In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
Cyril RamaphosaRead
Marikana should not have happened. We are all to blame, and there are many stakeholders that should take the blame. But taking the blame should mean that we should make sure it never, ever, happens again.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes collective responsibility for the Marikana tragedy and the importance of preventing its recurrence.
Cyril Ramaphosa's quote reflects on the tragic events that occurred at Marikana, highlighting the shared accountability among various stakeholders. It calls for a commitment not just to acknowledge the wrongs of the past, but also to actively work towards ensuring such a tragedy never happens again, stressing the need for reflection, unity, and action in the face of social and moral failures.
In practice
In discussions about workplace safety, this quote can remind us of our shared responsibility.
In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
There are times when leadership needs to take a bold move forward. And there are times when the leadership needs to act on the basis of what the grass roots say. You need to have your political thermometer constantly in the political waters to know when to give leadership in what way.
We need to mobilise our structures and our supporters to oppose state capture and corruption in whatever form it takes.
Violence against women and children resembles an epidemic. It has spread through society, sparing no social group or class.
No man is born believing that he has dominion over women. Instead, this view is handed down from generation to generation and amplified through social custom, culture, and popular media.
We must listen to the concerns of our people without dismissing them. When people see something wrong, there is something wrong. When our people see corruption, it means there is corruption. When our people see that their resources are being stolen by certain people, it means this is happening, and we should listen.
We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.
A wise architect observed that you could break the laws of architec75tural art provided you had mastered them first. That would apply to religion as well as to art. Ignorance of the past does not guarantee freedom from its imperfections.
You think the end justifies the means, however vile. I tell you: the end is the means by which you achieve it. Today's step is tomorrow's life. Great ends cannot be attained by base means. You've proved that in all your social upheavals. The meanness and inhumanity of the means make you mean and inhuman and make the end unattainable.
The main purpose of engaging in conversation can no longer be personal advancement or respectability. Instead, I'd like for us to use conversations to create equality, to open ourselves to strangers, and, most practically, to remake our working world.
Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life.
Most young people were getting jobs in big companies, becoming company men. I wanted to be individual.
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