Arrest anyone carrying weapons during a strike

And we might be able to suggest that the police were scared, vengeful and uncontrolled when they opened fire on the protesters. We might also say that Lonmin's management at Marikana were right to refuse to meet workers until they'd laid down their weapons.

In fact we can say a lot of things to support any of the sides embroiled in those ghastly events that resulted in 44 deaths, destruction of property and the loss of the bread-winners for 44 families.

If we take a wider view, the picture is more concerning and prompts me to suggest that formally employed, unionised labour is no longer made up of peace-loving workers. It's made up of anarchists, hell-bent on getting what they want at any cost.

Look beyond Marikana at some of the other events in the first weeks of 2012's spring:
• Miners, heavily armed with traditional weapons and possibly carrying guns move to the shaft at Karee, threaten management and vow to make the Rustenburg mines "ungovernable" demanding to get their hands on the impimpis (a word for informers or sell-outs);
• Miners at Gold One in Springs (also heavily armed) threaten workers and undertake to "make those mines ungovernable";
• Non-striking workers at Marikana are "running scared" because of the widespread intimidation they face from militant union members;
• The ANC Youth League's disgraced former president Julius Malema is charged with inflaming tensions at mines by encouraging miners to "make the mines ungovernable";
• More than 50% of the members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) say violence is necessary to achieve results during strike action;
• About 60 contract workers who were about to lose their jobs at Eskom's new Medupi plant take part in a violent protest in Limpopo;
• And the lists go on and on. . . .

This is not the scorecard for a developing nation that is emerging on the world stage; it's a report card given to a country that is rapidly descending into anarchy. One where the rule of law has been lost and replaced by weapon-carrying workers demanding whatever they want from their bosses.

One worker quoted in an organisational report compiled by Cosatu for its upcoming congress says: "In South Africa there is no other way the workers can be heard. Violence and strike is the language that bosses hear better."

Throughout the country, violence has been the hallmark of most strike action over the years and instead of reducing it, the police and other government authorities stood by and watched it take place. In fact, if anything, the violence has got more and more deadly as the years have dragged by.

The South African Institute of Race Relations says that the violent strike action is a result of the long-running 'war' to make South Africa ungovernable when it was a racially divided land under apartheid. It says the ANC, the SACP and Cosatu injected "into the blood-stream of the body politic a virus of violence that they cannot eradicate now". The SAIRR might be right.

For a simple man like me the events underline that our country is on the verge of anarchy - and it's the workers who are the anarchists and not company management or the political leaders. It's the workers and their union bosses.

So how do we quell this anarchy?
For starters why not invoke legislation (that's why we have it) to:
• Make it illegal to carry weapons during any strike;
• Make the organising union pay for all damage to life or property during a strike;
• Make it an offence for striking workers to congregate within five kilometres of the property where they are employed;
• Make it an offence for striking workers to intimidate any employed persons;
• Make it an offence to damage property, injure people or loot shops during a strike;
• Make it an offence to march through public areas;
• Finally give the Labour Court the power to summarily dismiss anyone found guilty of these offences and, where warranted, couple it with a community service sentences too. If necessary give the court the power to jail offenders for sustained periods.

It is a sad fact of life that violence, intimidation, looting and damage to property mar almost every strike in South Africa today. For these reasons alone, there must be a ruthless upholding of the law when marauding bands of weapon-wielding protesters run amok.

Now is the time for the government to intervene to prevent further tragedies like Marikana.