{"id":14154,"date":"2012-09-01T03:32:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T01:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/s-africa-shocked-by-move-to-charge-miners-with-massacre\/"},"modified":"2012-09-01T03:32:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-01T01:32:03","slug":"s-africa-shocked-by-move-to-charge-miners-with-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-shocked-by-move-to-charge-miners-with-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa shocked by move to charge miners with massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Justice minister raps prosecutors<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Apartheid era doctrine invoked to bring charges<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Police, Zuma already under pressure for deaths<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Jon Herskovitz<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, Aug 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s justice<br \/>\nminister on Friday rebuked prosecutors for charging 270 miners<br \/>\nwith the murder of 34 striking colleagues shot dead by police,<br \/>\nsaying the decision had caused &#8220;shock, panic and confusion&#8221;<br \/>\namong the general public.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The police killing of the strikers at the Marikana mine this<br \/>\nmonth was one of the worst such incidents since the end of white<br \/>\nrule in 1994. The arrested miners have been charged under a law<br \/>\ndating from the apartheid era under which they are deemed to<br \/>\nhave had a &#8220;common purpose&#8221; in the murder of their co-workers.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The African National Congress, whose members used to be<br \/>\ngunned down by apartheid police at protest rallies and targeted<br \/>\nwith draconian laws, has been severely criticised for using<br \/>\nsimilar tactics now that it is in power.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>President Jacob Zuma has seen his support erode, with his<br \/>\nenemies saying he is more interested in getting close to<br \/>\nindustry and powerful labour groups than miners working deep<br \/>\nunderground.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Zuma, speaking at a congress of the Socialist International<br \/>\non Friday, did not comment on the murder charges. His justice<br \/>\nminister, Jeff Radebe, wanted answers.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Justice minister raps prosecutors * Apartheid era doctrine invoked to bring charges * Police, Zuma already under pressure for deaths By Jon Herskovitz JOHANNESBURG, Aug 31 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s justice minister on Friday rebuked prosecutors for charging 270 miners with the murder of 34 striking colleagues shot dead by police, saying the decision [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}