South African police shot Marikana miners as they fled: lawyer

Evidence brought up to South Africa’s Farlam Commission of Inquiry Wednesday, the body in charge of leading a formal investigation on the deadly events that led to the killing of 34 striking Marikana miners in August 2012, shows protesters were shot by police as they attempted to escape.

South African Press Association (Sapa) reports that lawyer Dumisa Ntsebeza, representing families of the deceased miners, presented an exhibit of several pictures and an analysis of the directions from which bullets some of the bodies, which seem to indicate they were shot from afar.

These proofs contradict South African police official account of the events that claims most died when they opened fire as miners charged officers.

In September last year the same commission discovered that police falsified and withheld documents related to the tragic event at platinum producer Lonmin's (LON:LMI) mine, misleading prosecutors with false accounts of events.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people at Lonmin's operations near Rustenburg. In addition to the 34 miners murdered in August 2012, other ten people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed in a strike-related violence.

Mining in South Africa accounts for 6% of the nations’ gross domestic product. The sector has recently become a symbol of the economic, social and political differences that continue to characterize the country.

Image from archives.

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