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SOUTH AFRICAN PROSECUTORS have dropped charges against 270 miners who had been accused of prompting the massacre of 34 of their colleagues at the Marikana platinum mine.
Domestic political parties and international observers had lashed out against the charges, brought under an apartheid-era law providing for the doctrine of “common purpose” – which provided that members of a mob could be charged as accomplices in the deaths of their colleagues.
Police had argued that they acted in self-defence when they opened fire on the group of miners during a demonstration connected to an illegal strike last month.
Prosecutors warned, however, that the withdrawal of the charges was only provisional – and that the charges could be reapplied after more thorough police investigations.
“Final charges will only be made once all investigations have been completed,” the New York Times quoted prosecutor Nomgcobo Jiba as saying.
“The murder charges against the current 270 suspects will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court.”
The prosecutors’ U-turn will be welcomed by president Jacob Zuma: Reuters notes that the president will be seeking re-election in December, but has seen his support erode over the state’s handling of the event.
Talks aimed at resolving the industrial dispute which prompted the illegal strike are to resume tomorrow, after the deceased miners were buried over the weekend.
The killing of the protesting miners at the Marikana mine was the worst security incident since the end of the apartheid era in 1994.
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I see the rule of Law doesn’t apply in South Africa these days.
It is possible that some of the miners are guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and that will be investigated but charging all of them for the deaths of their colleagues is just wrong.
So much for the “NEW SOUTH AFRICA”!
Dave Jordan you have a lot to learn about the NWO …and miners
Wheres the un and the Americans
The US can’t police the world, or at least people don’t want it to, the UN on the other had, now that is a good question.
Can’t police the world lol sorry now but that’s there aim..the new world order
Why do you want the Americans involved? There’s no oil there?
I can take a person seriously when they talk about American hegemony (thought they never seem concerned with Russian, Chinese and Iranian attempts at hegemony) but when you start with the NWO nonsense, you loss all credibility.
No oil for the yanks and the Brits took all the diamonds your all on your own Africa
I’ll let you guess what makes the World go around. The point I’m trying to make about 1920 is it does not matter what Government is in power. They will all go down the same road when it comes to Strikes. South Africa’s economy is built on mining. If they were not hard on these mine workers by shooting them. The strikes and protesting would spread through the mining sector like wild fire. Back in 1993 when I worked on the Gold mines the violence and strikes were much worse than this. And it brought the mining sector to a grinding halt!
Oil and money is the right answer!
Who’s talking about NWO?? It’s only you? What do you think makes this world go around? Energy !
Tell me what makes it go round
Down the same road that why we need a NWO that’s my point now I’m off for a pint
This is not the first time miners have shot for striking in South Africa. In the 1920s the then Under British rule shot miners for striking!
What makes anybody think it things will change?
The ANC Government are no Angles. They also have their own Skeletons in the closet !
Tell me stan what makes the world go round …and what has 1920 got to do with it
Errrmm…
I don’t think the miners were shot for striking – they were shot whilst attempting to attack police with machetes, knifes and pistols. A bit different no?
Mattoid. How did the police manage to shoot the miners in the back when the miners were supposedly running for them with machetes? Were the police force supplied with the magic bullets that can go around corners?
Point taken Reada, the use of force was overwhelming and they were fairly trigger happy once the first shots were fired, but you have to remember that the cops probably felt they were meeting deadly force with deadly force – they were presumably fairly twitchy given events earlier in the week, and who’s to say how anyone would react if you felt your life was in danger and had the means to defend yourself. That’s not to condone what happened, but just saying that the situation is a little more complex when hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and the resulting human instinct of self-preservation kicks in.
Either way, the point is its not like the miners were on peaceful picket line when they were shot.
Oh, and there’s no ‘supposedly’ about it, the footage is fairly clear:
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