South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:29 pm  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19438343 The 270 miners who escaped being shot to death by the police have now all been charged with murdering their fellow miners who died. Apparently they have some sort of "common purpose" law and are basically saying that as they were part of the crowd that "provoked" the police, it is their fault. Presumably this logically means that the dead miners murdered themselves. South Africa's Justice Minister has asked the head prosecutor "to furnish me with a report explaining the rationale behind such a decision". That should be an interesting read.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19438343 The 270 miners who escaped being shot to death by the police have now all been charged with murdering their fellow miners who died. Apparently they have some sort of "common purpose" law and are basically saying that as they were part of the crowd that "provoked" the police, it is their fault. Presumably this logically means that the dead miners murdered themselves. South Africa's Justice Minister has asked the head prosecutor "to furnish me with a report explaining the rationale behind such a decision". That should be an interesting read.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:31 pm  

And we think our labour relations have gone down the pan recently

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:41 pm  

The same type of law exists in the US, apparently.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:07 pm  

Mintball wrote:

The same type of law exists in the US, apparently.

Uncle Mitt will change all that if elected, apparently he 'cares deeply' about ALL Americans, they should be ok

[tb]

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 4:16 pm  

'Common purpose' was the legal principle under which Derek Bantley was hanged. That was a miscarriage of justice. As this would be if continued.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 5:16 pm  

According to reports on TV this morning their "common purpose" law was used extensively during the apartheid days.

Interesting that a country now so anti-apartheid should use apartheid laws against its citizens.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:19 pm  

tb wrote:

'Common purpose' was the legal principle under which Derek Bantley was hanged. That was a miscarriage of justice. As this would be if continued.

Except they did charge Bentley with murdering the policeman, it would be a much better analogy if they had charged another policeman with the murder for "provoking" Bentley and his mate, whilst absolving the shooter from any blame.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:27 am  

McLaren_Field wrote:

According to reports on TV this morning their "common purpose" law was used extensively during the apartheid days.

Interesting that a country now so anti-apartheid should use apartheid laws against its citizens.

Must admit, I've never thought of the us as using apartheid - although I suspect many would agree.

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Sat Sep 01, 2012 6:38 am  

[tb]

Re: South African miners charged with murder : Sun Sep 02, 2012 6:03 pm  

National Prosecuting Authority sees sense

National Prosecuting Authority sees sense