News24 reports that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has apologised for the manner in which the Marikana massacre unfolded, saying he was sorry for the inappropriate language he used at the time.  

Speaking at Rhodes University on Sunday, Ramaphosa told students that he had intervened in the Lonmin mine strike in Marikana to prevent further deaths.  On the eve of the Marikana shooting, Ramaphosa allegedly wrote in an email discussion between Lonmin management and government officials that events around the strike "are plainly dastardly criminal acts and must be characterised as such".  Ramaphosa was responding in a question and answer session to a student and said:  "You say you want to appeal to my conscience.  My conscience is that I participated in trying to stop further deaths from happening."  He said at the time he stepped into the situation, ten workers had been killed and his intervention was to "say there is a disaster looming, more workers had been killed and are going to be killed".

• Read this report by Lizeka Tandwa in full at News24
• See too, Ramaphosa apologises for his ‘inappropriate language’ during Marikana strike, at EWN

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