A South African court was due to start releasing 270 miners yesterday arrested over the deaths of 34 of their colleagues killed by police, after prosecutors withdrew murder charges against them.
Prosecutors provisionally dropped the charges on Sunday amid a public outrage after officers opened fire on strikers at platinum giant Lonmin’s Marikana mine in the worst day of police violence since the end of apartheid.
Lawyers were waiting for the detainees to be brought to court near Pretoria early yesterday afternoon.
“The release will start around 2pm,” lawyer for the detained Mapule Keetse said.
A dozen onlookers stood by outside the court precinct with a handful of family members and one poster urging “Release Innocent Workers.”
“We heard a promise to say maybe they’ll release somebody,” said a woman, who did not want to be identified, sitting outside a courtroom where she had come to support her brother-in-law.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokeswoman Bulelwa Makeke said police had verified the addresses of 140 detainees — a prerequisite for releasing them — by Saturday and that the figure was likely to have increased.
“The police have been working continuously so as they verify, they add the numbers, so the numbers are a moving target,” she said.
The original decision on Thursday last week to charge the miners over the Aug. 16 killings during a wildcat strike at the mine northwest of Johannesburg had triggered outrage.
On Friday, South Africa’s justice minister demanded prosecutors explain why the arrested miners had been charged with murdering their colleagues during what was in fact a crackdown by police.
Speaking on Sunday, acting national director of prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba said a final decision on whether to press murder charges would be taken after a series of investigations into the shootings.
These include a judicial commission of inquiry appointed by South African President Jacob Zuma, which has until January to present its findings.
Lawyers for the mineworkers have argued that their detention is unlawful, and demanded their release in an open letter to Zuma.
However, the president has refused to act on their demand, arguing that it would be interfering with the work of the judiciary.
Legal experts had slammed the charges, which the prosecuting agency argued were under a common purpose principle that allows a group of people to be charged for acting together to commit a criminal act.
It was once used by the apartheid-era white-minority regime to crack down on black activists who were fighting for equality.
Minister in The Presidency Collins Chabane denied the government played a part in the about-turn.
“The government did not at any stage try to pressurize the NPA people to take a decision,” he told foreign correspondents.
Police claimed self-defense in the shooting, after an escalating stand-off between rival unions had already killed 10 people, including two police officers, during an increasingly bitter strike over pay.
The mine remained shut after talks failed to end the strike. The talks resumed yesterday and South African Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant was upbeat about a breakthrough.
“There is that possibility,” that the workers will report for work today, she said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The