State cannot fund Marikana miners’ legal costs — Radebe
CAPE TOWN — Justice Minister Jeff Radebe is adamant that no legal framework exists for the state to fund the legal representation of the miners who were injured and arrested during and after the Marikana tragedy.
The lack of funding has resulted in several postponements of the Farlam Commission probing the death of the miners killed at Lonmin’s Marikana mine last August.
On Tuesday the commission chairman, retired judge Ian Farlam, was expected to make an announcement about possible funding, but nothing was forthcoming and the matter remains unresolved.
There was speculation that the government would give in to the mine workers’ funding demands, with the Treasury the mystery donor involved in negotiations with lawyers. However, spokesman Jabu Sikhakhane said on Tuesday “the Treasury does not allocate money just like that”.
Two court attempts by the representative for the arrested and injured miners, Dali Mpofu, failed recently. The miners are expected to return to court to pursue the matter.
Mr Radebe said yesterday the attorneys representing the injured and arrested miners had requested that the government pay for legal representation, but this could not be granted, as the legal frameworks of the State Attorney Act and the Commissions Act did not provide for legal representation for witnesses who were not in the employ of the state when the incidents or events under investigation happened.
The police and government departments have retained senior counsel to represent them at the commission. “Government’s legal representation is mandated through the State Attorney Act 1957, which mandates the State Attorney to provide legal representation to government.” Mr Radebe said that a question had arisen as to why Legal Aid SA was funding the representation of the families of the dead miners and not the representation of the injured and arrested ones. “The families’ legal representatives were funded to assist the families to understand the proceedings in the event of civil liabilities arising from the tragic events at Marikana.
“This decision was motivated by the fact that these were families that had lost breadwinners and were without support to access the commission. The application of the families of the deceased was considered after their individual applications were placed before Legal Aid SA.”
Mr Radebe said the government was not unsympathetic to the plight of the injured miners, but pointed out that the evidence leaders at the commission were senior lawyers and “in this regard, the evidence of the injured miners could be ably dealt with by the evidence leaders”.
Yesterday, lawyers pledged to bring the commission to a close as soon as possible as all parties were “anxious” for decisive steps to be taken a year after the tragedy. A unanimous call as was made for the commission’s deadline to be extended. The deadline has already been extended to the end of October.