President Cyril Ramaphosa might be liable for the death of 34 miners during a strike at a mine in Marikana 10 years, APA learnt here on Monday.
This was contained in South Gauteng High Court Judge Frits van Oosten’s ruling of an application by workers seeking compensation against the president and mine owners Sibanye Stillwater.
The main essence of the ruling was that a case could be made that Ramaphosa, Sibanye and the police colluded in the events that led to the killings, the judge said.
While the court ruling could not find them directly responsible for the deaths, it found that they were complicit in the events leading up to them, it added.
The South African Police Service gunned down 34 striking miners and injuring dozens of others at the platinum mine in Marikana in North West province.
The violent clashes made global headlines and witnessed the most lethal use of state force in post-apartheid South Africa’s history, according to press reports.
At the time of the strike in August 2012, Ramaphosa was not in government but was a businessman and board member at Lonmin – which was acquired by Sibanye Stillwater a few years ago.
Surviving Marikana employees are seeking millions in compensation. Claimants approached a number of legal representatives, with the claims being centralised to the State Attorney offices in Pretoria.
Van Oosten upheld four of Ramaphosa’s exceptions but rejected one, in which he found that the president had taken part in, planned and endorsed the cooperation between Lonmin mine in Marikana and the police, which had culminated in the deaths, injuries, arrests and detention of the striking mine workers.
“I agree, and it is accordingly my finding, that the plaintiffs have satisfied the test of legal causation,” Van Oosten said in a ruling which enables the surviving mine workers to hold Ramaphosa personally liable for what they suffered.
Ramaphosa was elected ANC deputy president to former president Jacob Zuma in December 2012. He ascended to presidency after his election at the party’s conference in 2017.
Van Oosten said Ramaphosa had submitted that the pressure allegedly exerted and transmitted to ground level did not satisfy the requirement of legal causation in delict, adding that causation entailed a two-stage test.
“As counsel for the plaintiffs was at pains to emphasise, whether the plaintiffs will be able to prove those allegations at the trial is not relevant for the present purposes. I am in agreement with counsel for the plaintiffs that the allegations, as they stand, do satisfy the test for factual causation,” Van Oosten ruled.
NM/jn/APA