The government has until the end of August to resolve all out of court settlements arising from the Marikana killings, in which police gunned down 34 miners protesting for better wages.
The office of the solicitor-general, which among other things manages civil claims against the government, said the state paid out over R76m in settlements to survivors and victims of the massacre. It was still in talks with another 48 miners who were unlawfully arrested or injured.
“Representatives of the state and representatives of the claimants are now in court trying to reach some sort of settlement or alternatively indicating to the deputy judge president that there is no agreement, in which case the matter will be allocated to a judge,” solicitor-general Fhedzisani Pandelani told reporters on Wednesday.
Pandelani said his office was developing five policies, one of which was approved by the cabinet in November 2021, to ensure that litigation against the state did not take “inordinate” time to finalise.
“It is regrettable that we can still stand here and talk about matters that, in fact, occurred 10 years ago,” he said.
“I can also give the assurance that, to the extent that it is possible, we could be in a position to resolve all of those matters within this month,” he said.
The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA (Seri), a nonprofit human rights organisation that works with communities, social movements, and other nonprofit organisations, has taken the government to court on the issue of compensation.
“It has been 10 years. There is no way they have acted with urgency. Today was just the usual public relations exercise. I doubt most of these matters will be resolved by the end of the month,” said Seri’s legal representative, Andries Nkome.
North Gauteng High Court deputy president Aubrey Ledwaba has advised the two sides to come up with out of court settlements by the end of August, failing which he will appoint a judge to hear the matter.
At the time of going to print lawyers of the slain miners and their families were not available for comment.
In 2012, police fired on a group of miners who were protesting for better wages at the Lonmin mine, raising the ire of unions and opposition political parties.
The mine was later bought by Sibanye.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was then a nonexecutive director at Lonmin, and was alleged to have put pressure on the police to act. However a commission established by former president Jacob Zuma to investigate the killings exonerated Ramaphosa.
Since then, the killings have become fodder for Ramaphosa’s opponents in and outside the ANC.
The commission, chaired by retired judge Ian Farlam, pinned the blame on the SA Police Service (SAPS) leadership.
The Farlam report in 2015 made several key recommendations, including the establishment of a review panel on public order policing.
Though monetary compensation was out of its terms of reference, it advised that the issues should be resolved without lengthy or expensive legal proceedings.
The government at the time agreed to a Marikana settlement process, working through the office of the state attorney, which is responsible for civil litigation cases against state officials.
However, this process dragged on for years. Families of the slain miners and the victims hoped that when Ramaphosa became president in 2018, he would move with haste to resolve the claims, given his links to Marikana.
The solicitor-general’s office said on Monday that most of the outstanding claims will be settled by the end of August.
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