Prosecutors provisionally dropped murder charges against the
270 miners who had been accused under an obscure legal doctrine of killing 34
of their own colleagues when the police opened fire on them while engaged in a protest.
The police fired live ammunition into a crowd of about 3,000
platinum miners armed with clubs and machetes while trying to disperse the
illegal strike on Aug. 16. When the firing stopped, 34 miners were dead and
South Africa was outraged by the bloodiest confrontation between the police and
civilians since the end of apartheid. The police have claimed they acted in
self-defense.
The outrage grew when prosecutors announced that under a
legal doctrine known as “common purpose,” the miners themselves would be charged
with murdering their colleagues. Under the doctrine, which was frequently used
in the waning days of apartheid to charge members of protesting crowds with
serious crimes committed by a few individuals, people in a mob can be charged
as accomplices.
In a hastily arranged news conference, officials from the
National Prosecuting Authority said that they would await the outcome of
further investigations into the shootings, but they did not rule out bringing
murder charges again. Prosecutors also said they had not ruled out charges
against the police.
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