South Africans need calm heads to examine what caused the slaughter of 44 workers and police officers at the Marikana mine. The judicial commission of inquiry appointed by President Jacob Zuma may present the facts. But we have to go past who fired the first bullet. It will take painstaking commitment on all sides to rebuild trust. This is a complex dispute that is a political microcosm of South African society.

The critical question is how could this have happened in 2012, 18 years into our democracy and the centenary of the foundation of the African National Congress? The fiasco of Marikana is a sign of failure of leadership on all sides.

There is growing ferment in South Africa. The people in our townships, rural areas and squatter camps are bitter democracy has not delivered the fruits that they see a tiny elite enjoying. Many of the leaders they revered have abandoned the townships for the Armani lifestyle previously exclusive to leafy white suburbs. They have long lost touch with the disgruntlement brewing in society. To compound the situation, a new, predatory elite of middlemen is unashamedly corrupting state officials and stealing tenders and licences. They cloak their crime of looting the state treasuries with militant, populist rhetoric that further inflames the already difficult reality. But they strike a chord with the growing underclass.