David van Wyk: On 16 August 2012 the South African Police shot and killed 34 miners (Heinz Leitner)

Open letter to the NPA – please sign on if you agree please send your name, work place, if any and job title  to Naadira Munshi    naadiram@gmail.com

Drop the charges!

On 16 August 2012 the South African Police shot and killed 34 miners. A further ninety miners were injured that day. The Marikana Massacre stands alongside the killings of 16 June 1976, the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and the Bulhoek Massacre of 1921 as gruesome episodes of state violence against poor black people.

Then, as now, the police attempted to exonerate themselves from any responsibility and made every effort to shift the blame onto the victims. In the case of the Marikana Massacre millions of people repeatedly watched television images of the police mowing down workers. Investigative journalists and researchers pieced together horrific evidence that showed many workers were killed execution style as they fled the scene of the original shootings.

Incredibly, and in what must be one of the most shocking abuses of state power in democratic South Africa, the police arrested 275 miners and charged them with murder Only a massive public outcry forced the authorities to release the workers, although the police have not dropped the charges. We have always maintained the arrest of these workers represented a miscarriage of justice and an abuse of power, designed to intimidate workers who were already deeply traumatised by the massacre.. [JD1] 

It  has become clear at the Marikana Commission that that the laying of murder carges based on the common purpose doctrine  was not an isolated error of judgement or an aberration. It was rather a  part of a carefully orchestrated plan. Confronted with damning evidence, the evidence leaders at the Commission have issued a statement accusing the police of failing to disclose evidence, denying the existence of evidence which did exist and of giving evidence that was not true. In other words, the police have been trying to cover up their role in and responsibility for the massacre. [JD2] 

It is manifestly unjust that the only people over whom charges currently hang – not one police officer has been charged – are the striking miners, many of whom were shot by the police. We see only one just way forward: the charges against the 275 workers must be withdrawn immediately.

We the undersigned therefore call on the NPA[MR3]  immediately to drop the charges against the workers.

Signed:

David van Wyk,  Bench Marks Foundation, Lead Researcher.