as it indirectly owns shares in mining companies.
Amanpour was questioning Ramphele on the unrest in the mining industry, on her self-titled show Amanpour on CNN, where she briefly interviewed expelled ANCYL leader Julius Malema as well.
Ramphele said that the shooting at Lonmin's Marikana mine where 34 strikers were killed was a failure of leadership, saying "we have failed to step up to the plate" 18 years into democracy.
The crisis in the mines would only end if the government and interested parties played their role, Sapa reported her as saying.
"Government, unions, mining companies and the society should take up their roles and lead now."
She also said that South Africans must hold the government accountable for the remilitarising of the police force.
Earlier in the show, Malema told Amanpour that he wants to see the country's miners strike five days every month.
"The strikes in the different mines would have to be co-ordinated every month... the action will go on for five working days," he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, speaking to miners at Gold Fields' Driefontein mine outside Carletonville, Malema called on all workers there to strike.
"There must be a national strike at all the mines until [National Union of Mineworkers' secretary-general] Frans Baleni and the union's leadership step down with immediate effect."
Businesswoman and academic Dr Mamphela Ramphele told Amanpour there had been a failure of leadership in the country.
"Leaders, including Malema have failed to step up and lead the country to realise that dream that emerged in 1994."
