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| "SHOOT TO KILL": Members of the SAPS watch as Lonmin platinum mine workers lie breathless and defenceless on the ground after being shot like useless animals by police officers during their strike against minimal wages. Photo adapted from: bolekaja.wordpress.com |
One thing I'd like to discuss is the Public relations mess in which the SAPS and Lonmin mine find themselves in. PRPs have to get to work and clean up this mess!
The SAPS's reputation has gone from neutral to negative!
We all know that the SAPS still has a lot of issues to address in order to be perceived in a good way by the public, challenges facing the SAPS at the moment include amongst others:
- The brutality of police officers;
- The negativity caused by former National Police Commissioner Mr Bheki Cele's corrupt activities;
- The newly appointed National Commissioner with no police experience (Mrs Riah Phiyega)
Lonmin Platinum Mine is losing millions and it's certainly on the verge of losing investors because of greed!
Lonmin makes billions of rands every year and they achieve that through hardworking, poor and unhappy miners. This is greed! How could I give my worker as little as R4000 monthly while I make millions through their hard labour?
Lonmin also has to work very hard to restore their desired image. Failure to do so will see investors pulling out because of this incident. Who wants to do business with a company that treats it's employees like garbage?
A public relations lesson to be learned from the Lonmin Massacre:
- The SAPS took their time to address the brutality of police officers, it got worse and resulted in the Marikana massacre.
- PRPs always need to be proactive towards any issue arising in their organisations rather than having to be reactive at a later stage.
- Lonmin turned a blind eye on the needs of their starving miners who then took matters into their own hands.
This was really a sad incident that happened there. The SAPS drove their name further into the mud. This is really bad as a PRP how do you end up representing an organisation that keeps portraying a negative image to the public?
ReplyDeleteMichelle, It is truly a challenge for any PRP working for any organisation which doesn't value the practice of PR... Such incidents are avoidable if the right things are done at the right time.
DeleteThis was very unprofessional of the SAPS, they dont think what will happen to the familyis that lost their bread winners the company should do something about this issue.
ReplyDeleteVery tragic - the cruelty of poverty will now resurface in those families!
Deletei think the SAPS should have handle the issue without killing a lot of people who wanted better lives this really questions us South African that are we always going to be killed if we want better lives. i believe they should have arrested them only if they were going against them
ReplyDeleteVety true, killing people can never be justified Grace!
DeleteThis was a very tragic incident that happend in our country. I believe that this incident could have been prevented.
ReplyDeleteSuch things are always avoidable through effective and engaging communication with stakeholders.
Deletethis is a hutfull incident that other affectedd citizens will not or find it hard to forget
ReplyDeleteIt is truly a picture that will not be erazed in people's hearts, especially the victims' families.
DeleteIf PR was effectively used then much could have been prevented from the very on-set.
ReplyDeletePrecisely the case Refi - if one waits for too long to address an issue, it will eventually result in avery bad way for the organisation.
DeleteWe should also blame Lonmin's communication department for not dealing with the workers issues in advance
ReplyDeleteWell said Lucky, proper communication channels will always help prevent such incidents
DeleteI AGREE WITH LUCKY. IT IS SAD THAT A LOT OF MONE WORKERS WERE KILLED BUT IT ALSO IS SAD THAT POLICE WERE KILLED IT IS NOT FAIR THAT WE BLAME AND POINT FINGERS AT THE SAPS AS THEY ARE DOING THEIR JOB AND PROTECT THEMSELVES AT THE SAME TIME. VIOLENCE IS NOT THE SOLUTION WHEN YOU WANT TO BE HEARD,IT IS FRUSTRATING YES,BUT LOOK WHERE PEOPLE HAVE ENDED UP. LONMIN SHOULD REALLY TRY AND SEE TO THESE ISSUES.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, nevertheless, killing those miners can't be justified! And yes the miners were also at fault by threating to be violant with their weapons!
Deletehow do you strike with a weapon,1st those mine workers shoot two police officer and took their guns before the day of the strike, why? their intentions was to kill the police.why would you go to a traditional healer if you wanted peaceful striking
ReplyDeleteGood point, I'm not sure how true those allegations are Sonto, what I know is that both Lonmin mine and the SAPS could have avoided this a while back. Hence I say that as PRPs, we should always be proactive and not reative>
DeleteThis strike should have been avoided. It shows that lack of communication between the management and the employee's still needs to be worked on. As a PRP that is where we come in, now we have to take the company image from negative to neutral and then positive. A lot of work is still required to boost the image of Lonmin mine.
ReplyDeletewell said Mbalenhle... and it might take a very long time to achieve the desired image from both these organisations
DeleteI agree with what you say,but this miners are being unreasonable 200% increase is not possible in this time and age.The economy will drop.
ReplyDeletePRP did not do their crisis management correctly but we hope they will do a better job next time.
Better job next time we hope, but lives have been lost already... it should really be a lesson
DeleteI think the whole incident could have been handled better, instead of killing innocent people. Hopefully we wont ever have to read about such ever again.
ReplyDelete