situation in the mining town and bring some goodwill to wage negotiations with the mine’s owners, the UK-listed company Lonmin.
The deaths of the 34 miners, the worst security incident since the end of apartheid and white minority rule in 1994, shocked the nation.
However, the announcement by the National Prosecuting Authority on Thursday that it would resurrect an apartheid-era law that holds those who attack armed police responsible for the consequences was greeted with almost unanimous outcry. Some South Africans saw it as a clumsy attempt by prosecutors to keep the miners in custody until they identified the ringleaders of the violent strikes, which began on August 10.
Others suggested that the nominally-independent prosecution authority was acting under pressure from political
masters who wanted blame shifted from the police for what happened.
A total of 34 people were killed on August 16 after armed officers opened fire with live ammunition, having failed to disperse the strikers with water cannons and tear gas.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Acting National Director of Prosecutions, Nomgcobo Jiba said they took the decision to bring murder charges based on evidence that was not in the public domain. She said that they remained confident the charges would have stood up in court.
But she said that the NPA had decided to delay criminal charges until the police investigation and the public inquiry into what happened — set up by President Jacob Zuma and due to report back in four months — were completed.
“The murder charges against the current 270 suspects, which were provisional anyway, will be formally withdrawn in court,” she said.
“The miners are to be released conditionally on warning and their cases postponed pending the finalisations of investigations including investigations by the commission (of inquiry).” The episode brings further embarrassment for the NPA, which is meant to be politically-independent but whose workings have been interfered with by successive administrations of the ruling ANC government.
It remains unclear what prompted the row-back. The miners’ lawyers on Friday wrote to President Jacob Zuma asking him to intervene and order their release, and threatening High Court action if he did not.
On Saturday, he released a statement saying he would not get involved “in deference to our constitutional democracy”.
His spokesman Mac Maharaj said the president was relying on the public inquiry for answers on what happened, and he “trusted” the other bodies like the NPA would act accordingly.
But some ANC politicians did speak out against the NPA, including ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa, who said its move could lead to “another Marikana”.
Adam Habib, a professor of political science and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, said it was clear that the NPA had brought the charges with some political backing.“I suspect that when the outcry began to manifest itself, these guys realised their mistake and distanced themselves,” he said.
Stephen Friedman, a former trade unionist who now directs the Centre for the Study of Democracy at UJ, said even if Jacob Zuma’s administration had no hand in the initial NPA decision, its influence was evident in its reversal: “It’s quite clear that they got the message that this was not acceptable in a democratic society.” The release of the miners will begin today (Monday), Miss Jiba confirmed.
Jeff Mphahlele, the general secretary of the Amcu union which represented the strikers, said the release of the miners had been a condition of their colleagues returning to work.
“One hurdle has been jumped,” he said. “This will normalise the situation a little.”
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