The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) has lambasted the National Prosecuting Authority for delaying the prosecution on the gruesome killings of the 34 mineworkers on the 16th of August 2012, in Marikana in the North West.
The institution, which represents widows and families of the mineworkers says the NPA does not take the plight of the families seriously and that its shocking that the NPA has not decided to bring any legal action, despite having received dockets from IPID some time ago.
Nomzamo Zondo of SERI explains, “The NPA does not take the plight of the families seriously. IPID has confirmed to us that the dockets have been handed over to the NPA. We’re now eleven years in and every day that passes undermines the possibilities of justice for the family. The experience having watched the prosecution, this requires a lot of time and therefore you’re negotiating for time between the defence attorney, the prosecution and the court. So, even the amount of time that will be needed once the prosecution starts means we’d still be here at the 20th anniversary of Marikana.”
The NPA has blamed this on a shortage of human resources.
Spokesperson for the NPA in North West, Henry Mamothame, “In relation to the Marikana matters involving the 34 miners who died on 16 August 2022, the voluminous docket which was initially dealt with at the NPA national office, was returned to the North West Division for decision mid-2022. At the time the division had a challenge on unfilled vacancies, which resulted in the slow process of studying the docket. That has since been resolved by the filling of posts in 2023. The team has been assembled to study the massive docket to fast track the finalisation of reaching the decision on the direction that is to be taken.”
