The events at Marikana, which left 46 people dead in violent protests, may be considered to be a ‘black swan’ moment for South Africa, Democratic Alliance (DA) Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said on Friday and warned that the concept could also apply to the country’s “crisis” of leadership.

Speaking at the Daily Maverick’s Gathering 2.0, in Johannesburg, she said that Marikana would not have been so unexpected if decision makers and forecasters had adopted a broader perspective to public policy.

“High levels of poverty and inequality, the unreconstructed migrant labour system and the broker labour bargaining system have contributed to this tragedy. President Jacob Zuma and his government fail to read what the data, and what their intelligence agencies, are telling them. The probability of this black swan moment, as we can now see, was in fact very high,” she noted.

Mazibuko said that the mineworkers of Marikana felt like many South Africans do: “The rules of the game are rigged against them.”

“People are divided in two groups, the insiders and the outsiders. The insiders are a small politically connected group in government, business and labour, the larger group of outsiders are unable to access the spoils of political favour,” she said.

Mazibuko warned on the current leadership situation in the country, citing a lack of leadership following the Marikana tragedy, the situation unfolding at Zuma’s Nkandla residence and the failure to deliver school textbooks, among other issues.

“This year will be recorded as a tipping point, when the political centre of gravity shifted decisively away from the governing ANC [African National Congress] and away from the leadership of President Zuma. The President and his government are beginning to suffer from what the academics have described as the 'power curse' . . . Power corrupts those who think they deserve it,” she said.

The DA and other opposition parties tabled a motion of no confidence in Zuma and turned to the courts to force a Parliamentary debate on the matter, after National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu adjourned a programming committee meeting without the debate being scheduled, on the basis that no consensus had been reached.

Western Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis dismissed the urgent application, saying that it was not for the court to dictate to Parliament.