Apartheid law used to charge miners with murder

Reports in today's Mail & Guardian and Daily Maverick, as well as on the BBC News website, explore why the miners have been charged with the murder of colleagues who died under a hail of police bullets during violent protests at Marikana this month. The M&G says the 'politically controversial move' falls under the 'common purpose' doctrine because the 270 miners were in the crowd that allegedly incited police on 16 August. The 'common purpose' doctrine was used by former apartheid forces against black activists fighting against National Party rule. At the time, the ANC campaigned against the doctrine. 'This is a very outdated and infamous doctrine,' lawyer Jay Surju told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. 'It was discredited during the time of apartheid.' The best known case was that of the 'Upington 14', who were sentenced to death in 1989 for the murder of a policeman in 1985. NPA spokesperson Frank Lesenyego reportedly told the BBC the workers would all face murder charges - including those who were unarmed or were at the back of the crowd. 'This is under common law, where people are charged with common purpose in a situation where there are suspects with guns or any weapons and they confront or attack the police and a shooting takes place and there are fatalities,' he said. Full Mail & Guardian report Full BBC News report

Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos describes the decision as 'bizarre and shocking' and representing 'a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system in an effort to protect the police and/or politicians like Jacob Zuma and (Police Minister) Nathi Mthethwa'. According to the Mail & Guardian report, De Vos cited Section 18 of the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1956 which states 'any other person to aid in the commissioning of a crime or incites or instigates any other person to commit, a crime, is guilty of a crime - as if he or she committed the actual crime him or herself'. De Vos said 'The NPA seems wrongly to conflate (either deliberately or out of shocking ignorance) allegations that the miners provoked the police, on the one hand, with allegations that the miners themselves incited the police to shoot at them because they had the intention to commit suicide by getting the police to kill them. Even if it was true that the miners provoked the police, this could never, ever, make them liable for the killing of their comrades. At most, provocation could be a factor taken into account in judging whether the police officers involved in the massacre should be found guilty of murder or not.' In a Daily Maverick report De Vos is quoted as saying: 'I cannot imagine that even the out-of-their-depth prosecutors and members of the NPA leadership really believe that any court will find the miners guilty of murder for the killing of their comrades by the police. This means they charged the miners with murder, knowing full well that the charges would never stick, with an entirely different aim.' Full Daily Maverick report De Vos' opinion on the charges in the Daily Maverick

Many of the 34 killed were hunted down and murdered by the police, an acclaimed news photographer and author claimed yesterday. Writing on the Daily Maverick website, Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich said that, after nearly two weeks at the site of the massacre, he had concluded that most of the killings were deliberate, notes a report in The Times. 'It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event (in which) police claim they acted in self-defence. The rest was murder on a massive scale,' he said. National police spokesperson Captain Dennis Adriao said he had not read the article. He said the police were no longer commenting on the Lonmin shootings because it was the subject of a judicial commission of inquiry. Full report in The Times Greg Marinovich article in the Daily Maverick

The miners face at least another week in police cells. Magistrate Esau Bodigelo ruled yesterday that the group be kept in custody as not enough information had been provided to start their bail applications, says a report on the News24 site. 'My ruling is that it will be in the interest of justice that the state be granted another postponement not exceeding seven days.' The matter resumes next Thursday. According to a Beeld report, Bodigelo acknowledged that some of the mine workers, who were ill with the HI virus or TB, had difficulty getting medication in custody, but decided the interests of justice weighed heavier than the interests of the accused in this matter. 'It is the court's finding that the police have had too little time to gather all the necessary evidence for the bail applications.' Full report on the News24 site Full Beeld report