S African probe into mine violence reopens

S AFRICA: An inquiry into 46 deaths during a violent mine strike in South Africa reopened Monday after it was postponed for victims’ families to travel and hear how their loved ones died.

Police lawyers told the commission that officers fired live ammunition at strikers at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana only when they could not control the situation any longer.

“The use of lethal force was the last possible resort,” they said of the killing in the small town northwest of Johannesburg, in bloodshed likened to apartheid-era police brutality.

“It was the object of disarming and dispersing over 3,000 protesters. The SAPS (South African Police Service) remained focused on one outcome: a peaceful resolution.” President Jacob Zuma set up the probe after the shooting, which was broadcast live on television. The commission, led by appeals court judge Ian Farlam, started on October 1, but was postponed because no family members had been able to travel to the Rustenburg, the largest town close to where the killings happened.

AFP