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Perth - South Africa’s resources minister said on Friday the
trial of 270 striking miners for the murder of their co-workers must be allowed
to run its course.
South African prosecutors on Thursday charged the miners
with the murder of 34 co-workers shot dead by police using a measure called
“common purpose” seldom used since the dying days of apartheid, arguing the
miners were complicit in the killings since they were arrested at the scene
with weapons.
“We have a clear rule of law in South Africa... we need to
allow that space to run its course and at the end of the day the courts will
decide,” South African minister for mineral resources Susan Shabangu told
reporters on the sidelines of a mining conference in Perth.
The killings, which occurred during a labour dispute at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine, were the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994. Ten additional people were killed in the clashes between strikers from the rival unions at Marikana.
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