Murder, public violence charges levelled against suspects

the court in the Pretoria township of Ga-Rankuwa to hear the charges. Their next hearing was set for August 27.
Magistrate Esau Bodigelo remanded all the men in custody. An exact breakdown of all the charges was not immediately available, with proceedings being translated into several languages.
On Thursday police opened fire on hundreds of armed workers on a wildcat strike at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine, leaving 34 dead and 78 wounded in the bloodiest day of protest since apartheid.
Police and the independent police watchdog have both opened separate investigations into the killings.
In addition President Jacob Zuma has announced a judicial commission of enquiry into the tragedy.
Police convoys with armoured vehicles brought the accused from prisons across the region to the court, where a group of around 100 people cheered as they arrived.
The group of mostly women brandished placards with slogans such as “Release the innocent workers”.
The accused appeared before a packed courtroom, with half the public gallery cordoned off with police tape and armed officers.
Meanwhile, Lonmin, the world’s third-largest platinum mine, said workers on a wildcat strike who fail to report for duty today could be fired.
“By 7am tomorrow (today), we expect workers to return to work. After that Lonmin has the right to fire them,” Mark Munroe, Lonmin executive vice president for mining, said yesterday.
He was speaking alongside officials from the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), but with no representative of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) — seen as the driving force behind the wildcat strike by 3 000 rock drill operators.
“Our priority is to return to normality. We are in consultations with the unions, NUM, which is the majority union at the mine,” Munroe said.
Lonmin chief financial officer Simon Scott said the company had yet to receive any demands from the strikers and said the AMCU has not been part of the company’s negotiations with workers. — AFP.