President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed a recent ruling by the South Gauteng High Court that he was not liable for the events at South Africa’s Marikana mine where 34 striking miners died 10 years ago, his office said on Tuesday.
The matter was brought to the High Court by families of the late miners who sought to have Ramaphosa, who was part of the Lonmin mine board at the time, bear legal responsibility for the events that transpired in August 2012.
The main essence of the complaint was that a case could be made that Ramaphosa, Lonmin and the police colluded in the events that led to the killings, the court said.
However, the court “agreed with the president’s arguments and held that the plaintiffs had not established that the president bore any legal duty in relation to the Marikana tragedy,” the presidency said in a statement.
It added: “Second, the court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that certain email communications from President Ramaphosa sought to call for the murder of the striking workers.”
Ramaphosa’s office said that the judgement had noted the plaintiff’s argument against the president is “not only far-fetched but also irreconcilable within the context of the email communication as a whole.”
On the allegations that Ramaphosa “owed a duty to care to the plaintiffs” due to his role as director of Lonmin, the court agreed with the president that the allegation was incorrect as a matter of law.
NM/jn/APA