* Company emails show Ramaphosa lobbying for government
action
* Anti-apartheid icon now being pilloried as mining tycoon
* ANC Youth League says he has workers’ blood “on his hands”
* Ramaphosa has been apologetic, saying “we are all to
blame”
By Pascal Fletcher and Jon Herskovitz
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 24 (Reuters) – South African millionaire
businessman and one-time anti-apartheid hero Cyril Ramaphosa
urged ministers to crack down on a violent platinum miners’
strike the day before 34 miners were killed by police, according
to emails revealed this week.
The emails cited on Tuesday by a lawyer for miners arrested
over the Aug. 16 “Marikana Massacre” are the latest evidence of
a reversal of historical roles for the 59-year-old, who himself
led a historic miners’ pay strike under apartheid in 1987.
As a respected and influential member of the National
Executive Committee of the ruling African National Congress
(ANC), Ramaphosa has long been touted as a possible presidential
contender.
Hailed with Nelson Mandela as a champion of anti-apartheid
struggle, the man who was once called “South Africa’s Lech
Walesa” now finds himself pilloried as a cold-hearted capitalist
in his role of shareholder and board member of Lonmin
, the company at the heart of the Marikana dispute.
Continued…
