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JOHANNESBURG — The miners who killed two South African police service members and two Lonmin security guards should also be prosecuted, AfriForum said yesterday.
“The mine workers who launched the attacks and committed the murders should be prosecuted,” AfriForum’s head of community safety, Ian Cameron said.
Cameron said their stories needed to be told as well.
On August 16, 2012, 36 mineworkers were shot and killed and at least 79 others injured during a protracted platinum workers who were striking for a minimum salary of R12,500 a month. Ten others, including two policemen and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week.
After the incident, President Jacob Zuma appointed retired Judge Ian Farlam to chair a commission investigating the shooting in the small mining town.
Zuma addressed the nation on Thursday evening and gave a summary of the findings and recommendations from the commission.
Among other things, the report found all the killings and assaults that took place between August 11 and August 15, 2012 should be referred to the National Director of Public Prosecutions for further investigation and to determine whether there was a basis for prosecution. It also suggested that police officers involved in the shooting could only be charged with attempted murder rather than murder.
“The report reflects an image of police officers as victimisers of the mine workers. No one is, however, uttering a word about the 10 people who were brutally murdered by mine workers on that day and the days preceding the massacre,” Cameron said.
“Police officers at grassroots level executed orders and had to act in self-defence. We should ask what the motive of the mine workers was when they charged at police with weapons. It was not for talks for reconciliation.” — News24.
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