Concourt Marikana funding ruling expected

The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on Monday whether the State should pay the legal costs of the miners arrested and injured at Marikana last August.

 

Judgment was supposed to be handed down on Friday afternoon.

 

The legal costs relate to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin's platinum mine in Marikana last year.

 

Thirty four people -- almost all striking mineworkers -- were killed on August 16 when police opened fire on them. Ten people, including two police officers, were killed in the preceding week.

 

On June 21 Dali Mpofu, for the miners, told the commission that due to financial constraints, it could be his last day representing the miners.

 

He brought an urgent court application in the High Court in Pretoria several weeks ago seeking funding, but this was dismissed.

 

Mpofu then took the State to the Constitutional Court, asking that it pay for his legal team.

 

-Sapa