South African miners charged with murder.

Quorum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19424484

Workers arrested at South Africa's Marikana mine have been charged in court with the murder of 34 of their colleagues shot by police. The 270 workers would be tried under the "common purpose" doctrine because they were in the crowd which confronted police on 16 August, an official said.

What the actual fup?

Nodin

Bit mental allright. Can't see them going through with it either.

Kylo Ren

Its terrible Joe.

Myrddin

Third world problems

TheBody

That is just mental.

Techno_Toaster

I read this as south African MINORS charged with murder.......awkward

Quorum

Keno 92 wrote: »

Its terrible Joe.

Ah now, ah now, it's a bit worse than what people do be ringing into Joe whinging about, isn't it?

eth0

Quorum wrote: »

Ah now, ah now, it's a bit worse than what people do be ringing into Joe whinging about, isn't it?

Apso Lewtley, Joe

themandan6611

and we thought Thatcher was hard on the miners

Giselle

The ultimate in victim blaming.



"You FORCED us to shoot your co-workers against our will!"

"How could you!"

"Murderers!"

super_furry

"Six of the 270 workers remain in hospital, after being wounded in the shooting at the mine owned by Lonmin."

I take it they'll be charged with attempted suicide?

El Guapo!

That's just crazy. Surely they can't do that??



And no, I didn't call you Shirley.

Oranage2

TIA

fergiesfolly

It seems this law is left over from the Apartheid regime. You can't help but wonder what other old "whitey" laws they'll reinstate to keep law and order.

Quorum

fergiesfolly wrote: »

It seems this law is left over from the Apartheid regime. You can't help but wonder what other old "whitey" laws they'll reinstate to keep law and order.

Yeah, it does seem a quite archaic law. Makes NO sense.

wandererz

While it may seem crazy, bringing charges against those workers, to me it makes sense in roundabout way.

When you're dealing with a third world country, third world mind-sets, uneducated people, superstition, and one of the most unionized work forces in the world it's difficult to face an oncoming group of machete wielding people looking for trouble.

They do not/will not care about the cops. And the cops themselves would have been sh*tting themselves watching this.

I grew up in that country, i protested for freedom ( at a time when my friends older siblings simply disappeared for doing the same) but the one thing i would have hated was being called up to fight in an african war.

Things are simply not the same in Africa. The rules do not apply. You get hacked limb from limb. People get raped, tortured, shot and have other unbelievable stuff happen to them whether a simple protest or a full blown war.

These things happen on a day to day basis in SA even 18-20 years later.

And before anyone says anything, i wasn't one of the priviledged who had preferential treatment during the previous era.

It's simply flipping scary when a hoard of machete wielding people bear down on you.

A guy flipped out and shot his ex boss in New York the other day.
The police opened fire and shot not just him but innocent bystanders as well.

Are they going to be charged? Who incited the whole thing in the first place? It was the original shooter.

Similar thing here. They may have been poor workers, but a few hundred armed people (who have already killed policemen previously) bearing down on you is not a great thing. And you only have to assume that they're going to use those weapons.

My name is URL

wandererz wrote: »

While it may seem crazy, bringing charges against those workers, to me it makes sense in roundabout way.

Even the South African authorities have copped on to how utterly illogical and unfair it would be to charge them with murder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19457502

wandererz

My name is URL wrote: »

Even the South African authorities have copped on to how utterly illogical and unfair it would be to charge them with murder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19457502

Illogical and unfair it may be, but this isn't one sided. Those workers armed themselves and massed together.

Lets not get confused here. This isn't a Shell get out protest, or a UK mine workers strike for example.
Protests in the first world don't end up in an armed struggle leading to people being killed.

Those mine workers would not have need for machetes and other weapons as part of their day to day goings on. Where did those come from & why?

If anything the union leaders need to be brought to account for not preventing this whole fiasco.

My name is URL

wandererz wrote: »

Illogical and unfair it may be, but this isn't one sided. Those workers armed themselves and massed together.

Lets not get confused here. This isn't a Shell get out protest, or a UK mine workers strike for example.
Protests in the first world don't end up in an armed struggle leading to people being killed.

Those mine workers would not have need for machetes and other weapons as part of their day to day goings on. Where did those come from & why?

If anything the union leaders need to be brought to account for not preventing this whole fiasco.

I'm not saying that the Police shouldn't have defended themselves, but it would just be silly to charge the survivors with murder. Can they not be charged with the crimes they actually committed? Attempting to harm police officers, carrying weapons etc...

wandererz

Attempting to harm police officers in this case is attempted murder.
Because you don't hold those types of weapons in that country and advance at people who are holding guns, without expecting to use those weapons.


It also turns out that the other, probably bigger, atrocity may be that the police drove over fleeing mine workers.

My point being that the workers shouldn't be held, by default, as upstanding citizens because they have a hell of a lot to account for in instigating this.