STATEMENT
Public funding must be made available to the legal team representing the 270 miners injured and arrested following the Marikana massacre on 16 August 2012
We, the undersigned, call on the South African government to urgently make financial resources available for the legal team representing the 270 miners injured and arrested on 16 August 2012 in the wake of the massacre of mine-workers at Marikana.
The failure to ensure that all interested legal parties before the Marikana Commission of Inquiry have adequate funding seriously calls into question the government’s commitment to uncovering the causes of the massacre, and it also poses a serious risk to the integrity of the Commission.
The government has a duty to uphold the Constitution and two critical constitutional principles – access to justice and equality before the law – are at stake. The government has not directly provided any funding for any of the victims of the violence, although it has indirectly provided some funding via Legal Aid South Africa (LASA) to the team of advocates (as briefed by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)) representing the families of 36 deceased miners.
The Commission is set to continue until the end of October. By then it will have sat for a year - far longer than the four months originally planned. This has stretched the resources of the donor-supported SERI, which represents the families of 36 miners who were killed on and in the days before 16 August 2012, as well as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). It has placed considerable strain, too, on the Legal Resources Centre representing the Benchmarks Foundation. The legal team for the injured miners, headed by Advocate Dali Mpofu, has thus far only received donor support for three months of the ten months the Commission has already sat.
All the while, the government supports large legal teams for the South African Police Services (SAPS), as well as the Police Minister, and the Department of Minerals and Resources.
It is not acceptable that the government finances the legal teams for the police, who shot dead 34 miners and injured 270 on 16 August, but does not ensure that the legal teams for the victims are adequately financed.
Now that all the legal teams representing the victims have withdrawn in solidarity following the withdrawal of the Mpofu team, the only interested parties that are left at the Commission are the heavily-resourced Lonmin, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), SAPS, the South African Human Rights Commission, which is operating on a strained budget and in accordance with its constitutional mandate to monitor the process and ensure the protection of human rights, along with various other government departments.
Without legal representation for the injured miners, there can be no level playing field. Should the hearings continue without the participation of the legal teams representing the victims it would be a travesty of justice.
That this matter will now have to come before the Constitutional Court is a serious indictment of the government and, in particular, the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Presidency.
We the below therefore call on the government to ensure justice for the slain and injured miners of Marikana by making sufficient funding available for the legal teams representing the victims of the violence on and before 16 August 2012.
Peter Alexander professor in sociology and NRF Chair in Social Change, University of Johannesburg
Brian Ashley Director Alternative information Development Centre
Partick Bond Professor and Director Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal
John Capel Executive Director Bench Marks Foundation
Hugh Corder professor of Public Law University of Cape Town
John Dugard Emeritus professor of law, Universities of Leiden and Pretoria; former Member of the International
Law Commission and UN Special Rapporteur
Jackie Dugard former Director of the Social and Economic Rights Institute
Mary-Ann Davies Dr. Public Health Medicine Specialist University of Cape Town
Rehad Desai Documentary Filmmaker and Chairperson Human Rights Media Trust
Judith February Director Governance and Human Rights Human Sciences Research Council
Ebrahim Fakir Governance and Democracy, Electoral Institute for the Sustainability of Democracy in Africa
Frene Ginwala former speaker of Parliament
Marion Heap Dr. School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
Fred Hendricks Dean of Humanities Rhodes University
Allan Kolski Horwitz Poet and Playwright
Martin Jansen Director Workers World Media Productions
Mazibuko Jara Democracy form Below
Shamil Jeppie Institute of Humanties in Africa, University of Cape Town
Ronnie Kasrils former Cabinet Minister
Mark Heywood Executive Director of Section 27
Jacob van Garderen National Director Lawyers for Human Rights
Bobby Godsell Council of the Elders
Derek Hellenberg Professor and Head of Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
Ros Irlam Administrative Director Crossing Bridges Africa
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge Democracy from Below Campaign
Mosibudi Mangena President, Azanian People Organisation
Joseph Mathunjwa President, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union
Eddie Mbalo Film Producer, former CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation
Narius Moloto General Secretary of the National Council of Trade Unions
Andrew Nash Associate Professor political studies, University of Cape Town
Lawson Naidoo Director CASAC
Njabulo Ndebele Professor, writer and academic
Noor Nieftagodien NRF Chair of Present Realities and Head of History Workshop, University of Witwatersrand
Lorna Olckers Dr. Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
Suren Pillay Associate Professor Center for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape
Sipho M Pityana, Chairperson, CASAC
Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven Professor of Family Medicine, University of Witwatersrand
Thiven Reddy professor political studies, University of Cape Town
Karam Singh Communications, South African Human Rights Commission
Jo Seoka Anglican Bishop of Pretoria ACSA President of the South African Council of Churches
Mathatha Tsedu Newspaper Editor
Salim Vally, Associate Professor Education University of Johannesburg
Paul Verryn Bishop of Central District Methodist Church
Published 20 Aug 2013