The 270 miners arrested are charged with the death of 34 colleagues killed

PRETORIA – Lonmin miners arrested two weeks ago, near Pretoria, South Africa, after the police opened fire and killed 34 striking workers in the Marikana mine, were indicted for the death of their colleagues. A spokesman for the local prosecution announced this. The accusation is based on a rule of the South African law, already used in the past against the anti-apartheid movements, which establishes the co-responsibility of the demonstrators in the death of someone if the police is forced to intervene with the force to dissolve demonstrations.

Meanwhile, while negotiations continue between the company, the world’s third largest platinum producer, and the striking workers, today less than 7 percent of the 28 thousand men who make up the local workforce came to work. The company, which extracts 96% of the produced platinum from Marikana, was forced to close the business three weeks ago, due to growing tension with the union.

Today the second day of negotiations behind closed doors between the four unions and the company management. The deaths of 34 workers, killed on 16 August by police bullets, further tightened the positions of the miners who now seem determined to resist until their demands are fulfilled. The murder charge is against the 270 arrested at the site of the tragedy with weapons. Next week the bail application will be examined. But the move of the prosecutor seems destined to inflame the situation.

Meanwhile, the government supervisory body, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, has announced that it has received over 200 complaints from arrested miners who claim to have been attacked or abused while in custody.

(August 30, 2012)