Events at Marikana last week, where protesting mineworkers were mown down by police gunfire, will dominate the headlines for days to come.

The horror and tragedy that unfolded near that dusty koppie outside Rustenburg will be revisited during the judicial inquiry announced by President Jacob Zuma and relived in the nightmares of the survivors, their families and friends.

A bloody stain on SA’s post-apartheid record, the Marikana massacre, as it will surely come to be known, comes at a huge cost to all of society.

We should spend time absorbing the details of a plan presented by Minister Trevor Manuel to President Jacob Zuma in Parliament. The National Development Plan is the country’s first long-term blueprint for mapping our collective way out of the fix we’re in.

It’s the result of more than two years of work and aims at taking the country to a future where none of us suffer from, or are threatened by, massive inequality, poverty and unemployment.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za