South Africa’s deputy president is being sued by the families of miners shot dead in the Marikana massacre in August 2012.
Cyril Ramaphosa said this week that he had received a court summons relating to his alleged role in the deaths of 34 striking mineworkers. “A summons has been issued against me in my personal capacity and two other parties arising from the events of Marikana,” he said in parliament.
In a statement, the presidency said Ramaphosa had instructed his lawyers to defend the civil suit, which is demanding compensation for the bereaved families.
Andries Nkome, a lawyer representing the families, said: “As of now we are saying the deputy president ought to accept responsibility for having sparked the massacre. And then thereafter we’ll be able to seek compensation … it’s not beyond a billion rands [£46m].”
The killings at the British-owned Lonmin mine on 16 August 2012 amounted to the bloodiest massacre by South African security forces since the end of racial apartheid.
Families of the Marikana victims have long argued that Ramaphosa encouraged police to use excessive force against the miners. In an email written 24 hours before the massacre, Ramaphosa described the strike as “dastardly criminal” and urged “concomitant action to address this situation”.
Ramaphosa, one of South Africa’s richest men, at the time owned shares in Lonmin and was a non-executive director of the company.
He insists he never advocated for any unlawful action. “I felt that this needed the police to take appropriate action to arrest those who were involved in these acts of criminality,” he told the Farlam commission of inquiry into the massacre.
In its report issued this year, the commission cleared Ramaphosa of wrongdoing, concluding: “It cannot be said that Mr Ramaphosa was the cause of the massacre.”
Murder charges were laid against Ramaphosa and several other government officials by the opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters in July. “We are not going to rest until one of them is jailed,” said its leader, Julius Malema.
